If You Make a Deal With a Shadow...

Chapter 7

"God, send me an angel from the heavens above. Send me an angel to heal my broken heart from being in love. 'Cause all I do is cry."

- Angel by Amanda Perez

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Aubrey looked up from her book, 'Thugs and the Women Who Love Them' by Wahida Clark, when she noticed the bedroom door opening. It was Austin coming to hand her the house phone. He mouthed to her, letting her know she had a call.

"Hello?" she furrowed her eyebrows while mouthing back to Austin, asking who it was. Austin shrugged before leaving the room and closing the door quietly.

"Hi, Miss Aubrey..." the cool voice said through the phone, creating goosebumps all over her body and making the hairs on her neck stand up.

"Mr. Chaplain," she spoke magisterially. What did he want?

"I'm just calling to inform you that you left a few of your belongings here at the restaurant. I was wondering if you could come and retrieve them before I discarded them."

"I'll come as soon as possible," she said quickly before hanging up. She knew she had left a few things, but she hadn't remembered exactly what.

She told Austin where she was going but was thankful she didn't tell him about what Mr. Chaplain tried to get her to do before, otherwise he wouldn't have let her go. Especially not by herself. She made sure she grabbed her pepper spray before leaving and even though she wanted to drive she decided it was okay to walk instead, since it was a nice day out.

When Aubrey got to the diner it was empty and deserted so she just knew for sure that Mr. Chaplain was trying to trick her or something of that nature. She walked tenaciously through doors making sure to pay attention to every little noise and movement that was made. She had no clue to where he was until she heard a couple of voices coming from behind his office door. She quietly walked over to the door with caution and pressed her ear to it.

A voice, other than Mr. Chaplain's, alerted Aubrey's ears—a voice that sounded all too familiar—but she couldn't distinguish who it was because the door was too thick. When the talking began growing louder she knew that they were heading for the door so she tried to scramble away before it was opened.

"I would love—" Mr. Chaplain stopped talking when he noticed Aubrey a few feet from the door.

The other man hadn't come out of Mr. Chaplain's office just yet. "Mr. Ch—"

Mr. Chaplain cut her off and began speaking again. "Hi, Aubrey. I'm sorry. I meant to call you back and tell you that I was in a meeting so you could come by later to get your things, but I see the message didn't go through," he gave her a fake smile. He was as phony as ever.

She internally rolled her eyes and scoffed in response. "That's fine," she pivoted on her heel, but stopped mid-step when she heard the other voice.

"No need. She can get her things. We're almost done here anyway," the voice was soft. The smoothness seemed to reach over and caress every inch of her wanton body.

What the...

Aubrey turned around and inhaled sharply when she noticed who it was. The Payton Hampton. Wide receiver for the Philadelphia Eagles. He was honestly one of the best wide receiver's in the league and here he was in the same room as her. She didn't realize she was gaping and staring at him until he made a smart remark.

"Like what you see?" he asked suggestively and wiggled his eyebrows. That seemed to snap her out of her reverie because she slightly sneered at him.

"Um... Hi..." she fiddled with her fingers a bit while looking between the absolute Adonis and her ex-boss.