Lyla hopped back up on the counter, swinging her legs slightly. The movement was casual, but her eyes kept flicking toward the window. Her instincts were firing. If only she would learn to listen to them.
“So, yesterday,” she began, “this guy walks into Cipher. Big, Russian maybe? Black suit, no smile, full murdery glare. Gorgeous, but in that terrifying, I’ve-killed-people-and-would-do-it-again kind of way.”
Nat’s eyes widened. “Please tell me this ends in sex.”
“Not even close,” Lyla said, scoffing. “He didn’t even speak at first, just stared at me like I was gum on his shoe. Then, when I asked for his order, he gave me this look like I’d insulted his bloodline.”
I smirked. She wasn’t wrong.
“Then he had the audacity to command, ‘Coffee. Black. To go. Hold the bullshit.’”
Nat’s head shot up from her phone. “No fucking way!”
“And you know me,” Lyla continued. “I don’t take that crap. So when I brought him his coffee, I oh-so-politely set it down and told him,‘Here’s your cup of silence.’Well, maybe not those exact words, but that was the gist.”
Nat whistled. “And?”
“He got all icy. Like, bone-chilling. He didn’t even lower his newspaper, and he shooed me away with his fingers like thebiggest drama queen on Broadway. You know I’ve waited on some rude New Yorkers, but this man was so over the top, he actually stunned me for a second, and I just stood there gaping at him. I mean, honestly, what kind of person can be so arrogant?”
Nat shook her head in disbelief.
“Oh, just wait. It gets so much worse,” Lyla said, crossing her arms and screwing up her face like she was about to explode. “I guess he got annoyed that I didn’t just run away because he dropped the corner of his paper and—I kid you not—slow as hell gave me some condescending once-over. And then he said”—she mimicked my Russian accent—“‘Do all the girls from whatever backwoods shithole you crawled out of flap their mouths this much?’”
“No!”
“Yes.” Lyla flung a hand toward the ceiling. “Followed it up with aPossum Hollow Charm Schoolreference,” she said, making air quotes. “I nearly climbed across the table.”
“What the actual—”
“So I let him have it. Told him he sounded like he had barbed wire caught in his throat and that he looked like a desperate Johnny Cash wannabe KGB reject with a murder fetish. I asked him if demeaning women was a cultural pastime where he came from.”
Nat clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes sparkling. “You didnot.”
“Swear to God. I even called him Boris.”
“Okay, wait, this guy had to have beenfuming.”
“Oh, he was. He told me I talk a lot for someone so‘breakable.’
“Charming.” Nat blinked. “Like a damn movie villain.”
“Right? And then, cherry on top? He tells me I should be…fucked face-down until my mouth learns to stay busy and silent.”
“WHAT?!” Nat gaped. “Oh my God, Lyla, that’s not just creepy, that’s straight-up assault vibes.”
“Tell me about it. I was ready to throw hands. But before I could, Carmine came storming out likeIwas the problem and sent me to the back. Didn’t even yell at him—just apologized like the guy was royalty.”
“So unbelievable,” Nat muttered.
“Yep. And then Mr. I-Think-I’m-Such-a-Badass came back this morning and sat in the back corner booth for nearly two hours. Didn’t say a word to me. Just sat there drinking his coffee, eating his food, and hammering away on his computer like he owned the place. I wasn’t allowed to talk to him—Carmine made sure I understood to stay clear of him—but I swear, I felt him watching me the entire time. Like a damn hawk.”
“What a fucking weirdo.”
Lyla paused and glanced at the window. Her body shuddered, and Nat frowned in concern.
“So, what happened next?”
“Well, this was when strange turned to bizarre,” Lyla said, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. “After my shift, I had a bunch of errands to run, and I knew—I justknew—I was being followed. I had this constant prickle across my skin, like a sixth sense, screaming that someone was tracking my every step. I’d turn every so often, but no one was there.”
