One False Move by Alex Kava Read Free Book Online Page B

to blend in whether she was shoplifting at Lowe’s or Dillard’s or even Borsheim’s.
    Jared, however, seemed to want everyone to notice him, to see what injustices had been done to him. Had he always been like this? Or had his time in prison changed him? He usually didn’t waste so much time with the small crap. Mostly he just focused on the things or people who pissed him off. Why get so pissed about some fucking eggs and whether they were firm enough? Or was it really about eggs? Hard to tell with Jared these days.
    “I’m beginning to think you don’t like me, Rita,” Jared was saying in that same tone Melanie had thought earlier was sarcasm.
    “No, not at all,” the waitress said. “I’m just wondering why it took you several bites to figure out they still weren’t to your liking.”
    Melanie’s eyes went back to the window and the parking lot outside. This waitress was only making matters worse.
    “I guess I was just in shock, Rita. I couldn’t believe that you could screw it up for a third time.”
    Jared’s voice had that singsong tone that made Melanie cringe. Outside in the parking lot she concentrated on a KKAR-news station wagon whose driver had a map spread out on the hood, holding it down with the palms of his hands to keep the wind from blowing it away. But he wasn’t looking at the map. Instead, he was scanning the sky, and that’s when Melanie noticed how dark the clouds had grown. Several pole lights that lined the lot had automatically started blinking, as if trying to decide whether or not to come on. Up on Interstate 80 she could see headlights.
    “Forget about it, Rita.” Jared was responding to something Melanie had missed. “I don’t want any more eggs. What might make me happy—”
    “Let me guess,” Rita interrupted him. “You’d like me to not charge you for the eggs.”
    “Actually, considering how many times you and your friend back in the kitchen screwed up…” He lifted his hands, palms up in a hopeless gesture, allowing her to fill in the blanks.
    “You’d like me not to charge you for your entire breakfast. Is that it?”
    “If you insist.”
    “Jesus,” Rita muttered, scratching out a new ticket. “It’s no skin off my nose. I get paid this afternoon, cash my check, pick up my daughter, and we’re off for a whole week in Vegas.”
    “Really? Vegas?” Jared sounded so interested that Melanie glanced at him from her perch at the window. Was he finally cutting the poor waitress some slack? “Well, you have a good time, Rita.”
    “I’ll pick this up whenever you’re ready. No hurry, of course.”
    Melanie wondered if the poor waitress would be back. She stared at Jared, trying to decide whether he meant what he said. Did he respect that the woman stood up to him? Hard to tell. He sat back in the booth, grabbing his fork, wiping off leftover eggs with the napkin and then finishing his manicure.
    “You said in your message that today is the day,” Melanie said, trying to keep the impatience from her voice. But when Jared’s eyes found hers, she knew she hadn’t been successful.
    “Rita threw me off track,” he said, putting his thumbnail in between his teeth to reach what the fork’s prong could not.
    “But we’re still doing it, right?” Charlie jerked forward, knocking the table and sending Melanie’s untouched coffee splashing over the cup’s lip. “You haven’t changed your mind?”
    Before Jared could answer, a mechanical symphony started playing in his shirt pocket. He grabbed the cell phone, looking for the on button. Melanie knew the phone wasn’t his. In the last week she had seen him using what seemed to be a different cell phone every time.
    “What?”
    Melanie glanced at Charlie. His outburst suggested he knew more about what they were doing here than she did. But Charlie seemed as impatient as she felt. She could see a slight twitch to the left side of his body and knew, though she couldn’t see it, that his left foot was