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A brisk February wind smacked Anna in the face as they stepped out into the back alley, and she hugged her jacket more snuggly around herself. Below sea level, the San Fernando Valley never got much colder than fifty degrees at night, even in the heart of winter like it was now, but man could it get hot in the summer, especially when the humidity was high. Anna considered it a fair trade off. Never living anywhere else, she couldn’t imagine dealing with freezing temperatures that produced that foreign white stuff.

It was only a short trek to the small employee’s parking area. Tiffany got to her car first, having gotten a prime spot up front. Anna’s was farther down. A relic from the early nineties, her Pontiac Grand Am with its ugly greenish-brown paint job was hard to miss. Not that she cared what it looked like. She was just grateful to have something that got her from point A to point B—if sometimes somewhat grudgingly.

“See you Friday?” Tiffany asked, unlocking the door of her cute, red Fiat that her parents had helped her buy.

“If you’re working the late shift.”

“I am.”

That was good to know. Anna liked all of the servers at Red’s but Tiffany was by far the hardest worker and the only one she considered a true friend. Gail was a bit lazy and when they shared a shift Anna would end up having to do most of the work. Paul spent most of his time on the phone text-chatting with his girlfriend. Becca was gorgeous and knew it and sadly had the stereotypical snooty personality to match so working with her was not fun and made the time drag. And Hannah, who was the oldest, liked to mother them all and was far too nosy, prone to asking personal questions that Anna had to spend the shift dodging.

Reaching into her coat pocket, Anna pulled out her keys. “Then I’ll see you Friday.”

They waved goodbye, and she started for her car, feeling a tingle raise the hairs at the back of her neck. A nicer apartment building sat off in the distance and her eyes traveled over the half-wall that separated the alley from the complex’s greenbelt to the darkened buildings that spanned half a block. At such a late hour, only a few of the windows were lit. Scanning the area, she didn’t see any movement or any lurking shadows in the bushes, and the only sound she heard was Tiffany’s car as the engine started, but a chill ran down her spine, nonetheless. The alley was creepy so late at night.

Quickening her step, she made it to her car and unlocked it, pulling on the heavy door. It made a godawful squeaking sound as it opened, and she was hit with the scent of old leather and oil as she slid in. Slamming the door shut, she locked it and stuck her key in the ignition, her breath catching for the few dicey seconds it took for it to sputter to life. A sigh of relief left her as she sat and waited for it to warm up before slowly backing out. Still feeling that eerie tingle, her eyes were once more drawn to the apartment building as she drove past, and it didn’t leave until she turned onto the main road and it was out of view.

Late night traffic was practically nonexistent and Anna cruised the darkened streets only hitting an occasional red light, making it home in half the time it had taken her to drive to work that afternoon. Congestion was one of the drawbacks of living in the Valley. With everything being so spaced apart, walking anywhere was difficult, and the almost nonexistent public transportation didn’t help the situation, so there were almost as many cars on the roads as people who resided there. And forget about the freeways, with bumper-to-bumper traffic being found at all hours of the day and night, Anna avoided them at all costs.

Even with light traffic, it still took her twenty minutes to get home. She lived in the lower rent side of town. Not that any part of the Valley was cheap, but Van Nuys—her neck of the Valley—was cheap-er and all she could afford until she found a better job. She’d thought about moving away when she’d been fired from her last job. Hurt and humiliated, she’d wanted to flee someplace where no one knew her, but she never followed through. The problem was the Valley was home, and while she didn’t have a ton of relatives, they were all here. Her mom, her aunt, and even a few cousins. The prospect of moving away from her safety net to somewhere she knew not a soul was a scary one.

Well, all her family was here except for one. Her father. But she had no idea where he was at the current moment.

Anna tried to think back to the last time she’d spoken to her father. Had it actually been over three years now? He’d called to wish her a happy graduation, not even bothering to attend.

The first year after her parents’ divorce he’d been better about keeping in touch. Then he’d gotten remarried and Anna hadn’t heard from him for over a year. When that marriage had gone south, he’d made the effort to visit her once, but now on marriage number three—at least she thought it was still only three—and living God knew where, his radio silence had been deafening. Anna wasn’t going to lie, his abandonment hurt, but she’d come to realize his lack of communication was his problem, not hers. She’d made the effort to reach out. That he never followed through was on him. He knew how to get in touch with her. Though she might not always have minutes on her phone, her email never changed.

