Path of Cinders (Alternate Routes Book 9)

by Chapel Byrne

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  INTRO

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  EPILOGUE

  ALSO BY CHAPEL BYRNE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALTERNATE ROUTES NINE:

  PATH OF CINDERS

  CHAPEL BYRNE

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Chapel Byrne

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Worldwide Rights

  Printed in the United States of America

  ISBN: 978-1-945636-13-4

  INTRO

  “I'm a path of cinders

  Burning under your feet

  You're the one who walks me

  I'm your one way street”

  - Björk, Bachelorette

  CHAPTER 1

  “Get over here and kiss me goodbye.” As usual, Brad wasn’t requesting, he was demanding.

  Angie obediently walked to him, but, before she could give the demanded kiss, he said, “Actually, give me your wallet and keys.”

  He took her credit cards, her ATM card, and her car key, then returned the rest. “You won’t need these.”

  He leaned in for a quick, harsh peck on the lips. “I’ll be back Sunday in time for dinner. Make sure it’s ready and the house is clean.” He didn’t wait for a reply, just turned and left, off to a bachelor party weekend in St. Louis.

  She didn’t move from her spot by the door until she heard his car peel out of the driveway. Then, Angie bolted, shoving clothing and other essentials into bags. Making quick choices about what really mattered to her and what could be left behind.

  And then she dug out the spare key for her car, the one that Brad thought she was too stupid to know about, hidden between the mattress and the box spring. She peeked out, trying to figure out if any neighbors were watching. When she was pretty sure they weren’t, she threw her bags into her hatchback.

  All through her Friday lunch shift, Angie’s mind had built a plan. It was nothing new; she often daydreamed about getting away from Brad and his fists. But, this time, she’d found herself actually following the plan. First, she’d gone to a couple of stores to spend most of her credit card balances on gift cards. Even if Brad hadn’t taken her cards away, she wouldn’t want him to be able to trace the spending.

  Next, she’d made sure her car was fully gassed up, spending what was left on the credit cards. Ready to go to…wherever. She hadn’t decided that yet.

  Finally, she’d headed to their bank. She’d cashed the week’s paycheck instead of depositing it, and then she’d asked if they’d take her name off the account and the bank credit card. The banker had been curious and confused, but it was Friday afternoon and he really just wanted to be done. Removing a name, without draining the account, seemed pretty harmless to him.

  And then she’d waited, glad that the bachelor party crew wanted to leave immediately, get right to their fun. She’d only had to keep her nerve the 30 minutes it took Brad to rush in, grab a beer, and throw together a quick weekend bag. She’d known that, if she were quiet and if he hadn’t had a bad day, she might escape one last outburst.

  Not long after, she was standing in the kitchen of their house, in a little town called Wellston that floundered in the shadow of St. Louis. She put her tablet on the counter, pulled up a map of the country on it, and gave it a spin. She chanted under her breath, "Anywhere is better than here," closed her eyes, and put her finger down on the screen. She opened her eyes to see where she'd touched. "Okay, looks like we run to Austin."

  She worried as she drove. While she was amazed that she was leaving, and she wanted to focus on that, her brain kept poking at the idea of Texas. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she didn’t feel great about Texas. She pushed it away though, focused on the fear of the life she was escaping. Focused on the fear of Brad.

  It was enough to get her to the end of her tank of gas. To get her to a gas station, refilling her tank and taking the steps to make sure her name wasn’t on any accounts with Brad. To get her back on the road, trying to just keep moving. But whatever worry she was avoiding pushed back. She gave up for the night, pulled into a rest stop in Oklahoma to try to sleep.

  In her dreams, the worry was no longer held back. She was running from a hell beast behind her, Brad raging and bellowing, but what was she running to? All that she knew about Texas, all that her mind had to work with, was from TV and movies. Was cowboy films and oil fields. And her brain presented her with the stereotypes she knew from that, making her wonder if she was running to a place where some cowboy might treat her like cattle. It could have been a kinky dream, but her brain took it the other direction, pictured her broken and bound, vulnerable to both the cowboy and the beast she was fleeing.

  It was simplistic, but it was enough to wake her, a scream trying to fight its way out of her throat and tears crawling down her cheeks. And she sat there a while, looking at the red dirt of Oklahoma, trying to decide what to do.

