Immediately, it felt like I couldn't breathe. Not only was car trouble always stressful, but I felt confident that Mrs. Lamb was behind this. I had become suspicious of Mrs. Lamb's involvement in anything that has gone wrong in my life lately. I wanted to be wrong and paranoid, but if I wasn't? He could have messed with my car while I was in the venue and followed me out to this secluded area.

My trembling fingers scraped my phone out of the cup holder and I unplugged it from the aux cord. Luckily, I had phone service and immediately called Detective Peak using the number on the business card she gave me. My hands were starting to shake, and not because of the cold. My eyes were glued to my rear view mirror looking for another set of headlights approaching behind me.

When Andrea didn't answer her phone, I started to cry. I didn't know what to do, and I felt like my time to act was starting to dwindle. That big blue truck could be approaching any second now.

My second thought was to call 911, but the operator did not seem to understand my sense of urgency. I could tell that to him, I just sounded like a panicked girl who didn't understand cars and really just needed a tow. He assured me that an officer would be around eventually to help out, but I knew by the tone of his voice that they wouldn't get here in time.

So, I called Sev.

I didn't really understand why I was making these bad decisions, but I was in utter panic mode and could only operate under first instincts.

"Hello?" Sev answered his phone, and it felt like I took my first breath in three minutes.

"Can you come get me?" I asked in a rambling, shaking voice. "I'm on Spruce Street, right after that abandoned McDonald's."

"Is this Maren?" he asked me slowly, sounding very confused.

"Yes, please come get me," I pleaded again, feeling so desperate and scared. When a pair of headlights emerged around the corner on the street behind me, an inhumane sob escaped my throat. "Oh my God, please."

"Okay, I'm coming," he said. "What's going on?"

"Car stopped driving," I tried to tell him what happened, but I continued staring at the headlights as they got closer and closer. They looked so menacing, like the eyes of a beast ready for a feast.

"Are you hurt?" he continued asking questions and I could hear bustling in the background of what I assumed to be him getting bundled up to go outside.

"No," I told him. I couldn't decipher what kind of car the headlights belonged to, but they looked tall. Like they were on the front of a big truck, and maybe that truck was blue. I felt like I was going to throw up.

"I'm driving now, I know what building you're talking about, I'm not that far from there," he assured me. "Are you alone?"

"Yes, but there's a car coming," I said. The hand that wasn't holding my phone was gripping my steering wheel to avoid any trembling and my knuckles were turning white. I'd been taking those self defense classes for a few weeks, so I tried to remind myself of the skills that I'd been taught. I wasn't totally defenseless.

As the car got closer, I held my breath. The air became stale and silent around me and it felt like time slowed down as I watched the vehicle get close without slowing down at all and then eventually, it passed. It wasn't even a truck, but a dark SUV.

"It's gone," I announced with a breath of relief. However, I knew my nightmare wasn't finished yet, and I was still in danger until Sev arrived. I was trembling and crying the entire time, feeling like every second was an hour and I'd been waiting, stranded in the middle of those corn fields, for days. I felt like I hadn't eaten or slept and I wondered if this was the last night sky I'd ever see.

"I just turned onto Spruce," Sev informed me after a little while. Just as he said that, another pair of headlights emerged in the darkness. I felt more calm that time, knowing that it was probably Sev. The lights were much closer to the ground than the SUV's were, so I felt confident that it was a smaller car that was approaching me.

Eventually, the small car approached, slowed down, and stopped behind my car. I didn't unlock my doors until I saw Sev's head pop out of the driver side door. I ripped my body out of my car and barreled into his body.

"Thank you," I exhaled, inhaling the smell of cardamom on his hoodie.

"Do you want to call AAA for your car?" he asked me, sounding surprised at my hug. I was surprised too, and embarrassed. I wasn't even sure why I hugged him, but it felt nice to not be alone at that moment.

"I just want to get out of here," I said with a sniffle as I returned to my car just to grab my purse and guitar before locking the doors and speed walking toward Sev's car. I just wanted to leave this area. I wanted to get away from the car, I wanted out of the corn field.

As Sev was helping me lug the guitar safely into the trunk of his car, I heard another car coming up from behind us. I turned around just in time to see a large truck driving by us. It was dark, so I couldn't see the color very well, but I could tell that it was either black or blue.

I stared after the truck as it continued to drive away, only able to catch the first two letters of the license plate, HY.

"What's wrong?" Sev asked me when he noticed that I was staring at the point in the air where the truck had been. I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but couldn't help but wonder if that was Mrs. Lamb that just drove by.

"Nothing," I mumbled, looking away and shutting the trunk.

Once we were both seated in Sev's car, he took off down the road and I finally felt my body relax a little bit.

"I'm so sorry that I called you," I said to him as my actions finally hit me and I realized what I'd done. I felt like such an idiot. "I called 911, but the guy wasn't really taking me that seriously."

