Misfit Traveler

by Olivia Marie

  “Sure.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  He talked almost the whole way to the 24-hour diner, and I let him. It was better than being in my own head. The words Viki threw out at me ran rapid inside my skull and the only thing shutting them down was the stranger talking next to me.

  “I didn’t catch your name,” he said pausing in the middle of a story.

  “Hazel.”

  “Beautiful. My name is Eric.”

  “Nice to meet you,” I said and held out my hand for him to take. He did, but instead of shaking it, he brought it to his lips and gave it a soft kiss that sent a chill down my spine. I would love to say that my heart leapt and my body begged for him some more, but the chill was more of a warning than a pleasurable quiver.

  “So,” he said as I took back my hand. “Have you lived here long?”

  “No. Just moved here. Second day.”

  “Oh, well this is a great town if you take the time to get to know it.”

  “Well. See. I haven’t decided how long I will stay yet. So far, it hasn’t been what I expected.”

  “That doesn’t sound good. It would be too bad if we lost you already. This place could use some life in it, and I have a feeling you could bring that.”

  Or death? I wasn’t exactly the one you came to when you wanted to feel all cheery. Need a body taken care of though, I was your girl. I thought maybe he would get it if I talked to him about it, but something felt off with him too and my guard was up. It could have been the fact I was just crushed by Viki and her loser boyfriend that I was on high alert, but I had to trust my gut. I would stay to have the coffee with him because leaving then would have looked odd and we were in public. Not much could happen inside a small diner without people seeing. As soon as I could get away from him I was gone.

  “I’m not one who stays in one spot for too long. I used to be, but things changed, and I guess I got used to moving around.”

  “That sounds like a story,” he said as he opened the door to the diner and let me walk in first.

  “It is, but it isn’t a good one. We can skip it.”

  “I get it. We all have our secrets.” When he winked at me after secrets, I frowned looking back at him. Something was so off with him, but I couldn’t place it. I knew he was trouble though and if I stuck around long enough, he would bring that trouble to me.

  “I guess.”

  “You don’t talk much, do you?”

  “Don’t have much to say. It’s been a long few days and I wish I could go home and sleep, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon either. Not positive yet, but I might have to move.”

  “Where are you staying now?”

  “A small building downtown.”

  “That’s vague,” he said and laughed.

  It was vague, but there was no way in hell I was telling him where I was staying. I didn’t need his kind of trouble following me anywhere. I wished he wouldn’t have looked so hot. It would have made it easier to want to keep my distance, but he was and as much as my body warned me about him, it also wanted him.

  “Hazel?”

  “Yeah?” I asked and realized I had zoned out.

  “Food too or just coffee?” he asked and that was when I noticed the woman standing by our table with the notepad in her hand.

  “Sorry. Just coffee, please. Creamer if you have it too.”

  “Sugar?” she asked and looked annoyed to have been bothered to work.

  “No, thank you.”

  “Got it. Coffee for you. Coffee, eggs, hash browns, and wheat toast for you.”

  “Perfect,” Eric said back.

  She rolled her eyes as she walked away and thought we wouldn’t see; I caught it though and instantly hated her. I would give her the tip today: don’t be a bitch. That might make her realize people saw the cunt written all over her face. If she loses tips, it might be enough for her to at least act like they are human. I doubted it, but I would try. It seemed like most of the people in this shithole town had attitudes. I did too so I got it, but I also tried to keep to myself. These fucks would try to engage you and then get pissed if you did something they didn’t like. I was over it and over them.

  “Chill,” he said and put his hand on mine.

  “What?” I asked and scrunched up my face.

  “You look like you are plotting someone’s murder. You are so much hotter when you smile. You should try it more.”

  “I never said I was cheery and friendly. Not sure why you thought I would be. I have had a shit two days and it doesn’t look like it will get any better. That and I have to face my dipshit neighbor eventually because she lives below me. That will go over well if she keeps bitching to me about her fucking boyfriend who is never coming back. Can’t even tell her that either, because she will want to know how I know and with as whipped as she is, she will be pissed at me. Cops will get involved and it will be a mess. Yep, I will definitely have to move now. Shit.”

  “Wow. You do talk.”

  “Sorry. Seems like everywhere I go, I can’t catch a break.”

  “Do you think you do this to yourself?”

  “No. People do it. I react to them and that is why I have to leave so often. If they would be decent, I could stay in one place for longer than a week.”

  “I think there is a lot more to you than what you let people see. Too bad you won’t give me that chance.”

  I looked up at him and tried to hide my disgust. I had a feeling I was doing about as good as our waitress though. I was starting to hate him and plot his death. I would have to sleep with him first though. He was too hot not to, but that would be where it ended with us.

  “I am done giving people chances. If I stay detached, I can’t get hurt.”

  “You can’t find happiness either. Sounds like a horrible trade off to me.”

  “You have known me for what? Twenty minutes? You don’t know anything about me. You know what? I think I need to go.”

  I stood to leave and before I got to the table behind me, his hand was wrapped tight around my arm. Squeezing it, I had no choice but to move closer or have him break it.

