by Alexa Rynn
I could still hear him laughing when I rounded the corner back in the kitchen.
***
Jay stared at me for the next four hours of my shift. He really did. He literally posted up at a table in the back of my section with a coffee and a bunch of paperwork. Every time I would look up from being with a customer or walk back into the dining room with an order his creepy eyes were there, burning into me and undressing me with their evil gaze.
I didn’t understand what the hell his problem with me was. It wasn’t like I had done anything to him directly. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time yesterday. And now I had to pay the price for that, for going to fucking work.
The only thing he had on me was the fact that he had gotten hit in the face because of me with a pistol, but maybe he should have listened when Link told him what to do the first time. And I didn’t feel bad about that, I mean the guy was trying to fucking shoot me in the head.
If it wasn’t for Link I would probably be dead right now.
And who cared if I had fucked Link? Why the fuck did Jay care about that? It seemed like he had no problem getting any pussy, especially since he had a girl. She seemed like the type who kept his sexual needs well fed.
Still, his obsession with hating me was creepy as fuck.
Who sat in a corner stalking someone all day long as they worked? As the hours dragged on it seemed like his look of hatred seemed to grow more and more. I wanted to tell Link about it but I was scared. Who knew what Jay would do to me if he knew I was running around telling on him like a rat? I was a grown woman I should be able to handle business on my own. So why was my heart racing all day?
Yeah, it was because Jay was one corny ass motherfucker, but it was more than that, too. What he had said to me about Link fucking mad girls had gotten to me as much as I had wanted it not to. It made no sense since I knew we didn’t have anything real, it was just sexual, and even the sexual part had only happened a few times. But it still got to me, almost made me jealous and I hated myself for it. Not to mention I didn’t want Link sticking his dick inside of me if he had just stuck it in some other girl a few hours before.
I didn’t know how my already crazy life had gotten even crazier in such a short amount of time. But one thing was for sure; I needed to stop stressing the fuck out over it. It was taking up too much of my energy that was supposed to be focused on more important things. Like work, my little brother and sister, and bills.
I had a real life and people to look after, I couldn’t be getting caught up in Link’s club or whatever else sketchy business him and his brothers were involved in. I didn’t want anything to do with that world; I wished I had never been in that supply closet at all.
But if that were true why had I had sex with Link?
And why had I gone back and had sex with him again today?
God, something was seriously wrong with me.
I needed my life back; one day of being caught up with Link was enough. I couldn’t be leaving work to go have hot sex in the middle of day, or pay extra for a babysitter to stay late so I could go on dinner dates with the scariest man in our city. And I definitely couldn’t have Jay always showing up to pretty much threaten me. It was pretty clear he wanted me dead and that knowledge was pretty scary for someone who had tried so hard to stay the fuck out of the street business.
If I got killed my siblings would have no one and they came first.
I was just going to have to go to dinner with Link and end whatever the fuck it was we had going on. It shouldn’t be that hard, we had only been fucking with one another for a few days. That meant nothing in his world. He had probably had drug deals that lasted longer than that.
I was sure he would be pissed at first since his pride would be hurt but once I explained myself I was sure he would understand. He seemed like a somewhat reasonable human being.
The key word being somewhat.
I called home around dinner time and told the older woman who lived next door that if she watched the kids through bedtime I would pay her extra that week. I really couldn’t afford it but it seemed like I had little choice in the matter. When I clicked off my cell phone and turned back to the booth that Jay had been posted up in all night was empty and he was nowhere in sight.
I thought that his absence would make me happy but for some reason, it only made me more on edge. At least if I could see him I knew where he was, I knew what he was doing. Him being out of my sight meant that he could pop out on me at any time and wrap his hands around my neck again.
As the night went on, though, my anxiety level started to go down. It was getting later and later into the night and pretty soon Link would be there to get me. I would hang out with him for a while and then I would go home. Hopefully, when Jay realized Link wasn’t fucking with me anymore he would lose whatever weird interest it was he seemed to have in me.
“You okay today?” my manager, Carl, asked me later on that night as we rolled silverware and did the rest of the side work that had to be done before close.
“Yeah,” I said, not really meaning it.
“You sure? Because you seem… distracted.”
Carl was an older guy with thin hair and a nice smile. He had always been super nice to me and the other girls who worked there. I felt bad for him sometimes because he had kind of gotten thrown into the way of life out here. He lived in a white suburb on the other side of town in a nice ranch style house with his three kids and wife. When the economy went under, he had lost his job and was desperate. Link must have seen something in him because before you knew it he was running the place. He had no idea what the deal was with anything. Don’t get me wrong the restaurant was definitely nice but it was still owned by a Motorcycle Club.
A Motorcycle club that I was pretty sure used it to ship in and out drugs.
“Yeah, just worrying about the kids, I guess.” It surprised me how easy the lie rolled off my tongue, but it wasn’t like I could tell him the truth.
“Well, I’m sure you will figure it out, dear. You always do.”
I shot him a smile and he returned the favor.