  Her phone had been beeping all through her attempt to sleep, horrible and manipulative texts from Brad. So, at the very least, she knew that she wasn’t going back. She turned off her phone, pulled the battery, shoved it as deep into her bag as possible.

  She took a deep breath, tried to find calm. She wiped the tears from her face. She did more careful breathing. Her mind cleared a little.

  She mumbled to herself as she picked up her tablet. “Okay. Texas is huge, and it’s also not, like, the 1800s or whatever. It can’t be like what you dreamed.” She did a quick search, using a private browser window, and felt the worry slip away. She didn’t even have to click links to see that Austin was a shining, modern city full of artists.

  She nodded, tucked her tablet away, and got back on the road. This was not a race from one hell beast to another, not a race to be captured and held. She could do this.

  She was exhausted, but she made it to Austin in the afternoon without incident. Wearily, she found a cheap hotel and trudged to the desk.

  She was greeted by a perky girl, about her age. “Hey! You here for a room?”

  “Yeah. Yes, please.”

  “How long you staying?” The girl stood, fingers poised over the keyboard of an older computer.

  “I…I don’t know. As long as it takes me to get a job and find a place to live.”

  The girl nodded. “Lucky for you, it’s not a busy festival week, so we can get you a room.” She typed a bit. “Okay…Name?”

  “Ang…Uh, Evang…Uh…”

  The girl finally looked up, really looked at her. It was hot out, so her arms were bare and showing all the marks and bruises Brad had left. And she was a tired mess.

  Nodding, the girl set the keyboard aside. “Okay, sis, I hope you’ll let me get personal a sec.” She took a breath. “It looks like you’re running from something?”

  Nod.

  “You got something other than a credit card to pay, so he can’t trace you that way?”

  Nod.

  The girl’s smile widened. “Good start!” She narrowed her eyes
a moment in thought. “So, if you want, I’ll get you info for places you might want to apply for work or to live. Maybe some info on people who, if you want, can counsel you or help you find resources to put your past behind you. But…” The girl tilted her head. “We gotta make sure you can give your name, and you’re lucky, because I love names.”

  The girl straightened the thin vest she wore, revealing her nametag, and launched into a rapid little speech. “Now, this says ‘Nikki,’ but I’m really Nicola. My mom didn’t want to know whether I was a boy or girl before I was born, but she was sure I was gonna be a boy. And then one of her aunties, who everybody says can tell, said, yeah, I’d be a boy. So, she only came up with a boy name. I was supposed to be Nick, except that, obviously, I’m not a guy. So, my dad suggests Nicole, but my mom says that’s not exotic enough. Nikola, right? But then I always wanted to go by Nik or Nikki, which drives her crazy, because, you know, that makes me sound like a boy. Anyway, I’m obviously a Nikki, so I ignore my mom. And,” the girl laughed at herself, “my point is that you have to have the name that works for you.”

  Abashed, the girl admitted, “I talk too much sometimes. But I swear I’m just trying to be helpful.”

  Tired and overwhelmed by the girl’s barrage of words, Angie blinked and managed, “Uh, thanks.”

  The girl looked her up and down, considering. “Now, you want a whole new name or you want to stay connected to your old?”

  “I just…Everybody called me Angie, but that’s not who I want to be. But, uh, it’s cool if it’s a name from my given name. Evangeline. But I don’t want to use it, because it just seems…too unique?”

  “Mm-hm. Mm-hm. Okay. Evangelina?”

  “Evangeline,” she gently corrected.

  “Oh, because I was just gonna say you should maybe go with Lina. Because that’s cute and you can totally handle a cute name,” Nikki noted.

  “Lina…Lina…” She rolled the word over in her head and in her mouth a few times. She shrugged. “Yeah, okay. Lina.” She smiled. “Thanks. Glad I stumbled over that with you and not some jerk.”

  Nikki beamed. “Cool! Now, let’s get you all checked in, Lina.”

  With Nikki’s suggestions, Lina got settled quickly. She found a job at a bustling restaurant and rented a tiny apartment. She worked with the volunteers at the domestic violence resource group, and made sure that there were no ties for Brad to follow. They even helped make sure her tiny apartment wasn’t bare.

