Tongue (Ruthless Kings MC #8) - K.L. Savage Page 0,12
bikers made me all jumpy.
I let out a deep breath once I walk through the door, then sag my back against it. I’m sweating. I need to take this cardigan off. I have ten minutes before the store opens, and I’m too flustered to focus.
Work.
Coffee.
Books.
“Right. You’re okay.” I blow out a raspberry, vibrating my lips as I try to relax.
“Hey, where’s mine?” Andrew asks, and I can hear the pout in his voice.
“Sorry, I … uh … forgot. You know me.”
“Yeah, and you don’t forget. What happened?” He crosses his arms over his chest, and I turn around to get a look at the coffee cart again. The bikers are gone.
“I ran into a few people that made me nervous, that’s all.” I take a gulp of air and lean my forehead against the cold glass of the door.
“That’s all? Where are they?” He moves to get around me, grabs my shoulders, and pushes me against the wall. He opens the door and runs outside, then stops on the sidewalk, looking left and right. I can’t help creeping forward to peek around him and look for them too.
He’s a good man. A bit older than me, but that doesn’t matter. I wish I were attracted to him. He’s smart, we enjoy the same things, and he is good looking, but he is too polished and perfect. Nothing is ever out of place, and I feel like I’m a constant wreck.
“No one is out here. Are you okay?” His hands fall to my shoulders again and squeezes. “Maybe you should go home. Get some rest. You look pale.” Andrew brushes a piece of hair out of my eye, and a thud smacks against the door.
“What the fuck?” Andrew tilts his head and that’s when I see a long knife, the metal gleaming against the sun.
“Oh my god! Are you okay?” I can’t believe that just happened. That was so close to his face.
He pushes me away, and another knife lands in the door with another hard knock.
I scream as Andrew tackles me to the ground, pushing me inside the store. My head hits the floor causing my ears to ring, but other than that, I’m okay. Andrew cups my face and whispers harshly, “Stay back, Daphne. Stay away from the door. I’m going to go call 911.” He kicks the door shut from where we’re laying, and he pushes himself to his feet. He locks the door, then grabs a chair and pushes it under the knob. “No wonder you hurried back here. What if that would have hit you? Oh my God, you could have been killed, Daphne.”
Yeah, but it wasn’t my head the knife landed by.
I don’t think I was the target. But do I know that for sure? No.
I creep toward the bay windows and sit on the bench and stare outside, trying to find the source of where the knives were coming from. The familiar feeling of someone watching me takes over again, and something moves across the street in the alley between the candy store and the laundry shop. The alley is dark. I can’t see anything, but I look straight ahead.
I feel the moment we lock eyes because my breath gets taken away, and my heart stutters. I get to my knees, the cushions providing support against my legs, and lay my hands against the window.
Someone is there.
The shadow moves and when he steps forward, the light glistens off his dark hair, but I can’t see his face.
“What are you doing?” Andrew yanks me from the window and drags me between the bookshelves until I’m behind the front desk, safe.
Is it odd that I felt safer locked in a stranger’s eyes than I do right now?
I’m going to kill him.
I don’t like that guy being all over Daphne like that. I intentionally missed his head. I didn’t want to scare Daphne, but I wanted to scare him.
She’s mine.
I don’t know how I can make her mine. I’ve never been interested in a woman before, so I don’t know what goes into convincing a woman to date. No, not date. I don’t want to date.
I want to be submerged, and I’m already obsessed.
And when I set my eyes on a target, I never change direction. I hunt until I get what I came for. The problem with Daphne is I’m not sure what I’m hunting for. I don’t want to hurt her. I want… I want…