Page 148
After work, I drove into town to go to Fauntastic Foods. It was a little annoying having to find parking on the street, but it was the best grocery store for supernaturals in the city. Plus, it was the only one that sold Carolina Reapers, which I used for my hot sauce.
I’d promised my friends I’d make a new batch soon, so after grabbing a basket, I headed straight for the fresh produce aisle to start loading up on chillis. After putting a big bag of Carolina Reapers in my basket, I hesitated, then grabbed a second paper bag to fill with jalapenos.
Dan had liked the taste before it had made him almost start to cry. I’d make him a mild version.
As I wandered down the next aisle, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Pulling it out, I felt a big smile spread over my face when I saw the name on the screen.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Hi, kitten.” His low, drawling voice made my belly tighten. “Are you still at the store?”
“Uh-huh.” I stopped to peruse the baked goods, wondering if I should buy myself a Danish pastry to eat on the way home.
No. Too messy. I didn’t want crumbs in my car.
“Would you mind getting me a pack of chicken breasts?” Dan asked. “You know, one of the really big ones.”
“Sure.” I turned and started heading for the meat aisle. “Don’t you ever get bored of eating plain chicken and rice all the time?” Dan was, for the most part, strict about his diet because of his job.
“Nah, doesn’t bother me. Thanks, kitten. I’ll pay you back, obviously.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“What time are you home?”
My insides swooped. Did he seriously not notice that we were veering away from casual fucking and into couple-like territory? I mean, this was what couples did, right? We were only sleeping with each other. We spent all our free time together. He was spending the night and calling me at the grocery store to ask me to pick something up for him.
Maybe I was being delusional and this was still all firmly casual. It wasn’t like I’d been in this situation before. Maybe Dan had been like this with all the other people he’d casually slept with in the past.
It didn’t feel like it though. Not anymore.
And I was pretty sure I didn’t want to just be casual with him anymore, either.
Which was probably going to end up being a problem at some point.
Stop overthinking it, I told myself. Just enjoy what it is now.
“I won’t be too long,” I told him. “Just got to grab a few more things and then I’ll be on my way.”
“Okay. I’ll see you soon, kitten.”
“See you soon.” I hung up, pocketed my phone and grabbed the big multipack of chicken breasts for Dan.
When I turned, I froze at the sight of a familiar figure further down the aisle. He was, once again, grabbing every package of duck legs off the shelf and loading them into his cart. The billy goat beard was longer than the last time, and he’d braided it, tying it off with a little green bow.
Oh hell no. He hadn’t spotted me yet, so I slowly backed out of the aisle and hurried away, pulling my phone out of my pocket to text Nev and tell him I’d seen the billy goat guy again.
His presence—seriously, was he always here?—prompted me to grab the rest of my groceries twice as fast and head for the register to check out. There was no line, so within five minutes I was leaving the store clutching two paper bags.
Even though it wasn’t late, the street was pretty quiet. Fauntastic Foods was located in a part of town that had a heavy concentration of supernatural stores, and there were far fewer of us than there were humans, so it was never all that busy around here on a weekday. At the weekends though, it was usually heaving, with folks flocking to the bars and restaurants that catered to supernaturals.
I’d had to park a little ways down the street, because the spots in front of the store were for the residents of the apartments above it. I fumbled with my bags to reach for the keys in my pocket when I finally got to my car, parked in front of an alley between a shoe store catering to hoofed creatures and a bakery run by shadowpeople that specialised in nightmarish cakes. Both were already closed, so it was dark and quiet as I pressed the button on my key and my car chirped.
Before I could open the door, I suddenly heard light, pattering footsteps rushing up behind me. My blood ran cold when something hard, like the barrel of a gun, jammed into my lower back.
“Put ’em up, nerd,” a sinister voice said.
Chapter Forty-One
