Chapter Fifteen
Blaize sat on a step two doors down from the bar in the back alley.
The barback would have to empty the trash as part of his closing duties.
This spot would give Blaize an advantage.
He could clearly see the door from this vantage point.
From farther down the alley, Carys could keep watch over him.
She had a tire iron from his Jeep to use as a weapon or, better yet, figure out how to give to him if something went south.
The door opened. He tried not to move a muscle or breathe. The barback stepped outside with a full trash bag, as anticipated. He kicked a bucket over to stop the door from closing. It must’ve locked automatically.
Blaize scanned the area in search of any suspicious movement.
The barback hadn’t explicitly asked Blaize to meet outside.
In fact, he probably expected a visit in the bar before closing like he’d requested.
A thin crowd meant the possibility of eyes on them, exposing the barback for possible retribution.
The guy came across like he was sticking his neck out. Blaize wanted to honor it.
“Pssst,” he hissed in an attempt to get the guy’s attention without freaking him out.
“Hey, Thomas.” The male bartender stepped outside and lit a smoke. “Why didn’t you stock the glasses under the bar like I told you to? Now it’ll take even more time to close out, and I can’t leave here until everything is stocked.”
Thomas. Blaize had a first name to work with now.
Thomas’s gaze flicked over toward the spot where Blaize was sitting. Did the guy just give them away?
“We were slammed all night,” Thomas said, pushing back. “Last I checked, I only have two hands and you kept me hopping all night. Or don’t you remember?”
Thomas was skinny and in need of a haircut. He had blond hair and light eyes, looked to be a freshman in college or maybe a sophomore at most.
“Excuses,” the bartender said, leaning his back against the bricks. He brought his foot up, sole flat against the wall. “Just because you’re Angel’s nephew doesn’t mean you can’t get fired.”
“Go ahead, then,” Thomas said, unfazed. “Tell my uncle that I’m doing a bad job and you want me gone. See how that works out for you while you’re out here smoking instead of pitching in. You know, we’ll lock up a hell of a lot faster if you put out that cigarette and get back to work.”
The bartender flinched like he was about to throw a punch.
“Go ahead and do it,” Thomas teased. “Or get out of my way so I can toss the trash into the dumpster, dude.”
Blaize liked the kid’s spunk. He took note of the fact that the guy’s uncle was important to the bar. Manager? Owner?
A squad car turned down the alley.
If the same cop from a little while ago was behind the wheel, Blaize was busted.
How much trouble could he get into for being caught lying to an officer?
He needed to signal Carys to get out of there.
She was positioned down the alley far enough to slip into the groups of folks walking around or standing in line at one of the nearby taco food trucks lining the street.
Could he slip away unseen? Join her?
A quick glance revealed her coming toward him with her back against the wall. No, no, no.
From the corner of his eye, he caught the bartender dropping the cigarette butt before crushing it underneath his shoe. He slipped inside and, like the jerk he was proving to be, tapped the bucket away, causing the door to close and lock.
“What are you doing?” he whispered to Carys as she approached. “You had a chance to escape.” There was a slim possibility the officer—if it was him—wouldn’t have recognized Blaize without her. With her, it was almost a given.
Instead of responding, she fisted his shirt and tugged him up to standing. Then she pressed up to her tiptoes, turned them so that her back was against the wall, and pulled him toward her until their mouths fused.
The cop car crept down the alley, coming toward them, but for a split second, Blaize lost all sense of time and place. The second her lips met his, fireworks exploded in his chest, the world tilted on its axis, and he felt like he was right where he was supposed to be.
With great effort, Blaize forced his attention back to the alley and out of the blissful fog of need.
He heard Thomas swearing along with the sounds of the oversized trash bag being forced into an already-full dumpster.
Next came the hum of the vehicle’s engine. It stopped. A window rolled down.
“You can’t stay here. Move on.” The officer’s unfamiliar voice caused Blaize to exhale.
“Sorry,” he said, moving to take Carys by the hand and heading toward Thomas without making eye contact.
The squad car sat idle. The officer was likely assessing whether he believed they were sober. They must have passed because the engine hummed and rocks crunched underneath the tires.
Thomas cursed as he tried the door.
“Hey,” Blaize said as they approached, hand in hand.
Thomas whirled around, his hands fisted. Right. He probably couldn’t make out the sound of Blaize’s voice over the loud noises in the bar earlier where voices fought to be heard over the music.
“It’s me,” Blaize said.
Thomas sighed relief. “You scared the sh—” His gaze bounced from Blaize to Carys and back. “Anyway, I wasn’t sure if you would show.”
“I’m here. What did you want to tell me?”
The kid looked around, eyes wild, like he half expected someone to jump out from behind a dumpster. “I could get into a lot of trouble for this.” He caught Blaize’s gaze. “Like, serious trouble.”
“I appreciate you trusting me, Thomas. But you haven’t said anything yet. Do you want to see the pic again?”
“No,” Thomas said, looking taken aback with the fact Blaize said his name. “I never liked how my uncle treated her, you know?”
“Sure.” Blaize had no idea.
Thomas hesitated.
