Ally's Revenge (Part 1 complete, Part 2 in progress)

Chapter 11

"Hey you! Have you been here long," she asked as we walk towards each other. I reach my arm out to give her a kind of friendly half hug, and as we embrace the man on the bench turns towards me. The friendly, older man appearance is replaced by a menacing stare. I still have my phone out so I take his picture one more time, not because I need another view, but because I want him to see me take it.

We walk around the market for about an hour or so, but I am not able to enjoy myself. The man from the bench has been following us, and he is not even trying to hide. We have made a complete circle and seen most of the tents so Ally suggests we go eat.

We walk to the parking lot and the man follows us. He is watching us get into my truck and I watch as he walks over to a green Jeep SUV that is running and parked right next to Ally's black Acura. I help boost Ally into my truck and as I walk around to the driver's side, I pull out my phone and snap a few more pictures of the Jeep and the men inside. The windows are tented so I did not get a clear view of the other men inside, but I got a clear picture of the tag, which is the important part. I did not hide what I was doing and I know the older man from the bench saw me.

We arrive at the restaurant about five minutes later and I park directly across the street so I can keep an eye on my truck. As we enter the restaurant, I see the Jeep pull up a few spaces down from where I parked. I excuse myself to the bathroom, mainly to get an exact layout of the restaurant. I walk completely around the dining room, pretending to look for the bathroom, counting my steps to get a feel for the square footage of the place. Once I circle the dining room, I head down a short hallway that connects the server station to the kitchen. There is a back door, probably the delivery door, between the bathrooms and the kitchen entrance. There are no windows except for the front of the building so if we had to make a quick exit, the front, or back door would be our only options.

I settle into the booth and attempt to relax. Ally is beautiful and smart, exactly the kind of woman I have been looking for my entire life. We talk about everything, realizing we have a lot in common, even our damn Halloween birthday. I try to enjoy myself but it is very hard to when there are murdering stalkers waiting on us to leave. It occurs to me that they probably have another man going through her house while we sit here and chitchat the afternoon away.

"I hate to ruin our mood by asking this, but are you OK? I mean, you've been attacked and had your house broken into but you sit here as though you don't have a care in the world." As soon as I say 'you don't have a care in the world', her eyes changed from the beautiful emerald green to a darker grey, like thunderstorm grey. Oh God, you've pissed her off. Good going stupid!

"Is that really what you think? That I don't have a care in the world. Pretty presumptuous statement coming from a man I just met."

"I'm sorry; I have this horrible disease called Foot In Mouth Syndrome. It causes me to say very offensive and possibly hurtful things without thinking them through." I smile, wishing for the millionth time that life had a rewind button. Thankfully, she laughs.

"My goodness you are adorable when you're flustered," she says and takes my hand from across the table. "Actually, I am falling apart on the inside as we speak. I am so thankful you came to my rescue, again, because if I had to sit in that house by myself I would have gone completely crazy. Would you mind maybe coming back to the house with me to meet with the alarm guys? My dad was going to come but he said something came up."

"Of course. Maybe I can even make a few suggestions. During my last deployment, part of my job in Afghanistan was surveillance and security for the Department of Homeland Security. I had every high tech toy you could imagine."

"I would appreciate that very much, thank you."

We talk for a few more minutes, about my job and the coincidence of us growing up in the same neighborhood, but when I check my watch, I realize we have been here for almost two hours. The men in the Jeep have been very patient until the older man that had sat beside Ally must have needed to relieve himself because he suddenly crosses the street and enters the restaurant. He heads to the back, to the restroom, and I almost got up myself to take care of this situation while he was relieving himself, but he returns too soon and heads for the door again.