Chapter 13 Eden
Chapter thirteen
Eden
"Even Me"
I woke up on the couch, half covered by the throw blanket I didn’t remember pulling over myself.
My neck ached and my foot had gone numb.
The TV was still on, some sitcom playing on a loop that felt offensive in how cheerful it was.
I sat up slowly, pushing the hair from my face and blinking against the weak morning light.
I groggily went to the window, peeking out of the curtain.
I scanned the roof across the road but didn’t see any sign of Halo.
I frowned. He said he’d be watching; maybe he had moved out of sight.
The disappointment I felt in the possibility of his absence surprised me.
Last night, I had gotten the wild idea to give him a little bit of a show, just to see how he would react.
I undressed with the light on, in full view of the window, knowing that he could be watching.
And he was. I wondered what he thought about it.
Did it surprise him? Did he like what he saw?
I felt so… safe with him out there. There was no logic to it; he was dangerous, and he had proven that. A contract killer: the kind of man who ends lives and feels nothing.
But that couldn’t be true, could it? Such a damaged soul had to have felt something in his past… enough pain that his heart had scarred his over.
“Get it together, Eden,” I muttered, face in my hands. “What is wrong with you?”
God. I was losing it.
I took a quick shower, washing away any remaining dirt from my wounds. I couldn’t help but think about the way he had gently blown cool breath on me when he thought he had burned me with the alcohol. There was something good in him, and I knew it.
I got dressed in a hurry, rushing out the door and down the stairs to the street below. I was going to be late. Late to open my own damn cafe.
“Well, it doesn’t open until you get there,” I whispered, riffling through my bag for my keys. I swear to God, if my head wasn’t attached…
I crossed the street, but several feet down, I was stopped in my tracks by what I saw.
A dark stain and smear on the sidewalk. I knew exactly what it was: blood. I had been looking at a similar stain on my way to work every day, where the man had been shot.
Dried, streaked and hidden in the cracks like someone had tried to wash it away before giving up.
My heart stuttered.
It hadn’t rained.
I looked up. The rooftop was still empty: no sign of him, no silhouette in the shadows.
I knew what that blood meant. Had someone really come for me already?
He’d killed them. For me. The nausea came fast and sharp, curling up from somewhere low in my gut.
I had to talk my way through the vomit, keeping from throwing up on the sidewalk right there.
People were dying because of me. I wanted to believe he had a plan – that there was some method to the madness – but what if there wasn’t? What if I was just a match thrown into gasoline?
I bent down as something sparkled on the sidewalk. It was a diamond-encrusted tooth. A human fucking tooth.
I squealed out loud. I didn’t mean to. I clutched my bag against my body and jogged down the street to put as much distance between myself and that crime scene as I could.
Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe…
I had to breathe, taking long inhales through my nose, followed by exhales past my lips.
I unlocked the cafe door with shaking hands, minutes later.
The familiar atmosphere immediately put me at ease.
Regret stretched out from behind the counter to greet me with a little trill.
This was my safe space. I did all of my opening routine, humming to myself as I fell into a comfortable rhythm again.
I wished that Jay was working today because I could talk to him about a movie, or a book, or anything to make it feel like a more normal day.
Customers started rolling in: regulars, new faces. I decided it would be smart to mention I had a vacation coming up and that the shop would be closed. I wasn’t sure how long I would have to leave town, but I wanted to be able to return to my business and resume normal life as quickly as possible.
As the end of the day approached, I set coffee and a muffin at Halo’s usual seat.
As though he had been watching me, two minutes later, he was strolling through the door.
He came in a little differently today. Instead of bee-lining it to his seat, he paused in the doorway and made eye contact with me.
I could have sworn his eyes dipped down my body for such a brief moment that I barely caught it.
Oh, there was the nausea again. I cleared my throat and spun around, cheeks heating with embarrassment as I dropped behind the counter in a crouch, like I was looking for something.
What did I expect, when I’d literally strip-teased him last night?
