Atonement

•5•

The thought of someone following me kept me up all night, I want to know who it is, and why they are watching me. I get up early, getting ready for the day before anyone else wakes up. The only way to know if I have a true stalker, is to go out and drive around, see if that car follows me again.
I walk down the hallway, grabbing my keys off the table in the living room. I turn around and jump, dropping them to the floor.
"You scared me!" I groan.
"What are you sneaking around for?" Haz asks, bending over and grabbing my keys for me.
"No reason. Just going on a drive." I shrug.
"To see if that woman follows you?" He questions.
"Do you always ask so many questions?" I ask, grabbing my keys from his hand.
"I'm going with you." He states.
He starts walking out towards the door and I jog up behind him.
"No you're not." I say as we walk out the door.
"Yeah darling, I am." He nods.
At this point I realize no amount of arguing is going to change his mind, he seems to be as stubborn as I am. That's going to be a problem. I just roll my eyes at him, and unlock the car. We both get in and he looks around the car with a grimace on his face.
"Why buy such an expensive car for no reason?" He asks.
"Because we're millionaires?" I say, pulling out of the driveway and down the road towards the gate.
"What a waste." He shakes his head.
"Yeah? What do you do with your extra few millions lying around then?" I ask.
"Donate to charity." He says, making me laugh.
"Yeah sure." I say sarcastically.
"I'm being serious." He says and my laughter dies down, looking over to him as I hit a stop light.
Harrison Osterfield.. donating to charity??
"For real?" I ask.
"Yes." He says.
I'm surprised to hear that, never would I think that a mob boss, let alone someone as seemingly terrible as Haz would donate and help the less fortunate.
"That's really cool." I say.
"Are you giving me a compliment?" He asks, brows raised in amusement.
"Shut up." I laugh.
I frown, realizing we've been driving around for a bit and no one has followed me. Looks like we won't be catching them today..
"Well.. should we go get breakfast?" He suggests.
"Don't you have some big important boss things to do?" I ask.
"Don't you have some big important underboss things to do?" He shoots back, making me laugh slightly.
"Yeah alright." I nod. "Let's go get pancakes."
As I drive down the road to a cafe, Haz connects his phone to my cars Bluetooth, and puts on a song. My brow rises to him as carry on my wayward son starts playing.
"This is a good song." I state, almost in shock that he doesn't listen to shitty music.
"What were you expecting?" He asks.
"I don't know, something lame." I shrug and he scoffs.
"I'm not as bad as you think I am." He says.
"No, you definitely are." I say.
I pull into the parking lot, and we get out of the car and walk into the restaurant. This was my favorite place to go with my dad and Eli. I don't know why I'd bring Haz here, I don't even like him, but it feels so good to be back.
I see the familiar dark brown curls pulled up into a high ponytail, and the woman flips around with a smile on her face.
"Aurie! How's it goin honey? Haven't been by in weeks." Dayna says.
"I'm good, it's nice to see you." I smile and hug her.
She sets us up at a table near the back, putting our menus on the table and our waters.
"How's your father?" She asks.
"He's good." I lie. "Real busy so he couldn't come."
"Oh it's a shame." She frowns, then looks over to Haz. "You're new."
"Harrison." He introduces himself with a smile on his face that even I find genuine.
"Well it's good to see you two, I'm going to go take a few orders and I'll be back to take yours." She says, and walks away.
"She's.. a lot." Haz says with a light laugh.
"Yeah, she's great." I nod.
I look over the menu, and I can feel Haz's eyes on me. With a sigh escaping my lips I set my menu down and look up to him, catching his eyes.
"What?" I ask.
"Why'd you say your dad is fine?" He asks.
"Because had I said he passed.. she would have asked questions." I explain.
He gets a knowing look on his face, nodding. It sucks that I can't communicate with people about my father. I've never really had to, everyone in my life lives in the house or knows about what I do. Nothing is a secret with those around me. We're all one big twisted unhealthy family.
"I'm sorry about what happened to your dad.." Haz says, a sympathetic look on his face. He's being genuine, and empathetic.
"I knew it was going to happen sooner or later." I sigh.
Soon enough Dayna comes back to our table and takes our orders. We eat our pancakes with far too much maple syrup, and talk business.
As much as I hate to admit it, Haz is actually doing a lot of good for the mob. He's hired better trainers, ordered new weapons, and is recruiting a few men in the upcoming weeks.
"Yeah I think it's a great idea-" I stop what I'm saying, realizing Haz is paying no attention, but rather is looking intently out the window.
"What's going on?" I ask him, not looking in the same direction because obviously something is up and I need to act normal.
"Stay here." He says.
He gets up from his seat quickly, walking off. I can't help but look out the window. There it is, the same grey Sedan from yesterday sitting behind a tree. Haz walks out of the restaurant and the car is quick to back up, speeding off. He jogs after it for a second, before giving up. She's been watching us this whole time.. he turns around, and makes his way back in.
"That was her." He nods. "Got a better look at her face. Blonde hair, dark brown eyebrows, thin lips and looked like she's in her late forties maybe early fifties."
I try hard to think of who it could be, but no one I know or have seen before fit that description. The only thought that crosses my head is she could be from a rival mob, or someone that knew my dad. I hate not knowing exact details. I just want to figure out who this woman is.
"Well if she showed up here, she's bound to show up again." I say.
"Next time you go out, we will have a few of the guys parked around. There's no way she'll be following you again today." He says.
He pays the bill, and we head back to the house to get some work done before worrying about what this woman could possibly want from me.