She is smiling at him. Like she is enjoying his company. Like she has forgotten all about me, just like that. The thought is equally enraging and painful. Clearing my throat to get everyone’s attention to my arrival, several eyes flicker to me. My family and several members of the Mariano’s greet me happily. But I don’t pay any attention to them. My hard gaze is on Seraphina. I see the heavy emotion in her eyes from across the table, I see the dark circles under her eyes that are not normally there.
I can practically feel the pain seeping out of her. She is begging me to talk to her, to explain to her what has happened. For half of a second, I consider it. She is my best friend. She deserves an explanation. But then Aiden slides his arm around the top of her shoulders like he has every fucking right to. He shoots me a cocky smile as he greets me.
“Hello, I am Aiden. I don’t believe we have met.”
His words are polite, but the look in his eyes says it all. He knows who I am, and he damn well knows that I know who he is. My eyes narrow in on where he holds her, his fingers gently brushing against her exposed skin on her shoulder. His grin widens and his movements against her become more purposeful. It is like the fucking idiot wants me to shoot him dead in the middle of dinner.
Not wanting to let the prick get the satisfaction of a reaction, I keep my expression in check and plop down into an empty seat on the other side of the table. Signaling for Marisol to get me a scotch, I don’t make eye contact with anyone for the rest of the night. I fucking refuse to, because if I see Seraphina stare up at that fucking loser the way she used to look at me, I will take my steak knife to his motherfucking neck.
Blinking my eyes rapidly, hoping to wipe those annoying as fuck memories away, I focus on the road ahead of me. We are driving down the highway in some pretty heavy traffic. Guess everyone is on their way to work. I see a gap to my left and whip into the space before picking up speed. I notice that the car behind me does the same. After a mile or so traffic begins to thin out and I merge back over to the middle lane. The car behind me does the same.
Instantly, I am on alert as I discreetly look in my mirrors to see if I can determine the driver of the Chevy Tahoe, but the tint on their windows is too dark. Casually, I hit my blinker and merge to the right to take the upcoming exit. It leads to a rural town with a population of less than 300 people, so chances are almost no one will be taking this exit at this time in the morning.
Again, the Tahoe follows me. They keep a good enough distance to not come across as overly suspicious but close enough so that they wouldn’t lose sight of us.
“Merda,” I mutter under my breath as I begin driving down a winding road. There are huge trees on either side of the road and only an occasional house here and there. We are pretty much in the middle of nowhere with a tail and no possibility for backup. Not fucking good.
“What?” Seraphina asks as she looks over to me.
“We got a tail.”
“Really?” She asks as she stupidly turns around to look at the car.
“Don’t turn around! What the fuck is the matter with you?” I snarl.
Seraphina gives me a scowl as she crosses her arms over her chest and proceeds to pout like a toddler.
“You don’t have to be such a dick all the time, you know?”
“You don’t have to be so fucking dense either. If they are following us, we sure as hell don’t want them to know that we know it.”
I press down on the accelerator and bring us up to 60mph. The Tahoe keeps pace with us only further confirming that this isn’t some local. Reaching under my seat I grab the loaded gun and rest it into my lap just in case. I see a side road with a sign that says Larimer Rd and whip the wheel hard to take it.
Seraphina gasps and out of pure instinct, I reach over to stop her from moving too much.
“You okay?” I ask, not taking my eyes off of the rear-view mirror.
“Yeah, fine.”
Yet again, the fucker turns, barreling towards us at breakneck speed. I see another road that looks to take us back to the highway. I take the turn but this time the Tahoe comes up next to us as I hit the straight stretch.
“Shit. Get down!” I bark as the Tahoe comes parallel to Seraphina’s side.
She quickly unbuckles her seatbelt before climbing to the floor. Normally I would tear into her for unbuckling her seat belt. But this glass is most definitely not bulletproof, and I am about to light these motherfuckers up, so I guess I will let it slide.
Rolling down the passenger window, I look over to see the driver do the same. It is a white man in his early 30’s probably. He has a shaved head and a jagged scar across the side of his face. I hold up my gun to him at the same time he does to me.
I slam on my brakes to avoid his shot which zooms just in front of our windshield. Shots are being fired at us still as he begins to slow down as well. I fire off a few of my own but unfortunately all they do is inflict some body damage on the vehicle.
Fighting my better judgment, knowing that I shouldn’t take the distraction right now, I just can’t help but steal a glance at Seraphina. Her eyes are squeezed tightly shut with her hands over her ears. She looks like she is absolutely terrified, but she is doing her best to be brave and block it all out.
Knowing that this man wants to hurt her, touch her, maybe even kill her, a hardness settles into my chest, and I gain speed again. When I get far enough ahead, I begin to shoot at the Tahoe’s tires. The guy begins to swerve in an attempt to avoid my shots, too bad for him I happen to be a fantastic shot.
The rear drivers side tire makes a loud pop as the entire vehicle is ripped to the left, cutting in front of us and slamming directly into a large tree. The crunch that sounds from the impact could probably have been heard from over half a mile and since we passed by a few houses I am sure that it won’t take long before the cops are called. That just means I have to make this quick.
“Stay in the car,” I say as I unbuckle my seat belt after pulling the car to the side of the road.
“Where are you going?” Seraphina asks, alarm heavy in her voice.
