Page 46 of Signed in Blood

And it was so easy to get. The man approached me, thinking it was drugs I wanted when I drove down to the bad part of town. It’s always scared me, but I walked toward the parking lot of a corner store where I know busts have happened from watching the news.

It was way too fucking easy. Drugs, guns. Whatever I wanted. No questions. A gun for cash.

“Need another?” a waitress asks me, pulling me from my thoughts and I look down to see my drink is empty.

I blink several times before looking back up and see Murphy has a fresh glass of beer. A group of both men and women sit with him in the booth, keeping him company although he keeps checking his phone. He seems nervous. Little does he know he really fucking should be.

I just need to wait it out and get him alone.

That’s all I’ve been praying for: him to leave alone.

“Yeah,” I answer the waitress and glance up to find her brow pinched as she looks down at me.

“Bad breakup,” I tell her and her expression softens. “Could I have a cosmo?” I ask her and my voice gets tight. It’s Lilith’s favorite drink.

When tears prick the back of my eyes, she tells me, adding a sympathetic pout, “This one is on me, you sweet thing.”

I offer her a weak smile and when she places her hand on my shoulder, I try to respond but I can’t. Because I wish she was Lilith. I wish it was Lilith’s hand. I wish it was Lilith’s voice excited over a cosmo.

I miss my friend.

I wish she was here with me. I wish everything we planned together could still happen.

Instead, I’m all alone. The lock we were supposed to put on the bridge sits in my other pocket. It’ll never have her initials on it. She didn’t write them before…

Because of them. Because of the fucking band I took her to see! The rage is barely there, a flicker of emotion compared to the grief.

I know it was him. He killed her. I can’t let him get away with it.

The police think Lil just ran away. But I know they killed her.

I can’t live this way, without her. I feel like I’m going insane.

So I sip the drink and wait. All I have to do is wait, and then I’ll get revenge for Lilith.

My best fucking friend.

Chapter Twenty-One

Lilith

* * *

Tears cloud my vision as I watch her. There’s a buzzing around me that’s terrifying. Like my body knows something bad is going to happen.

She looks like a shell of her former self. Dark bags are under her eyes that the concealer did a shit job of trying to hide. She’s frail beneath the baggy camel suede jacket. With her jacket open as she sits at a table in the back corner of the bar, her plain white tee can be seen. Skinny blue jeans and brown leather booties complete her look. Still stylish and yet it all falls flat.

My friend for as long as I’ve known has a vacant stare. Aimed directly at the man I came to kill.

She knows. My heart flutters in a way that’s pained as the realization hits me. She knows he had something to do with it.

I reach up to brush my hair out of my face. My breaths come in shorter and shorter until I feel light headed. I know she wouldn’t recognize me, but I just need to tell her not to do it. I need her to know she can’t do this. She can’t live with herself after this. But before I can move, there’s a commotion, a bunch of men standing to leave in the corner booth to my left. She’s at the back right, watching.

They’re all leaving and Murphy pats someone on the shoulder and then heads to the back of the bar.

“Gotta take a piss first,” Murphy says and cracks a smile as those around him laugh. Anger stirs in my chest. Hatred curls my fists. In the somewhat crowded bar I turn between him and Sabrina, watching as she stands as well to follow him to the bathroom.

It all happens in slow motion and I can’t do a damn thing.