She apparently knew the brush-off when she saw it, because she talked very little after that, he talked even less, and she eventually got up and left his booth.
Then the waitress was leaving. She said her goodbyes to the green cashier, and to another guy who had come out of the kitchen and was chatting up the cashier, and she even waved at Alex as she headed out the door. Alex smiled and waved back, inwardly wishing she would stay.
But she didn’t, and he didn’t even understand why he would want her to. She was nice, but that could only be because she wanted something from him. She could have seen that G-Wagon and figured he had a few dollars to spare. Or she was just nice. But that still didn’t mean he needed her hanging around.
He drank his sweet tea, as she called it, which wasn’t half bad, and watched as she got into a white Toyota. A Tercel, he noticed, as she pulled away. He didn’t even know they still made Tercels. But he noticed something else as he watched her leave. Something his trained eye told him was wrong. The guy in the car parked across the street followed her. The guy who had mob written all over him was following her. Maybe the waitress knew him. Maybe she didn’t. But he was definitely following her.
And for a reason Alex could not begin to explain, it bothered him.
It bothered him so mightily that he got up, tossed a fifty on the counter to take care of his tea and any tip, and headed out. Why the fuck, he wondered, was he bothering with shit that had nothing to do with him? He had enough to deal with all his own! But he felt compelled to act. And it wasn’t an ambivalent feeling that could go either way. It was a strong, undeniable call to action. An undeniable sense of duty.
But why would he feel a duty to some waitress he just met, he wondered, as he got into his SUV, and took off too.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Kari left the diner and began making her way home. She didn’t realize she was being followed until she started noticing that every turn she made, the car behind her turned too. If she slowed down, he seemed to slow down. If she sped up, so did he. It had been a practice of hers to always check whenever she was driving at night, but she was so tired she had forgotten to look initially. Now she was confronted with what could be a real situation.
All those previous times she thought somebody was following her turned out to be nothing more than various people going about their various business, and she felt paranoid and stupid afterwards. This time might be one of those times, too. But she’d rather be paranoid and stupid and safe, than mentally stable, dead, and sorry. She picked up speed.
“Bitch eyed me,” Scrub McGhee said out loud as he drove alone in the sportscar that was following behind Kari’s Toyota. “She eyed me!”
Not that it mattered. When the PI told him where he’d found her, in some backwoods town Scrub had never heard of, he got on a plane and came on down. He lucked out on his first try. He spotted her ass at that diner next to her office.
Kari picked up even more speed, and so did the car behind her. When that happened, it was confirmed. There was no doubt about it now. She was paranoid, alright. And there was somebody following her.
She couldn’t go home; Jordan was home. Nor could she go to anybody else’s home. But she could go to the police.
She reached into her purse, and grabbed her cellphone so that she could call 911. But just as she grabbed her phone, the car behind her sped up to her and bumped her Toyota with such velocity that it caused her body to slam forward, against the steering wheel, and to drop her cellphone onto the floor mat. Like a horror movie, it lodged beneath the passenger seat, and slid further under. Totally out of Kari’s reach. She couldn’t believe it!
The airbag didn’t deploy, either. Not because the hit wasn’t hard enough, but because the car was too old to have a working one.
And then the car behind her, which happened to be a newer and faster sportscar, rammed her again from behind. She flew against the steering wheel yet again.
But then, as she tried to speed away from her tormenter, she looked through her rearview and saw something incredible. A Mercedes Benz, one of those expensive, mail truck-looking SUVs, came tearing around the corner, and positioned itself behind the car that was ramming her. That sportscar might have been fast, but it wasn’t about to outrun an uber-expensive ride like that G-Wagon.
Was it the guy from the diner? That businessman? Was he there by happenstance, and was he, miraculously, there to help her?
Or, God forbid, she thought, was he working with the guy ramming her, and was there to administer the fatal blow? She had no idea, and she panicked. She began to speed as fast as she could, even as she could barely control the wheel!
