Lost Souls - Book 2 "Convergence"

Chapter 18 - Delirium's Gala

The man sitting in his truck, parked at the curb in front of Tabby and Petra's building, almost missed their Prius as it pulled out of the underground driveway. He was distracted by the messy meatball sub he was eating and had been in the process of reaching down to the cup holder for his soda when he'd taken his eyes off the building he was supposed to have been staking out for a split second. It was only by pure chance that a flash of sunlight had caught his attention and he'd glanced up at exactly the right moment to catch sight of the car as it had turned onto the road and had headed towards him.

He couldn't believe his eyes. Sitting in the passenger seat was the girl he was supposed to be shadowing and he blinked almost dazedly as his brain slowly processed her smiling face as the car drove right past him.

Swearing, he hastily tossed the remainder of his dinner into the foot-well of his truck and scrambled under the steering column for keys that had suddenly disappeared.

"Fucking hell!" he swore again, patting the seat beside him in a panic. Nearly hyperventilating, he finally spotted silver glint from the keychain where it must have fallen and was sticking out of the mass of litter that had accumulated on the floor of the truck. While trying to keep one eye on the car, he blindly swiped his hand through the garbage until his greasy fingers hit cool metal. Latching onto them like a fish on the hook, he yanked them up, hurriedly flipping through them until he found the one he needed and jammed it into the ignition.

He still couldn't believe his luck in finding a vehicle to steal that the stupid owner had conveniently left the keys in the ignition for him. Who did that nowadays? The man didn't care. Their stupidity had worked out for him and getting into the old truck had taken him less than a minute with his trusty slim-jim.

He cranked the key and the engine started with a roar. Stepping on the gas, the bucket of rust peeled away from the curb in a blind U-turn to a blare of horns and screeching tires as he cut off a minivan and nearly caused an accident. The angry driver shot him a dirty look and the man flipped up his middle finger, flooring the accelerator in order to catch up with the Prius.

Taking a hard right, the truck's tires skidded and smoked, leaving a smear of black on the pavement as he flew around the corner where he'd last seen the Prius before it had vanished out of his sight. Taillights had his heart jumping into his throat as he rounded the corner and he slammed on his brakes to keep from plowing into a delivery van that was stopped at the end of a line up of traffic.

"Fuck! Move asshole!" he yelled out the window and craned his neck out to see what was doing. In the distance, a large semi-trailer was blocking the road as it attempted to back into a grocery store's awkward loading dock. Six cars ahead of the delivery van sat the Prius.

"Oh thank fuck!" He slammed his palm against the steering wheel and let out a meatball scented breath of relief. He'd almost lost her but somebody had been looking out for him.

What the fuck was the bitch doing out, though? Three weeks he'd been watching her and she'd never once gone out this late before.

He'd only caught a glimpse of the two women as their car had passed by him, but he could have sworn that she and her blonde friend were all dolled up. He smiled with a calculating, predatory flash of teeth. The bitch must be feeling better if she was going clubbing. Suddenly, his odds of snatching her were looking better than they'd had since he'd accepted this goddamn job. Going out at night would make the job easier, once his idiot partner gave the go ahead.

If he could wait that long, that was. All this useless jerking around was driving him nuts. He peered around the ass end of the van blocking most of his view of the Prius but caught a glimpse of their car's tail lights. His hands gripped the steering wheel, grinding his fingers into the cheap vinyl cover.