Page 33 of Plunge into Obsession

He was a busy man, and it wasn’t like he came into Decadenceall that often before, but this time, it felt personal.

I licked my lips, and Kaia made a slight disapproving noise. “You’re going to mess up your lipstick.”

She handed me hers and I quickly put it on, looking at myself in the mirror.

Capping it, I gave it back to her and grabbed my clutch. “Let’s go.”

We went to a bar in downtown Albuquerque via taxi, though we didn’t plan on drinking heavily.

Our neighborhood in Albuquerque was relatively safe, though there was the occasional crime that happened around it. Further in the city was where most of the crimes occurred, so we tended to avoid going there late at night — not unless we had to, and never alone.

But downtown, though not completely safe, was littered with people out and about as well, and we counted on the numbers to keep us safe.

Whereas Lucinda and I differed in personalityandlooks—so much so that I’d once thought had we not known each other as kids and become close, we wouldn’t have been friends as adults—Kaia and I were similar to each other.

We were both homebodies, so we didn’t go out very often, but there were a few times a month when we made ourselves leave the house. Otherwise, we would find ourselves holed up at home, with only work and the occasional trip to the grocery store as an excuse to leave the house.

When we got to the bar, Kaia tipped the driver, and we climbed out of the car, heading to the front door.

I rubbed the back of my neck. That feeling that someone was watching me was back, and I didn’t know what to make of it.

I stopped mid-step and looked behind me. But all I could see around me were people walking, talking, and laughing with each other.

Nothing unusual about that.

No one was even looking my way.

Perhaps I was just paranoid.

“Bianca?”

Kaia had the door opened and was waiting for me.

I rushed forward, and she looked at me strangely. I shook my head.

I wouldn’t know how to tell Kaia what I had been feeling all week.

We entered the dim and busy bar. It was on the corner of the street, so it took up most of the building, making it look even more spacious inside than it appeared on the outside.

The bar top was in the far back, manned by three busy bartenders, and it was as busy as expected on a Friday night.

Kaia grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the back when she saw a group getting up from their seats and leaving their table.

We sat down just as the busboy finished cleaning the table. He smiled at us before he left. I looked around the place.

I rarely ever went to bars since Lucinda disappeared, and I hadn’t stepped foot in a nightclub at all since that night.

But I was learning how to slowly live my life, and a part of me wondered if I should try to move on from her.

But the thought sent a flash of guilt through me and, along with it, an unbearable weight that made it almost impossible to breathe.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Bianca? You’ve been quiet,” Kaia said, and I turned to her.

There was just so much going through my mind I didn’t know how to even begin to tell her.

“Um, Gabriel drove me home the night Corey was fired.”

She shot me a strange look. “I know.”

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