by Ashley Hall
To refresh my memory of what Greene looked like, I pulled up a news article about the fucker. He looked like a typical guy: dark hair, dark eyes, average build, maybe a little on the heavier side. Nothing about him really stuck out. A guy you would walk by on the street and never look at twice, wouldn’t ever remember seeing. Pedos rarely looked like criminals, that’s what made them so dangerous. Wouldn't that make things so much easier if they did?
Shaking my head and gritting my teeth, I climbed off my bike and stared at the building. It was shabby. Paint was peeling off the walls. A few windows had cracks in them. This place was in a rough neighborhood. A lot of petty crimes around these parts. A lot of worse crimes too.
I made my way inside the apartment complex. Anderson's office was on the bottom floor, and he sat there behind his cluttered desk. He stared at me with his beady eyes as I entered, already holding out his thick palm.
I slipped him a fifty, hoping the money was worth it. "What floor and room number?" I demanded in a low voice, not wanting my words to carry. The walls had to be thin here.
He crinkled the bill in his fat fingers and held it up to the light. I couldn't help smirking. No way would he be able to tell if it was counterfeit or not, not that it mattered. It was real. I might be a criminal, but I wasn't going to get involved in counterfeiting money.
After a moment, he nodded, his double chins wobbling. The gray hair on his head flopping about comically. "Third floor. Room 328. Now listen, I don't want any problems. I don't—"
"You would rather the police come here with their guns blazing?" I stared him down.
His eyes widened. "G-guns? Are you armed? I've talked to Greene a few times. He's not a bad guy."
"Tell that to the kids he’s ruined." I crossed my arms and glowered. I wanted to reach across the table, grab his collar, and throttle him. Not a bad guy. What the hell was he smoking? "Tell that to their parents as they try to find a way to afford all of the therapy their kids will need. Tell that to—"
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you. I'm letting you in, ain't I?" Anderson squinted at me, making his tiny eyes even tinier. "Why you hunting him down again?"
"I told you," I said easily, although I wanted to punch his fat face. I didn't have time to stand around, talking to this blabbermouth. At any moment, Greene could take off, and if his friend given him cash and a car, it would be almost impossible to track him down. I couldn’t let that happen. Only one time before had I failed to nail a pedo. I'd vowed then that it would never happen again, and it sure as hell wasn't going to happen here with Greene. "One of the parents hired me to track him down," I continued. "They just want to talk to him."
"Talk to him?" He snorted, sounding like a pig. Anderson looked like one too. "Sure."
"Don't worry about it." I turned around. As long as he didn't call the police, I didn't care what he thought.
Anderson started to fake a cough loudly in an obvious attempt to regain my attention.
Grimacing, I faced him again, not bothering to hide my annoyance.
"I don't know…" He shook his head as his fat fingers inched toward the phone on his desk. "Maybe I should call the police."
I whipped out my gun but didn't point it at him. Just made sure he saw it. "Go ahead."
"Whoa, man, there's no need for that." He held up his hands and shoved his chair back. "Put the gun away. I won't call them. I swear!"
I glowered at him. Was everyone in this city a crook? Just looking out for themselves? Doing whatever they felt like? Whatever, wherever, to whomever.
No way was he getting another cent from me, the fucker. "I’ve paid you more than enough money to do what you said you would," I said, my voice low and threatening. "No calling the police until tomorrow and that's only if Greene is still here." Which he wouldn't be, if everything went according to plan. Or maybe he would be. Just his body, though.
"R-right. Of… of course." Anderson wiped his sweat-covered forehead with his hand. "Go ahead. Room 328. Don't forget."
I wouldn't.
Not about to let him delay me any longer, I darted out of the landlord's office to the stairs, taking them two at a time. Room 328 was the second to the last room on the floor. It was hard to tell how many rooms on the floor were occupied I'd have to be careful, making a point to locate all of the exits. Had to make sure I could get away, or at least give myself the best chance to. I didn't exactly have a death wish, even if I didn't have a lot to live for.
My gun was still in my hand, an extension of me. So much for being careful and trying to keep a low profile.
No lights seemed to be on in the apartment, so I held my ear to the door for a few minutes. I couldn't hear anything. I shoved my gun back into my jeans and picked the lock. The knob turned easily beneath my hand. As I eased the door open, I retrieved my gun just in case. They had to be inside. There was no way they had left while that landlord blabbered on and on, right?
I didn't even take a step inside the doorway when I saw a guy I didn't recognize—had to be the friend—holding two guns, both aimed right at me.
Shit. Fuck. Dammit.
Without hesitating, I rushed inside and dove behind the couch to my left, as the friend fired off two shots. Fuck, fuck, fuck. So not how this was supposed to go down.
First things first, I had to make sure the pedo was here, inside the apartment. For all I knew, the friend could be here to take out anyone who showed up for Greene, to be a distraction while Greene escaped. That could not happen. Greene could not get away. Tracking him down again would be next to impossible.