As one’s thoughts usually do whenconfined in a small space for too long, hers jumped about until they landed on the ninety-dollar tip that was currently burning a hole through her wallet. And, of course, that thought then led to Mr. M, the giver of said tip. Though she could think of a hundred uses for the money, she hadn’t lied to Tiffany, she felt funny keeping it and planned to return it the next time she saw him. She just hoped he didn’t do his disappearing act again before she could make that happen.

Anna wondered where he went during those absences. Speculating on that had her rethinking his occupation. Though she figured construction workers did need to travel from job site to job site and body builders would need to leave for competitions, the consistency and duration that he was gone didn’t seem to fit. Maybe he worked in the corporate world and had dealings overseas or was a long-haul trucker or airplane pilot. Hell, maybe he was a part of Doctors Without Borders or Greenpeace. The point was, it was all speculation and she really wouldn’t know anything unless she asked. And with the way he made her heart flutter and palms sweat, the likelihood of her getting the nerve to make that happen was just about nil.

Arriving home with her mind still on Mr. Mysterious and not her surroundings as it should’ve been, she power-walked through the underground parking garage and up the stairs that led to the forecourt of her apartment complex. She knew better. Not living in the best neighborhood and where gangs were known to hang out, it was always best to stay on guard. Thankfully her daydreaming didn’t get her into trouble and she slipped inside her ground-floor apartment without incident and quickly locked the door behind her.

No one greeted her. Not a shout of hello from a fellow roommate. No wagging tail. No purring feline. Hell, not even an expressionless stare from a goldfish. Plopping her bag down by the door and tossing her keys into it, she toed off her sneakers and padded into the kitchen, turning on lights as she went.

She’d thought about getting an animal once or twice but knew it would be cruel to keep one just to stave off the loneliness for the few hours she was home. So instead she had her plants. They overflowed the living area of her small one-bedroom apartment and she went straight to the sink to fill up a pitcher to water them.

She’d amassed a vast variety of easy-to-care-for plants that she’d managed to keep alive for the two years since moving out on her own when her mom had gotten remarried and things had gotten a bit awkward. John was a good guy and never once complained about Anna living with them, but the house was small and the walls thin… More didn’t need to be said.

A snake plant, marble queen pothos, a few ficus, two spider plants, and a table full of succulents each got a dousing of water before she took the pitcher back into the kitchen and grabbed a soda from the fridge. She cracked it open, taking a sip as she made her way down the hall to the bathroom. There, she filled the tub and stripped from her work clothes.

Eyes closed, she rested her head back, enjoying the heat from the water as it slowly seeped into her muscles, relaxing her. Her foot throbbed, but she ignored it. She refused to think about anything. Not her rent that was due and would be late in three days. Not the unreliability of her car that she knew wouldn’t last much longer. Not the events that led to the termination from her last job that still haunted her three months later. She took a deep breath and dunked her head under the water, hearing only the strange echo of the lapping water, willing her mind to empty. Funny how the harder she tried, the more impossible it became.

Frustrated, she shot back up, grabbing the soap, vigorously scrubbing herself clean, still feeling dirty even though she had no reason to. She’d done nothing wrong.

Drying off, she downed the last of her soda before brushing her teeth, then pulled on an oversized tee-shirt and climbed into bed. Grabbing the remote, she clicked on the TV, hitting the plus sign on the volume button to drown out her thoughts. She scrolled to a movie she’d seen a hundred times and closed her eyes, falling asleep to the sounds of John Wick kicking ass.

Chapter 2

“Not that I don’t love seeing you, but don’t you have anything better to do on a Saturday night?”

Anna was in her mother’s kitchen, chopping vegetables for a salad, while her mother stirred her homemade bolognese sauce over the stove and, apparently, decided to havea talk.

“Not really sure what’s better than your spaghetti and garlic bread, Mom.”

Rolling her eyes, her mom said, “I’m trying to be serious here.”

“So am I!”

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