Page 16 of Two For One

I nodded, noticing her glancing at us a few times before making her way over.

“Need some glasses?” she asked, looking between us.

“Sure,” I said, as she looked over at Ezra who was looking down at his phone.

She watched Ezra for a second before walking away quickly.

“Why are you avoiding her gaze?” I asked.

He shrugged signing. She has nothing to look at.

“She has a lot to look at,” I said, taking another sip of the scotch just as Daniel and his posse left the room we were just in.

Follow? Ezra signed.

“Yeah, tell me everything,” I said, watching them leave.

Ezra nodded, pulling some app up on his phone, and waiting a moment before he followed. Xiomara watched him leave with an expression I couldn’t decipher. She had about an hour on her shift left and maybe it was time I paid her a visit.

Xiomara drove a nightmare of a car and I didn’t know how anyone would want to drive that. How the hell was it even working? Didn’t women like pretty things? After seeing where she lived, I had to take care of one thing before going home to change. You couldn’t break in wearing a suit, well you could but it was uncomfortable as hell. The last thing I needed was to rip a hole in the crotch because I had to hide quickly.

I changed into black shirt and jeans with boots, seeing a Scream mask on one of the hooks, deciding I might have a little bit of fun. She lived close to us, only fifteen minutes away, but everything in this small town of Climax, Colorado was no more than fifteen minutes away.

The street was quiet as I parked, slipping into the night and finding the door she walked into completely open. No lock, nothing to keep the boogeyman out. I walked up the stairs seeing three doors I wasn’t expecting. Two doors, maybe, but three? Fuck.

The wooden floor creaked as I walked to each door and then the last one I knew without a doubt was hers. Something told me to try this one first. I listened for a moment making sure she wasn’t awake, and I knelt, pulling out my kit. It was too easy to open.

Didn’t she realize how easy it would be for a mad man to come in?

I opened the door to a cat hissing at me and another instantly running through my legs, purring loudly like she knew me. I closed the door before I paid attention to the cat. I already knew she had two cats, along with a business she ran from her home.

Her apartment was everything I had imagined when I read she ran some witchy business. It was eclectic, smelled like incense and everything was dark and moody. The asshole cat who hissed at me growled loudly before the cat who liked me attacked him, putting him in his place. I chuckled, inspecting her fridge, mail and all the herbs she had along the walls that were organized perfectly.

She didn't have any furniture other than her worktable and a big chair that had a book along with what looked to be crafting supplies and journals. I opened one, seeing different pages about her craft and what looked to be holiday ideas.

The door opened and I froze. She didn’t see me right away as she walked to the kitchen. She opened the fridge to get water from a pitcher, chugging the water and rubbing her eyes.

Meow!

That fucking asshole meowed louder, catching her attention. She bent down to pick him up, kissing his head as she finished her glass of water.

“Merlin, you've been awfully vocal lately. What’s gotten into you?” She kissed his head again.

Meow!

He jumped from her, running towards me when the other cat tackled him and they started fighting.

“You guys have been fighting so much. What is wrong with you?” She grabbed a water gun, spraying them so they would break it up. “Maleficent, you’re such a bitch.”

I wanted to chuckle, when she suddenly stilled. She looked around the room, landing her gaze on me.

“Are you the one who's been following me?” she asked, a lot calmer than I expected her to be.

I didn’t say anything, staying still.

“Who the fuck are you?” She grabbed a knife off the chopping block, pointing it at me.

I kept my silence, debating my options. She hadn’t called the cops and I didn’t think she would, or she would have done it already.