The guy fired off another shot, but the couch, an ugly, brown, worn-looking thing, absorbed the bullet. Or maybe the wall above the couch did. I wasn't paying attention. Right now, I was relatively safe in spite of the situation.
I crawled to the far end of the couch and saw the pedo. He was opening the door to the balcony. The fucker was getting away!
There was a desk by the couch, with a high-backed worn leather computer chair in front of it. I dashed to it, spun it around to act as a buffer for any bullets that may come my way, and darted with my chair-shield toward the balcony. I was still a good distance away from Greene, when I got off one shot.
It missed the pedo entirely and shattered the glass door in front of him.
He glanced at me, grinned like a fucking moron, and ran onto the balcony. Just like that, he was gone. But I had noticed one thing about him—he had a tattoo on his wrist. Before I could line up for another shot, one that wouldn't miss, he climbed over the ledge and dropped. All I could do was hope that he fell and broke his legs, if not his neck because his friend was shooting at me again, and the bullets were starting to penetrate through the chair. All I wanted was to chase after the motherfucker, but his friend was crazy. People would hear the shots and call the police, then I'd be found out and have much worse problems than I do now. Clearly, his friend didn't give a rat's ass about any of that.
No. I had to get out of this. I had to. Sky had come back to me once. Maybe she would again.
At least the guy was a piss poor shot. The bullets were missing me, although a few were coming really close. One did graze my upper thigh, but it was only a flesh wound. Not willing to risk giving him a better angle, I didn't peek around or above the chair to aim. I just fired a few shots of my own in his general direction, but he answered with more shots. Fuck!
What the hell should I do now? I could try to make back for the couch so I could get to the door, but if someone had called the police about the gunshots, cops would be in the hallway soon. Greene, the asshole, had the right idea, even if he was crazy. A jump off a third-story balcony wasn't smart.
Then again, being shot at wasn't either.
I could continue to use the bullet-riddled chair as cover to enter the room farther, but what good would that do me? The friend—Brett—knew the layout, and there wasn't going to be another exit. Just the front door or the balcony.
No way would I be able to reach the balcony alive.
Unless I killed his friend before he killed me.
I fired off a few more shots, but they must've gone wide because there was no grunt or wail from a hit, plus he returned the fire. After a moment, I risked trying to look over the top of the chair. A shot just narrowly whizzed past my head. I had no fear and nothing to lose at this point. Time to go for it.
I jumped to my feet from being crouched down behind the chair and fired off two quick shots. Both hit the guy, but he hit me again too. My body jerked with the force of the bullets, but he still remained standing, seemingly not affected by the shots., All I could do was fire another shot. This one went straight through his brain.
He collapsed immediately, but so did I. I didn't even have the strength to put my arms out to break my fall. My face smashed into the scratchy, dirty, beige carpet. My body felt like it weighed a ton, like I couldn't support myself, and my shirt was growing damper with every second. I'd taken him out, but it might have been a double KO.
I tried to crawl toward the balcony. But I couldn't even get up onto my hands and knees. Just the attempt had me almost blacking out. My fingers digging into the carpet, I dragged myself along the floor toward the balcony until my strength gave out. I couldn't even lift my head. My body felt so cold. I was freezing.
My phone. If I could just get to my phone and call Sky…
I couldn't even get my phone out of my pocket. Couldn't see anymore. Were my eyes open or closed? I couldn't even feel the carpet against my face. Couldn't hear anything but a ringing in my ears. There was a strange taste in my mouth though. Metallic. I wanted to spit, but I didn't even have the energy to do that.
Was I even still alive?
Sky… I love you. I'll always love you.
My eyes closed on their own volition, and I descended into darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sky
As soon as I left the clubhouse behind, I wondered if I had made a mistake. Shadow was reckless and impulsive. What if my leaving him for the second time meant that he was going to do something really dangerous? No matter what I said or did, he was going to go after that daycare pedophile and try to kill him. All because Shadow had been molested as a child by his foster father. What if he took off and found the guy? What if things went horribly wrong? Could I ever forgive myself if he had been too distracted by our breakup to defend himself?
But what was the point in going back? He would never change. I couldn't change him. For Christ’s sake, he used to be a contract killer for the mob to fund his drug addiction! He wasn’t a good guy. He wasn't the one for me.
My thoughts all in turmoil, I walked away from the clubhouse in search of a homeless shelter. I did not need my sister's judgment right now. She hated Shadow and had been trying to convince me to leave him since we reconnected. Maybe I'd call her in a day or two, but for right now, I just needed some space to be by myself and to sort through my own issues. Not too long ago, after I had left Shadow the first time, a car had hit me. It had taken me months to learn how to walk and talk again, and I hadn't remembered anything about my past. I had no idea who I was. And then, after I was discharged, two guys tried to kidnap me.
