Killing Me Softly: A Thriller Romance Novel

Chapter 16

Compassion can get me killed? Jamie's words repeated in my mind on my way out of the funeral home. It gave me the chills briefly.

Why would he say that? I wondered as I jingled my keys out of my purse and entered the parking lot, still full of cars.

It was dark now, with it getting late and Mary Jo's wake coming to a close. Folks were trickling out a little at a time. I stayed long enough to make a few mental notes and to listen in on a few conversations. I paid my respects to Mary Jo briefly before I left with Jamie's eyes on me the entire time.

No matter which way I turned or moved, he was there observing every little thing I did or didn't do, watching me like a hawk. It concerned me, but I did my best to ignore it and do what I was there to do.

I had not seen Theo since Donnie had confronted him and stormed off. I never saw Donnie again that night either. But as I was walking toward my Mini, I caught sight of someone standing at the back of a couple of vehicles. It was a tall, slender man in a suit and tie, and I knew exactly who it was when I saw the cherry of his cigarette light up and dim before he blew smoke out of his lips. It was Theo.

He shifted at the sound of my feet against the pavement as I passed by him to get to my car. Startled, I sped up when I saw him turn and face me. He stepped out of the shadows and looked right at me with those glistening, onyx eyes as he inhaled another drag. The way he opened his lips and exhaled made it look like he wanted to say something to me but didn't.

"Shit, shit, shit," I said to myself when I got into my car with my heart racing ninety-thousand miles per hour. "He saw me. Fuck." My hands were shaking so badly I dropped my keys in the floorboard. I leaned down to grab them when Theo rounded the front of the truck to the left of me and looked right at me fumbling around in my car.

Shit! I frantically cranked my car and turned the AC up. It's not that I didn't want Theo to see me, but I had spent all those years hiding from him, I didn't know how else to react to Theo watching me.

I was out of there quick! As soon as I rolled out of my parking spot, I glanced in my rearview mirror only to see Theo throw down the butt of his cigarette to the concrete, stomp it out with his foot, and watch me leave. Then he bent down to pick up his cigarette and walked back toward his Jeep nonchalantly.

What was Theo thinking? Why was he watching me like that? Did he finally recognize me? If he did, why did he walk over to my car like that? It was as if he was thinking about approaching me, but I had made it impossible by fleeing the scene.

Shit, it was much too close for comfort. Then again, would it be so bad if Theo Jameson talked to me? I had dreamed of the moment of our meet-cute a million times over in my head. Only, I had never in a million years imagined it would be at his wife's funeral. Yikes...what the hell was I doing?

"I am telling you. He was looking right at me," I told Janice about it as soon as she got home. She had worked the evening shift and was off by eleven that night.

"Scary," Janice said and searched through her closet for something nice to wear to the funeral tomorrow. "Do you think he wanted to say something to you?"

"I don't know. It sure seemed like it," I said, rubbing my hands over the fabric of my dress to wipe the sweat from them.

"Look at you. You're shaking!" Janice told me when she turned around and set a pretty, black dress on the bed next to me. "Are you sure you want to go tomorrow?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I go tomorrow?"

"Because you're a fucking mess over the fact that Theo saw you. I mean, what are you going to do if he talks to you? Hmm? Scream in his face, then turn around and run from him? I mean, I don't know about you, but I can only imagine what detectives will think when they see that." Janice teased and laughed.