CHAPTER 21 - MALLORY
I stumbled out of the apartment complex whipping my head around to make sure that Barrett wasn’t after me. I couldn’t believe how quickly he’d turned from sexy protector and savior to monster in my mind, but already I was seeing mirages of him through windows and from passing cars.
It was dizzying, and horrifying.
I didn’t have much with me, just what was in my purse. I reached into it, looking for my phone, thinking that by now it must have been totally out of juice and there was nowhere nearby I could charge it, even if I had a cable on me. Plus, that would involve stopping for a while — way too long when you had at least one and probably more than one ruthless assassin hot on your tail.
Especially if one of them was the man you’d slept with last night, the one you’d been daydreaming about spending the rest of your life with. I searched my purse for a few seconds before remembering that Barrett had taken my phone, just to make sure I didn’t call anyone and give up our location.
No phone? In the city? What was I going to do?
The day was just beginning and roads were starting to fill up as people shuttled back and forth to their jobs. I didn’t have a place to go — this was a part of Meridian that I had barely spent any time — all the things a young woman living in the city would want were closer to the center of town, and this was barely even the outskirts.
Every time I looked ahead of me as I walked I could see the gleam of Norman Tower catching the sun, and it made me shudder. Just three days ago I had been so proud to work there, to call that beacon of Meridian my office, to have been a part of that legacy, but now none of that mattered.
I gave every one I passed by on the street a look that was a couple seconds too long, like I was trying to figure out if they meant to hurt me, when really all they wanted to do was get wherever they were going.
I must have looked like a crazy person, clothes and hair all in disarray, no makeup on. If I had run into me on the street I’d have wanted as little as possible to do with me.
I walked for almost an hour, trying to put as much distance between me and the apartment complex as I could before stopping to take a break and figure out what to do next.
It was only when I stopped that I realized just how hungry I was. There’d been barely any food at the apartment before I left, and after that crazy insane phone call I couldn’t have been bothered to stop and eat something, and that lack of fuel hit me all at once.
I nearly doubled over, realizing just how much I needed to eat. After my blurry vision cleared, I looked up and tried to focus on the buildings in front of me. They were nondescript and mostly industrial looking - I was in the part of Meridian that a lot of people didn’t go without good reason.
After my thoughts started moving in the right direction again, I took a tentative step forward and kept going, slowly picking up the pace while looking for a diner or a McDonald’s or anywhere I could sit for a minute, catch myself, and eat something.
Maybe then I’d be able to make a little sense of what was happening to me. My life as an obscure office worker in a giant and prestigious company, worried about office gossip and whether I had the right outfit for a night on the town with my friends seemed like a distant memory.
It was right when I turned a corner and saw a small diner with a blinking ‘OPEN’ sign and gratefully walked toward it that it hit me — what if I couldn’t go back to being that girl again?
I pushed that thought downward for a moment — there were more important things at hand.
Like food, and the ravenous hunger I needed to do something about before it threatened to derail my entire plan of escape.
I chuckled to myself as I opened the door.
What plan?
I was totally flying blind.
I slumped into the nearest empty booth, the cold red leather of the seat sending shivers up my spine. I held my face in my hands for a minute, trying to make sense of the world around me.
“You OK?” I looked up and opened my eyes to see an older waitress looking down at me, her face a mask of concern.
I nodded, trying to find the words. “I’ll be OK,” I whispered.
“Looks like you could use something warm to drink.” She disappeared for a moment, but a few seconds later came back with a mug in one hand and a steaming pot in the other.
She set the mug down and I smelled the deep and rich aroma of strong coffee as she poured. I wrapped my fingers around the mug, gasping a little as the hot liquid warmed the ceramic and my fingers. “Mmmm, thank you,” I said.
“Don’t mention it, honey.” She turned to check out the rest of the diner, before reaching into her pocket and dropping a menu on the table. “I’ll be back in a jiffy, you figure out what you want and warm yourself up.”
I nodded, giving her a look of thanks, and pulled the hot mug toward me. The tentative sip burned my tongue a little, but after I got used to it I kept drinking. The caffeine breathed new life into my body, and I immediately perked up and started noticing things around me.
