GRACE
I'm a waitress at a 24-hour diner in the dingier part of a small town basically owned and operated by the Petrov crime family.
The customers who entered the diner during my 4 p.m. to midnight shift were my strays. It was my job to take care of them. That's what I've done my whole life, take care of others. It was the only way I could atone for the sins of my mother.
I looked at the oversized neon clock above the cake display. Nearly midnight.
Twenty more minutes until my shift ended. I couldn't help but watch the door to see if he would show up. My favorite stray. I called him Mystery Man.
For the last week, he'd come in to the diner like clockwork, right before my shift ended.