  “Ouch.”

  “Sit,” he said through gritted teeth while smiling. The room had a sudden chill to it, and I shuddered as I sat back down. He moved to the same side of the booth I was on and pushed me over to the wall blocking any chance I had at getting out.

  “Do I have your attention now?”

  “Yes,” I fired back as I plotted his death.

  “Good. Now you are going to listen to me. I know what you did this morning. I have been following you since you left the club with Brent last night.”

  Snapping my head to face him, I felt all the blood drain out as the room began to spin. My hands turned to wet ice and my throat dried up like the desert. There was no way he had followed me or knew about Brent and me. I paid attention and nobody was around us.

  “That’s right. I know,” he whispered in my ear. The hot air from his mouth hit me and tickled the inside of my ear, and I shuddered. It wasn’t only from that, but I knew Eric was more dangerous than I was.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  “We are going to finish up here and then you are going to go with me back to my place. Got it?”

  It wasn’t a question and I knew I wasn’t getting out of it. I had to figure out how I would be the one to make it out of this alive. He was good, sneaky, and had me where he wanted me. I hadn’t been on that side of things before and I didn’t like it.

  “Fine.”

  “Good girl.”

  His food and my coffee were dropped off at our table and he sat there and ate in silence. I drank three cups of coffee before he was done with his food and the second he was, he jumped up to pay the tab. He must have thought her attitude was shit too because he left a dollar tip on a twenty-dollar bill.

  “Let’s go,” he said and ushered me out.

  I thought back to Stella and Dreamer and wondered if that was how they felt when they knew th
ey had been caught. It was a horrible feeling to not know what was going to happen. At least with them, they knew jail was the outcome. Here, I wasn’t sure if it would be me or him that walked away from that shit. I knew I would fight as hard as I could to be the one that was still there later.

  “Here,” he said and pointed to a black four-door car I hadn’t seen before.

  It wasn’t random that he found me in the park. He had been following me, waiting for the right time to pounce. He had seen me with Viki and saw me kill Brent. I wondered what else he knew.

  “I have a question.”

  “What?” he asked. His tone was no longer cheery or friendly. He had venom in his voice and anger permanently glued on his once happy face. His left eye scowled down and his lips were flipped in a downward grimace.

  “How did you know Brent’s name?”

  He laughed a sinister laugh and my blood froze in my veins.

  “How can you not see the family resemblance?”

  “To Brent? You look nothing like him.”

  “No, bitch. To Viki.”

  “Viki? She is your sister? But then you hated how he treated her.”

  “I did, but that wasn’t your choice to make. I had plotted for years how I would kill him. You come in and in less than a night, you think you have all the answers and rob me of the satisfaction of feeling the life leave him.”

  “I don’t get it. You are pissed I killed him because that meant you couldn’t? Maybe you shouldn’t have been such a loser and waited years to do it.”

  Smack.

  My head flew back and after the smack of his hand flew across it, I slammed into the window. Pain shot all around my face and I tried to stay focused. If I had any hope of getting out of there alive, I would have to be smarter than him. He had the advantage when he caught me off guard, but I had the training of Stella to go off of. I watched her get out of shit worse than that many times. If she could do it, I could do it too.

  I reached down to find my purse but came up with nothing.

  “Looking for this?” he asked and held it up in the hand farthest from me. “I saw what you did to him; I wasn’t going to let you have a head start.”

  “If you saw, then you also saw I didn’t need my own stuff to fuck with him.”

  “Nice play on words. I did see you fuck with him and that part made me laugh.”

  He went through town, past my apartment where I saw Viki’s lights on, and closer to where I left Brent’s body. I didn’t mind the peace out there and thought it might give me a better chance, but I never went back to where I had killed. It never seemed like a good idea to revisit the crime scenes and I wasn’t looking forward to it then, either.

  He didn’t go there though. When he drove to the T in the road that would have taken us there, he veered to the left instead of going right. I watched the trees give way to a small clearing. A shed-like building was all I saw around us and I began to look around for any way out.

  “Ready to play?” he asked as he parked in front of the tiny one room shed.

  “I was born ready.”

  “Somehow, I don’t doubt that. You are the serial killer’s daughter after all.”

  “Step,” I threw at him. I wondered how much research he had done on me to come up with that. Nobody had made the connection before. I didn’t like the fact he had such a head start on me. I would have to use all my instincts to get out of that alive.

  “Whatever. Clearly she had enough influence on you. I have one question though,” he said and turned to face me. He left the lights in the car off and the dark felt even darker as it wedged between us.

  “What?”

  “Why not stick with the truck drivers? Wasn’t that like your family thing?”

  “That was hers, not mine. How dumb would I be if I did the same thing as her? They would catch on fast. What I am doing, still ridding the world of scum, isn’t their M.O. I stand a chance at not getting caught because I do things smarter.”

  “I know you believe that, but it wasn’t that hard for me to outsmart you, was it?”

