We Come Out At Night 4

Chapter 4

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Gates
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I’ve been sitting in my car at the cemetery all day waiting to see if Kristina would show up. It was cloudy and a storm was on the way. I assumed that today she would show up being that if she felt she was being watched, she would assume that no one would be sitting in the cemetery in this weather.

As the wind started to pick up, fallen leaves swept past my car along with random items from some of the graves that weren’t sturdy enough to withstand the wind. Little droplets were slowly starting to pelt my windshield. My hand reached for the key in the ignition as soon as the drizzle started, she wasn’t coming. Another day would pass and still no Kristina.

I started the car and turned on the windshield wipers to remove the pattern of droplets that had obstructed my view. This was just the calm before the storm, it was supposed to get much worse. After putting my hands on the steering wheel, I glanced up through the windshield one last time and sure enough…there she was kneeling down in front of Olivia’s grave.

I watched her for a few minutes, not wanting to intrude on the sacred moment between her and her daughter. When I did decide to get out of my car, the drops of rain started to come down a little faster. She never turned her head to see me coming, that is until the wind blew her umbrella right out of her hand in my direction.

“Kristina.” I said her name just as her eyes met mine. The rain came down hard above our heads, the storm was moving in and I had to get her out of here. She rose from the ground and shook her head before she took off running through the cemetery.

“Kristina wait!” I yelled as I ran after her. Lighting lit up the now dark place where the departed rested beneath our feet. Kristina slipped on a patch of muddy grass, but I caught her around her waist with my arm stopping her from hitting the ground.

“Stop running damn it!” My breathing was fast and my chest was heaving with every breath I took.

“Leave me alone.” She cried and tried to wrestle herself out of my arms.

“We have to get out of here, the storm is getting worse.” I looked up into the face of another lighting flash. “Come on, you’re soaked, come back to my car.” The tree we were standing under in the darkness reminded me of one of those bad apple trees in The Wizard of Oz.

“I’m not going anywhere with you! You’re all fucking crazy!” She shouted.

“I may be crazy, but it’s fucking pouring and we need to get out of this storm now!”I dragged her back to through the muddy ground to my car and shoved her inside. When I got into the driver’s side, I locked both the doors and looked up through the windshield just in time to see the tree we were standing under split in half with the help of a lightning bolt. I started the car and pulled out of there as fast as I could. On the way out we passed Kristina’s car, which now had a tree as a hood ornament.

“I’m not going back to the casino with you!” She shouted at me.

“Well, the way I see it, you don’t have very much of a choice now do you?”

The rain made it hard to see as I drove and I really didn’t need Kristina shouting on top of it. All I wanted to do was get the hell home. “Just come back to the casino with me tonight. Put on some dry clothes, maybe have something to eat and get some sleep. If you still want to leave in the morning, I will personally hold the damn door open for you.”

She didn’t answer. I was never so thankful for the silence between us. When I stopped at a light, I glanced over at her and saw that she was shivering. I reached into the backseat and grabbed a hoodie jacket. “Here, put this on.”

She took the jacket from me and slipped it over her arms, but the shivering didn’t stop. I had the heat on in the car, but we were both soaked through to our skin from the rain.
I finally made it back to the casino and pulled into my parking space. All we had to do now was run for it.

We ran as fast as we could as our bodies were once again pelted with hard rain. When we finally got inside, I took her right up to my floor. We were both out of breath by the time we got there.

“I’ll get you some dry clothes.” I kicked my shoes off and walked into my bedroom. I pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt for Kristina and before going back out to the living room, I stopped at the linen closet and pulled out a few towels.

“Here, go put these on.” I handed her the clothes and she when she walked to the bathroom, I returned to my bedroom to change out of my own wet clothes. I dried my body off with a towel and slipped on a pair of sweat pants. After drying my hair I went back out to the living room to wait for Kristina.

When she finally came back out, she still looked a little cold. Her hair was damp and she looked lost in my t-shirt and sweats. “Do you want something with longer sleeves? You look cold.”

“No. This is fine, thanks.” There was awkwardness between us that was undeniable.

“Well, why don’t you sit on the couch, I’ll go make some tea to help you warm up.”

“Ok.” She nodded and sat sideways on the first cushion of the couch and bent her knees up resting her feet on the middle cushion.

In the kitchen, I set the teapot on the stove and turned on the pilot light. After taking two mugs out of the cabinet, I set them down on the counter and placed a teabag in each one. I had no idea what I was going to say to her when I went back into the living room. There was so much that I wanted to say to her while she was gone, but now that she’s here, I don’t even know where to begin. One thing for sure was that I didn’t want to make her angry. I wasn’t looking for another fight and I certainly didn’t want her to leave again.

When the teapot started to whistle, I turned off the burner and filled both our cups with the hot water. As I looked down at the two cups, I realized that I had no idea how Kristina likes her tea. So, I walked back out to the living room to find out.

“Kristina how…” I started to say, but stopped and rested my hands on my hips. “She sleeps.” Tilting my head to the side, I watched her sleeping form for a few minutes before walking back to my room to get a blanket. When I came back out, I covered her with it. On instinct, my hand caressed her cheek while she slept and I found myself pressing my lips to her temple. After turning out the light, I went back to the kitchen to empty out the mugs. I retreated back to my bedroom after I had finished and when I sat on the bed, I called Johnny to let him know that Kristina was here and he could stop looking for her, but I warned him not to tell Shadows. Payback may be a bitch, but Synyster Gates is a motherfucker.
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As I said in an author's note in the last book, Izzy and Marco's wedding would be relevant to this book. So, you'll see quite a bit of Marco's pov in this one. You'll see several flashbacks from him reflecting the time frame from their wedding back to chapter one of the first book. You'll even see the actual conversation he had with Keira the night that Izzy stood outside his office door and found out Kiera was pregnant. So, you'll see the good and the bad. I'm also going to show you how Shadows and Marco became enemies when they were once the best of friends.

The butterfly does return in this story, but it's mystery will remain until the last book.