Moon Kissed Read Free

Stand proud. You’re a Moore.”
    Those were the last words her father had said before he was deployed. He was a career Navy man, never happy unless he was at sea. That never bothered her because he always came home. Until he hadn’t.
    Addison didn’t want to think about her father, or the lonely years after. At twenty-three, she was ready to get on with her life, except that she couldn’t do that until she finished her degree.
    Which was going to be impossible now that the last of her scholarship had run out. Her student loans were reaching cosmic proportions already. If she were lucky, she might pay them off before she died.  
    She was almost to the car when a scream rent the air. Someone came rushing toward her, knocking her to the ground. Addison looked up in time to see a young kid with a navy hoodie duck into an alley.
    Suddenly, people began to crowd around. Someone helped her to her feet as sirens blared. Addison looked down to see that both knees were scraped and bleeding, and her shirt was ripped.
    “Excuse me. Pardon me,” she said as she slowly made her way through the throng of people to the car.  
    She reached the car and glanced around to see someone pointing her out to a policeman. Addison stilled and waited for the officer to reach her. It was the same one from earlier.
    “Did you see what happened?” he asked.
    She threw up her hands. “I’ve no idea what happened. I heard a scream, then someone ran into me and knocked me down.”
    “Do you remember anything about the person?”
    “I saw what looked like a teenager with a hoodie duck into the alley.”
    The policeman’s face was grim. “I’m going to need a formal statement from you.”
    “Because the guy bumped into me?” she asked in disbelief
    “Because he mugged an elderly woman. When he took her purse, she fell and hit her head. She’s dead.”
    Addison briefly squeezed her eyes closed. “Oh, my God. I had no idea.”
    In seconds, she was taken to a patrol car and driven to the station. She sat there for the next hour waiting on someone to take her statement while her phone blew up with texts from an angry Wendy. Another hour passed while she wrote everything down and went over it with another officer before she was driven back to Wendy’s car.
    Addison stared at the spot where the red Miata was supposed to be parked, to find a gray Dodge truck instead. She was about to try and catch the police before they left when she remembered telling Wendy where she’d parked the car in one of the dozens of texts they’d exchanged.
    Anger spiked through her as she punched Wendy’s number and listened while the phone rang. It took three rings before Wendy answered. “Do you have the car?” Addison asked.
    “Yeah. I had Paul drop me off,” Wendy said with music from the radio blaring in the background. “I told you, I have to be at my parent’s tonight by eight. I couldn’t wait.”
    “I wish you’d have told me you picked up the car. I thought it was stolen.”
    Wendy laughed. “Nope. I’ve got it. Gotta go! I’ll see you Monday.”
    Addison looked at the phone after Wendy ended the call. It had never entered Wendy’s mind that Addison didn’t have a way back to the apartment they shared.
    Her stomach rumbled. She had skipped lunch because there hadn’t been time between her classes, and now she felt as if she could eat her own arm she was so hungry. With only five dollars to her name, she could either eat or take the bus home. Since there was nothing to eat at the apartment, her choice was made for her.
    Addison looked first one way and then the other. She turned left and strolled down the street looking for a place she thought she could afford. There was about a hundred dollars left to charge on her lone credit card. She had been saving that for something special like books, but food was a lot more important.
    She heard the music before she saw the place. While many of the restaurants played Zydeco music, there was a bar on