The Shadow Circle

Chapter-4

So either I was being unnecessarily paranoid or this gorgeous stranger might not be a good guy.

I'd like to think it was a coincidence, that I was over interpreting the circumstances like I tended to do (one of the curses of ADHD), but something didn't fit.

Gorgeous stranger approaches a somewhat ragged looking girl in a food court who ran from mercenaries not ten minutes ago and implies that he knows she's lying about her name. You can't be too careful though.

"So, Kai, where are you from?" I asked lightly.

"I'm half Japanese and half European, actually," he said amicably.

"Do you speak Japanese?" I asked with a smile.

"Hai, sodesu."

"Wow!" I said. Dangerous or not, this guy was definately fascinating. I couldn't speak Hebrew to save my life. Wow. I was thinking about this guy's linguistic abilities instead of planning.

Not that my plans worked. If they did, they were based on the expert principle of winging it.

He raised an ink black eyebrow. "Don't you want to order something?"

I smiled. "Of course, I'm going to get myself some pizza, you should probably sit here and make sure nobody takes our place. What do you want?"

"Pizza is fine," he smiled.

"Great!" I nodded and walked off to the nearest pizza counter. He wasn't getting up from the table anytime soon, that's for sure, which meant I could take a moment and gathered what was left of my wits.

"What do you want?" A curvy lady with a nose-ring asked at the counter.

"Two margarita slices and a bottle of water please," I said curtly, handing over the cash. She piled the slices on a paper plate and handed them to me. Should I go back? Kai, if that's what his real name is, might be dangerous. But then again, was the risk worth a good lunch? I needed the energy if I got out of this mess and managed to contact Ari.

No. This was a public place, if he did anything he would have to do it in front of at least a hundred witnesses. I was being unnecessarily paranoid. He could just be a nice guy who offered a seat.

I studied him carefully, he was typing away on a sleek black phone. Every action of his carried too much purpose, too much confidence. Maybe that's what troubled me. But then again, people in general troubled me as Arianna loved to point out.

He looked up and caught me staring at him. He raised an eyebrow and I quickly looked away. He probably thought I was checking him out. I was, but not in the way he would expect.

I placed the pizza and water bottle on the table. "There was a queue," I said quickly.

He looked over to the small line at the pizza counter. "I see."

I decided not to say anything else and dig a deeper hole than I already had.

"Nice shoes, Penelope," he said.

"Huh?" I asked. Penelope?

Crap! Penelope was my alias!

"I just complimented you on your taste in shoes," he said nonchalantly.

"Thank you," I smiled. "I bought them today in a rush."

"So what do you do?" He asked.

"I'm a student," I said honestly. "You?"

"Just graduated," he smiled.

"Nice, favourite subject?" I asked.

"Human anatomy," he grinned almost conspirationally. I sensed a double entendre in those words but decided not to dwell on it.