and then she could go home to her sweet, sweet bed, in her cozy little studio apartment.
She pushed her hair out of her eyes and kept on scanning, checking the items against her clipboard.
At least I didn’t have the paint aisle , she thought. All those tiny tubes, different shades of blue and yellow and red, almost impossible to tell apart, especially when she’d been up since six the day before.
“Almost done!” came a voice from an aisle over. It was Stephan, the other person stuck doing inventory that night. Thankfully for Lucy, he’d volunteered to do the paint aisle. He claimed to find it meditative and soothing.
“I’ve got one more foot of shelf space,” Lucy said, still scanning and checking, scanning and checking.
“Well, hurry it up, slowpoke,” he said, his hair flopping over in front of his eyes, and he pushed it back with an exaggerated movement. “Want me to grab your stuff out of your locker and clock you out while I’m back there?”
“Thanks,” said Lucy.
She just finished as Stephan came back, carrying her coat and purse over his own shoulder.
“Perfect timing,” she said.
“This is nice,” said Stephan, handing her purse over. “Where’d you get the money for that? I know not from working here.”
“I’m an expert deal shopper,” she said, taking it proudly and putting it over her own shoulder. “Thrift store.”
Stephan nodded. “I gotta shop at those more,” he said. They walked through the glass sliding doors, and Stephan locked them behind him and Lucy.
“I parked on the street,” she said, looking both ways at the dark pavement, lit sporadically by streetlights. Her car was right underneath one, gleaming a dull green. “That lot creeps me out at night.”
“What, you’re leaving me to go alone?”
“I can walk with you,” she offered, but Stephan just laughed.
“I’ve got my mace,” he said. “I think I’ll be okay. But I’ll watch until you get to your car.”
“So you can run in and save the day?”
“I can scream real loud, believe me.”
Lucy laughed, said goodbye, and walked to her car. Sometimes she wished Stephan weren’t gay; even if he wasn’t really her physical type, he’d at least make a good boyfriend, she thought.
She reached her car and waved to him, watching him disappear around the corner. Down the block, a group of men in leather jackets were standing around a poorly-lit doorway, smoking. The unmarked door was the Mangy Mutt, a wolf bar. The one Brienne had thought Lucy should go to to pick up wolves, but honestly, Lucy was much too afraid of the thought.
Then, just as she reached for the handle of her car, someone grabbed her arm and spun her around.
She was face-to-face with someone much taller and bigger than her, his body pressed up against hers. He was terrible breath and fucked-up teeth, and he grinned at her.
Off to one side she could see the flash of a knife.
Lucy froze. She couldn’t even think, much less do anything.
“No, no, please, no,” was all she could get out.
“Don’t worry, little girl,” the man said. “I’m just looking for your cash.”
Her hand shaking, Lucy held up her purse, and he rummaged around in it with one hand, pulling out her wallet.
He opened it and took out five dollars.
“Where’s the real cash?” he asked, the knife still shining in her peripheral vision.
“What?”
“This is a nice purse,” he said. “Give me the real money.”
The men at the door of the bar burst into laughter, and Lucy started crying. She tried not to — she knew tears would probably only make it worse — but she couldn’t help herself.
“It’s from a thrift store,” she said. “I got a discount.”
Behind her, some of the men shouted something, and she could hear them walking toward her.
Please help me , she thought. Even if you’re wolves .
The man holding her up rummaged through the rest of her purse, apparently not finding much that he wanted. He tossed it on the ground