Page 11 of Bleed (Two Wheeled Psychos #4)
The kitchen is still dark, as usual, but I’m not here to work, oh no, I’m here to camp out and watch out the windows till I see her again.
If I go into the café she might not appear, she could be watching out for me as much as I’m looking for her, and that I can’t have. Luckily though, her favorite and recent place to be is right across from where I always am.
Sitting on a stool with my fingers pushing down the slats of the mini blinds in the window, I watch outside like a sniper. I’m focused on a mission, ignoring all the sounds and activities around me as the restaurant opens, the food gets cooked, and the family has their breakfast.
The sun comes up as I peer through the glass, brightening up the fall sky into a beautiful, cloudless blue, like her eyes when she used to look at me with reverence. The wind is back, shuffling the leaves, and I just know she’ll make an appearance in them again.
This time, I’m not approaching her. I’m going to follow her home or to wherever she goes afterwards, and I’m going to investigate her as deeply as I’m looking into the Recluse. Like a bloodhound, I’m gonna follow the scent of her until I find the answers that I want.
“Shouldn’t you be looking for someone else?” Valentino says, coming up behind me, thinking he’s slick and sneaking up on me.
“I am. Just shush and let me do my thing.” I grumble at him, striking back behind me from my side, and cracking him in the thigh with my clenched fist.. “You can’t surprise someone when your fancy shoes squeak with each step.”
“Haha, yeah, I would guess not.” He laughs, then pats the top of my head and walks away. He stops across the kitchen and calls out to me. “Four days left.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I dismiss him, not taking my glance from the window for even half a second. “I’m not gonna miss you coming in again sweetheart.” I say quietly, watching my breath fog up the window before it clears again.
It’s just becoming dark, and the streetlights are flickering on, when the little, brown, crochet cap appears around the corner, worn by Dani.
She’s in tight jeans and knee-high boots with an oversized sweater.
She looks trendy and chic, yet comfortable at the same time.
My heart instantly picks up speed and I lean my forehead on the glass, wanting to get as close to her as possible.
Sniffing the air of the kitchen around me, I ignore the scents of all the different foods and spices. Instead my brain makes me smell the jasmine perfume she was wearing when I almost touched her yesterday.
“Oh what I would do to feel you under my touch.” I whisper quietly, adjusting my position on the stool to relieve the pressure on my balls that thump in need from just the sight of her.
She goes into the café’s front door, and I can almost hear that little bell in my head and smell the coffee and pastries as if I were right there next to her.
It makes me want to jump up and run across the street and actually follow her, but I can’t.
Not yet. Not until the sky is dark and she’s on her way out. Then, and only then will I “join” her.
By the time she emerges from the place, a large plastic cup in her hand and a huge smile on her face, the night has completely taken the light, and the stars twinkle above in the still cloudless sky.
I hop off my stool, straighten out my shirt, brushing the wrinkles out of it, then slip out the side door unseen and unheard.
Her footsteps on the sidewalk are almost silent as she walks down the street and turns right at the corner.
I watch from a few paces behind as she passes a group of young guys smoking in front of an apartment building and they catcall her like a bunch of rabid wolves howling at the moon.
It’s sickening, and when I pass them I sneer at them and lift my shirt, showing them the knife in the holster on my back.
They shut up instantly and go back to minding their own business as I stay on her six.
She’s heading in the direction of the north side of town, her long legs taking her quickly, and I swear she stops a few times to look around as if she knows she’s being followed, yet she doesn’t look back towards me.
Yes my dear, you are being stalked. Can you feel me?
About a half mile down, at the mouth of an alleyway, a man steps out from the darkness. My hackles raise, prepared to fight and kill whoever it is, but instantly go down when she stops and turns to him, a huge smile on her beautiful face.
It's too dark to see any of his features except that he’s tall and has dark hair under a ball cap. He must be someone she knows though with as happy as she is to see him, and when she throws her arms around his neck and kisses him on the mouth, rage boils up inside of me.
“Motherfucker.”
I dip into the shadows, finding a completely dark spot away from any light from the streetlamps overhead and watch as they kiss and pet each other like two lovers who haven’t seen each other in far too long.
It’s sickening, watching it when in my heart of hearts I know it should be me she’s frenching and caressing like that.
She used to. I don’t know why she ever left, why it stopped. But I want it again.
“Fuck.”
Do I keep following you, or leave you to it? Hmmm. Nah, I need to see where you go, and what you do. I still need answers.
“He needs to go though.” I whisper quietly to myself, stroking the outline of the knife sheath in my belt at my back.
I’ve never just killed for fun, there’s always been a contract, but for this fucker I just might. He has his hands on my woman, and that I just can’t have. She’s mine whether she knows it or not, or whether she likes it or not.
I will
take her back by any means necessary.
The anger is growing in me as I watch them neck like a couple of teenagers in public, beginning to turn into a deep rage. Even though the night shrouds them, people can still see what they are doing. I can still see what they are doing, and my fingers twitch against my knife.
Yes, you will die. The second you’re out of her sight.
I’m getting worse while I watch them. The rage is taking me over, enveloping me in a blanket of hate.
I want him dead, and I want her back with me, by force if it has to be.
The feelings are suffocating me, and as I step closer to them I wrap my fingers around the handle of my knife, ready to unsheathe it and use it, even if he’s not out of her presence yet.
No asshole, stop. She’ll never come back willingly if you kill in front of her. Don’t be fucking stupid.
“Go home Dani. Alone.” I growl under my breath, still hiding in the darkness, still raging, still wanting to murder, violently.
I get my wish sooner than expected, when she pulls away from him, their hands still interlocked.
She smiles at him, and I read her lips as she says “I love you” to him.
He says it back and kisses her gently on the lips one last time before she reluctantly pulls her hands from his and leaves him standing there watching her walk away, just as I do.
It’s a conundrum. Do I follow her home or to wherever she going? Or do I stay and end him now?
“End him now.” I chuckle to myself, even though I know it’ll change her routine, and I might lose her for a few days.
It’s worth it, I think, to pause my interactions with her so I can clear the way for her to take me back with no competition. I could even console the grieving woman. I could hold her, love her, comfort her, all while I know I’m the reason for her pain, just like she’s the reason for mine.
Her footsteps fade away as she disappears into the darkness of the night, and he stands there watching her back, completely unaware that someone is watching his.
The knife slides silently from its leather holder, feeling heavier in my hand than it normally does. Maybe it’s the gravity of the situation, the fact that I’m about to take a life with no other payment than that of the heart of the woman held by him.
His back is to me now, his stance relaxed and at ease, clueless at to what is about to happen as I creep out of my hiding spot and not the sidewalk. I’m stealthy, silent, a fully trained hunter ready to pounce on his prey, weapon in hand.