Chapter 1

Her eyes sparkled over the candle’s flickering flame, she had never seemed as beautiful as she did right then. She had said yes to be my wife!

“Yes darling, of course I will marry you.” She said to me.

The few other patrons around us smiled warmly and clapped. I could hear an older couple a table away.

“See dear? That’s how a real proposal is supposed to be.” The lady chided her husband.

I reached up and pulled her face to mine, we locked lips for a short but meaningful kiss. I got off my knee and sat back down in my chair. I had to admit to myself that proposing to her was probably the most nerve racking thing I have ever done. I had to practice the whole thing several times in front of my mirror, and my heart was still beating so hard that I thought it was going to burst out of my chest, until she had said yes. It amazed me that I could feel this way about someone after so short a time. Six months is maybe too short for some people but if felt right to me, and from her response it was right for her as well.

We finished our dinner and ordered desert. During which I caught her several times looking at the ring I had put on her finger, a wistful-happy look in her eyes, then she would look at me and smile that crooked smile of hers. After we had finished our cheesecake I paid the check and we started towards the door.

RING.

RING.

“I thought you said you were going to turn that thing off for the night.” She complained playfully to me.

I smiled wryly at her, and looked at the caller ID. When I saw who it was I looked at her, before I could even open my mouth she told me to answer it, and that she was going to the car, taking the keys from my jacket pocket and slapping me on the butt as she walked away.

I punched the answer button on my phone with my thumb. I looked up as I placed the phone to my ear. A pair of headlights were baring down on me.

Headlights?

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I had to swerve my motorcycle sharply to the right to avoid the oncoming truck. Shit! That was close. If I let my mind wander like that, thinking about what it was like before she was killed, I am going to wind up getting myself killed. Man that was stupid. I can just imagine how the driver of the truck must feel, he is probably still cursing me out.

My adrenalin from earlier was starting to wear off. I was starting to feel some of the damage that I received from those two thugs. Definitely had at least a couple of broken ribs to go along with the knuckles. And I could feel the slice in my thigh where the big guy had gotten a lucky hit in with that knife of his. Nothing I could do about the ribs, but I was going to have to do something about the leg soon.

I saw a drugstore coming up on my left, traffic on Sunset wasn’t that bad this time of night. I cut across the 3 lanes and brought my bike to a stop. Putting the kickstand down, I climbed off the bike. I pulled my jacket down low to cover the guns in my belt as I walked into the store. The man behind the counter looked up from his magazine long enough to see I wasn’t anyone important and went back to reading the latest celebrity gossip. I walked quickly to the back aisles of the store where the first-aid supplies were at. I grabbed some bandages, alcohol and a sewing kit. I took the purchases to the front of the store, and dropped them on the counter. The man scanned each item.

“Twenty-eight sixty seven.” He said to me.

I handed him thirty, got the change and asked where the bathroom was. He pointed towards the back of the store and went back to reading his magazine. I walked back to the bathroom and went inside. I switched on the lights, it wasn’t the cleanest place I had been, graffiti on the walls, the toilet had been left unflushed, and someone had kindly watered down all of the toilet paper. I did my best to ignore the mess and went about handling my wounds. I stripped down to my boxers, the gash in my leg was deeper then I had thought it was, still bleeding I was amazed that I was still conscious. I poured some alcohol on it, and then clenched my teeth together at the cold stinging sensation. I pulled the sewing kit out and threaded the needle. Heating the needle up to sterilize it with my lighter, I stitched the wound together, then I wrapped the leg with one of the ace bandages that I had bought. After that I used the other ace bandage to bind my chest, the ribs were going to hurt for weeks, but the bandages would help. I turned on the faucet and started washing off all the blood that I still had on me, in doing so I found a few more cuts and scrapes that I needed to bandage. I looked myself over after I had gotten my clothes back on, couldn’t do anything about the cut in my pant leg, but other then my eye I would pass a casual inspection.

When I walked out of the bathroom, and saw the cops at the front counter, I realized that what I took as the man behind the counter moving back to his magazine was actually him going to the phone and calling the police. They hadn’t looked back my way yet. I cursed myself silently, eased the safety off on the glock, and stepped into the aisle.