“One ham-and-cheese with cappuccino to go, coming up!”

Kari was ordering lunch inside Lucinda’s, the diner owned by Lucinda Mayes that happened to be next door to Maid for Mom, Kari’s cleaning service.  That was how Kari and Lucinda met and became fast friends: the proximity of their businesses.  Although Lucinda was in Pensacola picking up a new car and wouldn’t be at the diner today.  But that wasn’t new either: Lucinda was rarely at the diner that bore her name.

While waiting for her lunch, Kari walked over to the bakery side of the diner and looked at the cakes on display.  She saw the woman when she first walked in.  She was such a strikingly beautiful woman, new to Kari’s eyes, that she did give her a second glance.  And Kari eventually noticed how she was looking at her.  But she didn’t think anything nefarious about it.

She still didn’t, even when the woman made her way over to the bakery area too.  “Lucinda loves her cakes,” the woman said.

“Yes, she does,” said Kari.  Was she a friend of Lucinda’s?  “And they’re delicious too.”

“You’ve tried them?” the female asked.

Kari looked at her.  She was a tall white woman, almost a foot taller than Kari.  “You haven’t tried Lucinda’s cakes?  You must not be from around here!”

The woman smiled.  “I’m not.  And I haven’t tried any of her desserts, I’m afraid.  But I heard so much about them.”

“Girrl, you’re missing out!” Kari said.  “They are excellent.”

“Kari,” the worker behind the counter yelled, “your to-go is ready!”

“Try the red velvet,” Kari said to the woman as she turned to leave.  “You’re love it, I promise.”

The woman placed her hand on Kari’s arm, stopping her progression.  Kari looked at the woman.  And suddenly, as if a lightbulb had come on, she could sense this woman was not the friendly bystander she, at first, purported to be.  “Yes?” Kari asked her.

“Leave Alex Drakos alone.”

But even with her sudden perceptiveness, Kari didn’t expect to hear those words.  “Excuse me?”

“Leave Alex Drakos alone.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Leave him alone.  You know what I’m talking about.”

“And you are?” Kari asked her.

“Don’t worry about who I am,” the woman said.  “You worry about what I’m saying.  You need to leave Alex Drakos alone.”

Kari stared at her.  “And if I don’t?”

The woman gave her a hard stare.  “Leave him alone,” she said, and walked out of Lucinda’s diner.

At first, Kari just stood there.  The nerve of that chick!  Who did she think she was to warn her off of her own man?  And then Kari decided she needed to find out.  She needed to know just who she really was!  She hurried out of the diner behind the woman.

“Kari, you forget your lunch!” the man behind the counter yelled out.  But Kari kept walking.

When she got out onto the sidewalk, the woman was opening the door of her car.

“Why are you so concerned about my relationship with Alex?” Kari asked from the sidewalk.

“You heard what I said.”

“Yeah, but who are you, and why are you saying it?”

The woman got into her car, cranked up, and began backing out.

Kari immediately pulled out her phone and pressed number one, her code to call Dan Drysdale, the man Alex placed in charge of her security detail.  He was not onsite, but she wanted his men, who were always hidden from view but very much viewing her, and who were onsite, to follow that woman.

“Is everything alright, Miss Grant?” the security chief asked.

But before Kari could answer, the woman who had backed away from the diner, suddenly threw her gear out of Reverse and into Drive.  And then she pressed that gas and floored it.  Her car suddenly, almost comically sped up, jumped the curb, and then, uncomically, headed straight for Kari!

Kari’s heart fell through her shoe when she realized that crazy woman had hit the gas and was about to run her over.  Kari backed up as the car began careening toward her.  She didn’t want to make her move too soon or that car would have time to change course and veer toward her.

But backing up was only backing her right into the line of that vehicle’s rage.  She knew it.  But she waited.

She waited until the last possible second, and then Kari dived out of the way to avoid a certain destiny with death.  The woman, who could not or would not stop, plowed through the window of Lucinda’s diner, shattering the glass and knocking over tables that could have easily been occupied by customers, until the crash itself stopped her.

And the men Alex paid a small fortune to protect Kari came running out of the woodwork, groups hurrying over from two different directions.  Some sped over in cars, some ran over on foot.

They helped Kari to her feet with their guns drawn, creating a circle of protection around her, and their eyes were hypervigilant for any new ambush.  But Kari was still stunned by the sudden and dramatic ambush she’d just experienced.  And her eyes were on the driver of that vehicle, a vehicle now halfway inside the diner, as customers fled in panic and shock.

Some of Alex’s men had already made their way to the driver side door of the vehicle, ready to drag the woman out.  But even Kari could see there was no use for that.  Even Kari could see that the woman, who had warned her off of Alex as if it was a final warning, did not survive her own attack.