They drove down side street after side street, quiet road after quiet road, until finally the G-Wagon made a move. It sped up, until it was nearly riding side-by-side with the sportscar, and then administered what Kari knew to be, from watching so many cop shows, a PIT maneuver. But who in his right mind would do a PIT maneuver with a two-hundred-thousand-dollar Mercedes? And especially when he wasn’t the one being tormented!
But before any maneuvers could be attempted, the sportscar, realizing what was about to go down, sped up as fast as he could and rammed as hard as he could into the back of Kari’s car, one last time, that caused her to lose control. She held onto the wheel as hard as she could, but the wheel started spinning and spinning until the car was off the road, speeding across a hilly blade of grass that almost took it airborne. But then, last second, she was able to regain control and swerve to avoid hitting a tree. A very big, chinaberry tree. She slammed on brakes, and the car, inexplicably, shut off.
It looked as though the sportscar wasn’t going to let her avoid a collision. It looked as though the sportscar was about to follow the Toyota off of the road and ram into the driver side door of Kari’s car as if to finish the job, or at least to get her undivided attention.
But the G-Wagon sped up again, and swerved into the sportscar’s side bumper to initiate the PIT, causing it to suddenly turn sideways, and then spin out of control all its own. The sportscar was spinning and spinning, and looked as if it would crash too. But then the driver was able to course-correct somehow, and take off.
Alex was behind the wheel of the G-Wagon, and would have taken off behind the sportscar, but he thought about the waitress. He had to make sure she was okay!
He pulled over to the side of the road, grabbed his loaded gun from out of a side compartment, and got out of the SUV. He hurried over to Kari, looking to make sure the sportscar wasn’t trying to make a comeback, and ran across the grassy knoll to her aide.
The car door flew open, and Kari was inside. “I’m okay,” she said as she got out of the vehicle. Then she looked at the man. It was the same guy from the diner. It was him! “What about you?” she asked. “Are you okay?”
“I am, yes,” Alex said, but he was still looking Kari over, as if he wanted to make sure she was fine for himself.
“Thank you so much,” Kari said, with heartfelt gratitude in her voice. A man who would wreck his expensive car for her, had to be a good man. “I really appreciate it. I really do.” Then she did something that was so out of the ordinary in Alex’s world that it, at first, shocked him: she gave him a little hug.
It was quick, and she didn’t wait to be hugged back, especially since he didn’t move to hug her at all, but she couldn’t help herself. It could have been a horrible outcome for her had it not been for this kind stranger on the scene. She was certain of that. But how did he know to come?
“I went down a lot of streets that led to no particular place,” Kari said. “Because I knew I was being followed. How did you end up on the same streets too?”
“I saw the gentleman follow you when you left the diner,” Alex said.
“So you just came to help?”
“To make sure all was well, yes,” Alex said.
That was foreign to Kari. Nobody usually helped her. And especially not at any sort of risk to themselves. “Thanks,” she said.
/> “Who was he?” Alex asked. “Do you know him?”
“I didn’t see him. I was so busy trying to hold onto that steering wheel, and get away, that I wasn’t even trying to see him.”
Alex nodded. He wanted to ask if it could be her boyfriend, or some jealous ex, but that was not his business. “Let’s get you out of here,” he said, looking around. “Before he decides to return.”
“Yes, let’s,” Kari responded, her eyebrows raised, and got back into her car.
“Will it crank?” Alex asked. He could only see damage on the back of her car. It should not have affected under the hood, unless the contact, and subsequent off-road driving, jolted something.
Kari turned the ignition. It cranked. “Yes,” she said. “Thank God.”
“Are you able to drive yourself?”
“I am.”
“Sure?”
“Positive.”
“Okay. I’ll follow you home.”
Normally, Kari would tell him that he didn’t have to do that, and that she could make it on her own. Especially since he was still a stranger to her. But not this time. “Thanks,” she said.
