Hunting Cari (First Wave) Read Online Free Page A

had surrounded Vince as soon as he had let her go. The
men were using their bodies to herd him farther away from her and towards the
front of the store. He glanced back at her, and the anger and possession in his
eyes caused an involuntary shudder to run through her body. The older woman
noticed and patted her arm.
    “It’s alright now honey. Those boys
will get him out of here. I’ll bet you’re ready to check out and get back home
to your Uncle too.” She said gently, walking her toward the check-out lines.
She must have realized Cari didn’t want to talk about it and kept up a steady
stream of chatter about joining her church, her children, grandchildren and the
weather.
    She barely heard a word the woman
had said. Her thoughts were on Vince Baker and why he would target her like
that, and in such a public place. He couldn’t possibly know who she was, or who
Uncle Randor was. It just didn’t make any sense. He had to be one of those
random freaks she’d read about and seen on the news… a stalker. She was grateful
they’d only be here another few weeks before moving on. And although she’d
gotten distracted in the store, she had gotten enough supplies to last them
until they left.
    Her thoughts in turmoil, Cari
didn’t even realize they were in the parking lot until she saw her uncle
walking towards her. Drawing her attention to the older woman still next to
her, she realized thankfully, that the woman wasn’t speaking of the incident
inside the store. Not wanting her Uncle to know what had happened, she looked to
the woman and quickly said, “Thank you so much for the invitation to your
church. If we happen to still be in town, we will certainly consider
attending.”  She gave the woman a pleasant smile and hurried to meet her Uncle
before the woman could engage him in a conversation that might lead to him
finding out what had happened with Vince Baker.
    Finally seeing her safe, Randor breathed out a sigh of relief.
He’d been panicking for nothing apparently. From what he’d overheard of the
conversation with the woman who had walked out with Cari, she was interested in
trying to get them to attend their church. He knew they wouldn’t; even if they
stayed longer than the few weeks that they had planned. As he reached Cari’s
side and took the cart from her, he noticed her scanning the parking lot and
looking kind of distracted. “Did everything go ok? You run into any problems?”
He asked her suspiciously, quickly evaluating his emotions.
    Hearing the concern in her Uncle’s voice, she realized what
she’d been doing. She quickly stopped scanning the parking lot for Vince Baker
and pretended to just be interested in the area in general. Shrugging her
shoulders in an attempt at nonchalance, she replied, “Everything went great.
Although… I did spend a little time just looking at everything and probably
bought a few things I shouldn’t have…” She gave him a beautiful smile and her
best pouty face that she always used on him to try to get out of trouble. As
usual, it worked as she knew it would.
    “I’m sure whatever you bought is fine Cari. I know you don’t
often get a chance to indulge in things like other girls your age, so when you
do have an opportunity, I don’t blame you for getting a few things you want. So
what was it this time? Clothes, purses, make-up… wait I know!!! You bought
jewelry!” He teased knowing she’d never been interested in the “normal” female
things that other girls seemed to be interested in. Not that she needed to, she
was truly beautiful without any accessories.
    Cari laughed while helping her Uncle load the supplies into the
truck. “Actually I got twenty five tubes of lipstick in every shade they had.”
She tried to tease with a straight face. Randor knew better and just laughed at
her. “For some reason, I don’t see you doing that. But we can see what
treasures you indulged in when we get to the cabin. Let’s get out of here
before the