Solara, Part II

[From an earlier POST]...At this point Solara knew she had been set up. These bastards knew about the safe.

I could see her getting visibly angry, and a little shaken as she recanted her victimization at the hands of the armed men. She was reliving it as she spoke of it, replayed it in her mind. It would always bother her. That feeling of being powerless as the men took what they wanted from her.

Big Bandit grabbed Solara roughly by her sweat-soaked hair. She had begun to cry, her eye makeup ran like colorful rivers down her face. Her resolve was fading quickly. All she wanted was for Brian to be OK.

Big Bandit dragged Solara to her bedroom, right to the closet where here ex-boyfriend Pete had mounted the safe in the floor. Only the two of them knew about its existence. Her brain was functioning at warp speed now, she realized Pete had sent them here. She and Pete had been finished for awhile. They hadn't even spoken for at least 6 months. Pete had put her and Brian in harm's way. Now her resolve received an adrenaline boost, she had to live at least long enough to get her revenge on that little scumbag.

Big Bandit threw Solara to the closet floor. "Open it, bitch!" he snarled like the devil himself. Solara fumbled with the floorboard, her hands trembling, not only with fear, but with rage. It took her a little bit too long to get the floorboard out. This earned her a hard kick in the ribs from Big Bandit's size 12 Timberland boot.

Solara couldn't breathe. The wind had escaped from her. All she could do was lay there on her side, curled up, almost fetal-like. The wheezing sound she made as she tried to get air into her lungs sounded like a demented train whistle.

Big Bandit used his pry bar to pop the floorboard out and reached down into the hole where the safe was. He hoisted the small safe from the opening in the floor and thrust it at the now supine Solara.

Calmly, Big Bandit called out to Small Bandit, "Bring the fucking kid in here."

Solara shrieked, "No! Anything you want! Please, don't bring him in here!"

Big Bandit looked at her, saw that she would be cooperative, and yelled back to Small Bandit, telling him to keep the kid in the kitchen.

Solara, peering through her now swollen eyes, dialed the combination in the safe and opened it. Big Bandit pushed her aside and grabbed out all of the money she had inside. Once he had gotten what he came for, he ran back through the front door, Small Bandit in tow.

Solara went on to tell me about how the responding police handled the crime scene/her apartment for the next 6 hours. Prints, fibers, the whole nine yards. Very thorough stuff. I asked Solara how much money was taken from her that night. She told me that she didn't know exactly, but that it was a lot, several thousand perhaps.

"And what about Pete?" I asked.

[to be continued]