FATED MATES

CHAPTER 3

Work that night is fairly uneventful. Well, if by uneventful meant we were swarmed with shifters, then it was. It’s like I all of a sudden realized shifters were in this area yesterday, and they all decided to come to our store. I took me about two hours before remembering what the guy said last night, about there not being many women. I groan internally. They were basically all here for me. I didn’t get  a chance to talk to Sally about anything, so I am still pretty oblivious to the whole shifter species. Hot guy after hot guy filtered through, buying various sundries, some I’m pretty sure they never even needed. The whole night was a bit disconcerting. I came to this town to disappear, not all of a sudden be the center of attention.

I’m just about to close up, when the bell dings that’s someone’s entered. I turn to look, half expecting the same guy from last night, but no. The man who walks in has to be at least twenty years older than I am. His salt and pepper hair is cut close to his head, in a military style. As he gets closer to me, I see his eyes are black in color, and they are really small compared to the rest of his face. The word “beady”comes to mind. He instantly makes me wary, and I instinctively back up a little bit. My heart starts hammering inside my chest, and as I was just about to tell him we were closing, he spoke.

“Well, hello there darlin’.” His voice instantly made me feel dirty, and not in a good way. My skin is crawling. “When I heard we had a new female in town, I just had to come see her for myself, and now that I see you I can see what all the hubbub is all about.” He reaches out to take my hand, but I snatch it behind me, and back farther away.

I glance down at the gun that my boss keeps under the counter for emergencies, but I don’t what I’d do with it. I’ve never touched a gun a day in my life. I quickly look back at him. I’m visibly shaking at this point.

“No need to be scared. We’re just two people talkin’, is all. Now how about after you get off work, you come home with me and we’ll get to know each other a little better. We can have some fun.” He sniffs the air. “You smell good enough to eat.

“I… I… I don’t think so.” I stammer. “I’m not interested.” He clearly didn’t like that answer, as his eyes narrow, the color nearly disappearing behind his lids. He grips the edge of the counter, then seems to make a decision when he lets go and storms over to the door. I let out a relieved breath thinking he’s leaving, but intake a sharp one when he locks the door. I immediately dive for the gun. I seriously have no idea what I’m doing, but I’ll be damned if I’m not going to defend myself.

“No listen here, missy, you and I are going to get to know one another, whether you like it… Well, well, what do we have here? I gun? You gonna shoot me?” He sneers as turns around and sees me standing there with a gun aimed in his direction. “You even know what to do with that thing?” I hear my boss’s instructions in my ear.

Point the hole at the other person. Flip the safety off. Squeeze, don’t pull, the trigger if you absolutely have to shoot somebody. Hold a tight grip, because this baby has a kick. You don’t want it flying back in your face.

I glance at the side of the gun and flip the safety. There’s anger clearly written all over his face. I’m doing everything I can to hold my hands steady.

“Mister, I suggest you leave. Now. I am not above shooting you. I know your kind can heal fast, but where I plan to shoot you, you won’t come back from that quickly.” I lower my aim to his nether regions, then look up at his face.His eyes widen a little bit, but the anger is still there.

“Well, now, the little bitch has balls, that’s fer sure.” He sneers. He starts to walk toward me, and I squeeze the trigger. The gun flies up, and good grief I wasn’t prepared for the noise. The retort from the gun, and the soda case behind him exploding was so much louder than I imagined. I manage to keep a grip on it. I didn’t hit him, but the threat was there. I take one hand off the gun and reach under the counter and push the emergency button, quickly putting my hand back for better control.

“I’ve just pushed the emergency button, so I say you have about five minutes before there’s police here. So, unlock the door and get. The. Fuck. Out.” I’m shaking now, but not from fear. This guy just pissed me off. He made me shoot a damned gun for Christ’s sake.

“This isn’t over. Far from it, little girl.” He threatens as he moves toward the door, his hands raised in mock surrender. He reaches the door and unlocks it, grabbing the handle of the door, he turns to me. “I’ll get you yet. You’ll see.” Then he walks out the door.

Keeping the gun in my hand, I run over to the door and lock it behind him, in case he gets anymore ideas. I heave a huge breath and slink to the floor to wait on the police.

A few minutes later there’s a knock on the door. I swivel and see an officer standing there. I quickly get up and unlock the door for him. He opens the door, takes one look at me, and instantly draws his weapon.

“Ma’am, I’m going to need you to drop your weapon.” He says as he points his own at me. I’m so startled I actually drop the gun on the ground, a resounding clang goes through the store, which makes me jump.

“Oh my god! I am so sorry. I work here, and was being harassed by some guy I’ve never met. I mean, not like it would be okay if I knew him. Oh my god, I’m rambling. I’m sorry. My boss keeps the gun under the counter for protection.”

“Okay, ma’am, calm down and start at the beginning.” The officer says as he reaches down and picks up the dropped gun, checks it, puts the safety back on, and sets it on the counter. I don’t even want to look at it, so I focus all my attention on Officer, I check his name badge, Officer Frank. I start at the beginning, how I was just getting ready to close up, and all the way up to the officer knocking on the door. He’s writing everything down in a little notebook. I described the guy to him.

“Yeah, that sounds exactly like Zeke Dalton. We’ll round him up tonight. We know where he likes to hang out. I’m just wondering what he was doing over here on this side of town. Did he mention anything about that?”

“Not that specifically. He mentioned that, umm, that he had heard there was a new female, his word, not mine, in town and he had to check it out for himself.” My face is heating up.

“Alright, ma’am, we’ll get him picked up.” He says some codes into his radio, and some codes are said back. “Get that gun someplace safe.”

“Can you stay a minute while I finish up? I don’t want to be alone here this late at night.”

“Absolutely.”

So I finish up closing down the register and making the deposit for my boss. I clean up the glass and soda as best I can. I’ll have to call my boss and tell him what happened. I shut everything down and we walk out together. I lock the door behind me, and Officer Frank walks me to my car.

“Go straight home. I’ll follow you, just in case, to make sure you get there safely.” That’s a relief, because I was actually worried that guy, Zeke, would be waiting somewhere for me.

“Thank you so much. For everything.” I reach my hand forward, and he shakes it.

I get in my car and lock the doors. I start it up and put it in gear. I pull out into the street and drive home. When I get there, Officer Frank watches me go in, gives a little woop woop of his siren and continues on. With the door locked, I fall onto the couch. I grab my new phone and dial my boss to tell him what happened.

“Hi, Bill, sorry for calling so late, but something happened at the store tonight…”