Page 34 of Make You Mine

I’ll make sure to protect her and not let an anonymous motherfucker get between us. Or to her.

I have to watch her extra carefully now.

Why did he have to involve my little demon in this? I’ve never been very good at sharing what’s mine. I don’t plan on starting now.

There has to be some clue in this town as to who this guy is. How he found out about what he claims to know. My dirty little secret. The scars I’m not proud of.

“Are we there yet?” Madelyn snaps me out of my thoughts. “You didn’t tell me we’re going for a marathon. I wouldn’t have brought heels otherwise.”

“I don’t mind carrying you, if you want,” I suggest. “We’re almost there.”

She locks eyes with me. “Over my dead body.”

“Can’t blame me for trying to be nice.”

“What’s up with you today?” she asks. “You’re acting weird.”

I snort. “I’m not.”

I wish I knew, too. Maybe it’s the fact that someone threatened to take away what’s mine. What I had to give up once already. Or maybe it’s the fact that we haven’t spent this much time alone together in forever.

The options are endless. Either way, my heart’s beating furiously against my chest.

“We’re here.” I stop after one more block.

Madelyn stares at the laundromat shop in front of us with a sign that says ‘closed.’ Right next to a local market and a diner.

“I doubt we’ll find what we need in a laundromat.” She presses her arms to her chest again. “Or at a market. We have those back at home, too.”

“I swear the Halloween props shop was here. Guess it closed down,” I lie. There was never a Halloween prop shop. My idea has always been to order things online. “I haven’t been here in years. It makes sense. So, there’s that.”

My little demon sighs. “Way too long a shot for a shop to remain open these many years, in this economy.”

“I had faith.”

“Okay, let’s hit the road then.”

“We’re in town, we may as well enjoy the break from all the work stress,” I say. “I promised you dinner, and I’ll get you that.”

She hesitates. She doesn’t want to comply. I can see it in the way her eyes harden. Her mouth purses. Her arms keep their position around her chest. Stubborn woman.

Just the way I like it.

“And we can sit and order some props and shit online, like normal people do.”

At that, she laughs. “Fine.”

“There’s a diner right here, let’s go in.”

I don’t know if Mike still lives in the house that we passed, but there’s no way his family doesn’t run this place anymore. It’s been passed on for generations, close to fifty years. Just the place I was looking for.

***

“No fucking way, dude.” It doesn’t even take a minute after I walk into the small, renovated diner with Madelyn to get noticed. Mike Kim’s eyes are bulging, and his mouth hangs open. “Kayden A’gosto?”

Mike rushes to me, ready to bump fists. He’s wearing a white apron and has the same black hair, down to his shoulders, now tied up in a ponytail.

“Hey.”