Witness
By Rachael Orman
I saw something I wasn't supposed to see.
Married someone I shouldn't have.
But I got away.
It's been five years but I think my time has run out.
People aren't who they seem.
Things aren't how they look and I'm finding out the hard way that my life is no longer my own.
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Excerpt
Sighing, I pushed a
strand of greasy bleach-blonde hair behind my ear. I missed my natural brown
hair. It looked better on me, not to mention it took a lot less upkeep.
Although I had plenty of time to waste since I was a waitress at a little diner
in the middle of nowhere with no friends.
It wasn't my choice
to be in the crappy little town. It wasn't how I envisioned my life being at
thirty. However, stupid choices made at the ripe age of eighteen left me
slinging crappy food I couldn’t even stomach.
“Miss! Miss!” an
obnoxious woman yelled from the other side of the room as she waved her arm in
the air. Like I could've missed her when there were only two other tables with
customers on my side of the diner.
“How can I help
you?” I asked, trying to force a smile.
“I need a refill,”
she said, gesturing to her still half-full glass of sweet tea.
“I'll be right
back.” I sighed and went to get the pitcher. Once I topped her glass off, I
went back behind the counter to stare out the front door again. It was how I
passed the time I wasn’t running around trying to keep impossible people happy.
Dreaming about the life I should’ve been living or, on bad days, the life I
used to have.
I used to work at a
pharmacy, helping doctors and patients. I enjoyed going to work every day.
Enjoyed my life, but that all ended once I got involved with Michele Berto. No,
it wasn’t all bad at first, but by the end, I wished I’d never met the man who
ruined my life.
He was tall, dark
and handsome. Just what every woman wanted in a man, right? That's what I once
thought. Not only was he sexy, but I thought he was the one for me. That we'd
be together forever. Then I found out who he really was and nothing was ever
the same. One night and my life as I knew it had been forever and irrevocably
altered.
I'd loved Michele
as much as an eighteen-year-old girl knew how to. I'd been blinded by lust and
the attention and money he’d spent on me. Being raised by a single mother who
worked two jobs to make ends meet left me alone and hungry more often than not.
Then, in swept Michele with his thousand-dollar suits and million-dollar cars.
He'd spoiled me from the start. Anything I wanted, I got. If I even looked at
something for more than a second, it would magically appear at his house or
mine the next day as a gift from him. It was so easy to get caught up in the
whirlwind of money. So easy, in fact, that I didn't see what was right in front
of my face. That he wasn't just a rich twenty-year-old, but a mafioso who was
as controlling and violent as he was charismatic.
Stupid and naïve
I'd fallen for everything he told me. For seven years I’d lived in a blissful
state of blind love. Until I saw something I was never meant to see, only to
disappear in the middle of the night with the help of the FBI then reappear as
a new woman in a new town, with a past to hide from. Along with a horrible name
change. I’d liked being Alice, but they’d changed it to the much more exotic
Allegra, which I didn’t think fit me at all, but no one asked me.
That'd been five
years ago. Five long years of no friends, no family, nothing but a crappy job
to pay for a crappy apartment.
I’d like to say
that I’d relaxed since it had been so long and that I possibly thought I’d
gotten away from Michele unscathed. I didn’t. I was still constantly looking
over my shoulder. Still afraid to connect with people who would make it hard to
leave if I needed to. Not to mention, I still hated the town the FBI had
planted me in. The job was absolutely nothing I would’ve ever done in my
previous life, which I supposed was why it was such a good place to put me.
However, I was miserable, almost hoping someone would find me and take me out
just so I didn’t have to keep paying for the sins I didn’t commit and never
wanted to be a part of.
“Miss!” the
obnoxious customer from hell yelled again.
I gritted my teeth
and went to her table again. Another refill for an only half-gone drink.
Annoying. Drink the whole glass or at least down the to the last quarter and
I'd be automatically filling it. Still half full, and I didn't think it needed
my attention, but what did I know? I was just the hired help having to please
the masses and their stupid requests.
As I returned to my
spot, Wendy, the other waitress, strolled over to me and leaned in close.
“You have got to
check out the hunk of man who just sat in my section,” she breathed quietly.
I glanced over to
her side of the restaurant in surprise. I hadn't heard the door chime to
announce a new arrival so he must've come in while I was handling the needy
woman.
My gaze landed on a
man in the corner booth. I nearly jumped back when my eyes met his. He was
staring right at me as if he'd been waiting for me to notice him. I swallowed
around the hard knot that had formed in my throat from the cold, dead stare he
gave me.
I knew that look.
I’d seen it many times on the men that hung around Michele. It was the look of
a killer.
Meet the Author
Happily married
mother of two darling, trying, beautiful, horribly energetic little girls, an
adorable German Shepherd pup who makes her get off her butt and at least go for
a walk around the block, and a fat, old, lazy chihuahua.
When she isn't
spending all her time writing dirty, sexy, naughty erotic romances, she is
narrating audiobooks and helping run a LBGT blog.
Rachael loves to
push herself to write new things so her books vary from heterosexual romances
to gay/lesbian romances to menage romances... She couldn't imagine writing
outside of the romance genre since that's what life is all about.. Love, sex,
happiness.
She is a full
supporter of the LBGT community and equality for all.
Please connect with
her as she loves to know that people appreciate the time and energy she puts
into each story.
Stalk Her
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