Page 85 of Fire of the Fox

Blake.

Chapter Thirty-Six

BLAKE LOOKED AROUND us frantically.

“What are you doing here?” he whispered, growing a sickly shade of white.

Instinctively, I backed up a step. “I’m not here to fight with you. I didn’t even know you worked here.”

Our last encounter resurfaced in my mind, and I realized I’d made a grave mistake that day. After Allen and his friends tried to finish what they’d started, I’d meant to call the officer who was handling the case to give him an updated description. That was the same day I’d discovered Fae and the truth about Rune and the others.

I’d been so focused and overwhelmed with that discovery, it had completely slipped my mind to call the officer back. Then things with Jonah escalated, and it seemed like reporting Allen and the others took the back burner. Now here I was, staring down one of my assailants who worked here.

Blake approached me, so I quickly stepped back again. I couldn’t go far with the shelves behind me, so I pressed as far as I could into them, watching him closely. Fear and guilt seemed to cloud his eyes. He glanced over his shoulder again, crossing his arms.

When he looked back at me, he asked, “Is your boyfriend with you again? I don’t want any issues. I actually need this job.”

I shook my head. “No. It’s just me. Although, I should tell your employer what you’ve done. Do you know how terrible of a person you are?”

He recoiled as if I’d physically hit him, and his eyes fell to his sneakers. “Don’t tell me what kind of person I am. You don’t know me.”

“I know enough. You’re a coward who watches as people get attacked, right?”

He quickly turned to look around the store. No one was paying us any mind, but then again, there was only one other person in here—a young girl, who was engrossed in browsing DVDs on the other side of the room.

He whipped his head back up to meet my eyes and pleaded, “Please, keep your voice down.”

My eyes shot daggers his way, and I noticed him staring hard at my face. As I was about to tell him off, he asked, “What happened to you? You’re pretty beat up.”

I fumed at his question. He really had the audacity to ask about my injuries when he’d watched his friend threaten me with a knife? I fought to stay calm, quickly turning around to find a movie so I could get out of here. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

He walked around me, standing to my left. I glanced at him as he studied me. He nodded at the shelf of movies. “What are you looking for?”

“A horror movie, obviously. I don’t watch them, so I don’t know what to get.”

He nodded and pulled one off of the shelf. “If you want one with a good plot line and made by a pretty good crew, I would go with this one.”

I glanced at him and slowly reached out to take the movie from his hands. I didn’t like him being so close to me. This was Blake after all. I felt pretty sure he wouldn’t do anything right now because he wanted this job, but that didn’t do much to ease my wariness.

I knew I couldn’t trust him.

At least not as a person, but for now, I’d have to trust in his choice of movie. I wanted out of there, so I accepted the suggestion.

“Thank you,” I mumbled and turned to walk away.

He followed behind me, which made my heart rate spike. Why the hell was he following me?

I speed-walked to the counter to pay for the DVD. I wanted out of here and away from him as quickly as possible, but I realized too late that no one was behind the counter. I felt my stomach twist as he came up behind me, but instead of stopping, he went around me and behind the cash register. He held out his hand to me. I looked at it.

He sighed and said, “The movie?”

“Oh,” I said, handing him the DVD.

Relief and a bit of stupidity hit me as he took the movie from my hand.

“$21.84,” he said.

I noticed his eyes scanning the marks on my face again, and it made me want to hide. My cuts and bruises were vivid, and the attention was making me self-conscious. It didn’t help that the onlooker was Blake of all people. He didn’t even bother telling the girl who’d been browsing thank you as she exited the store, leaving the two of us alone.

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