Total pages in book: 28
Estimated words: 24966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 83(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 125(@200wpm)___ 100(@250wpm)___ 83(@300wpm)
I pushed the menu toward her and ordered a burger and fries. She jotted it down on her pad, gave me a nod, and turned to put the order in. And the whole time, I watched her, my gaze tracking her every movement like the predator I was.
But this wasn’t like before. It wasn’t like when I stalked the next person I was going to kill.
This was… too much? It made me fucking uncomfortable, which wasn’t a feeling I experienced. This was a need that I didn’t know how to satisfy. And that terrified me, which was another emotion I’d never had before.
For the first time in my life, I had no idea what the hell was happening to me.
A man came in and sat at the counter a few spots down from me then called her over. I focused on the waitress again. I knew I had to know more about her. Who she was? How was she causing this sudden, visceral reaction in me?
I watched her from the corner of my eye as she worked behind the counter. She poured coffee for the newest customer, came out from behind it again to take care of her tables, and then I sensed her stop beside me. She took his order, and I really looked at her then. But it was the way he watched her that caught my attention.
His gaze was filthy, slimy, as he checked her out. He said something to her, but it was clear she couldn't hear his mumbled words when she leaned in closer.
He leaned toward her as well, saying something low enough that I couldn’t hear, but I saw the way the waitress’s shoulders tensed and the rest of her pulled in tight. Then it happened. His arm came around her hip, and he smacked her ass. I could see over her shoulder he wore a disgusting grin and said something crude that made her flinch and reel back.
And the waitress didn’t hesitate a moment longer. Her hand shot out, and the sharp crack of her slap reverberated through the diner as she connected with his cheek.
For a second, there was a heavy silence and tension that filled the bright, small interior, but then, as if people didn’t fucking care, everyone went back to what they were doing.
The man’s head had whipped to the side from the unexpected force, and he now rubbed his reddened cheek, his muttered curses reaching my ears.
My pulse quickened when I saw a familiar look in his eyes, one directed at the small waitress as she spun and rounded the counter. Male aggression, calculation, and dark need. Strangely enough, it took everything in me not to go up to him and snap his neck.
He’d just singled her out as his prey.
An icy calm settled over me. I already knew who my next victim would be. I’d follow him, wait until he was alone, and then I’d take care of him before he hurt her—which he eventually would if I didn’t stop him. I could smell the stench of his resolve as it reached my nose.
I’d carve both of his offending hands from his arms—not just the one he used to slap her ass with. It would be just like when I cut Brandon’s off an hour before. Only this time, I’d remove it fully, bones be damned. I’d wrap it up nicely, slap a bow on it, and give it to her. My little gift.
I noticed the cook, a larger man with a potbelly, came out from the kitchen, a greasy rag—once white but now oil-stained—thrown over his shoulder. He went up to the man, said something low and menacing, and then pointed at the front door.
The man was only a few stools away from me, so when he stood, I did, too, and I purposely stepped into his path. My shoulder brushed against his, and in that split second, my hand slipped into his coat pocket, my deft fingers finding his wallet with ease.
“Watch it,” he snapped, irritation flaring in his eyes… until he looked at me and took in my height and the breadth of my shoulders. He reeked of body odor and booze, but now I could also smell a note of “oh shit.”
Internally, I smirked at the way his anger fizzled as quickly as it originally sparked at our contact.
He muttered something under his breath before backing up and moving around me, heading for the door. I watched him until he left then tucked the wallet into my jacket and took my seat at the counter once more.
I was already planning my next kill.
The waitress glanced at me, and there was an emotion behind those blue depths that made me even more curious, one I couldn’t identify, even with all my years of studying human emotions so I could mimic them. She watched me like she knew something.