Page 16 of No Mercy In Red

“I'll make it up to you,” I promised, raising my pinky finger. “Soon, I swear it.”

Lara eyed me suspiciously, hooking her pinky in mine. “Fine, but if you abandon me for your sweats and crime documentaries for much longer, I’m dragging you out by force.”

I laughed, “Deal.”

She had no idea that I was the person who should be in a crime documentary.

I had never been the kind of person to look forward to mornings, but today was different, because today it was finally Friday. I stepped into Melinda’s Café and was instantly greeted by the comforting scent of coffee, and the warm, familiar voice of Mel.

“Morning, honey,” she said, wiping down the counter. “The usual?”

I nodded, glancing around the café instinctively, and there he was, sitting in his usual seat, still reading that fucking book. My stomach flipped in a way that had nothing to do with nerves and everything to do with the fact that I was desperate to figure him out. Why was he watching me? Why was he here every time I was? And why the hell did I like it? I didn’t even realise I had been staring at him until Mel chuckled.

My eyes snapped back to her. “What?”

Mel leaned against he counter, smirking. “Connor.”

I blinked. “What?”

“The guy you’ve been not-so-subtly eying every day,” she teased, sliding the coffee across the counter. “His name is Connor. He’s a quiet one, but real polite. Had a few conversations with him.”

My fingers curled around my coffee cup, my heart racing.Finally. A name, a goddamn name to go off.

“Did he –?” I cleared my throat, forcing a calm casualness. “Did he say anything about me?”

Mel’s smirk widened to a downright grin. “Actually, yeah. He has asked about you once or twice.”

My pulse spiked, I knew it. I should’ve felt alarmed, my suspicions were slowly being confirmed, he was watching me. But I didn’t feel even an ounce of concern, only pure exhilaration, and slightly smug about the fact I was right.

“He noticed you looking at him,” she continued. “And well, I might’ve told him your name first, because I caught him looking at you before you even noticed him.”

That stopped me cold. Before I noticed him? He’d been watching me before I noticed?

I masked my thoughts with a casual sip of my coffee. “And?”

Mel shrugged. “He just asked general stuff. If you came here often, what you liked to drink. Didn’t seem like a creep about it, just… curious.”

I swallowed, stealing another glance at him. He looked unbothered, completely at ease. His eyes fixed on his book, as if he wasn’t sitting just a few feet away and driving me absolutely insane.

I turned back to Mel, keeping my expression unreadable, “Good to know.”

The rest of the day felt like slow torture. I went through the motions at work, filing away cases, half-listening to office gossip, ignoring the occasional texts from Lara asking what I was up to. My mind was already at Mitzie’s, already on Chris. On Connor. Even with a first name I couldn’t find him on social media, if Mel hadn’t mentioned him, I’d start believing he was a figment of my imagination. Would he show up? Would he follow me? Would he interfere? Fuck. What if he interfered? I wanted to see what he’d do, but he couldn’t cost me this kill, I’d been tracking Chris carefully, ensuring he would be exactly where I needed him to be. I wanted to push Connor to the edge, see how much longer he could hold this distance, but I didn’t want him stopping me from having Chris at my mercy.

By the time 3pm rolled around, I was out the door. I loved early finish Fridays. I went straight home, missing my stop at Melinda’s, took a shower, and slid into something a little different. A dark red dress, dark enough that under certain lighting, it looked black. It clung to mycurves, accentuating my ass and my breasts. A little flashier than what I usually wore, but this wasn’t just about catching Chris’s eye, this was about seeing how closely Connor was watching. I stared at myself in the mirror, swiping on the deep red lipstick, a colour I knew he had been paying attention to. I saw the way his eyes slid to the lipstick stains I left on my coffee cups, the way his eyes would linger on my lips just a little too long. My mind drifted, a warmth starting to coil in my belly at the thought of Connor, at the thought of him smudging my lipstick, seeing it smeared across his mouth, his neck. His co –.

I blinked, looking at my reflection in the mirror. What the fuck was wrong with me? I finished getting ready, ignoring the blush that had crept cross my cheeks.Wait… where’s my second lipstick?I always had two in the bathroom. I looked around the bathroom, opening drawers, cupboards. Nothing. What the fuck? Had Lara taken it the last time she came over?

I shot her a quick text:

‘Hey, just cleaning up my bathroom and noticed one of my lipsticks is missing. Did you take it you thieving little shit?’

I spritzed on a little perfume, ignoring that my panties weren’t entirely dry anymore after my unhinged, perverse thoughts of Connor. My phone buzzed, the screen lighting up with a response from Lara:

‘No, I did not, you cheeky bitch. And you’re cleaning your bathroom? What a fucking wild Friday night, grandma.’

Then where the fuck had it gone? I laughed at Lara’s text, putting my phone in my purse, sliding its strap onto my shoulder. A wild Friday night indeed, she had no idea.

Time to go play.

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