Redemption

Chapter One

                After the short walk, he walked in the door of the coffee shop, the door ringing a bell to alert the young woman working to his entrance. She looked up but quickly looked away. Darius had the feeling that she really didn’t like him, and he couldn’t blame her. His boss was well known and with all the rumors surrounding him, Darius got caught up in them, which led to people thinking he was a terrible person. The worst part, Darius knew, was that too many of the rumors were true. And that there were even worse things that no one had a clue about.

“Hi,” he said as he approached the counter, feeling awkward and stupid as he spoke. Out of all the times he had come to the coffee shop on the corner, he had never spoken much to any of the employees. It was time to fix that, and maybe then, the barista would dislike him a little less.

“Uh, hi,” she replied. She fidgeted a bit and Darius wondered if perhaps she was afraid of gim. If she believed even half the stories about him, he wouldn’t be surprised.

“Wynter,” he said, reading the name tag pinned to her apron. “I’m Darius.”

“Yeah, I know,” she mumbled, still looking uncomfortable. “Um, do you just want your usual?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Actually, could I get two? I could really use the caffeine. Didn’t really sleep well last night and I gotta go to this meeting later and that’s sure to be boring. Or not really boring, but I just don’t want to be there. Today’s just not a good day for it.”

                Darius rambled on, giving a few pauses in hopes that Wynter might add something, but she was obviously not in the mood for a conversation. At least not with him. By the time she placed the first cup of coffee on the counter, he got the hint and drank his coffee. Although hot, Darius had ways of dealing with that. Concentrating on the heat of the cup, he let thoughts of cold fill his mind. Almost immediately, the coffee cooled down to just the right temperature for Darius to drink it down quickly.

His second cup of coffee was waiting on the counter, but he had something more important to take care of first. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket and took out a money card and slid it across the counter. “I’ll be right back,” he said as he headed for the bathroom.

He cursed under his breath as soon as he stepped into the bathroom, feeling like an idiot. He didn’t know why he had tried acting friendly with the barista, but it turned out a failure. No one wanted to talk to him. Going back out there would be embarrassing, but unless he wanted to knock a hole through the bathroom wall and leave his money card, he didn’t have much of a choice. He would make it a quick interaction and then find a new place to get coffee. He only liked the place because it was the closest. Going somewhere else wouldn’t be a problem.

                Just as he was finishing up in the bathroom and getting ready for what was sure to be an embarrassing moment, he felt something not quite right. He paused by the bathroom door, making sure he wasn’t just feeling crazy or imagining it because he didn’t want to go back out there, but even after calming his mind, he knew he had been right. There was trouble on the other side of the door. Darius reached for his gun, but since he hadn’t expected any trouble on a quick trip down the street, he hadn’t brought it with him. Firearm or not, Darius knew he could handle whatever threat lay on the other side of the door.

He opened the door and walked through, making sure to project a casual air about him. The first thing he saw were two young men, younger than himself, holding guns pointed at Wynter. Both turned to look at him when he left the bathroom, but only one moved his gun. Immediately, Darius put his hands up.

“You really don’t want to do that,” Darius said, calm despite the situation.

“Shut up!”