“Before long, another cop is going to drive down the alley or someone is going to open that door to see what’s taking you so long to close up,” Blaize said.
“You’ll save us all a lot of angst if you’ll spit it out.
” All kinds of scenarios came to mind, none he liked.
Blaize needed to hear the truth before his imagination got the best of him.
“She worked here about a year ago,” Thomas said. “Nice lady. I overheard her arguing with my uncle.”
He glanced around like the man might jump out and say, Boo! He sucked in a breath before continuing. “Two days later, she disappeared, and I haven’t seen her since.”
“Did you hear what they were saying?” Carys jumped in.
“No, but my uncle isn’t exactly… He runs this place on the up and up, but this isn’t his only business. People come in and out of here. And it’s not good.”
“Got it,” Blaize said. The timing of her going missing matched with her pregnancy. Was Angel the baby’s father?
“What’s her name? The woman in the picture?” Carys asked.
“Sharon Clark,” Thomas said. “Her roommate got her the job. I sneaked into my uncle’s office after you left.” He pulled a slip of paper out of his apron pocket and handed it to Blaize. “It’s their address. Or, at least, it was. Haley quit about a month after Sharon.”
A random person shouted, and the sound echoed. It was enough to spook Thomas. “I’ve gotta go. I just hope you find her and that she’s okay.”
“Why are you helping us?” Carys asked.
“Because she was nice to me and doesn’t deserve to have anything bad happen to her,” Thomas said. He took off running around the line of buildings. “Keep me out of it.”
The back door to the bar creaked before it opened. The noise gave them enough time to dive behind the dumpster and out of view.
“Thomas. Where the hell did you go?” The bartender’s voice was familiar. He cursed and then shut the door. The lock clicked.
Blaize tucked the paper into his front jeans pocket, reached for Carys’s hand, and then sprinted in the opposite direction of Thomas.
CARYS’S THIGHS BURNED and her side cramped. Blaize was a faster runner. She strained to keep up as he practically dragged her along, urging her to keep pace with every forward step.
They came to a hard stop at the Jeep. She bent forward, clutched her side, and gasped for air.
“Are you okay?” he asked, moving beside her and placing his hand on the small of her back.
“I will be,” she managed to say through breaths. Standing up straight, she motioned toward his pocket.
He nodded before pulling the piece of paper out of his pocket. Why wasn’t he breathing hard? To say the man was in good shape was a lot like saying butter melted on warm toast.
“Here’s the address.” He showed it to her.
Carys pulled out her phone and mapped the location. “MLK Boulevard. I know the area.”
“I do, too,” he said.
“We should get some rest,” he said. “Investigating the house now will cast suspicion that we can’t afford.”
“The cop ran your license.” That was tricky. “We’ll have to be even more careful moving forward now that there’s a record of us being here.”
“That was bad luck.”
A shower and sleep sounded like heaven right now. Carys checked the location of the hotel. “We’re not far.”
Blaize walked her to the passenger side and then opened the door. “For what it’s worth, you’re the bravest person I know.”
She highly doubted that. Didn’t the man have a mirror? Talk about bravery. She couldn’t imagine holding your loved one’s hand as they slowly slipped away from you. “You’re pretty amazing yourself.”
“I wasn’t fishing for a compliment.” He hesitated. “I get the sense you’re uncomfortable with being told how great you are. And how beautiful you are.”
She really blushed now.
“As long as you’re around me, I hope you’ll get used to hearing it.”
Blaize wasn’t making it any easier not to fall for him. He needed to stop before she asked for another kiss—a kiss that was forbidden. Not to mention they’d agreed kissing would be a bad idea.
“We should get going,” she managed to say through a throat suddenly as dry as Texas soil in August. “I need a shower and a bed.”
He hesitated, looked like he was about to say something else, then closed her door and walked around the front of the Jeep wearing the sexiest smirk. He shook his head before claiming the driver’s seat and didn’t say a word to her on the way to the hotel or when they checked in.
The standard room had one bed—king size, a desk, and a comfy-looking chair with a reading lamp positioned behind it.
The bed looked more like a cloud and was plenty large enough for the two of them to sleep without touching each other.
Blaize could take up two-thirds, and there would still be plenty of room left for her.
“You take the shower first,” he said.
“Are you sure?”
“Go ahead. Take your time.”
Carys carried her overnight bag into the bathroom. The bag made her think of home. The feeling someone had been inside her house returned as she set it down on the counter, stripped, and then eased into the shower.
What was up with the feeling and why did she feel off?
Carys almost laughed out loud. The answer came quickly. Everything. Rue turned her life upside down in a heartbeat.
No regrets.
She’d made a promise to herself a long time ago when she first moved away from her father and to college.
Whatever mistakes she made from then on belonged to her and no one else.
She would no longer have her father to blame if life wasn’t going the way she’d hoped it would.
She would no longer have a failsafe to offer a soft landing.
And she would no longer have an excuse to be unhappy.
From then on, she’d decided, her mistakes were just going to be part of the tapestry of her life. More importantly, they would be hers. And she was okay with that.
Which meant no regrets.
Did the same apply about Blaize? Or could she ask him for a kiss tonight after all?