Feeling Hunted

An Excerpt from FRACTURED

It’s been a while since you and I visited , and I’m sorry for that. I’ve been missing in action, trying to revamp FRICTION’s outline. That is no reason to neglect you, so I’m excited to at least share an excerpt from the newly released FRACTURED. Yes, I’m sure some of you have already read it, and for those of you who haven’t, I don’t think there’s much of a spoiler in this excerpt, so feel free to read it. Share the excerpt and tell all your romance loving friends about the book. I’d love for them to spend some time with Sam, Sy, and I. Thanks for allowing me into your parlor when I get around to writing to you, and keep coming to mine, so I can send you news and let you in on the secrets. I’ll do better. Stop rolling your eyes, I’m serious, I really will!

Hope you enjoy the piece of Sam & Sy’s Story I’m sending your way. let me know what you think in the comments or send me an email 3inkpress@nellanthony.ink. I’d love to hear from you. sign up for my newsletter at https://subscribepage.io/slipper, and follow me everywhere. I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Till then, keep creating, Yours in love & magic, Clennell Anthony.Feeling Hunted

Jaydon

I wasn’t looking for Samira, but when I saw her, I couldn’t help following in her wake. At first, I didn’t spot her. It was her scent that caught me off guard. There was something unique about her scent, and it always made me want to follow her like a hound on the hunt. She was prey to my predator, and everybody knew that the wolf in sheep’s clothes always caught its fleecy and rather tasty lamb.

I stared after Samira and the guy walking next to her. I hadn’t expected to find Samira by going shopping, nor had I expected to find her this fast, but here she was. Right there. Samira must have thought she was so slick by shopping at a Wal-Mart that wasn’t the one she usually used. Hadn’t I always told her I’d find her? Had she thought I’d been lying? Had she thought I wouldn’t find her? Well, this just went to show how I was superior to her. Even when I wasn’t looking for her, I found her.

She was walking with some guy. The name tag read, Josiah. That name was indelibly seared into my mind, and I wondered if Samira and Josiah were already screwing. I didn’t pay attention to the blue vest Josiah wore or the fact that he evidently worked there. All I saw was Samira with another man, and it burned my insides. I so badly wanted to walk up to the jerk and slam my hunting blade into his heart, grab Samira, throw her over my shoulder like a Neanderthal, and carry her off back to my modern cave to teach her a very valuable lesson in betrayal and what it would cost her. I’d punish her for the time I’d spent looking for her.

For three weeks, after my uneventful bail hearing, where the judge informed me, I’d be given community service and on probation because I was a first-time offender, I searched for Samira.

“I know your family, and I’m sure this is all a big misunderstanding,” Judge Rutherford had said with a pointed look that was supposed to be intimidating, I was sure, but it had only pissed me off. I wondered how far into Senator Taylor’s pockets the judge was.

I hadn’t seen Samira at work or at her mother’s house. Now, here she was, in Wal-Mart, shopping with some guy I didn’t recognize. They were talking to each other and working together to put things in her shopping cart.

I saw the gym bag, briefcase, and purse she took to work. So, she had been going to work. I trailed them through the store, forgetting to shop for myself, too transfixed on the cozy tableau she and her new lover made.

I saw Josiah dead, a bullet to the head, a knife in the back, or my hands around the man’s throat as I strangled the life out of him. Samira was mine, and no one could have her.

When she looked back, I grinned, knowing she wouldn’t see me from that far away. I knew her. I knew everything about her. She wouldn’t see me because she couldn’t see far enough to make out my facial features. All she’d see was the outline of me. I knew because I had lived with her for two years.

She’d regret leaving me, and she’d eventually come back to me. Whether dead or alive. How she came was up to her. Now, I could follow her all the way back to wherever it was she’d moved to.

I knew she’d moved into a townhouse because I’d called her brother in Massachusetts to find out the news. I’d known she wouldn’t tell Derek everything.

I lied about the fight we had, and Derek believed me. He didn’t give me the new address or phone number but told me that Samira had moved and was determined that she wouldn’t marry me.

“You fix this, Jay,” Derek demanded.

“Sure, I’ll fix it,” I soothed. “She’s just mad right now. You know how women are, and especially how Samira can be.”

“Yeah well, Sam’s not the type to get mad over nothing. I’m not sure if I should be even talking to you or telling you anything, but she’s all right, doing well, from what Mom said. I’ll try to talk to her for you.”

“No need, I’ll see what I can do first. If I think I need your help, I’ll let you know.”

“All right, I gotta go, I’m being paged over the intercom system. I’ll talk to you later.”

I slid my finger across the screen to disconnect. “Fool,” I said, my tone derisive.

Now, I wouldn’t have to plot or hack into databases to find her address.  I’d just follow the bitch back to   where she lived and start my campaign from there.

I knew Samira, all right: she was stubborn, and nothing and no one could talk her into coming back to me if she’d made up her mind about it. I didn’t think my apologies and charm would work. Either I’d find a way to make her see things my way, or I’d just have to kill her.

If I can’t have her, no one will, I hummed a tune to the little cliché in my mind. Especially not the jerk shopping with her now.

I continued to hum cheerfully to myself, as I trailed after the scene of coziness in front of me, growing angrier all the while, watching her interact with the man with the wild hair, tall, huge body, and what had to be an inferior mind.

Sam

I felt hunted, stalked. I kept feeling a tingle of dread down my spine, and the hairs at my nape kept standing on end. It was weird, but I almost imagined I could actually smell Jaydon’s woodsy cologne. I tried to pay attention to my shopping. I couldn’t see my list, as I’d printed it out in small print, but I remembered it well. Still, I couldn’t fight the feeling that I was being followed.

I looked over my shoulder, but no one was watching me that I could recognize. I blew out a breath of frustration. I knew my limitations, especially when it came to my sight. I could only see so far. It wasn’t like I’d be able to see if someone was far enough away. Maybe I’m just paranoid? I turned back to the shelves of pasta.

“You alright?” Sy asked.

I stood, a frown on my face. I noticed my fingers trembled. The item I held in my hands rattled. Sy must have seen my preoccupation and noticed my frustration. I smiled up at him and nodded.

“You don’t seem alright to me,” he observed.

“I’m just restless and antsy. I hate Wal-Mart.” I gave him part of the truth.

I really did hate Wal-Mart. It was always so full of people, no one watched where they were going, and everybody was in a hurry. People bumped into me as if they couldn’t see me. It was like as soon as people walked into Wal-Mart, they became strange and aggressive. But the prices were better and I was working on a budget for the time being. Getting my name taken from the lease, putting my belongings in storage for a few weeks, and renting a new house had dug into my savings. The police officers had informed me that Jaydon had gotten off with a slap on the wrist, probation and community service, as it was his first offense and yada, yada. I didn’t really care what happened to him, so long as he stayed the hell away from me.

Sy moved the cart and I realized I wasn’t moving with him, preoccupied again. Keep up, Sam, I told myself, and put my hands on the cart again and continued to shop.