Page 80 of Feeding Hope
Tearing her thoughts away from the man, Constance straightened a few of the boxes with shaking hands. The motion was pointless—busywork—but she needed something to anchor her before the fear swallowed her whole.
She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against the cool cardboard, closing her eyes. For a moment, she focusedon breathing, on the solid resistance beneath her skin, on not unraveling.
She didn’t feel safe enough to fall apart.
Not yet.
The sound of motorcycles snapped her head up.
Constance moved quietly toward the door, pulse skidding as flashes of color and chrome rolled past the storefront. Engines idled low and menacing before cutting out one by one. When she reached the door, she stared as Jinx and five other men swung off their Harleys.
They didn’t bunch together. They spread out. Each of them scanned the street, while Jinx and three others headed straight for her store.
Constance opened the door just as Jinx stepped onto the sidewalk. She retreated instinctively, letting him and the others inside before easing the door shut behind them, the click of the lock sounding far too loud in the quiet.
“Thank you for coming,” she said, her gaze flicking to one of the men flanking him.
He stood apart.
She noticed him immediately, broad stance, shoulders set like he was carved out of stone. His dark hair was threaded with silver, not age so much as experience. His light eyes swept the room once, sharp and assessing, like he cataloged everything in a single glance.
It made her straighten without realizing she’d slouched.
“How many came in?” Jinx asked.
“This time? Two.” Her voice wavered despite her effort to steady it. “One of them… made me uncomfortable. It wasn’t what he said. It was the way he looked at me. Like he was deciding something.”
Jinx’s jaw tightened.
“What did they want?” the broody biker in the back asked, his voice low and rough, cutting clean through the room.
“Money. It’s always money,” she said. “But this time they opened the bagged meals. One of them ate some right there, then threw the rest on the floor. They dumped all the bags and stomped on them.”
Silence followed. The heavy kind.
“Constance, this is Frost,” Jinx said. “These two are Rev and Wolf.”
She nodded to each of them. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry you had to drop everything because of me.”
Jinx waved it off. “You did the right thing by calling.”
He started walking the space, eyes lifting to corners, doorways, blind spots. It was a good location for what she was doing—but it was tucked back, making it easily targeted.
He thought she needed cameras for safety reasons. “You need cameras.”
“When I first opened, I didn’t have any issues,” Constance said. “But I’m starting to think this is why all the other businesses moved out.”
Her gaze drifted from Jinx to Frost without her meaning to. He was distracting—not in a way that unsettled her, but in the opposite. Watching him methodically assess the store, checking corners and sightlines, made her breathing slow. Like someone had finally taken the threat seriously.
“I’ll get cameras, Jinx,” she added.
He nodded once, approval clear.
“Now,” Jinx said, “who are these guys?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. They never say if they’re part of a gang or some kind of group. But so far, I’ve had between three and five different men come in here, all of them pushing.”
The number landed heavy in the room.
