Page 47 of Gunner

Finishing up with my first client of the day, I looked out the window and was surprised to see Haizley walking into The Coffee Shoppe. She was never out this early in the morning.

“Hey, Indie, can you cash Kevin out? I gotta run down the street real quick.”

I didn’t wait for her response. I shoved the door open and jogged down the street just as Haizley stepped back outside.

I grabbed her arm, stopping her from moving further away, and turned her to face me.

“Where the fuck were you last night?”

Her brown eyes widened as she stared at me without a word.

“Well, Haizley?”

“Well, what?” she asked.

“Where the fuck were you all night?”

“I was home.”

Leaning down, putting my face even with hers, and in a voice I had no intention of ever using with her, I snarled, “Don’t fucking lie to me.”

She took a step back and narrowed her eyes at me. “How dare you?”

“I know you weren’t fucking home. So, I will ask you again. Where the fuck were you?”

“How?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

Shit. Back peddling was not a skill I possessed. I didn’t mince shit when I talked to someone. Haizley wasn’t just someone though, and I needed to tread carefully.

“How what?”

“How do you know I wasn’t home?” she hissed back at me.

“Haizley—”

“Oh my God! You are following me, aren’t you?”

Stalling while I thought of a response, I looked down the street.

“If I were following you, I would know where you were last night.” It was always important to be the aggressor when using semantics. Otherwise, the person you were trying to confuse would catch on.

“You didn’t answer the question,” she reminded me. “You know what? I don’t care. I have somewhere I need to be.”

She turned her back on me, and I grabbed her arm again, reminding myself how fucking small she was.

“Take your hand off me,” she growled.

Ignoring her, I watched as she dropped the bag she was holding on the ground and took one of the coffee cups from the tray held in the hand of the arm I was holding.

“Where were you?”

Time moved so fast I wasn’t even sure how it all happened. But she twisted around and once again threw a drink at me. Thank fuck she was so fucking small because, like last time, it missed my face and hit me square in the chest.

“FUCK!”

I dropped her arm and pulled the shirt away from my skin. Haizley seized the opportunity, and she ducked down, grabbed the bag she dropped, and raced to her car.

“Goddammit!”

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