Page 32 of Inferno

“Perfect.”

After we return our skates, Inferno links his fingers with mine again, and we make our way to his Harley. I’m grateful there’s no snow on the ground because riding would be dangerous. It’s cold as it is, but I stay warm cozied up to his back.

“So, what kind of pizz?—”

Inferno stops in his tracks and tugs me into his side. I glance up at him and see him staring at the ground. I follow his gaze and fear curls around me.

“Is that…”

“From your stalker?” he finishes for me, and I nod. “I don’t know, but probably.”

He drops my hand and moves to pick up the large box and set it on the seat of his bike. I stay a few feet behind him, afraid to look.

The sound of cardboard being ripped open fills my ears, and then I hear nothing but Inferno’s ire.

“What the fuck?” he snarls as he whirls around and whips his head from side to side presumably to take in our surroundings. “I swear to Odin, this fucker’s gonna get what’s coming to him.”

Odin?

I lower my gaze to see what he’s holding, and my insides quake when I spot the black rose with fiery, orange-tipped petals in one hand and a fire-extinguisher in the other.

Gasping, I struggle to catch my breath. Tears stream down my cheeks as I tip my head back and yell, “Leave me alone!”

Inferno drops the extinguisher and rose to haul me into his arms. I can hear him whispering to me but can’t make sense of his words.

“Everything okay here?”

I push away from Inferno’s chest and swipe at my cheeks before turning around. A security guard is darting his eyes from me to Inferno and back again.

“We’re fine,” Inferno says.

The guard looks down at the dropped items and then back at Inferno. He tips his head and narrows his eyes. “I know you,” he says to my date.

Inferno stiffens behind me. “I don’t think so.”

The guard stares at him for several moments, and then his eyes widen. “You’re Dean Haskins. I arrested you back in the day.”

“I think you’re mistaking me for my father.”

“Dean Haskins didn’t have kids as far as I know,” the guard says. “But… Didn’t you die in that fire? The morning I released you from jail for being a smart ass, you rushed into that school, but you died.”

“Like I said, you’re mistaken.”

I watch them both closely, listening to their words, and my anxiety ratchets up a thousand percent.

Maybe I wasn’t so crazy.

But that’s impossible. Dead people stay dead. Well, except for zombies, but those are real, so…

I’m losing my mind. I can literally feel it slipping away.

The world spins, and I sway against Inferno.

“Emmy?” he says, spinning me around to face him.

“What’s wrong with her?” I hear the guard ask, but before Inferno can reply, someone yells for the guard’s attention, and I hear his boots crunch over the gravel lot as he walks away.

My ally. The only other person who had the same thought as me when he saw Inferno. Don’t leave me.

---