That was when Shadow had reentered my life. He claimed that we had dated, and his knowledge of my body proved it. But I had added to his scars, and he had tried to scare me off by killing a pedophile right in front of me.
I had been given a second chance at life, so I thought he deserved one too, and I had tried to get through to him, to get him to stop killing, to figure out if there couldn't be a healthier way for him to release his stress and tension and anger. Plus, he had saved me. Maybe I could save him in return.
So I went back to him, only to learn about the contract killings. No way could I forgive him for being a hired gun, even if it had been in the past. At least he wasn't doing drugs anymore either, but still…
The farther away I walked from the clubhouse, the more bits and pieces of my memory came back to me. I spied an empty bench on the sidewalk. I claimed it, leaned my head back, and closed my eyes. Shadow had always been a hot, sexy, biker dude, but he also had another side to him. He could be tender and sweet. He'd told me several times he wasn't the romantic kind of guy. That I should never expect chocolate and roses from him. But, I was now able to remember that he would take me to the clubs that played the music I liked and he hated and we would often go to restaurants I picked. Small tokens of his love. Once upon a time, before he had divulged to me his being a contract killer, I had daydreamed about him proposing. I had figured we would spend the rest of our lives together. I had wanted to marry him.
So not going to happen now. He might have a Wonder Cock like Marie called it, but he wasn't going to get into my pants again.
With a start, I realized my cheeks were wet. I was crying. It didn't make me feel any better. If anything, I felt lost. I felt all alone, and I couldn't help wondering if Shadow felt that way too.
Maybe a homeless shelter was passed the clubhouse in the other direction. Sure, I was making an excuse to go back, but I wouldn't go inside. One last look. That was all.
The back of my hand wiped away my tears, and I dried my hands on the sky blue shirt Shadow had given me. When I was in the hospital, I hadn't been able to remember my name, so I started to go by Sky. My real name was actually Allie, and even though I was getting Allie's memories back, I didn't feel like I was the same girl. Sky suited me just fine.
I had dragged myself away from the clubhouse, but now that I was heading back toward it, I picked up the pace only to halt when I realized Shadow's bike wasn't parked out front anymore. He had taken off. As much as I wanted to hope that he hadn't gone after the pedophile, I knew that he had.
Worry and fear—two strong and controlling emotions—forced me back into the clubhouse. Several of his biker buddies were sitting around, talking and laughing, but they fell silent when I walked in.
"Where's Shadow?" I demanded.
They glanced at each other and shrugged.
"We aren't his keeper," one of them said. He had the largest unibrow I'd ever seen.
I took a deep breath and exhaled it noisily. "Is his father still here?"
His father—his birth father, not his asshole foster father—had been the one to inform me about Shadow being a contract killer. For better or for worse, I knew the whole truth now. Not even when Shadow had told me about it himself the first time, before I had lost my memory, had he been completely honest with me. He never mentioned the drugs to me back then. Only now was I able to see the hell that had been his past. And it was no small wonder that he was so screwed up, but that he refused to even consider changing…
"Well?" I bit out. "Is his father—"
"Nope." A bald man spoke up, entering the room from the bar. "He left."
I grabbed my phone out of my back pocket. "Anyone know his number?"
Baldy…. Ratched! That was his name. My memory really was coming back. And the guy with the unibrow was called Eyebrow. So original.
Ratched pulled out his phone and read off the numbers for me.
"What's going on?" Eyebrow asked.
I twisted my lips into a smile. "Don't worry about it."
"You've been acting a little different lately," Ratched said.
I winked at him. "Don't you worry about me. I'm fine. Shadow's fine."
"Didn't sound like you were fine," Eyebrow muttered.
Our fight had been loud and definitely not private. I winced. "We all make mistakes," I said softly.
With that, I left the clubhouse again and dialed Shadow's father.
He picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"
"Hi, this is… Allie." I had given him my old name, not my new one when we had talked earlier.
"Allie, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to… I thought you already knew; I swear I did. I never would've told you otherwise."
I didn't have time for his apology. "Shadow took off. I… I know I just left him…" Again. "But I'm worried and, well…"
/> "I'm just down the block. I'll be right back."
It didn't take him long at all to return with his car. It felt so weird to have a seatbelt on. Shadow only ever drove his bike, and I already missed the wind blowing my hair back and feeling his hard body against me. Riding on his bike was amazing and such a turn on.
I shook that delicious thought away. "How can we find him?"
"Easy, so long as he has his cell on. We can…"
And he went on and on about apps, and my eyes glazed over. I wasn't quite sure of all of the details, and I didn't care about technology. Just finding Shadow. Once I learned he was all right, I could move on with my life. I would find a job, get myself a place, buy food and clothes…
"Ah, there we go." His father plugged the address into his GPS and floored it.