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Chapter One

Abby Reynold contemplated murder

She glared at old Pete as on his sixth cup of coffee Who the hell sat in a diner and drank coffee at ten ply over at the booth seats She could just sit, lay her head down and go to sleep

Or she could go hohed She knew she should be nicer He was obviously lonely and looking for company But it wasn’t like he ever talked He just sat there and drank coffee until she was ready to scream

This really wasn’t worth thefrom the kitchen where Oscar was several shots into his not-so-secret whiskey stash

If Gloria, the owner, would just set a closing time Abby could have shuffled old Pete on But no, Gloria had this policy that they didn’t close until the last custo endless free cups of coffee

Finally, old Pete left With a sigh of relief, she swiftly switched the sign to closed and turned off the lights, heading out the back Everything was already closed down and cleaned She passed Oscar as sitting on a chair, his head against the wall behind hi

She figured Gloria only kept hie and his personal hygiene was very, very questionable

She pulled on her coat and grabbed her purse then left Cool air assaulted her, rabbed her keys She hated leaving the diner at night The front ell lit but out the back, Gloria hadn’t bothered with security lights Of course, Gloria always left before it grew dark and she didn’t seem to be particularly worried about her staff’s safety

Abby bit at her lip, preparing to make the mad dash to her car She’d had to park at the back as she was on the late shift and everyone else had grabbed the closest spaces They didn’t think about leaving her one near the back door No, that would be too thoughtful

Stop being a bitch

She winced at even thinking that word Nana would box her ears if she ever heard her swear But then, Nana was gone now She pulled out her sht Her phone was so ancient that all it could do was call people and send ht apps for her

“Okay, let’s do this One, two, three” She raced towards her car, not glancing around, just focused on her goal Suddenly, her foot hit so her toes as she dove forward, her hands and knees scraping painfully along the hard gravel Her keys and flashlight flew fro there for afor air Slowly, she rolled onto her butt

“Shit,” she muttered Well, if ever there was a tiht round because she could barely see a thing Where had it gone?

“Looking for this?” a low voice asked