He squinted at the check, then tossed a few bills on the table despite the waitress holding her hand out for the money. I could see the frustration and almost resignation on her face as she picked up the money, murmured something, and turned to walk off.
Once again, raw anger filled me on her behalf.
My hands were in tight fists on top of the old, chipped two-seater table, the need for bloodshed moving viciously through my veins, all because of the way he glared at her… disrespected her.
And the longer I stared at him, the more I recognized what kind of man he was. I’d seen countless bastards like him before, ones who looked at the women trafficked by the crime syndicate, ones who were sick and needed their dicks cut off because of the perverse things they thought about. And I could see the drunk fucker was hungry for Lina, but the only type of satiation a man like him would get was the kind coming from a begging woman.
I followed Lina with my gaze once more, and I could tell she was trying hard not to look at me by the tension in her shoulders and the way her hands tightly curled inward. Maybe I fascinated her in a sick way. Maybe I scared her so much that she was drawn to me, a girl who’d been damaged enough in her life that I was the only type of man who could pull her out of that darkness.
Because I was as black and cold as the night.
I felt a dangerous coil of… desire move through me. But I knew feelings such as those would do nothing but destroy me. My life, the world I lived in, had no business with something like that.
I watched her mannerisms, could see the armor she wore was chinked and scarred, and that made me want to burrow myself deeper under her skin and find out who she was. Where did she come from? Who was she running from?
I’d gotten the basic information on her. Address. Name. Age. The latter two were easily faked, seeing as she had only moved to Desolation in the last couple of months. It could’ve been easy enough to gather all the information on her that was buried deep… the real information that some people went to a lot of trouble to bury. I definitely had the connections and resources. But something stopped me from searching out information on this woman.
Another uncomfortable, unusual sensation to me. I felt like it would be an invasion of her privacy to delve deeper, not something I’d ever fucking cared about before.
I felt my scowl deepen, hating that she’d worked her way under my skin as swiftly and strongly as she had. I’d never given a shit about what anyone thought or how the outcome would play out. I didn’t care how they saw me as long as they knew I was the one to fear.
Right before she rounded the corner and would have disappeared into the back room, she glanced over her shoulder at me. Our eyes locked, hers flaring slightly, because no doubt she hadn’t expected me to be watching her so closely. I could practically hear the surprised—maybe frightened—inhalation she took. She was afraid, and rightly—smartly—so.
I could’ve said I wouldn’t hurt her, but she would have known that was a lie. And so would I.
She disappeared behind the door, and I drew my attention back to the drunk. I could envision myself killing him ten different ways. At the very thought of ending his life, immense satisfaction ran through me. I fantasized about gouging out his eyes for simply looking at the little waitress. He was the type of man who deserved death ten times over for the heinous crimes he’d committed in life.
I should know, because I deserved it as well.
Lina came out a few minutes later, the jacket she wore light blue in color, faded, and older, with one hand tucked into a pocket. She had her backpack slung over her shoulders, her head tipped down, the long fall of her hair shrouding her profile from me.
She quickly made her way through the diner before opening the door and stepping outside, not once looking at me again. Movement to my left had me slowly looking at the drunk. He pulled his stumbling ass out of the booth, his focus on the door Lina had just left out of. Every muscle in my body tightened in preparation to go after him, knowing exactly what he was doing, knowing the opportunity he saw in this moment.
I left the diner, keeping to the shadows once outside, and immediately spotted Lina up ahead. She moved quickly and was scanning her surroundings. Definitely not a stranger to being on guard.
But she wasn’t alone. I couldn’t see him yet, but I felt my skin tightening, a familiar feeling that covered me when I needed to be on alert. And then I saw him, the fucker keeping close to the buildings, staying within the shadows. He stalked her, and even from my vantage point, I could see a tenseness across Lina’s shoulders.