Witness (2 page)

“Take care of yourself. I’m only a call away if you need anything. I’ll stop by at eight when I start my shift in the morning to take you to get your car,” he said, climbing out of the car.

“Okay. Thanks for the ride,” I said before walking to my door. Once I unlocked and opened it, I waved at him and went inside, not sticking around to see if he left.

I made sure to lock the deadbolt and the knob as well as sliding the chain into place. Then I stuffed a quilt along the bottom of the door and put a chair under the knob for added protection. While I knew making the door harder to open wouldn’t stop someone if they wanted to break in, it might be those extra few seconds that let me escape out a window.

Feeling a little more secure, I went to my room and started packing a few select items. Without my car, I couldn’t go anywhere. I wouldn’t risk walking back to the diner, even though it wasn’t all that far away. I’d have to wait until the morning, when the sheriff gave me a ride back. I wasn’t supposed to work, so I could just get in my car and go. As long as I survived the night.

I left the packed bag on the bed, then went to pack up whatever food I could take that wouldn’t spoil. I had no idea where I’d go, but if men with dead eyes were showing up, then anywhere was better than where I was.

The rest of the evening I paced my tiny apartment watching time slowly pass. Every sound had me jumping and holding my breath, waiting for a window to break or the door to shatter open, but nothing happened.  By the time the sun came up, I was shaking from being on edge for so long. My nerves were frayed and I couldn’t wait to get on the road so I could finally start trying to put myself back together.

I was waiting on the curb when Aaron pulled up, and I jumped in as soon as he stopped.

“Wow, feeling better this morning?” he asked with a laugh.

“Yep. I have tons of stuff I need to get done today,” I said, putting my bag in my lap.

“I’m so glad you’re feeling better. What’s with the bag?” He looked from my face to the bag and back again before he pulled out of the parking lot.

“Oh, just some stuff I have to drop off for Wendy,” I lied.

“Mmm,” he hummed, but didn’t question me further. Thankfully, the rest of the ride we were both silent. He parked right behind the diner instead of my car, like I’d hoped he would. “Here you go.”

“Thank you for the ride,” I said before hopping out and slamming the door. I quickly moved toward my car, keeping my head down.

“Hey, don’t you need to take that inside to Wendy?” Aaron shouted out, stopping me in my tracks.

Fuck
. The guy was such a pain in the ass.

“Oh, right,” I sighed and spun around. It was hard, but I managed not to glare at him for delaying my escape yet again. “See you later.”

“You know it,” he said with a wink, but didn’t pull away until I opened the back door to the diner.

I groaned and leaned against the inside of the door.

“Feeling better?” Mark, the chef-slash-manager asked.

“Uh, yeah. Much. Sorry I ducked out yesterday, but I didn’t think you’d want someone puking around.” I tried to smile and make up for not explaining myself when I’d run past him the previous day.

“Well, it’s okay, because apparently Wendy got your bug. She called out, and we need you to cover for her,” he informed me.

“But…” I panicked. I didn’t have time to cover a shift. I needed to leave… like last night.

“No, buts. You left yesterday and now we need help. Get your apron on and get out there,” he said, not willing to take any excuses.

I debated running out the back door and just taking off, but I wasn’t that kind of person. No one had attacked me so far, so it should be fine if I helped out just for a little bit. I couldn’t leave them in a bind.

“Okay. Okay,” I said, grabbing an apron from the extras and dropping my bag in an out-of-the-way spot. I’d left my normal apron at home since I didn’t expect to work. There were a few pens and pads around, as well, so I stuffed them in the pocket and went to find out how to help out front.

“Oh, thank God!” Demara exclaimed when she saw me. “We are slammed. I thought I was going to have to handle this all on my own.”

“Nope, I’m here. Tell me where you need me,” I said, looking around at the packed diner, glad that I’d decided to help. This was normal. This was something I could deal with. Immediately, I felt a calming wave wash over me. I could handle a room full of demanding customers. If it helped me forget the fear from the night before, then that was all the better.

Demara directed me and, before long, I was too busy to think about anything but taking orders, filling drinks and dropping off food. By the time the rush was over and more tables were empty than full, I had almost completely forgotten about my need to disappear.

That was until I spotted the same mysterious man sitting in the same booth in the corner. Instantly, my heart tried to beat out of my chest and a cold sweat broke out over my body.

“Oh, I see you’ve spotted Eric,” Demara observed, sidling up to me where I had been restocking straws on the bar top.

“Eric?” I looked at her, surprised.

“Yeah, that’s his name. He’s been coming in here for a few months. He doesn't talk much, and he just sits there drinking his coffee, watching people for an hour and then leaves without eating,” she said, handing me more straws to put in the jar.

“He’s been here before?” I asked, completely confused.

“Oh, yeah. How have you not seen him?” She gave me wide eyes, like it was the most absurd thing she’s ever heard.