There were only a few other patrons in the diner, and each of them was paying more attention to their food, their newspapers, or their phones to notice the disheveled girl slumped over in the booth near the door.
“Get to that menu, honey,” I heard the waitress call out to me over the low sound of the diner. “Or I’m gonna pick something for you.”
I waved and picked up the menu, and when the waitress came back, looking at me expectedly, I pointed to the Denver omelette. She smiled as she took my menu and refilled my mug.
After putting some milk and sugar into my coffee I sat staring at the mug, watching the liquid level decrease as I drank more and more.
Each sip made me feel worlds better, but as soon as I got past the point where I was barely awake, my thoughts turned to Barrett again.
After all we’d been through, after all we’d shared…he wasn’t a good man who did bad things because he had to — he was a bad man who was good at pretending to be good. The sense of betrayal that coursed through me was unlike anything I had ever felt, and I didn’t know how to deal with it.
And to top it all off, a part of me simply missed having him around. Sure, it had been only a couple days that we’d been around each other, but when you were on the run, that time added up quickly.
I wallowed for a few more minutes until the waitress came back carrying a plate with a giant omelette and hash browns on it, and filled my coffee once again. After she set the plate down and gave me a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, I went to town on the food, devouring it in short order.
I thought I knew what hunger was before, but clearly I had been misinformed — being on the run for your life showed me what true hunger was. I greedily cleaned the entire plate, washing it down with more coffee.
When I was done I pushed the plate away, satisfied and feeling much, much better about what I was going to do next. Things could only get better than this, right? I’d reached the bottom and now I could start climbing out.
And then I looked up, across the booth.
And he was sitting there.
Smiling at me.
Shit.
Oh shit Shit SHIT.
“Hello, Mallory,” I heard him speak as my vision clouded again and my muscles tensed up. I whipped my head around, trying to get someone’s attention, but it was as if the diner were suddenly full of statues. No one moved, or even gave any indication that they saw me.
“Don’t make any sudden moves,” the assassin in black said softly from across the table. I forced myself to make eye contact with him, and he continued. “You wouldn’t want anything to happen to any of these fine people, would you?”
Suddenly covered in cold sweat, and unable to speak, I swallowed hard and shook my head.
“Good,” he said. “That’s very good.” He leaned back in the booth, and for the first time I got a good look at him. He was a nondescript and cold looking man, and I could tell that he didn’t take any actions lightly — everything was calculated.
I had noticed the same kind of coordination in Barrett.
On Barrett it had been sexy.
With this guy it just chilled me all over.
“You’ve been an…interesting challenge, Mallory.” He eyed the knife and fork on my plate, and I looked down at them too. He shook his head, pursing his thin lips. “No, that’s not a good idea either. How many people have you killed from across the table with a knife and fork?”
I swallowed again. “Zero,” I whispered, finding my voice.
He nodded. “I can assure you, my dear, for me the answer is significantly more than that.” He leaned forward. “But don’t think about any of that. We’ve been having so much fun till now, it would be a shame to cut things short so quickly, yes?”
I nodded.
“Mr. Norman is very eager to see you again, Mallory.” The man grinned. “He thinks he made the wrong first impression and would appreciate the opportunity to make a…better second impression.” He leaned over further, his long thin arm snaking across the table to touch my hand with his icy cold pale fingers. “How does that sound?”
“No, thank you,” I whispered.
The man pressed down against my hand with his fingers. “I think you should reconsider that, Mallory.” He sat back and looked at his hands as they clasped together, stretching and cracking a knuckle with an audible pop. “If you don’t come with me right now, I will kill every single person in this building before you have time to call for help.”
I looked around again at the rest of the people in the diner, trying to imagine what this evil man could do to them. I had seen him fight with Barrett once before, and I had seen his complete and utter lack of reaction when Tate Norman had murdered a man in cold blood before him.
Looking into those eyes I had absolutely no doubt that he would do exactly as he said, just as quickly.
“OK,” I whispered.
“Good.” The man brightened as he waved to the waitress, flagging her down. “I’ll even pick up the check. It’s the least I can do.”
Shit.
A few minutes ago I’d thought things couldn’t get any worse.
How wrong I was.