Chapter Thirty-Seven #2
Looking unsure, his gaze goes from me to the aisles.
“Fine.” He leans close, lowering his voice. “But if anything happens that makes you feel uncomfortable, and I mean anything, you scream your head off.”
“Will do. Promise.”
He hurries off and I move forward, putting my two items on the conveyor belt, then adding the rest of the items behind it.
“Cute baby.”
I look behind me, to where the voice came from. There’s a man there, one who wasn’t there a moment ago. He’s tall, lanky, and pale. His hair is greasy, and so is his face. His clothes are too big for him, stained and with holes.
“Thank you,” I say, pushing forward to put more distance between us. He steps closer.
“How old is it?”
I try not to act offended by that. I understand you can’t tell the sex of a baby, but for one: she’s in pink. And for two: knowing or not, you shouldn’t call a baby it.
“She is two months.” I put more items on the belt, looking at the woman in front of me, who seems like she has all the time in the world.
“No, ma’am,” the cashier says. “It’s forty. Four zero. Not fourteen.”
Good god.
“Oh, well, in that case give me that twenty back.”
“I just need another twenty.”
“No, no, no. Give it back,” she snaps, shaking her hand at him.
With a huff, he hands the money back to her.
“The change too, young man.”
“But it’s the same change. You gave me the twenty-eight cents. That didn’t change.”
“Hand me my money back,” she demands, all while the man behind me is breathing down my neck. It’s an awful stench; like he doesn’t brush his teeth.
Nausea rolls in my stomach, threatening to come up my throat. I feel the panic coming on, the memories of where I was and who I was with…
Where is Tommy?
Suddenly, I’m no longer worried about keeping this secret.
I just want out of here. I feel stuck, unable to go forward and certainly not able to go backward.
My heart starts to pound, and I look down at Dorothea who is sleeping, her little lips puckered.
God, she’s beautiful. It grounds me for a moment, until the man speaks again.
“So, are you here alone?”
“No,” I say quickly.
“You sure about that?” he asks, moving even closer. His rancid breath makes me want to vomit.
“Here is twenty,” the old woman says, handing the young cashier a bill. “And then another twenty.” He rolls his eyes, all patience gone. “And how much was the change?”
“Twenty-eight cents, ma’am,” he says with a huff.
“Oh yes, that’s right.”
“So, uh… is her dad around?”
Frowning, I turn to face him fully. Something in his eyes has me freezing. Panic sets in. Something about them is so familiar. Whether it be the anger that’s there, the evil, or just the shit brown color… but it has me sick.
“Yes, wonderful. Have a great day!” the cashier calls.
I turn to face forward and see the old woman hobbling away with her reusable bag on her arm. I shove the cart forward, pulling out my wallet from my purse with shaky hands.
“Can I please pay for the first two items separately?”
“Sure thing,” the kid says, sounding fed up with life.
“I asked you a question,” the guy behind me says, on top of me once again.
I ignore him, and the cashier seems oblivious to him too. Which is no help at all. Glancing around, I don’t see a single other person. When did this place turn into a ghost town?
“Eighteen forty-seven.”
I swipe my card and wait for it to pop up to put in the pin.
“Hello? I’m talking to you.”
Where is Tommy?
The machine beeps, needing my pin code. I put it in, but it comes up as declined. What?!
“Says you put in the wrong pin. Try again.”
Shit. I swipe again, my hand shaking.
“Lady, where is the kid’s father, hm?” he asks tauntingly.
My vision blurs on the sides, but I focus on the numbers, making sure I hit the correct ones this time. I need to get the hell out of here, but my hands are shaking so badly.
I don’t know who this man is. I don’t know what he wants. He could be a harmless person who has no manners, or he could be someone else. Someone from the IR, even if he doesn’t have patches or a cut. He could be anyone.
There could be more of them. Someone could have taken Tommy. They could be about to take me too. Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god. Please don’t let anyone hurt my baby. Please, god, please.
“Do you want the receipt?”
“N-no.” I shake my head, and move forward, needing to get out of here, but then I remember there is a ton more food on the belt that I have to wait for.
Shit!
“You really are a rude little bitch,” the guy says. The cashier is still ignoring him, in his own little world as he scans items and puts them in paper bags. How the hell are people oblivious to something like this?
The man moves closer to me, and I almost throw up. The fear coursing through me is like nothing I have ever felt before. I’m ready to run, ready to grab Dorothea and bolt.
“You better watch you back, you fucking slut. That baby doesn’t belong to you.” He shoves by me and walks out the front door.
“One pound of brown sugar.” Tommy’s voice startles me, and his brow furrows. “What’s wrong?” he asks in that firm tone of his, then looks up and around.
“Nothing,” I say quickly, picking up the bag at the end of the counter and putting it in the cart. My hands are still shaking.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Anastacia. Don’t lie to me.”
“Just… thought I saw someone. That’s all.”
He looks out the windows ahead of us, then scans the area slowly.
“Who? From the Iron Runners?”
I nod. It’s not a complete lie. That guy could have been with them.
Or not with them, since Grizz mentioned something about them splitting up.
I don’t know, and I can’t think clearly.
But he did threaten me. He said the baby isn’t mine.
Which means he knows something. But if I mention this to Grizz, he will lose his mind.
So I just have to keep it to myself. It was probably all in my head anyway—just me overreacting.
Tommy doesn’t move more than six inches from me, even as he pays and puts the bags of groceries into the cart. When we make it outside, he puts his arm around me and we quickly walk to the car. He gets me and Dorothea into the car before putting the groceries in the trunk. The ride home is a blur.