"It's good that you called me," he insisted. "Even when you call 911, it can take them over an hour to show up. Besides, I told you that you could call."

"I know," I sighed with a small nod. "I just... I hate feeling like some damsel in distress. I don't want to need a handsome prince to come save me when I'm in trouble."

"I know this isn't the time to talk about it, so I'm earmarking the fact that you just called me handsome and we'll circle back later," Sev told me with a wide grin. If I didn't have a million knots in my stomach, I might have smiled back because that look on his face was infectious. "But I don't think that you're a damsel in distress. Everybody needs help sometimes, and it's okay to ask for it."

"Is there anything I could do to help you with something?" I asked him curiously, thinking that maybe I would feel better about being so needy if he could also need me.

"It's not a competition, Maren," he said to me. "You needed help, and I was available to help. Do you want to go home? You can crash at my house if you need to, but I have my brother staying with me for a couple of days."

"Thanks, but I'll go home," I said, watching the empty streets for the truck that I saw earlier. "It's a right on Henderson Road, a little farther down."

Before he could respond, my phone started to ring in my lap with a call from Andrea. I answered the call and informed her of everything that happened. She informed me that she'd arrange for the car to get towed and we agreed to meet at the garage the next morning.

After the call ended, Sev spoke up. "So you have a detective and everything?"

"Yes. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten you involved in this. I just didn't have anybody else to call," I told him in a quiet voice.

"Maren, I promise you, I don't mind helping out," he reiterated again for me.

There was a long silence while he drove and I started doing more thinking about our conversation over the phone earlier. He said that he was nearby, and he got to my car so quickly after I called him. "How did you get here so quickly?" I finally asked him out loud. "You don't live around here."

"I was out at this dive bar with some friends," he answered me smoothly. "It's just a few minutes away. I guess that was pretty lucky, it would have taken me like twenty minutes to get here from my place."

I started feeling a slight unease in the bottom of my stomach. I had tried to dismiss my suspicions about Sev the first time I thought about it because he was with me at the Halloween bash when Ron heard somebody in my apartment. Other than that though, a lot of things were starting to line up.

I started getting the letters when he showed up at the Jackroller. He had access to my address and phone number at the bar, could have taken that picture of me at the bash because he was there. Knew I went home with David the night we met up at the Jackroller, easily could have seen what car David was driving and could have gotten his address off of his ID when Sev carded him for the beer he was drinking. He was the one that gave me the stuffed sheep at the bar, and he always seemed to be there to rescue me when I felt like I was in danger.

"How are you feeling?" Sev broke the silence, causing me to jump a little bit in the passenger seat. I placed my hands between my jean clad thighs so that he wouldn't be able to see how badly I was beginning to tremble.

"I'm calming down," I lied, drying to remain as neutral as possible without giving him any indication about what I was thinking. I remembered how angry Mrs. Lamb got when I took David home, but nothing seemed to happen when I spent time with Sev. Sure, nothing was ever romantic like it was with David, but it was strange... wasn't it?

Or was I getting too paranoid? There were a few coincidences, sure, but it felt cruel to accuse him of so many terrible things when he was so eager to help me when I needed it. Or was he too eager?

"Hopefully, you'll feel better after you get some rest," he suggested lightly.

I paid close attention to where he was driving to make sure that he was actually taking me home, and felt relieved when we pulled up to the curb in front of my apartment building.

"This is where you live?" he wondered with a seemingly shocked face. "No offense, but it looks like a dump."

"It's not so bad," I mumbled as I tore my body out of the car as if the seat was on fire. After grabbing my guitar from the back, I said, "Thank you for the rescue mission."

"Let me know if-" he started to say something, but I shut the door in such a hurry that I didn't make out the rest of his sentence. Quickly, I crossed the street and went into the building, peering out a small window in the dirty lobby to watch Sev drive away.

I had to stop in the lobby to allow myself to calm down from the terrifying adrenaline rush that I just went through, both when my car broke down and when I started getting paranoid about Sev. By the time I climbed the stairs to my apartment, it felt like my heart was beating out of my chest and not just because of the stairs themselves.

If I couldn't trust Sev, did I have anybody in my corner? Lina was gone, my family was far away and it'd be too risky to involve them. Manny and Detective Andrea were there to help keep me safe, but they wouldn't always be available. I had Desi and Ron, but Desi was so busy with the babies and Ron was nice, but probably about as helpful as a sloth in a tiger fight.

Sev seemed so sturdy and reliable to make me feel safe both physically and helped keep my emotions in check. I didn't know him very well, but I was starting to really feel safe around him, but maybe that was his plan all along.

Even though I could hear the Desi's babies and Ron's music as I tried to get to sleep, I left my noise canceling headphones in my drawer, because I was too afraid to have my sense of sound taken away at night, not knowing what might crawl out of the darkness.