She closed the door, as Alex made his way back to his SUV. When she drove back onto the street, and noticed that Alex’s SUV was badly wrecked on the side, her heart dropped. It would cost her a fortune to repair a vehicle like that, but she knew it was her responsibility. That damage happened because he helped her. She had to make it right.
And as he followed her along quiet street after quiet street until they made their way onto her street, she felt excited too. Did this man find her interesting, the way she found him, or would he have been this kind to anyone? If past was prologue, and it usually was in Kari’s life, she would say the latter. It wasn’t her. Why would it be? There was nothing so special about her that it would make a man go out of his way for her. Especially a man with everything going for him. It was just him, she decided, and decided to curb her enthusiasm. He was just a good guy.
Alex watched the waitress as she drove her Tercel through the quiet streets of Apple Valley. He could still see that gratitude in her pretty eyes, and he could still feel her touch when she hugged him. He couldn’t understand why he still felt it. Women were touching him, hugging him, fucking him all the time. What made her touch so different?
But it was different. Damn was it different! He felt it to the roots of his hair when she touched him. It was as if there was something so familiar about her that it staggered him, yet there was nothing familiar about her at all. He didn’t know this woman. She wasn’t even his type. But he felt as if he knew her like he knew himself. Which was crazy in the extreme. So crazy that he dismissed it entirely. It was just a fluke, he decided, and nothing more.
Every street they drove down was so quiet and deserted that it seemed as if the entire town had shut down and gone to bed already. And they probably had, Alex thought, as he followed Kari and kept an eye out for anybody following them. There was nothing else to do in this sleepy town. His hotel and casino were going to change all of that.
When they made it to the small, frame-styled house on a street of other small, frame-styled houses, Alex parked his G-Wagon behind Kari’s Toyota. He got out and helped her out. She looked at the back of her car, where the bumper was smashed, as he walked her to her front door.
When she pulled out her key, he took it from her and unlocked her door. They were standing so close that Kari could smell his fresh cologne, a sweet smell that seemed to permeate his very pores. And he was so big and imposing beside her. It almost felt overwhelming. But why should she be overwhelmed by him? He was just a good guy helping a sister out. End of story. Get a grip, Kari!
After unlocking her door, Alex handed back the key.
“Thanks again,” she said to him.
“You’re welcomed,” he replied. “Pay attention when you leave the house tomorrow morning, and lock your doors tonight.”
“I will. And please give me the estimate for the repairs to your truck. You can drop them by my office, or Lucinda’s diner, which is next door to my office. I’ll be sure to take care of it.” Said nobody ever to Alex Drakos! Was this woman for real, he wondered?
“Thanks for the offer,” he said, “but I can take care of it.”
Kari was surprised by his response. “But you helped me. It’s my responsibility.”
“I’ve got it. But thanks.”
Kari knew she should argue more forcefully. It was truly on her. But he said no. And since she really couldn’t afford it anyway, she had to let it go.
“But lock up when I leave,” Alex said.
“I will.”
“Okay then.” Alex said this as if he didn’t want to leave. He stared into her eyes. They were so big and startling. So brown. “I will see you whenever I see you,” he said.
Kari smiled. “Likewise,” she said, and went inside her home.
Alex walked back to his G-Wagon, staring at both ends of the street as he did, and then got inside. He pressed buttons on the monitor inside his car. The tag number to the errant sportscar came up, as his technology had taken a picture of the tag. It was a rental car. He picked up his car phone, and called Jim Hines, his chief investigator. “I have a small job for you, Jim,” he said.
Inside the house, Kari locked the door as soon as it closed, and then leaned against it. She didn’t know who was behind that car chase tonight, but it definitely got her attention. The only person she could think would pull such a stunt would be Vito. But he wasn’t going to be released from prison until next week. It couldn’t be Vito. But it certainly could have been one of the members of the Pataki crime family. It was their style to scare you into submission whenever they wanted you to do something for them. It just made no sense that they would bother her now, after all these years. Unless Vito was telling them to. Unless Vito still believed that utter nonsense that she belonged to him!
