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Someone approached from the left, and I pushed her against the closest wall for protection. Our bodies touched all over. I could feel her soft, supple chest, heaving against my stomach…
Then a couple passed behind us, running through the puddles. Laughing in the rain.
Our eyes locked, and a moment passed between us. I could feel her heart now, thundering away in her chest. Our faces were so close we were breathing the same air. Her hot breath intermingled with mine.
Abruptly I took a step back, but found myself oddly reluctant to let go. But Ihadto go. And so did she.
“There’s a hospital right there,” I squinted, pointing into the night. “And a police precinct two blocks beyond.”
My words barely registered. My beautiful victim was still standing before me in shock, all but trembling in disbelief. Still, I could see defiance in her eyes.
“You won’t go to either one of them though,” I mused. “Will you?”
Unsurprisingly, she shook her head no.
“Didn’t think so.”
I took back my jacket. It felt like a shitty thing to do considering the circumstances, but I wasn’t leaving any part of myself behind. Not after what I’d seen.
Then I walked away.
It was the one thing I hadn’t been able to do my whole life, and here I was actually doing it. Shit, I was almost proud of myself. Almost.
“Oh, and hey,” I called back. “Want a strong piece of advice?”
The woman stood wearily beneath the yellowish streetlamp, dripping rain. Eventually she nodded back from her place on the sidewalk.
“Stay far, far away from the Lozanos,” I said, before turning away.
Three
BRYNNE
My timecard seemed to move in slow-motion as I slid it into the slot. Then again, everything was moving in slow-motion today. My head was still in a fog from last night. The left side of my face — all covered in makeup — felt like it was still on fire.
“Goodnight, hon!”
Rose waved merrily, distracting me for a second as she disappeared from the break room. Somehow I waved feebly back. The machine punched my card. The harsh, mechanical jolt of its interior mechanism made me wince.
Ugh.
The past twenty-four hours had been among the worst of my life. I felt like I’d been hit by a train, then picked up and forced to work on that train for the next twelve hours. Considering the size of the man who’d hit me, the analogy wasn’t far off.
“Fletcher!”
I turned slowly at the sound of my last name. The restaurant manager’s scowl looked the same as it did a shift and a half ago.
“Don’t be late tomorrow.”
I nodded to indicate I understood, then slunk through the doors and into the fresh outside air. I’d be back soon enough, and hopefully with a little more sleep.
But there was a hell of a lot to do before any of that could happen.
Damn straight.
Steeling myself against the bone-weary tiredness, I made the bus just before the doors closed. Thankfully it was mostly empty. I sank into a seat two-thirds of the way down, letting my head loll back and my eyes close as the air-brakes hissed and the vehicle started up again.
He was tall — even taller than my attacker.
