Page 3 of Vigilante
“Oh. How so?” My stomach flips as he holds my gaze. My hand stalls, drink forgotten.
“Tell me what your favorite thing to do around here is, and I’ll see if it’s worth sticking around for.”
A blush creeps up my neck.Is he flirting with me?A thrill shoots through my body as my mind scrambles on what to say. “My favorite thing?” I swallow hard, feeling a strong pull to this stranger.
“Yes,Bella. Tell me.” His tone is almost demanding, but my heart flutters when I hear the word, Bella. Flirting. Definitely flirting.
“Okay,” I smirk. “I’ll tell you if you pull down your mask so I can see your face.”
His dark eyebrow raises as he considers me.
“I promise not to give away your secret identity.” I joke.
His knuckles knock on the countertop. “Fuck it.” He says, hooking a finger around one of the loops holding the mask on.
It feels like it takes an eternity as the rest of his face is revealed to me.
Fuck, he’s hot.
A brilliant wide smile is plastered across his face. “What do you think,Bella? Is this good enough to hear about what you like?”
I lose all sense, too awestruck by the way this man is looking at me. Weak in the knees doesn’t even begin to cover it.
“We have customers waiting, Julia.” Ned’s grating voice scolds.
“Sorry,” I say, fumbling like an idiot for a lid to fit Max’s order. His hand wraps around mine, and it feels like time stops in this moment for a second. The noise of the coffee shop fades into the background as he stares down at me. His hand is on mine as we both clutch the cup.
“Have a good day, Julia.” The sound of him saying my name breaks the spell in one fell swoop as he covers up his face again with the mask, leaving me gaping. “Maybe you can tell me your secrets next time.” He winks, turning to go.
Next time, I think with a kernel of hope as I watch him walk out the door, taking a piece of me with him.
CHAPTER 2
Maximo
It wasa stupid idea on the night of my father’s funeral. I was drunk, mourning, and filled with all the unshed anger I’d been keeping locked up for the sake of my mother. She was a wreck, utterly inconsolable, and there was nothing I could do to even try and make her feel better. She had lost the only man she had ever loved, and no amount of words were going to make up for that.
Then... cue a very drunken and ridiculous conversation with my fucked-up, and mentally unstable cousin Rocco—and something that initially was just fleeting moments of internal hatred—became real. For the past 365 days, this is all I’ve been able to think of. I’ve eaten, slept, and breathed this and nothing else, and now everything comes down to this.
So why is it that I can’t seem to get the image of that stunning little blonde out of my head from a week ago? It’s the weirdest thing because I’ve had one goal for the past year, and nothing or no one has been given a chance to mess that up. My mind has been solely focused on planning something so insane that I never thought it possible to do.
Yet here I am, thinking about the girl who practically took my breath away when I saw her. The way her hips swayed whenshe moved about making my coffee, how her stunning sea-foam green eyes struck me fucking dead when she looked at me and smiled.
“What’s wrong with you?” My cousin’s voice and the moment his hand smacks against the steering wheel of the car bring me out of my daydream.
“Huh?”
“Huh?” He mimics me comedically. “I asked you the same question three fucking times, and you’ve been staring into space like this is a fucking rom-com and you’re having a montage moment.”
“You’re a fucking idiot.” I snort.
Shit, how long was I even out for?
“Anyway, what were you saying?”
Rocco sighs frustratedly. “Okay, so from what we already know, he leaves here…”
I nod along for a few minutes, listening to what he’s repeated to me many times before, and soon enough, my thoughts flow right back to her.