She could only hope that the drama called Vito “Money” Visconni was not going to be a show coming anywhere near her, anytime soon.
CHAPTER NINE
The next morning, the Toyota Tercel waited in line at the one and only drop-off point at the very private, very expensive Arapaho Middle School, so that Kari, like all the other parents waiting, could drop off her son. She was also strumming the steering wheel in anxiousness.
Jordan, who sat patiently on the passenger seat, looked at her. She told him that she was in an accident last night, although she wouldn’t tell him the details, and that was why the car was wrecked. But it still worried him. “What is it, Ma?” he asked her.
It was a lot of things. The slow progression of traffic. The fact that she needed to get to the office. Vito’s pending release, and what happened last night. “I’m okay,” she said. “I just really don’t want to be late today,” she added.
Kari began moving her bang around as she looked at herself through her rearview mirror. Only she wasn’t looking at herself. She was looking around, as she had done earlier, to make sure nobody was following her again.
Then suddenly Jordan yelled: “See Ma, see!”
Kari nearly jumped out of her skin. “See what?” she asked, looking around.
Jordan was pointing at a kid who had just gotten out of his mother’s BMW at the drop-off point, and Kari looked where he was pointing. “What about him?” she asked.
“Those are the new Jordan’s. That kid’s wearing the new Jordan’s, Ma!”
Kari rolled her eyes. “Boy, you scared the mess out of me!”
“But that’s what the cool kids wear! Whereas I, on the other hand, wear PayLess. And not just any pair of PayLess shoes, mind you. Oh, no! I’m wearing the BOGO addition: buy one for son, get one for mom, all for nineteen-ninety-nine. Like an informercial!”
Kari smiled. “Whatever boy.”
“What I’m wearing is what the seriously uncool kids wear,” Jordan added.
Kari knew her son was nowhere near seriously uncool. He was great looking for one thing, and
super-smart for another thing. But he was considered to be in the geek rather than the jock wing of the school. But that, to Kari, was exactly where she wanted him to be. Jocks, like Vito, had given her nothing but heartache. “It’s a recession, J. You know that. When the economy picks up, so will my buying power.”
“You said that before the recession hit. You said that ever since we’ve been in this little sleepy town. You don’t understand.”
Kari looked at her son. “I don’t understand? What don’t I understand?”
“They pick on me, Ma.”
Kari’s heart dropped. “Who pick on you?”
“The kids around here. They say we’re poor. They say you used to be a marketing consultant, but now you’re nothing but a maid.”
Kari knew the transition would be hard for her son. It had been hard for her! But what she would not abide was snobbishness. “I’m earning a living, Jordan,” she said. “A decent, honest living.”
“I try to tell them you’re no maid. I try to tell them you own the cleaning company. But they don’t want to hear that.”
Kari frowned. “Don’t you dare make excuses for my profession. If being a maid isn’t good enough for them, then fuck’em! I mean that! You don’t have to tell them I own the company, like that makes it better.”
Jordan looked at his mother. She seemed genuinely hurt that he would be embarrassed by her profession.
“Being a maid isn’t something wrong,” she continued to say. “I hire a lot of hardworking women, mostly single women, just trying to make an honest living. If their snotty asses look down on people like us, then you don’t want to have them as friends anyway. I mean that, Jordan. Don’t you ever look down on anybody trying to make an honest living in this world just because they have a title the world says ain’t shit. You don’t know their story. You don’t know how far they had to come to get to where they are.”
Jordan looked his sad eyes at his mother. “I’m sorry, Ma.”
“Look where we came from,” Kari continued. “Would you prefer to still be in that hellishness we got away from? At least we can sleep at night.”
Alex Drakos: His Forbidden Love Page 4
