Page 7 of Bloody Quarter

“Do you have any plans later,” she asked, her finger purposely brushing mine as she laid the cash down. I’d bet that her number was hidden under the sizable tip. I took note of the tan line on her ring finger and smirked.

Leaning across the bar, I grazed her cheek with mine and groaned in her ear. Right on cue, her body shuddered. “Baby girl, I’d break your innocent pussy. I’d not only bend you over and fuck you so hard that you’d scream and beg me to stop, but I would ruin you forever.”

She nodded, making me smirk, and I knew that if I wanted to, I could drag her to the back and fuck her against a wall. All my darker urges were already rising, and just like Lennox’s desperate soccer mom, this girl would end up in my crypt when I was done. What I really desired was to watch her eyes go wide with shock as I slit her throat. I hadn’t found anyone who could handle that…yet. I wanted to feel them thrash and gasp while slowly dying, with my cock buried deep inside. I needed to feel the final moment when a person’s soul teetered on leaving the body forever or was yanked back from oblivion. I was positive that wasn’t what she had in mind for a good time.

“The problem with doing that is you’d spend the rest of your life with your husband fingering your pussy late at night while you dreamed of me. You’d spend the rest of your already tragic married life wishing you’d never gotten a taste of a real man.” Her body stiffened at the mention of her husband. “Drink your drink and go home. Thanks for the tip.”

I swiped the money off the bar top and moved on but watched as she grabbed her purse and left without touching the martini. What a waste of good alcohol. Picking up the discarded drink, I chugged it down and made a show of sucking the olives off the toothpick before putting the glass in the dirty bin.

“Don’t forget it’s your night to close,” I said to Lennox as he finished serving his side and grabbed a bottle of water.

“How could I forget with you reminding me every twenty minutes?”

“Gotta be sure you heard me, considering you left me hanging last week,” I clapped back.

“Fuck off, man, it was one shift that I forgot about. Give me a break already.” Annoying Lennox was an amusing pastime. I was sure the digs he got in on me were just as much fun for him, but I found it particularly entertaining to keep track of how many times I could piss him off during a shift.

The guys in the bar whistled as the dancers came out and hopped up on stage. This wasn’t a strip club, but having hot women dancing on tall pedestals never got old. They were all at different heights but connected by the main stage, and each had a pole to use. We still had a line out the door to get in here each night and two bouncers stationed outside, one to keep an eye on outside drinks and one to keep us from going over fire capacity. Luckily, I knew the fire chief. He was a fan when I played college ball, so the first night we were caught for being over max, I managed to talk my way out of being shut down. We quickly had to rethink how to keep patron numbers below the limit.

The rest of the night ran smoothly, and as things came to a close, I went to the cemetery. I really needed to get some fucking sleep, but instead, I grabbed a couple of Giles’s bones and my knife and wandered into the darkness. I ducked between the two mausoleums across from the one I wanted to watch before climbing the side of the taller one. It had a cross that I could lean on. This was a great spot. I could see in all directions and yet remain deep in the shadows.

Whittling didn’t come naturally to me, but I’d taught myself by watching videos and could proudly say I was now fucking great at it. The pieces I turned into art were sold in the bar as trinkets. Tourists ate up the lore of the area and assumed that what they were buying were animal bones. I smirked to myself, holding the shoulder blade up to see the intricate skull and filigree design I was working on.

As the sun began to rise, I slipped off my perch, annoyed that my mysterious woman had not returned. Tucking my work into the deep pockets of the long leather coat, I sheathed my knife. It was fine that she was avoiding me. There was more than one way to track someone down. Pulling out my phone, I stepped out from my hiding spot and took pictures of the tomb and the sixth-month token that was still there.

I marched down the path, looking like the embodiment of the Grim Reaper with the deep hood of my coat pulled up. I had a plan for my day off. Sleep came first, and then I needed to do some investigating.

Alora

I hated working the morning shift at the diner. The same guy had been coming in every morning for the last few months, but what started as harmless flirtation and a nice tip had quickly become uncomfortable.

It didn’t help that when I opened the diner, I was the only one working the front until seven, when the morning rush began. The first rays of the morning sun were just peeking through the trees when I reached Harper’s. There was no one in the parking lot, and yet, looking over my shoulder had become the norm.

Unlocking the door, I stepped inside and quickly relocked it behind me. Taking a deep breath, I turned around and screamed as Juan stepped out from the dark kitchen. He yelled and almost threw the tray of mugs he was carrying in the air.

“Jesus, girl, are you trying to kill me?”

I clutched at my chest. Even though I knew he would be here prepping for service, I still managed to make an ass of myself.

“I’m so sorry, Juan. Why are there no lights on in the back? All I saw was a shadow coming at me, and I screamed.”

“No power.” He shrugged. “I already called Miss Harper. She has someone heading over to check it out, but I’m running everything off a couple of generators. Luckily, these all got cleaned last night,” he said, putting the tray of coffee mugs down with the others.

“Well, that’s going to make the rush fun.” I shrugged out of my sweater and hung it up before stashing my purse under the counter.

“Tell me about it. So I don’t want to hear my bacon is overdone today, or I swear…oh, I did put the coffee on.”

“Thanks, Juan,” I said as someone pulled on the front door. I glanced at the time before turning around to confirm that we still had fifteen minutes until opening. As soon as my eyes landed on the man outside the door, I groaned. Great, asshole, at six o’clock. He scowled and pointed at the door like I didn’t know it was locked. Miss Harper prided herself on customer service, so I sucked up my disdain for the jerk and walked over to the door to unlock it.

As soon as he pulled, I took a step back. “Thomas, you’re early.”

“Yeah, what the hell is with the locked door? Miss Harper always has the door unlocked for me early. I should let her know you’re not holding up her usual standards.”

I gave him my best attempt at a sweet smile. “Oh, that’s not necessary. I was simply uninformed, but now I know. Would you like your usual booth,” I asked, grabbing a menu and heading down to his spot before he answered.

“I guess I’ll let it go this once. Do I get the coffee on the house, or do I get something sweeter?”

Even though he didn’t directly say he wanted me, the flick of his gaze down my body made the simple uniform dress feel like I was wearing lingerie. I wanted to throw up. Thomas wasn’t bad-looking and had a decent job, but he gave me the creeps. There was an edge to him that I couldn’t put my finger on. It was like he screamed rapist, even though I knew nothing of the sort about him. It was a horrible thing to think, but spending time in prison had honed my sixth sense, and it was waving ten red flags in the air above his head.