“I have no idea,” I whispered more to myself than her, dropping my eyes to my task. If he’d been coming here for so long and I hadn’t noticed, maybe I wasn’t as on my toes as I thought. Maybe he wasn’t there to kill me, like I’d thought. Maybe I’d just gone off the deep end from always looking over my shoulder.

“Why don’t you go over and meet him?” Demara suggested, sliding a pitcher filled with water across the counter.

“No, no, that’s okay,” I said, pushing it back toward her.

“Stop being so shy. Just do it. He seems to want to meet you from the way he keeps looking at you.” She moved the water back toward me.

I looked toward Eric and saw that he was looking at me yet again. Sighing, I grabbed the pitcher and headed toward him.

“Refill?” I asked, holding it up as if he didn’t realize that was what the pitcher was for.

“Sure,” he said, holding his glass up for me. “What happened to Demara?”

I knew he’d seen us talking and looking in his direction.

“Uh, she had to go to the bathroom,” I lied.

“Mmm.” He nodded as his eyes flicked behind me.

I looked back and saw that Demara was still at the counter. Fire burst over my cheeks at being caught. I cleared my throat and spun away from the table. Leaving the pitcher on the counter, I went immediately into the kitchen.

“Mark, the rush is over. Can I go?” I asked as soon as I saw the heavy set man at the grill.

“No,” he grunted.

“Oh, come on,” I sighed. “I wasn’t supposed to work today at all. I have other things I need to get done.”

Mostly, I needed some alone time to decide what I was going to do. Was I going to leave? Or was I going to stay? Did this Eric character want anything to do with me or was it simply a coincidence that he had a killer's eyes?

If I was sticking around, that meant I had to take care of the things I normally did on my day off. All the mundane and boring but necessary chores.

“I’m sorry, but no. You skipped out yesterday, and there are plenty of people around here that would take your job and not leave me shorthanded. So, if you leave now, you are out of a job,” Mark said, putting his foot down. He normally gave me and the two other morning shift girls a lot of leniency, but apparently he was done with that right when I needed it most.

I bit back a heavy sigh and just nodded before walking back to the front. If I was staying, I’d need to keep my job so I was stuck. Mark dinged the bell, announcing there was an order to be delivered, so I went to the window.

“I hate being a dick, but it’s how it has to be,” he said, pushing two plates onto the shelf.

“I understand.” I didn’t want to, but I did. He had a business to run, and he needed workers who showed up and stayed their whole shift. I grabbed the food after glancing at the table number on the receipt between the warm plates.  Of course, as good as my day was going, it just had to be for Eric.

“Here you go,” I said, setting the food down in front of him a bit harsher than normal.

“Thank you,” he mumbled, pulling a plate closer.

“Enjoy.”

“I hope so. I don’t normally order food, so I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m hungry enough to find out.”

“It’s greasy, so be prepared. I don’t think your body is used to handling this type of food,” I admitted, then bit my lip to stop the stupid words that were spilling out of my mouth. Now that I wasn’t so focused on him possibly wanting to kill me, I had to admit he was quite attractive. The flat, scary eyes were still there, but his posture was more relaxed as he leaned back in the booth and smiled at me with a broad smile that made him look younger and more carefree.

“No, I don’t indulge often, but if it gives me an excuse to talk to such a lovely woman, I think I can handle it. I’ll just have to run a couple of extra miles later,” he said with a shrug as he took the first bite of his scrambled eggs.

It was hard to hold back a laugh at the cringe he attempted to hide.

“It’s not that bad,” he managed to say after he swallowed, then followed it with half a glass of water.

“Why are you forcing down the food if you don’t enjoy it?” I couldn’t help but smile at him. It was cute, the way he obviously didn’t want the food but was still eating it.

“Because it gives me the excuse to talk to you, of course.” He winked and shoved another bite into his mouth.

I rolled my eyes. “Right.”

“Why don’t you believe me?” he asked, setting the fork down and looking at me like he’d wait as long as it took to get an answer.

“Because you had no idea that I’d be the one to deliver it when you ordered it,” I explained what was obvious to me.

“Ah, but I did. See, Demara wasn’t too hard to persuade to not be around when the order came up.”

I quickly looked around the nearly vacant diner to realize that she was indeed missing.

“What’d you do to her? Did you threaten her?” I asked, instantly worried. While he might not be there for me, that didn’t mean he wasn’t everything I initially thought he was.

“Did I threaten her? No, babe, I don’t have to scare women into doing the things I want.” He let out a deep laugh as I glared at him.

So he was a player. That seemed fitting.  With a body like his, I doubted he had any issues picking up women and getting them to do anything at all.

“That’s really fantastic,” I said, shaking my head then walking away from the table before he could say anything more.

“Well, well. Seems like you had no problem getting the beautiful man to talk.” Demara popped out from the kitchen as if she’d been waiting for me.

“Yeah, whatever. He’s a disgusting player who likes to use women,” I grumbled.

“Then use him before he uses you,” Demara said.

“What?” I looked at her in surprise.