Chapter 3 - Simon
Bardil’s call really killed the moment.
I couldn’t say no, though. There is an issue at the warehouse, and I’m the one closest to it to check it out. Maybe it’s for the best. I shouldn’t even have been at dinner with her. She didn’t see anything. There’s no reason for me to be anywhere near her anymore.
But that was the best night I’ve had in a long time.
I huff in agitation as I pull my car keys from my pocket and jog toward my car.
The right thing to do is to forget about her. She’s a civilian. She’s far too innocent for my world. I need to walk away and let her live her life in peace.
The entire time I’m at the warehouse, I can’t stop thinking about Blair.
Luckily, the issue is not an issue at all.
After the security guard and I had gone through the video footage to see what triggered the alarm, we realized it was nothing more than a rat. A fucking monster of a rat, but still just a rat that crossed one of the motion sensor beams in the storage unit.
“Find out how it got in and seal it up. The dock is full of rats, but that thing was on a whole different level,” I tell the guard.
“Fuck, if that thing came running toward me in the dark, I’d be firing bullets at it,” he laughs.
“I wouldn’t blame you,” I agree.
As I drive away from the warehouse, I’m still thinking about her, and when I get home, shower, and go to bed, she’s still looping in my thoughts.
The problem is that as soon as I confirmed that she didn’t see anything, I was supposed to walk away. I wasn’t supposed to go into her bookstore. I certainly wasn’t supposed to purposefully bump into her after work to try to sabotage her date. And why the hell was I jealous that she got asked on a date in the first place?
And sincewhenwould I let something like that derail myplans? Plans I’ve had for ages.
Plans to carry out the perfect revenge against Jaco Marcas.
I still haven’t even looked at the damn data from the phone I took.
As I lie in bed with my eyes closed and my arm folded over my face, I tell myself it’s done now. She’s a distraction that I don’t need in my life, and this whole thing has already caused too many unexpected side missions.
I tell myself that tomorrow I will return to my plans and my life and forget about her.
But that isn’t what happens.
It’s Wednesday today.
Every day since I had dinner with Blair, I have found myself staying out of sight and watching her. I watch her from the car or from a coffee shop. I follow her when she gets her iced coffee at lunchtime. I walked around the entire mall yesterday while she window-shopped. I made sure to keep a safe distance, but there were a few times when I recklessly got too close.
I almost pretended to bump into her again, an accidental meeting that could have led to another dinner date, but my logic overruled my impulsiveness.
What is it with this girl? How does she make me forget about my carefully made plans, my structured days, and the main thought that has been consuming me for months—revenge. Jaco Marcas. His name hasn’t even flickered through my mind in the last two days while I stalk Blair from place to place, watching her secretly.
My brothers know nothing of my plans against Marcas. And they know even less about my new obsession with this innocent civilian girl. I have to keep both of these things hidden because I don’t want other people interfering with or messing with my plans. However, as I say that, I realize that I am allowing my obsession with Blair to interfere with my plans against Marcas.
What has gotten into me?
On Thursday, I message my private investigator and have him do more research on her. I want to know where she grew up and whether she has siblings. I want to know where her family is and if she studied anything. I want to know everything about her. Everything that can be found out.
Because she hasn’t led a secretive life, he gets back to me with a full report by Friday morning.
I’m in the car outside her work, watching her through the wooden-framed bookshop window, when the message comes through.
See attached PDF. Not much to tell you about her. Are you trying to figure out some connection to someone? If you give me more information, I can do another search.
