The gas station was packed with what appeared to be a bunchof crazy doomsday preppers who seemed intent on emptying the station tanks.“Who needs ten cans of gasoline?” Talking to herself seemed like betterentertainment than anything since the radio had turned into nothing but morenews. Recognizing the ten-can gasoline man as her gun-toting neighbor madePoppy flinch.
“Yeahhhhh… I might want to stay at Pixie’s for a while.”
Once Poppy had finished as quickly as possible, she headedfor the store. The parking lot resembled a reenactment of Black Friday. Therewasn’t a space for what seemed like a mile away from the doors and figuring itwas faster to just park than to try to stalk someone walking to their car, shepulled in and hopped out.
If she’d thought the parking lot was full, then she wasshocked to see how busy the store was. There wasn’t a free cart in sight andmost of the shoppers were leading multiple carts around on squeaky wheels. Shepicked up the biggest bundle of toilet paper she could see and walked to thefrozen food to check out her options. Obviously no part of the store had goneuntouched by the people who were creating their own stockpiles.
She suddenly felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.Someone was watching her. Juggling the large square of toilet rolls in herarms, she turned to scan her surroundings. The men standing at the edge of thefrozen food section were the only ones paying attention to her. The distance betweenthem was far enough for Poppy to tell they were pretty big in stature, but shecouldn’t make out any details. They seemed clean and were all wearing leatherpants and plain tops. All four men seemed to have similar shoulder-length hairbut one wore his hair longer than the others, in dreadlocks pulled into a lowponytail on the back of his head. Maybe a rock band’s tour bus had broken downor stopped for supplies? Now wanting to see if they were anyone famous, Poppymoved down the freezers until she was in front of the cases with desserts.
Trying not to stare, she took in the gorgeous men in frontof her. She saw one of them whisper to the other three, who nodded at him. Thewhisperer turned to face the others, his back now to Poppy, giving her the chanceto take in what was a totally magnificent ass. Too far away still to see whatcolor their eyes were, she nevertheless figured the guys must all be related.Upon closer inspection, the men all had similar features and two had tattoos ontheir temples. Definitely a rock group. That bad-boy hair, leather pants andnow tattoos could only point to that. They also seemed not to be callingattention to themselves, keeping out of the way of anyone shopping but alsochecking out the crowd.
As Poppy was bumped by another shopper, her grip on thetoilet paper loosened enough for it to fall out of her hands. At the sound ofit hitting the floor, the men all glanced over to where she was standing andthe closest smiled at her. Her stomach tightened at the bright white teeth thatwere flashed at her. Her cheeks were bright red when she smiled back stupidlyat the leader of the group. Turning away to face the freezer, she rolled hereyes to the heavens. That’s just great. Getting the attention of a hot guyby dropping an extra-large bundle of toilet paper.
Poppy had wasted enough time and snagged a pint of ice creamfrom the case in front of her to go with the sad-looking frozen dinner she wasjuggling. Damn. Just her luck that the men had left while she’d had her headstuck in the freezer case. On her journey to the front of the store she kepther eyes peeled but didn’t catch another glimpse of the group.
During the trek to the checkout lanes she had a feeling shewas being watched, but didn’t spot the men from earlier, so brushed it off.She’d been in her apartment too long. Obviously she had cabin fever if she wasthis paranoid. If there was anything she needed to worry about right now, itwasn’t some fine-looking men at the store. She really needed to focus her worrieson her crazy neighbors. In particular the one who liked to stockpile not onlyguns but cans of gasoline. Yep, mind made up, Poppy was going to pack a bag andhead to Pixie’s tonight come hell or high water.
Getting home was easier said than done. People were soconcerned about the ships there seemed to have been an accident that then hadled to more, until it was like a life-sized version of bumper cars on the mainroads. It was afternoon by the time she reached the safety of her apartment.
Poppy called her sister and left a message. “Hey, Pixie, I’mhome. I think I’m going to come over to your place in a bit. I saw my neighborat the gas station earlier and with the amount of gas he’s hoarding, I figureit might be safer there than here. I would rather be cautious than be the nextnews story. I can already see it now. Boring, single, lonely woman dies inexplosion due to Florida idiots. Anyways, I’m heading your way as soon as Ipack a bag. See ya in a bit.”
She was on the road again when her phone rang.
“Hey, sis, I’m on my way now.” Hating to talk while she wasdriving, especially with all the morons on the road, she wanted to hang upquick.
“I got called in to work. Go ahead and use your key. I’ll behome in a bit after I fix whatever Brenda managed to fuck up in the ten minutesI left her in charge.”
“Mkay, love you.”
Within an hour she was pulling into Pixie’s neighborhood ina subdivision on the other side of Jax. Pixie lived in a nice residential areawhere she and Brian rented a house. Brian’s car was in the driveway.
