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She finally got it right just as I was about halfway done fueling my truck up with diesel.
I winced when she started to reach for the green nozzle, then breathed a sigh of relief when she changed her mind and went with the regular gas one instead.
“Damn,” I said as I watched her work. “You act like you haven’t been driving long.”
“Amen,” I heard the man at the pump next to me say. “She sure is a pretty thing to look at, though, ain’t she?”
She really was.
She’d drawn my eye in the bar last night the moment she walked in the door.
She’d been wearing a pair of skin-tight biker shorts, a bra that matched the biker shorts, and had her hair up in the messiest bun she could manage without it falling right out of the ponytail.
The thing I remembered the most about last night before I’d taken her up against the wall was just how short she was.
As in, she’d had trouble getting up onto the barstool short.
Her hair had been a shocking red. I hadn’t even realized that you could get color naturally that red, but according to all of my research I’d been able to compile on her in half a day, she didn’t dye it.
Everything about the woman was natural.
That didn’t mean that I liked the dude next to me checking her out.
In fact, if I could give you a number on a scale of one to ten on how annoyed it made me that he’d noticed—him being old as hell or not—I’d be at a seventeen.
I ignored him and finished filling my truck up, then got back into the cab and waited.
When I saw her go inside, I bailed out of my truck and followed her in the door.
She didn’t notice.
Just like she hadn’t noticed me tailing her for the last two hours.
Extremely unobservant wouldn’t begin to describe her.
It annoyed the hell out of me.
After pulling her into the alley last night, then again in between tents today, and now following her not only two hours in a car, but now walking directly behind her into the convenience store, I knew she was lucky to be among the living.
Being that unobservant wasn’t conducive with staying alive.
It was completely disgusting how this world was, and she had no clue just how easy of a target she was making herself.
It was like throwing a blind rabbit into a pen full of ravenous foxes. It was only a matter of time before she lost her life.
I headed to the bathroom when I saw her heading in that direction and came out a few minutes before her and bought myself a chicken burrito and a pickle before heading toward the side of the store where I could keep an eye out.
She came out of the bathroom two minutes later talking to a woman that I hadn’t seen go in.
They laughed about something and split off in different directions.
My eyes went to the woman who’d been doing the talking with Crimson. She walked up to a man and immediately started talking to him, gesturing wildly toward where I could see Crimson selecting a candy bar.
And, of course, they clocked her through the entire store.
I moved close to her back and the two people saw me and immediately exited the building.
I pulled out my phone and texted a friend, giving the two people’s descriptions, where I was located, and what vehicle they got into with the license plate numbers.
In my line of work, you couldn’t be too careful about people. The two of them could’ve been simply normal people just grabbing a break and a snack. Yet, my mind automatically went worst case scenario.
Work as many trafficking cases as I did, and you learned to trust your instincts.
When something tells you it’s not right, you listen.
What’s the worst that can happen? You look paranoid?
My motto is: better paranoid than dead.
Crimson left the store with a Nutrageous and a Starburst and walked to her car.
I threw my trash into the trash can on my way out and headed for the truck, not even trying to act like I wasn’t watching her.
Luckily, nothing seemed to be remiss as we exited, and she didn’t notice me once, even though I hadn’t tried to conceal my presence.
Exceptionally unobservant, indeed.
I needed to teach her how to watch her back.
Especially after what I’d learned today.
Speaking of what I learned…
My phone rang and I answered it.
“LaDerrick,” I said. “What did you find?”
“Pertaining to the couple you told me about in the convenience store, they’re crooks. They steal women’s purses. I watched them on the security camera as they did it to an older woman just after y’all left the store,” he said. “I already sent all that information out to the cops.”
“What about the other stuff I had you look into?” I wondered.
