Page 121 of Bake the Town Red

Still no Ty.

Asshole.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Dahlia

The wind is blowing harder tonight, much harder than last week. Last night even.

I hear it howling outside.

I see it as well. People cling to their coats, their hair whipping around their heads. An empty cup a woman was holding magically flies out of her hand. It goesplonk, plonk, plonkon the sidewalk before she catches it, then tosses it in the nearest trash can.

Good woman.

Unlike Dallas, who should be here in an hour, when I close.

The woman who makes it her mission to ignore the city’s trash cans. The woman who’s been spitting her gum on the pavement outside my shop and tosses her receipts there too, then marches into my shop.

Expecting me to ignore the things she’s done.

Not cool.

Not.Cool.

Maybe loitering doesn’t deserve capital punishment. Maybe I rage-added her three months ago without thinking it through.

Maybe.

Who cares.

If Dallas wished to keep her life, she shouldn’t have fucked with my shop.

The shop is pretty empty, so until she’ll be here, I go ahead and tidy up the place. A wet cloth in my hand and Tyler’s tattoo on my breast, and I’m ready to go. I start with the old tiles behind the counter, smiling to myself.

Tonight, I’ll tell Tyler exactly what it is I’m doing here. I’m excited.

He might be less than thrilled about killing bad guys. He might dislike it so much that his mind blacks out sometimes.

I don’t.

Life forces it on me, and I don’t complain. I embrace my calling. In this shop, I’m in charge. In charge of people’s lives. Of my meltdowns. I’m the motherfucking queen here.

Always will be.

Once the back area sparkles, I push the swinging door and start on the display window.

A song plays in my head, and I hum the first line to “I Put a Spell On You”—the Annie Lennox sexy version.

A sense of awareness prickles across my skin.

Ding.

The smell. The presence. The vise grip this man has on me.

My bones feel him before my eyes see him.

I keep going, wiping as I sing the second line. Third, fourth and fifth.

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