“Do you mind helping me?” Forcing the words out, Reaper lifted his eyes from the watches. “Another man’s opinion would be helpful, Mr. ….” He deliberately trailed off.
“Dalt West. And certainly, I look forward to helping you.”
Dalt lifted the first watch. “This a Cosmograph Daytona Black dial watch with diamonds.”
Tuning out the rest of the details of the watch, Reaper raised his hand toward Dalt, shoving his Last Rider jacket sleeve up to his elbow, exposing his scarred wrist. “Do you mind? Because of the virus, I prefer to touch as little as possible.”
“Of course not.” Dalt West had gone as pale as the white walls, and his fingers were shaking as he closed the fastening.
“Don’t worry.”
Dalt lifted his frightened face to Reaper’s.
“I don’t bite.” Reaper’s humor had the owner looking more worried. “How much is this one?”
“Twenty-three, nine ninety-nine.”
Holding his wrist out, Reaper twisted it back and forth, studying the watch before putting his wrist out again. “I’m ready to see the other watch,” Reaper prompted when Dalt didn’t immediately unfasten the watch.
“Certainly.” Unfastening the watch, Dalt placed it back down on the tray before lifting the other one. “This one is a Cosmograph Daytona White dial stainless-steel oyster watch with sapphires. The price is twenty-four, nine ninety-nine.” Dalt’s hands weren’t shaking this time as he fastened the watch around his wrist.
Twisting his wrist to let the light hit the face of the watch, he appreciated the beauty of it.
“You can take it off.” Holding his hand out, he let Dalt take the watch off.
“Do they make the oyster one with a leather band?” he asked.
“I believe I have that one in the Lexington store. I can have it here by Friday. We do require a non-refundable deposit before I send for it.”
Shrugging, Reaper took out his wallet.
“Charline will take your deposit.” West picked up the tray of watches as he spoke, then moved away from the counter. “Thank you for shopping—”
“Where are you going with those? I’ll take them both and”—Reaper placed a finger over the charm tray—“I’ll take the gold star.”
“The charm is twenty-two hundred.” Quoting the price, the saleswoman used a white glove to pick up the charm while simultaneously placing the tray back inside the display case.
“That’s expensive for a charm, isn’t it?”
“The charm is twenty-four carat gold, and if you look closely there, you can see tiny diamond chips.” She held it out for him to take.
Reaper didn’t take the star from her. “I’ll take your word for it … and the moon.” Giving the tray a final perusal, he then pointed at another tiny one that was so small, it had almost escaped his notice. “Add this one to my bill as well. Can you wrap those for me?”
“I’ll leave you in Charline’s capable hands,” Dalt said. “It’s been nice meeting you. I’m sorry, she didn’t tell me your name.”
“Call me Reaper.”
Dalt West closed his store promptly at six. Forcing himself to walk and not run, as much as he wanted to, he made it to his car without incident.
“See you tomorrow.”
Dalt jumped as Charline called out from her rolled down window.
“Good evening.”
His car keys fell from his hand as he tried to get into his BMW. Picking them up, he got inside. Wiping his sweating brow, he started the car.
Sedately driving the two blocks to his home, he almost pissed himself when two motorcycles pulled out of the gas station and drove behind him. He was sweating so badly that he wanted to wipe away his sweat again but didn’t want to make any moves that they could see through his rearview mirror. Switching on his blinker to turn down his street, he was relieved to see the motorcycles continue on the main road.
He turned into his driveway, pulled into his garage, and kept his car doors locked as he waited for the garage door to completely close before he practically fell out of his car to run inside.
“Lisa? Lisa!”
“I’m upstairs.”
Running upstairs, he was moving so fast that he would have stumbled up them if he hadn’t been holding onto the bannister.
“Where are you?” Dalt yelled.
“I’m in the bathroom.”
Hearing her mumbled reply, he pushed the door open to see Lisa opening the shower door.
“What’s wrong?”
“Are you okay? Why didn’t call me back when I called, or answer my texts?” he shouted. Sitting on the end of the tub, he tried to catch his breath.
Lisa turned the water off. “I had my hair and doctor appointments today, remember? I told you last night. I thought you just wanted to know if I wanted take-out for dinner.” Grabbing a towel to wrap around herself, she then removed her shower cap. “What’s wrong? You’re scaring me.”
“Gavin James came into the jewelry store this afternoon.”
Lisa paled. “Did he recognize you?”
“I don’t think so. He spent almost eighty thousand dollars.”