3. Nate

Chapter 3

Nate

I liked to believe that when you did good things for others, the universe rewarded you by doing good things to you.

Every day, I went out of my way to hold doors open for strangers, help little old ladies cross the street, and pay for the coffee for the customer behind me in line at the drive-through. I did those things not for the accolades or recognition, but because I was just trying to add a little bit of good juju to my karma bank.

Since I was a kid, if there was a hole to fall in, a digestively challenged bird to sit under, or a speck of a crumb to choke on, I found it.

Why the universe was out to get me, I had no idea. But it was half the reason I continued to do good things. I just couldn't give up on the hope that all my bad luck was just winding up for some amazing jackpot of good luck coming my way some day.

However, today was not that day.

I got out of a client meeting an hour later than I expected and found a boot on my car tire because the street parking that I used every single day had recently been converted to paid meter parking at 6 PM. When I arrived at my car at 6:27, the damn thing was undriveable.

Luckily for me, the questionably moral traffic enforcer happened to roll by again and was generously willing to accept my $200 direct payment of "cash via his payment app" to unlock the boot so I could drive home.

Not the best way to start my weekend, but pretty on brand for me.

I'd been craving pizza all week. And I thought, hey, why not treat myself to my favorite food? It'll be the happy ending for the craptastic day.

I drove to the other side of town where they had the best pizza in the state and parked the car, this time making triple sure that I wasn't in a zone that would get me another ticket. Been there. Done that. Paid the money. Repeating it wasn't on my list of things to do for the day.

When I walked into the pizza parlor, it was no shock that I wasn't the only one who had the idea that pizza would be delightful. I had to wait in line for about ten minutes. I didn't mind, it gave me time to figure out which pie I wanted, sausage and mushroom or classic cheese.

My college roommate hated mushrooms, and when we lived together, I never had the pizza I liked. After I moved out. I ordered sausage and mushroom every single time because I could. It was great, but also, I was ready for a change. A boring change, but a change nonetheless.

When I placed my order, they told me it was going to be at least forty-five minutes before my pie was ready. Between the people in the store ahead of me and their deliveries, they were swamped.

"That's fine." I could be patient.

I paid them and decided to walk around outside and get some fresh air. Maybe the kitten-distribution system would be in my favor tonight. I was joking, but also, not so much. I did love kittens and finding one was way better than anything else that had happened so far today.

Once outside, I scented the air deeply and my bear got pissy. He hated the way the city smelled, and pretty much everything else about it.

My bear was done with being crowded all the time. What he needed was a weekend away, preferably in the mountains. A place where he could just be free to roam around. Unfortunately, that wasn't gonna happen for at least a few weeks. Between work and more work, there wasn't the time. We'd have to wait for things to simmer down first.

I half remembered that there was a bakery nearby and made that my destination. I could have looked it up on my phone to see the exact address, but I had so much time to kill that I thought, "Hey, it'll be a good idea to wander around and find it."

Fuck, I was so beyond wrong.

I saw the sign for Pat's Bakery with an arrow saying it was one block down. And because I didn't always make the best choices, I decided to cut through the alley. It wasn't like anybody could hurt me. All I had to do was whip out my bear, and they'd run away. The worst things I was likely to encounter were stinky dumpsters or people who were doing things I'd rather not see.

In my experience, that meant sex, peeing, or shooting up. But people never failed to surprise me, so who knew what the night could have in store for me.

Spoiler alert: Nothing good.

I was halfway down the alley when I discovered I wasn't alone. One of the most difficult things I'd had to deal with while adjusting to being back in such a crowded town was my inability to isolate all the scents coming at me from every direction.

That was the case here.

Just as I reached the dumpster, the echo of shots filled the small space. I quickly started to back up. I didn't want to be involved with the police, but I had no choice. Someone was shot. There was no mistaking that sound.

All I wanted was my pizza and to go home. Dealing with the cops over someone being shot was not on my list.

Could this day get any worse?

And of course, fate had to answer me with a big, fat yes. Two seconds later, I heard one of the people as they came around the dumpster call to the second person, the one I had yet to see, the name of a person I recognized.

A name anyone in this town would recognize.

Fuck.

This wasn't some typical violence, not a drug bust gone wrong or domestic abuse. No, he was the head of the fucking mafia.

Please don't let them see me. There was no way the human police could protect me from them if they saw me. None. I'd be a sitting duck, one that not even my bear could protect.