That was what I got for being a little risque.
I was being paranoid; maybe he hadn’t even seen.
It was hard to tell where he was looking. He could’ve been surveying the streets.
I grabbed a jar of something I didn’t need and stood up.
“There it is,” I said with fake triumph, setting it on the counter next to the identical jar I already had.
Halo was already seated, picking at the blueberry muffin on his plate. My eyes went to the window when I heard a car slow down, but it wasn’t the black car. I was relieved that it wasn’t here today.
“They’re not going to be back,” he said.
I turned to him, puzzled. “Who?”
“The two men who have been harassing you.”
Part of me wanted to know how he had killed them, how one of them had lost a tooth, where he had put the bodies, how he had done it without me hearing him…
how he’d had time to do all of that. I told myself I didn’t want to know.
It was hard for me to believe any of this was really happening. It felt dream-like, unreal.
“So… do I go out of town now?”
“Not yet.”
“I just need to prepare. I’ll have to book a room, and…”
“I’ll be taking care of all of that.”
“What?” I rounded the counter, collapsing on the seat in front of him. “You’re going to have to tell me more. You said I had to trust you, but I can’t do that if you’re just jerking me around without explaining what’s going on. You’ll have to trust me too.”
He studied me for a moment. I kind of hated when he did that, like he was trying to figure out why I was worth his time. He didn’t look at me like he liked me at all. In fact, I felt a little like an inconvenience.
“We’ll be moving around a bit at first. Once they catch on, they’ll be looking for us in full force. There are a few motels, safe houses. If we lay low, stay out of sight…”
“We? Wait a minute. What do you mean we?”
“I didn’t go through all the trouble of not killing you just to send you somewhere I can’t protect you.”
I was at a complete loss for words. This had to be a bad dream.
“So you killed those men?” I finally asked, swallowing back the stress and dread.
He nodded. “I did.”
My eyes searched his for some hint of regret. There was torture there – God was there ever. He was damaged goods, but he didn’t seem like a man troubled by his actions.
“You don’t feel bad about it?”
He leaned towards me, resting his forearms on the table, and for a moment I was afraid he was going to come across the table at me. His eyes were set on mine, intense and unmoving. “No. I liked it.”
Ugh, was I turned on or disgusted?
“Where are their bodies?” I asked, just to break the tension between us.
“Gone.”
“I didn’t see the car down there last night.”
“It was after you closed your curtain.” He relaxed back into his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. “A minute earlier and they would’ve gotten the show too.”
So he had seen.
My cheeks were flushed again; I could feel it.
I don’t know why I felt so embarrassed when I had done this on purpose.
Maybe it was because he said it so matter-of-factly, like he had not been impressed or interested.
I took a moment to do my own study of him, trying to detect any emotion at all, and there was just… nothing.
“What am I going to do with my cat?”
“What do you mean what are you going to do with it?” he asked, puzzled and annoyed at the same time.
“If I’m going to be gone, I can’t just leave him.”
“You’re going to need to figure it out. As soon as possible. When it’s time to go, it’s time to go.”
“How do I know…” I stopped. What good was asking? If he was going to lie to me, he was going to do it anyway. I wanted to trust him, but how could I?
“You don’t,” he answered. He knew where my mind was.
I didn’t understand why he would be doing all of this without an ulterior, malicious motive. I didn’t even know him, and he didn’t know me. This wasn’t just a bad day or a shot in the dark. He was killing people, and it was my fault.
“Here’s a burner phone. You don’t need to use it. Leave it on. I’ll call you if I need to call you.”
He slid an old phone across the table top.
“I can’t do this,” I whispered.
“This will all be over before you know it. All of the bad men will go away.”
I couldn’t help but feel like he was being condescending in the way he worded that, like my reactions to the entire situation were irrational. This was something normal people went through, were put through.
“Even you?”
Did I see a flicker of something in his eyes? Hurt? Surprise? I saw him take a hard swallow.
“Even me.”