Page 25 of Demon's Desire

“Kelly?” I whispered, grabbing her arm. “Do you see that guy?”

“The one that nearly got us killed via grocery cart?” She rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

I turned back to her, keeping my voice low. “Do you remember the night of the fire? There was that guy on the sidewalk, staring at their house?”

“Yeah? Why?” She asked her questions, then paused. I watched it dawn on her face as she glanced over my shoulder. “Whoa.”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“Let’s get out of here.” She shook her head and went to the nearest self-checkout register.

I grabbed our large TJ Maxx bags and awkwardly set them on the scale. In Illinois, or at least in Chicago, they charged you for every individual plastic store bag you used, so we always brought our own. I held the bag to make sure it didn’t fall while Kelly started ringing things up. As she did, I glanced back to look for the man, but he was gone. Technically, he hadn’t done anything wrong. Still, I couldn’t help but feel a bit on edge.

“So, Mia,” Kelly said, grabbing my attention. I turned back to see that she was done. “I have a proposition. I don’t help you with dinner because I hate cooking. But I pay for all the groceries since I have a job and you don’t.”

I gave her a look along the lines of ‘I can’t believe you would use that against me, you cold-hearted bitch.’

“Yeah, okay.” I shrugged, picking the bag up and pulling it onto my shoulder. We were getting around eighty bucks in groceries. I couldn’t turn that down. “I felt weird scheduling interviews while Torie and Mica were over. I wanted to spend time with them since they were there.”

“Oh, I totally understand!” she assured me as she swiped her card. “I just know I can use that to get out of stuff I don’t wanna do.”

I rolled my eyes and shoved her arm as the machine printed out the receipt. “Let’s go.”

We left the store and started to head through the parking lot. The grocery store was only about a fifteen-minute walk from our apartment, and it didn’t seem worth it to risk the killer parking spot Kelly had recently landed. We were on our way out of the lot and to the sidewalk when I heard someone yell. I stopped and turned toward the noise.

“Holy shit,” I whispered.

Kelly followed my gaze and also froze in place. Neither of us had noticed it at first since it was in the very back of the parking lot, but now the thin streaks of smoke were hard to ignore. The smell alone was growing more acrid and noticeable by the second. At the very edge of the lot beside the fence, a white Ford Focus had smoke rising from the engine. A man had pulled the hood up and was trying to wave it away. It didn’t look awful, and depending on what the problem was, they could fix it and drive away in half an hour. That was, assuming the smoke was the only problem with the car.

“Look at the tires!” Kelly pointed. I squinted so I could see better, then my eyes widened in shock. I could see three tires from where I stood, and all three of them had been slashed. The smoke was the least of that guy’s worries.

“Who the hell did they piss off?” I frowned. I had shredded a tire before by accident. When that happened naturally, the tire looked like it had been pulled apart, and the rip was jagged. All three of these tires had one long, even gash sitting in the exact same place on each tire, and I would bet the fourth one did as well.

“How do you even manage something like that without anyone seeing who did it?” Kelly asked.

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. There were several people gathered around the car to help, and I saw cell phones out, so I figured they had all the help they needed. “Let’s get out of here and get this stuff in the fridge.”

“Yeah,” Kelly replied.

We continued on our way home. After a couple of minutes, Kelly looked at me. “Hey, since we have to walk by the coffee shop on our way home, do you want to stop by and see if that guy’s there? The one that walked you home?”

“Are you sure?” I glanced at her, trying to put the damaged car out of my mind. “We don’t have to.”

“No, I totally don’t mind!” She smiled. “I need you to get a boyfriend. That way, when hot guys keep hitting on you, you can say ‘Oh, thank you, but my hot friend is actually still single while I am tragically taken!’”

“Do I have to say it exactly like that?” I laughed.

She laughed as well and shook her head. “I guess not.”

We made our way to the coffee shop, where I handed the TJ Maxx bag to Kelly so she could wait outside. I headed in and glanced around, then smiled when I saw Marcus behind the counter. There was no one in line, so I headed over and waved at him. “Hey!”

“Hi.” He nodded at me. “What can I get you?”

I blinked before smiling again. “I was actually just coming to see if you were here.”

“Me?” He raised his eyebrows. “Do I know you?”

My face fell when he said that. I frowned and stared at him for a second. “Um… Yeah. I was here last Saturday. You brought me a couple of drinks. We talked for a while, and then… you walked me home.”