  I hated that he was right. I had gotten sloppy on the last one and now I had to pay for it. I let him lead me to the shed where one of us would rest forever. Looking around, I realized there were more things in there I could use than I ever had before. I also realized I wasn’t the first he had brought up there.

  The table in the middle of the room was fitted with straps and he had a table next to it lined up with all kinds of tools. The vice grips, pliers, hammers, and screwdrivers would all come in great if I could get him pinned before he had me. He had almost everything thought out and I was clueless he even existed. If I wouldn’t have jumped into killing Brent so fast, maybe I would have been better prepared for the fallout after. I had to wonder how much of this was his sister’s doing and how much of it was his.

  She seemed clueless on where Brent was or what had happened to him. She was pissed at me because I didn’t validate her need for him, but it didn’t seem like she had a clue. She would have hated me even more and might have even beat her brother in killing me if she had. I knew she had a temper that rested below the surface buried by the weight of having to deal with his. If she had the chance even once to release her own, the world would be in trouble. There was a volcano in her that had laid dormant for too long.

  “I have a favor to ask you,” I started when he shoved me in and let go long enough to lock the door.

  “What? I guess you get one request before you die. That’s what they did for Stella, right? If the prison system grants bitches things, I should too.”

  “I guess? I don’t really know. I lost track of her after they took her away”

  “I’m sure it was. It’s so sad when families drift apart. What did you want?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “I want you to take me before you kill me. Let me have one more round of fun before you shove me in the ground.”

  “That is your last wish? To get laid?” He was doubled over holding his stomach. I waited for him to come up for air before I went on. His laugh was no longer nice to me but more like nails on a chalkboard. I wanted to reach down his throat and rip his vocal cords out with my bare hands.

  “Wouldn’t you want to if you knew you were going to die?”

  “I’m not sure? Maybe? Depends on who it was that was going to kill me. A big butch dude, I think I would pass. A beauty like you, sure. Why not?” he went on and bobbed his head side to side as he talked. I watched him struggle with the decision on letting me have my way or not and figured he had to be gay to not jump on the chance. I offered him a free lay and he had to think about it.

  Adding to the insult of catching me off guard, now I had to live with the fact he had to think about if he wanted to have sex with me or not. I knew it was an odd request, but I needed time to think and I knew guys couldn’t have both brains working at the same time. If I got Junior going, Eric would forget what he was there to do, and it would give me the upper hand. If I got off while doing it too, it would be a bonus, but I didn’t need to in order to pull that off.

  “Come on,” I said and took of my top. The way his eyes grew and he shifted his weight told me I was going to win that round. I removed my bra and watched as he took me in.

  “Maybe it isn’t such a bad request after all,” he said and moved closer to me, taking his shirt off too.

  It was cold in the cabin and I wished he would hurry and move closer to me. Instead, he took his time. He took his shoes and socks off before he made it to where I stood only feet away. Looking down I saw the bulge in his pants though and as much as I hated it, I was turned on by the whole situation. That was my advantage. I could have sex with him and plan his death before either of us came. He would be too distracted by the whole thing and before he knew what hit him, I would be the one in control.

  Standing in front of me, I started to undo his pants. He stood there, hands at his side and let me. When he was free, I let him do the same to me. I needed to
get him on the table and on the bottom for my plan to work. It wouldn’t be that hard after seeing how hard he was.

  “Nice,” I said stroking him and his ego. Slowly, I pushed him to the cold metal table and tried to get him to lay down.

  “Oh no. I am not going to be on the bottom,” he said and pushed back.

  “I think you want to be. Trust me. I can do magic with these hips,” I said and moved against him. When he pushed into me and moaned, I knew it was on.

  “No funny shit,” he barked at me as he climbed up.

  I got on top of him and straddled so I could take him all in. I hated the fact I would have to kill him because I thought we could have made a decent team. He was easy on the eyes and he felt amazing. I wasn’t sure if it was all him or the situation, but it didn’t take long for me to get off. As soon as I did, his focus was all on me and he didn’t mind when I started to tie him to the table.

  I sat on him and rocked a little longer until I felt him get close. With his hands tied tight to the sides, I jumped up and left him lying there with his hard on begging for more.

  “What the hell?” he screamed at me as he tried to move his hands and couldn’t. I bent down to find my clothes and started to put them on. That enraged him even more. “You’re a bitch and a tease. You can’t just leave me like this.”

  “I won’t. Don’t worry about that. I would never leave you stuck like this. How humiliating if someone walked in and found you naked and stuck to your murder table.”

  It was my turn to laugh at him and I did. He looked pathetic lying there in all his glory begging me to let him go. He came here to kill me, thinking he was so clever. It took a little female persuasion and I had the tables flipped on him in no time.

  Looking around the room, I picked out my weapons to use on him. I wasn’t going to let him get away with that so easy. He had played me and that pissed me off. If he was so worried about his sister, he shouldn’t have taken so long to fix it. My guess: he liked the power he had over her with being the one she went to when Brent became too much. I had taken that away from him and now he would be nothing to her.