AllFreeNovel
Share Us
From the corner of my eye, I see his hand slip into his suit jacket. Alarmed, I spring to my feet but I’m too late. Connor is already pointing a gun at the poor woman’s face.
“You better watch who you’re fucking talking to.”
“Connor what the hell!” I grab his raised arm and pull it down. “Have you lost your fucking mind?”
I turn to her, ready to get on my hands and knees to apologize for his appalling behavior but I’m left speechless when I find her sitting still, her eyes fixed on Connor. Her expression is flat and unimpressed as if having a gun pointing at her head isn’t much of an event in her day to day life.
“Well?” she says, carefully clasping her hands together and placing them atop the table. “Do you?”
The fiend beside me shoves his gun back into his holster, straightens his suit jacket, and swipes his hand over his mustache.
He pins her with a stare, giving her a sinister smile, then walks out.
I’m left stunned—a multitude of things pulling at my attention. Eventually, I turn back to face the palm reader and hand her a twenty from my purse.
“Sorry about that,” I mumble. Suddenly feeling awkward.
“Don’t you worry, child. You did nothing wrong,” she says warmly, hands loosely clasped together, eyes wrinkling with a kind but knowing smile.
A chill racks my body at her words, trying to tamp down the irrational fears overcoming my senses. My gaze lingers on her, not knowing what to say.
“Come back if you ever need questions answered. Him too.” Pointing at where Connor was just standing.
My throat is dry, the words stuck in my throat while I give her a shaky smile and walk back onto the busy boardwalk. The sun feels suddenly too bright, like I’ve just resurfaced from a long journey to the underworld.
I look around, expecting to find Connor but he's nowhere in sight.
Well. At least I was able to get rid of him.
Even if that whole experience left me creeped out and itchy.
Then, like slamming into a brick wall, I remember the reason I beelined into the tent in the first place. My breath catches in my throat as I look around nervously, but don’t see any familiar faces looking back. Friendly… or otherwise.
I quickly make my way back to the office on foot, trying to shake away the bizarre morning I just had but the heightened paranoia seems to follow me all the way back.
I sit alone in our regular booth at Sammies, glaring at the TV hanging over the bar, a Paloma sweating on the table in front of me. Both Sunny and I quit working here a year and a half ago but we still love to come back once in a while. The Sin Eaters still own the place, but Byzantine is a lot less hands-on now that he isn’t stalking Sunny on a nightly basis. The boys’ booth became our booth too.
I still can’t make sense of anything that happened today. I’ve replayed everything multiple times in my head over the past hour. I clink my nails on my drink while I think but the more I think the more I have questions.
What the hell did she mean by us beingbound? Connor and I? Laughable. And never going to happen, except for—actually never mind. I’ve never been the one to believe in this type of thing. But that was until Byzantine barrelled his way into Sunny’s life, and somehow convinced her he remembered all their past lives together.
After that? It’s a little hard to ignore the possibilities that some things are just unexplainable. Us humans don’t know much about anything.
And this bizarre occurrence was onlyoneof the troubling things that happened today.
I’m being followed.
I can’t even bear saying his name. But if I close my eyes, I can still see his face watching me with intent. So it’s best to just keep them open.
It wasn’t him. It can’t be him.
It’s getting harder to gaslight myself when I’m almost positive I saw him twice today. My hand trembles as I reach for my drink and down the rest. It does nothing to soothe my nerves.
I should just go home.
I slide out of the booth, bussing my own table—because old habits die hard— before grabbing my purse, giving a small wave to the staff and walking outside into the dark.
Chapter 9
