Predators Eye

Chapter One

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**WARNING**

This story is mature. It contains the topic of drugs, alcohol, murder and abuse. Read at your own risk. You know what your limits are, and please abide to them. This story will get intense in more ways than one. So please, pretty please, if you are not comfortable with any of the topics stated above, do not read. Other than that, if you think you can handle it, then read on.

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Chapter One

I had always been fascinated by peoples stories of love. Whether it was their personal account, someone elses, or just their own fables that were thought up over a lonely breakfast or dinner party. Either way, it always interested me. Every meet up and story was so completely different and unique, you could never get tired of hearing different ones.

Thinking of that always made me wonder how I would fall in love. Was my story to my children, grandchildren, friends and family going to be just as beautiful and romantic as others? Or would it be chaotic and a struggle, but worth it in the end?

I knew I never was going to find a man. I worked and lived in an upscale motel 7 minutes away from Moscow and had zero intention to 'put myself out there'. I only spoke when necessary, other than that, I chose to stay silent and allow the conversations to flow past me. Besides, I had learned that listening was always much safer than voicing my opinion.

"Elena, some help out here?" A voice called, snapping my lethargic brain out of it's thoughts. I looked up to see a young woman with gentle auburn hair styled in a thick braid gazing at me from the entrance of the restaurant. My body reluctantly broke itself away from my relaxed posistion by the bar and carefully weaved my way through the carefully placed wood tables and chairs until I passed through the wide doorframe.

"Can you help me sweep up the dead leaves?" The woman asked, nodding to the broom propped up against the brick wall.

"Sure Rosie," I replied, taking the plastic handle and returned her grateful smile. As I swept up the curled and brown leaves, my eyes gazed at my surroundings. The park across the street was silent and mysterious, mist clung to the dew dropped grass like breaths of frost. The majestic maples were naked, their leaves having blown themselves inside the patio.

"Should we even bother opening this area up?" Rosie asked, shivering as a slow breeze created mini tornadoes out of the lifeless leaves.

"We should set the chair ups, just in case," I responded after a moment of thinking. She nodded, reluctantly pulling the iron chairs off of the matching tables. I continued to move the leaves underneath the thick black gates and into the alleyway. The familiar ring of a bicycle bell sounded in the still morning air, a boy that looked about 17 rode up, a black basket on the front and back of his bike.

"You ladies requested a handsome young man?" He said, puffing his chest out.

"No, I didn't think we asked for an egotistical teenager named Luca," Rosie quipped and he scowled at her. I smiled, setting my broom aside and walked up to him.

"You can bring those inside," I told him before taking two stacks of newspapers off the front of his bike. He sent a final glare to a smirking Rosie before following me through the iron arch that acted as a threshold into the cobblestone patio.

I heaved the heavy newspapers onto the newsstand rack, quickly untying the string that held them together. "Would you like breakfast as well?" I asked Luca once I had finished stacking the papers. Instead of being behind me, setting up the other newsstand, he was sitting at the bar, a cheesy grin spread across his face. I chuckled to myself, smiling as well as I entered the kitchen.