Page 33 of Edge of Darkness

SUNDAY MORNING rolled around, and it was another bright and sunny day. Kit did a couple of chores around his apartment, then washed a load of laundry.

Since his refrigerator was almost empty, a trip to the grocery store was also on the agenda. After making a quick list, he changed into shorts and an oversized T-shirt that he tied at the waist. Slipping on sandals, he grabbed his wallet and keys and headed out.

Even on a Sunday morning the grocery store was crowded. Gah. He hated shopping. What he needed was a full-time chef. Yup. And a giant bag of money to hire one.

Snorting, Kit grabbed the cart. Since that wasn’t likely to happen, he was stuck doing his own cooking. He pulled out his cell phone and opened the notes app that had his list.

He made pretty good time and even managed to find a checkout lane that didn’t have a lot of people waiting to check out. Luck was on his side.

Carrying his groceries to his car, he fumbled with his key fob until he managed to pop the trunk. Just as he leaned over and placed the first bag of groceries inside, goose bumps rose on his arms and the hair on the back of his neck rose.

Shit.

He quickly straightened and looked around. There were a few other people in the parking lot loading their groceries like him, but they didn’t seem to be paying attention to Kit.

Kit couldn’t shake the feeling that somebody was staring at him, but he couldn’t find whoever it was. He looked around again but didn’t see anybody paying an undue amount of attention to him. Nevertheless, his instincts were screaming at him to get out of there.

Just as he leaned over with the second bag, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of somebody ducking between vehicles several aisles over.

His breath caught in his chest as he caught a flash of black hair and olive skin. He only saw the person for a few seconds, but that fucking face had figured prominently in his nightmares lately.

Straightening abruptly, he spun around, but there was no one now. Whoever it was had just… disappeared. Leaning against the back of his car, he rested his hand on his chest, his heart beating furiously.

Now his head was starting to pound, and he could only imagine what his blood pressure was right then. He probably looked like death warmed over.

“He’s dead,” Kit mumbled softly to himself. “Theytoldme he was dead. Calm your ass down. He’s nothing more than ashes now. You’re just seeing things.”

Which, in an odd way, made sense. God only knew he still dreamed about the asshole. Taking a deep breath, he tried to get his heart rate back under control.

He was still struggling with it when he noticed a woman about his age pushing a cart towards him. Frowning, she watched him. Yeah, he probably was scaring her with how oddly he was acting. Fuck.

Rubbing his chest, he turned back toward the trunk just as she drew even with him. He needed to finish up and get the hell out of there before he got the cops called on him for acting suspiciously. Which was exactly what he didn’t need today.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Startled, Kit whipped back around to see the woman had stopped next to him. “Oh, hey, yeah. I just thought I saw somebody I knew. Somebody I didn’t particularly want to see again, you know what I mean?”

Which was true but certainly didn’t explain how badly he didnotwant to see Nox ever again. But Nox was dead, so he shouldn’t be seeing him again. Right?

Right.

“Ugh. An ex? Dude, I get it. I would rather set myself on fire than have to deal with my ex.”

Nox certainly wasn’t his ex, but you know what? He wasn’t going to go down that rabbit hole. Let her think his reaction was due to that. “I know, right? I thought I caught a glimpse of my ex out of the corner of my eye and kinda panicked. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“Well, can’t be too careful nowadays, you know?” The woman nodded her head vigorously. “I mean, seriously.”

“I agree.”

“Okay, if you’re sure you’re okay…?”

“I am. And again, I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“It’s all good. See you.”

“Thanks again.” Kit pushed his shopping cart back to the little holder place for them and hurried back to his car.

All he wanted to do was get home. He’d had enough excitement for the day, and it wasn’t even noon yet.

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