“She said almost the exact thing to me. Said you and I should get to know each other, and the party would be the perfect opportunity.”
“So, make you’re move, darlin’. What are you waiting for?” He smiled that better to eat you with grin.
“I have no moves.” Juliet said.
“Nothing? You telling me you got no game?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
When P.J. shifted his big body, it gave her a chance to get away.
Juliet stood up and moved away from him.
“Do I scare you, Juliet?” P.J. stood up, put his hands on the bench and leaned over until his face was just inches from hers. Before she had a chance to respond, P.J. moved around to where Juliet was now standing. “You know, I didn’t think a woman as badass as you would frighten so easily.”
“Badass?” Juliet asked.
“Not every day a woman comes into the store sporting a shopping list that includes a deadly weapon.”
“So? I’m interested in owning a gun. That shouldn’t be such a big deal to you, for god sakes you own a gun shop.”
“True and I get plenty of women coming in to purchase a weapon. But your ask was different.”
Juliet, who had absolutely no interest in pursuing this line of conversation with P.J. McCabe, found herself being drawn in.
“How?”
“Well, for a starter…you decided on a weapon based on an internet video.”
“I was being sarcastic.” Juliet totally lied.
“Yeah, well we both know that ain’t true.” He moved closer.
“You don’t think I am capable of sarcasm?”
“Babe, I think you are capable of a lot of things.” P.J. told her. “But maybe truth tellin’ ain’t high on that list.”
“I beg your pardon?” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“You can beg all you want, Juliet. But that ain’t gonna change anything.”
“Are you seriously going to stand there and call me a liar, Mr. McCabe?” Her voice held all the outrage she felt.
“That’ll do for starts, Miss Jones. Or is it Mrs.?” His eyes darted to that twisting action of hers around the ring finger. Juliet followed his gaze and immediately dropped her hands to her sides. It was in that very moment that Juliet realized that P.J. McCabe might become a problem for her. Because whereas Juliet had chalked P.J.’s curiosity to just being nosy before, this felt different. He wasn’t letting his interest in her go. If anything, P.J. McCabe seemed more determined than ever before to find out her story. If he kept on butting his nose in where it didn’t belong, Juliet risked exposure. And while Kenny’s case had been tried, and the intense scrutiny into her life had been mitigated as a result, he still had pending trials in two other states for the killings of three other women. It was more important than ever that while those trials were pending, Juliet kept herself hidden. Kenny had committed those murders before he had met Juliet, so she would not have to testify. But with those trials would come more exposure to the past cases, and more stories about the marriage of Lucy and Kenny Brewster.
And Juliet was afraid that it wouldn’t stop there.
Her biggest fear, her secret terror, was that somewhere along the way, some young, snot nosed reporter looking to make a name for himself would make it his mission to find out what had happened to Lucy Brewster. The interest, speculation, and suspicion would become headlines again. Juliet would be hounded again, threatened again and sickest of all, there would be a resurgence of that heinous and disturbed type of person for whom Ken Brewster had become a sort of cult hero. They would leave sacrificial gifts on her doorstep, and haunting messages on her answering machine. And when all those things happened, if all those things happened, Juliet would lose this hard won battle for her sanity. And that would mean the end of her. Because Juliet would not survive that again.
Now faced with the interest of this guy standing in front of her, she knew that P.J, McCabe presented a real danger to herself and the fragile grip she had on a new life, a life worth living.
“Do you really want to know why I need a gun?” Juliet leaned into P.J. and hissed ominously. “I need a gun because there are dark forces at work in this world. The darkest things? Those things are the hungriest. They feed on creatures who dwell in the bowels of hell. And the worst thing is, the most monstrous thing, is that they also feed on the victims who are strong enough to survive them. They are hunters who will never stop searching. Never stop coming. I can’t stop them. You can’t stop them. They are unstoppable.”
P.J. narrowed his eyes at Juliet and fought to hold that gaze steady. Because she had begun to seriously creep him out. The last thing he had expected from her was to turn all mystical and morbid on him. And now seeing that intense look in Juliet’s eyes, P.J. had no doubt that she believed every word she said, and that she was doing her very best to deal with whatever this was, all alone.
“So, if you can’t stop them what do you plan to do?” He asked gently.
“I plan to use what they are looking for against them.” Juliet said with tired resolve.
And what do you think they are looking for?”
“Me. They are looking for me.”
P.J. thought about Juliet even more after the party. They were confused, jumbled thoughts as he tried to reconcile the crazy from the truth. The more P.J. tried to cipher the situation out, the more tangled up in it he became.
Aside from the large creep factor of the last conversation he had had with
