He laughed again. I looked around. There was no one behind us or to the side. At the entrance of the grocery store, an older man dressed in a security guard uniform stood by, but if things got physical, it was going to end very badly for him.
I may have been in a public place, but I didn’t feel safe in the slightest.
“Are you implying something, Rachel Reid?” he said. I fucking hated how he used my full name like this. “You wanted to ram my cart? Are you suggesting you want to get rammed too?”
The heat was rising badly in me. I was going to explode if I didn’t move aside.
“I am suggesting nothing, Eduardo,” I said.
I regretted using his name immediately.
“So you do remember me,” he said, almost sounding surprised—at least by his standards. “And here I was, wondering if I was talking to someone so stupid, it would have been like they’d had their brains fucked out of them.”
My hand tensed. But I knew if I slapped him…
“How are things with you? You know we can’t go this long without seeing each other and not catch—”
“What part of anything in this world makes you think I ever want to talk to you?” I growled. “I know exactly what you’re doing, and you’re in for a world of hurt. You keep this up, maybe you get away with it here. But I know who won’t let you get away with it. The Black Reapers.”
The smile faded from Eduardo’s face immediately. It was literally like throwing a switch, watching him go from cocky and taunting to infuriated and vengeful.
But he must have realized it because he caught himself, shrugged, and smiled.
“I have nothing to try and get away with; I am only asking you questions,” he said. “But in any case, I suppose I will let you go for now.”
I tried to push the cart past him. Again, he stepped in front. So much for letting me go right now.
“It was good to see you, Rachel Reid,” he said, “and who knows? Maybe we’ll bump into each other again. Maybe we can literally bump into each other if you know what I mean.”
My eyes stung and glistened. Eduardo laughed. He must not have realized I was on the verge of crying because he walked away chortling to himself. If he knew I was that close to sobbing, he would never have let me get past him.
I hurried to the cashier and kept my head down. The poor older guy had no idea what to do with me, but I preferred that he stayed in silence. There was only one group of guys I was going to share this with, and the one guy I most wanted to hear from in that group wasn’t answering his phone .
I hurried with my egg whites to the car, the surge of tears pushing harder and harder against the cracking dam of self-control. When I finally got inside and roughly laid the eggs to the side, I leaned into the steering wheel and cried as hard as I ever had.
How the hell was it fair that, all these years later, one of my rapists still not only walked around free, but he got to taunt me like so without repercussions? Sure, the Black Reapers would work to take care of him, but why did shit like this require a different form of justice? Why the fuck did it require me to go to outlaws when the regular law couldn’t do its damn job?
I already knew life wasn’t fair. That had been the case a decade ago. But I would have at least liked to believe lifetriedto be fair. It suddenly didn’t seem that that was the case any longer.
How was I supposed to live here in Santa Maria still? I had to…
What, move? To where? With no job and no skills to speak of? Only some family money was keeping me afloat. I suppose I could just grab a low-paying job somewhere and get out, but…
It was all too much. I was destined to be a prisoner of a man that was going to do this shit to me forever. It was not hyperbole to say one of us would have to die for this madness to end. But boy, did it suck to have to accept that.
I didn’t want to die.But then again, I might as well have been dead for the last decade.
I leaned back in my car seat. I heard a bike roaring to life, thankfully not so close to me that it was the next vehicle over. I looked in the distant parking lot and saw Eduardo pulling out. I ducked down as low as I could, terrified at the prospect that he’d see me and mark my car for future taunting and tailgating. He probably knew this was mine already anyway, but I at least wanted to preserve the possibility in my head.
As soon as the sound of the motorcycle vanished in the distance, I sat up. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. I could get my shit together. I just…
I just needed a moment, that was all.
I took that sweet, sweet moment as long as I could and then checked my phone. I had a new message.
And it was from Mason!
I opened it up.
