Chapter |3|
Christian Lonsdale.
"Where do you think he's hiding?" Alexander said, the sound of his fingers tapping away on his keyboard reaching my ears through the phone.
"He's not." I responded simply as I took a U-turn on an unfamiliar road, trying to spot the closest bakery I can find.
"What do you mean he's not?" He said, sounding confused. "He's nowhere in Italy and he wasn't found in Mexico either."
I shook my head at his stupidity.
"Why the fuck would Flavio run away from us?" I cursed tiredly. "He owns you." I pointed out.
"He owns nothing." He murmured before speaking up again. "Do you think he's in some sort of trouble? I heard he took his daughter with him."
"Xander, it's none of your business. If he needs a job done he'll contact me and I'll let you know. Got that?" I drawled.
"Got that." He answered. "I'll hang up now."
"Okay, and Xander?"
"Yes?"
"Don't even think about checking into it." I warned knowing that it was definitely what he was going to do.
"Ugh, you're no fun." He groaned and then hung up.
Rude.
After taking another turn I spotted a shop that had cakes on their display window. Driving a little forward the name Sugar and Spice was held up by the side of an ice cream cone at the top.
I can't even believe I'm stressing myself over a cake. It better be worth it.
Today is Vera's anniversary with a piece of shit called Theo. I'm being generous enough to get a two-layered cake for them just to smash it in Theo's fucking face and then beat the shit out of him.
I'm nice. I know.
Vera deserves a lot better than that dickless hurdle of testosterone. She would've been off to a better life if my opinion mattered. But it doesn't, the only time when she doesn't fucking listen to me is when I actually want to help her.
I parked my car in the middle of the street before simply getting out and going to the passenger side.
Why in the middle of the street you ask? Because I'm too busy care.
The whole city already knows only a couple of people can park wherever they want and no, it's not the presidential body.
Now, where was I? Oh yeah, just a cheap two-layered lemon cake, that's all, there's no harm in that, it's not like Theo's allergic to lemons or something.
I took off my suit jacket and hung it on the backrest of my passenger seat before closing the car and slipped my keys into my pocket as I walked towards the shop. Once I got in my nose was attacked with the smell of baked goods.
I wasn't expecting that. I don't know what I expected a streetside bakery to smell like.
I only took three good steps into the shop and the whole buzzing inside the shop died down slowly. I looked around and saw that everyone was frozen in place.
No, it's not the 'Oh my God that's Payne the wonderful and amazing guy who gifts chocolates and Gucci bags to the whole colony' freeze.
It's the 'Oh my God it's Christian fucking Dale, the guy that murders a whole town in the count of zero' freeze.
I sigh and took off my black gloves throwing them in a trash can, while doing this a small body bumped into mine.
"Oof, sorry." A small voice said.
I looked down and found a little girl, probably a 4-year-old, she had a cookie in her hand with a pout on her face as she used her free hand to brush off the crumbs she mistakenly got on me.
"I'm sorry." She repeated looking up at me.
I tilted my head at the girl, examining her, she had her brown hair parted in pigtails and her orbs big and brown. She found this funny and giggled, which made me confused. She also tilted her head to the side and then smiled at me.
"Eleanor!" An older voice called out a name with a gasp.
The little girl turned around and looked at the owner of the voice. A young man came over and grasped the child's hand. He held her so tight that her bones might crack as he looked me in the eyes, his body shaking slightly.
"We're sorry, it wasn't meant to happen Mr. Dale." He said, his voice coming out squeaky as if he saw something scary.
Did he?
I nodded absentmindedly and shoved my hands in my pocket, I look at no one in particular and uttered a single word.
"Leave."
He nodded immediately and picked up the girl, heading for the exit immediately.
Not only him, but a few people also left after that. The people who knew my face and reputation probably. Most of the rest were confused but no one looked my way again.
I scoffed and made my way to the counter, I hate it when people stare at me as if I'm some sort of plague.
Even though at some point, I wipe out a good number of people at once, like a plague.
Sometimes, it gets tiring.
If the barista happens to be another fuckhead that will start a stare-down because they're terrified of me, I'll fucking scoop their eyeballs out and then scoop Theos' out and then exchange the two.
That would be nice.
When I reached the counter, I saw a frustrated girl trying to pluck out something from the centre of a jar barely filled with those gummy things Theo likes.
Fucking Theo, having everything reminding me of his existence.
I cleared my throat as I stood in front of her.
"I want a cake." I grumbled taking one hand out of my pocket to rub my eyes.
I need sleep.
I should sleep.
I can't sleep.
The barista huffed instead, dug her fingers deeper into the jar, and then mumbled something under her breath.
The action took me by surprise. Did she just huff at me?
"Give me a cake." I ordered a little louder this time. Maybe she didn't hear me.
She let out a soft grunt and stuck her tongue out a little, completely lost in what she was doing.
The fuck is she doing?
I clenched my fist and refrained from allowing my intrusive thoughts to penetrate my head. I have all sorts of issues and anger issues tops them all.
No, wait, I think it's the trust issue.
However, before I could do something lethal I caught a glimpse of vibrant blue buds stuck into her ear.
Noise-cancelling earplugs.
Does she put that to work? In a busy shop? Behind the counter?
The frown on her face slowly starts to fade as she slowly starts retracting her hand from the jar.
Her face scrunched as a lock of hair fell and framed her face and before I could even stop myself, my hands reached and tucked back the hair. Her body visibly stiffens at that action and I went ahead to pull out one of the plugs from her ear.
"Hey," I said.
I want a goddamn cake. Was what I wanted to continue with but the moment her head flew up I felt something weird. A familiar feeling of my stomach feeling light because of a woman.
And I saw that face, those eyes. I knew I was already fucked up.