Free Cold Cut Murder: Book Three in The Darling Deli Series by Patti Benning

“What can I get you?”
    “Let me see…” His eyes drifted towards the menu for a moment, and then down to the plate of cookies, half of which still remained. She saw her phone lying next to the plate too late. The screen was still on, and the image of Steven leaving the deli was as clear as day. Her blood turning to ice, she risked a glance back up at him and knew that he had seen it too.
    The second his eyes met hers and she saw the cold rage in them, she ran. He was between her and the front door, so she went the only direction she could—into the kitchen. The door between the kitchen and the front room didn’t have a lock on it, so she only got a few steps into the room before Steven burst through after her. His eyes were wild. Frozen in terror, she watched as he slipped a knife from his pocket. The rose dropped from his hand to the floor, and one of the petals came off and slowly followed the flower down, floating the rest of the way until it came to rest on top of his boot. She saw all of this with strange clarity, as if it were happening in slow motion. She kept telling herself to run, to try to make it to the side door, but his gaze had her pinned in place. If she moved, time might start again, and then he would kill her.
    She slid her eyes over to the counter where her purse was, and despaired that the pepper spray was so far away. It was halfway between them, what seemed like a hopeless distance away, but it was open and she knew exactly which pocket the pepper spray was in.
    Trying not to think about it too much, she made a sudden lunge towards the purse. Steven was faster, and caught her roughly by the upper arm. His fingers dug into her skin, sure to leave bruises if she survived this.
    “Let me go,” she gasped, recoiling automatically which just made him dig his fingers in even more tightly.
    “You should have just said yes,” he hissed at her, ignoring her demand. “All I wanted to do was take you to the dance.”
    “I don’t understand why you’re doing this.” She couldn’t take her eyes off the knife in his hand.
    “I love you,” he said. “I did everything I could for you. I killed for you. But still you just couldn’t do something as simple as go on one date with me.” He jerked her closer. “It’s always the same with you women. No matter how much I do, it’s never enough.”
    “What do you mean, you killed for me?” she managed to say, frantically looking around for anything that she could use to save herself.
    “The man who unfairly judged the deli, I killed him. I heard you and your friend talk about the review maybe putting you out of business.” His grip tightened. “I was protecting you.”
    “What about David, and Marcus?” she asked, doing her best to stall.
    “They shouldn’t have gotten involved with you,” he said with a snort of disgust. “Enough talking. You’ve had your chances. You’re just like all the others. I shouldn’t have wasted my time on you.”
    Moira saw his grip tighten on the knife, and knew that the end was near. He was too strong, there was no way she could break free from his grip. Her pepper spray was out of reach in her purse, and her cell phone was in the front room. There was nothing within reach that could save her. Nothing except… her eyes landed on the still-simmering pots of soup on the stove.
    She made her move just as Steven was bringing the knife up. Her hand closed firmly around the nearest pot’s handle. As quickly as she could, she jerked it off the stove and flung the contents at him, the pot, too, for good measure. With a strangled cry of agony as scalding-hot soup splashed across his face, he let her go. Before he had a chance to recover, she leapt past him and dashed through the swinging door to the front room, where her phone was still sitting next to the plate of cookies. She grabbed it and dialed the police as she ran out of the building, not caring that it was freezing outside. She didn’t stop until she heard