“Alright, speaking of kids,” he said, unbuttoning the top button of his dress shirt. “I’m going to get out of here for the night. You’re on tomorrow, right?” Then he laughed, placing his hand gently on his forehead. “What am I saying? You’re always on!”
I nodded. “You got that right.”
“Good, then I’ll see you in the morning. I’ll bring the coffee.”
I shot him a half smile. “Sounds good, goodnight, Carl.”
“Goodnight,” he called, walking toward the kitchen and out the side door.
It was true Carl was the manager but it was me who was mostly left alone to close at night. He always wanted to get home to kiss his kid's goodnight and I had worked here so long that I was a pro at all things by now. Besides, an extra hours pay was an extra hours pay; no way I was going to turn that down.
I finished the side work in the dining room and headed into the kitchen to make sure that everything was wiped down and cleaned when I heard it; the sound of the side door opening and closing.
For a second I thought it might be Link but it was too gentle to be him. Link had a certain sense of presence he brought with him when he walked, you could feel his presence even before you saw him. No, this was different. It was almost like whoever was in here with me was trying to walk softly, was trying to not make any noise.
My heart started to race.
I kneeled down and ducked behind one of the big metal shelves that lined the kitchen, tiptoeing gently to peek my head out from behind it. It was a man. He was tall, skinny, and dark skinned with worm-like dreads that almost covered his whole face. I could faintly make out a deep scar that ran across his right cheek.
Who the hell was he? And what was he doing here?
He looked around the kitchen for a second and then lifted his shirt up and pulled out a small black gun. He pulled the safety back, lett
ing me know he was ready to use it. I felt the tears start to spring to my eyes and I shoved my hand over my mouth, trying to keep any noise I made under control.
He looked up and I shifted out of sight just in time.
I didn’t know why or how but I could feel it somewhere deep down inside of me.
This guy was here to kill me.
I grabbed a knife off of one of the large wooden shelves in the back of me and crouched down on the floor. What I was going to do with it I had no idea but I had to have something. If I came face to face with him I would be dead. Gun beat knife without a question.
He was dressed all in black and suddenly I felt like I was in a movie and this was the scene where I was about to die. I glanced at the side door but he was blocking it, there would be no way of getting to it without having to run into him. I couldn’t run out the front door, it had already been locked for the night. Only a manager had a key to the front door.
The man looked around again and started to walk toward where I was hiding, moving fast but silently. Fuck. What the hell was I going to do? I felt his body getting closer and closer to me and when he turned the corner to the row of shelves I was kneeling behind I didn’t waste any time sticking the knife directly into his leg.
He gasped, reaching down and pulling the knife out of his leg with little ease. Blood started rushing all over the place. He looked down at me with anger in his eyes. “You stupid bitch.”
I turned around and started to run but even with a bad leg he grabbed me too easily, dragging me back and throwing me on the floor. I struggled under his weight, kicking and screaming as loud as I could. He shoved his hand over my mouth.
His eyes were pissed off and he spit in my face. His nasty drool slid across my eyes and down my cheeks. He grinned. “I was just going to shoot you but you had to be brave, didn’t you? Now, I’m not going to be as nice. Now I’m going to take my time.”
I bit his hand as hard as I could and he yanked it away, pissed off. Before he had a chance to recover I kneeled him between the legs and as soon as he took a little bit of weight off of me I grabbed the knife out of his hand and stabbed him in the chest as hard as I could and then I pulled the knife out of him and stabbed him again. Blood started gushing all over the place and onto me.
I pushed him off of me as he groaned and swore at me; calling me a stupid cunt. I grabbed the gun from where it had slipped on the floor in the scuffle and pointed it at him as he crawled around on the floor, gasping.
All I could see was red. Red all over the floor and shelves, red all over my hands and clothes, red all over him.
“Just… stay back.” I found myself somehow stuttering out.
I didn’t know why I was pointing the gun at him; he was clearly not going anywhere anytime soon. He could barely move let alone get up to chase after me. Oh, my god, was he going to die? He wasn’t going to die, was he? He couldn’t die; I had only stabbed him twice. Didn’t you have to stab someone like a dozen times to kill them?
The side door swung open and I turned toward whoever walked through it, pointing the gun at them. I felt the area around me start to get fuzzy and I could hear the slow moaning of the man on the floor stop. I found myself register somewhere in the back of my mind that he was dying.
Link looked at me and at the scene that was unfolding before him.
“Lacey,” he said slowly, his intense eyes staying calm in spite of everything crazy that was happening in front of him. “I need you to give me the gun.”
“I didn’t… I didn’t mean to. He was going to kill me…I don’t know what happened. I had to do it… I had to… I didn’t want to…”
“I believe you, I believe you,” Link took a few steps toward me, the gun still pointed at his head. “Lacey, I need you to give me the gun now.”
My hand started to shake as he walked closer to me and finally I lowered my arm, allowing him to take the pistol out of my hand. He took it and tossed it on the counter, moving toward me.
“Okay, okay,” he said, wrapping one of his perfect arms around my neck and lifting my head toward him. “I’m going to fix this but I’m going to need you to do exactly what I say. Can you do that for me?”
I looked up into eyes and found reassurance there.
I nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I can do that.”
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