I’d like to chase her on my bike, hunt her down, play a cat and mouse game, just like the one my other female love, fire, does with me. It’ll be fun to see if human women behave the same way. Or would she cave much faster and easier than the flames that love to taunt and play?
It's different, thinking of a woman while I ride, and definitely not anything I would have imagined. Before I know it, I’m pulling up outside her apartment building, checking the address on the front stoop with the one on the license that has magically ended up in my gloved hand again.
This is stupid asshole.
The building is an old brick duplex, with two hunter green painted doors at the top of the front stoop. Flowers in large pots flank them, making it a welcoming entrance, and as I sit on my bike across the street looking at where she lives, I wonder if there will ever be a time where I walk through those doors as an invited guest.
Yeah right, you? Invited into a woman’s house? Are you delusional?
“Yes. Yes I am.” I murmur to myself, flipping open my visor to get a better view in the windows on the first floor, hoping for just a peek of the witness to my crimes that has stolen my attentions.
I jump a little, making the bike rock on its kickstand when the doors open, and she steps outside, her hair instantly blowing in her face from the early summer breeze. Her dainty hand comes up to pull the strands from her eyes and mouth, and I’m transfixed on her movements. She’s unaware of me watching her, and the fear that I saw in her eyes the last time I encountered her isn’t there. She looks just like the vixen in the photo still clutched in my grasp, the edges of it digging in the leather of my gloves as I squeeze it hard.
She’s beautiful under the midday sun in skin tight capri leggings that hug every inch of her slender legs, and an oversized t-shirt that billows around her, hiding her lithe body yet accentuating her chest at the same time. I could sit and watch her all day, especially when she looks across the street and her eyes land on mine. Those cat-like black eyes that look like deep pools of ink, which are fathomless and eternal, are pointed right at me.
Do you see me baby? Or are you looking right through me?
The sounds of the busy avenue between us disappear as her gaze lingers, and her head tilts like a curious feline that’s looking at a toy. She’s gazing through the opening on my visor, her eyes narrowing and pinching together at the brow.
“You do see me.” I mouth silently under my helmet, the movement of my lips hidden from her view. “Do you see something you recognize?”
The chirping of the birds in the trees above my head have faded away, and the noises of honking horns and tires on pavement cease to exist as we stare at each other, stopping time in its tracks. I feel the earth pause, the rotation on its axis dead, the circling around the sun non-existent. The only thing moving is her eyes as they scan me up and down.
I don’t see the cars at they pass between us, and I don’t hear anything except the beating of my own heart in my ears. It’s pumping as hard as it does when I’m jacked up on pre-workout and doing skull crushers in the gym, thundering in my chest hard enough I need to rub my fist across my sternum to alleviate the awkward sensation.
The horn from the red sedan that pulls up in front of her blasts me from my trance, and I suck in a much-needed breath as she steps off the concrete stairs at her door and goes to the passenger door.
“Who do we have here?” I ask myself, peering into the driver’s window.
A man, mid-twenties with sandy blonde hair that loos like some surfer dude way out of place sits behind the wheel, tapping on it impatiently as she opens the door and slides in. When he leans across, grabs her chin, and kisses her roughly, a low growl rumbles from my chest, stopping the beating of my heart for its duration.
“Fuck no.” I spit out, my spittle hitting the inside of my helmet, bouncing back in my face, making me scrunch up my face in disgust. “Oh, fuck no.”
Chapter
Five
Dusk falls as I tail them, their drive going north out of the city, up the northeast extension through the Lehigh tunnel and up into the mountains. Where they’re headed I have no clue, but I’m not losing them. I need to see what they are, who he is to her, and how involved it is. If I have to cleanse him and remove him from my way, I will.
You’re losing your cool over this woman.
“I know.” I say shaking my head as I split between two big rigs on the highway, reaching my hands out to caress their trailers as I pass through them.
What began as a curiosity of the woman who witnessed me burn some trash, to make sure she didn’t see anything that could ID me, has turned into some kind of overnight infatuation that has me out of character, leaving my comfort zone, and stalking her and her date. I’m fucked up, I know this already, but fuck, I might just be stupid too.
The sedan moves to the right lane, and I follow suit a few car lengths behind them, making sure to pull in behind another vehicle to hide the fact I’m following their every movement. The exit coming up leaves me with no choice but to fall in after them without a barrier though, but that’s okay, I’m faster than them, and can weave in and out of other cars to remain incognito if needed. The exit ramp winds to the right, then merges with a dark tree lined country road with no street lights and no traffic. It’s eerily quiet, the only sound being the engine between my legs and the music in my helmet.
“Where are we going? Hmmm?” I ask no one, turning down the chipper, white girl music, as if it’s going to help with my concentration on riding.
Night has fallen enough so that now the only light is from the headlights of the car, and my bike, making me have to stay far behind them. The car slows down, its brake lights illuminating the wooded area on the side of the road as they pull off and turn onto a dirt road barely visible unless you knew it was there.
“Where the fuck are we going?” I ask in my helmet again, more concerned than curious.
There’s nothing out here, no houses, no other people, and he’s taking her further into seclusion. Warning bells ring in my head. This is the type of area where I would hide a body.
“Are you being followed by a killer, while one has you in his grasp, baby? How unsafe for you, and him. If he touches one hair on your head, he’ll burn.”
The dirt road crunches under my tires as I click off my headlamps and follow them, turning my music off completely. The car slows more, pulling into the brush on the side of the abandoned lane, and I stop the bike a few meters back, turning it off, making my presence silent.