  Nikki had promised to show her other things about Austin, but her boyfriend had surprised her with a proposal and news that his company was transferring him to San Francisco. Lina found herself alone in a city that was definitely vibrant. Often, she thought, overwhelmingly so.

  Fortunately, she had enough life she wanted to catch up on, music and movies and the like, that she was mostly content to spend the hours she wasn’t working on all that. Mostly.

  But she was constantly aware that, on the other side of her walls and windows, there was a city full of things to try and, she hoped, friends to meet.

  CHAPTER 2

  Lina had been getting used to Austin. It had been a couple months, and she was slowly exploring. Very slowly. She wasn’t sure why she found the city so intimidating, but something in the air both energized and cowed her.

  Of course, now that there was a new festival in town, huge and non-stop, it was just that much more so.

  She couldn’t afford tickets to anything, and it seemed like the city was crammed with people who had bought all the tickets before she would have had a chance anyway, so she just wandered through the crowds. After growing up somewhere so small, it still amazed her to be face-to-face with all these different kinds of people, not just watching them through a screen.

  It was nearing midnight, but still hot out. Lina sat alone at an outside table, slowly sipping a beer and watching the crowds go by. They weren’t too thick at the moment, because there were plenty of shows still going. She had some time to finish her beer and clear out before it got unreasonable.

  She watched as a car pulled up, a black SUV, and everyone but the driver got out. Must be a car services, and the passengers looked like they were or wanted to be famous. It was a bunch of guys in their 20s with tight jeans and leather jackets. They were a little loud and a little boisterous, like they’d had plenty to drink already.

  As the men filed into the door of the pub she was sitting by, a couple of them nodded to her or winked. She pretended not to notice and kept her eyes firmly fixed at their chest level.

  The chest at the back of the line stopped, and a deep voice called, “I’ll be right out here, guys. You have some fun on the company tab.” And then the chest, in a tight black t-shirt and fashionably scuffed leather jacket, stood in front of Lina. “Hi there.”

  Lina looked up. The man was blond, tan, and the slightest bit calculatedly scruffy. It was more than his strikingly yellow eyes that made her think of a wolf.

  With a level of charm that fell just shy of being obnoxious, he said, “I’d offer to buy you a drink, but there’s no way someone beautiful as you is actually here alone.”

  Lina squinted up at him, grinning crookedly. She asked, “What do girls usually say to that line?” It wasn’t that Lina was too smart, just that she had spent the last couple months hearing her fill of slick come-ons.

  It didn’t seem to faze the man. He met her crooked grin with one of his own, only making him look more handsomely lupine. “Well, some of them tell me they actually are out alone, and some of them just blush. Don’t think anyone’s ever gone straight for calling it out for a line.” He folded his arms, still grinning, and seemed to consider her.

  She didn’t look away, but she didn’t really have anything more to say. She just sipped her beer.

  The man nodded, finally. “Of course, if I’d paused to pay attention before I said it, I’d have known it wouldn’t work on you. Even though, for what it’s worth, you’re definitely beautiful.” He stuck out his hand. “Shane.”

  Lina considered a moment, eyes narrow, then slowly shook his hand. Not bothering to hide that she was dubious about him, she said, “Lina.”

  “Lina.” He seemed to roll her name over in his mouth the same way she had back when Nikki had suggested it. He nodded appreciatively. “Lina.” He grinned. “You’ve got some fire in you, don’t you?”

  She snorted. “Is that some kind of weird cowboy remark about me not falling all over myself when you used your line on me?”

  Shane looked confused, then bemused. “It isn’t. Huh. Interesting…” He seemed to be considering her anew. “Well, Lina, you’re both gorgeous and intriguing. I don’t suppose you’d care to come join my friends and I?”

  “Your friends?”

  “Well, maybe less friends and more potential clients. They’re an up and coming band. I’m the one who’s been sent to see if we can get them on our team.” He said it like it was no big deal, but somehow gave the distinct impression that it should make him as intriguing a person as Lina was.

  She didn’t show it, because she didn’t want to reward his slick approach, but it was at least kind of interesting. Before she could reply, he went on with the same studied casualness.

  “We’ll probably grab some drinks here, then call the car back, maybe head to this place I know that will serve us expensive dinners—steak and sushi or lobster—until the early hours of the morning. And I’m sure the boys would love someone prettier than me to hang out with us.” He flashed her a practiced dazzling smile.

  “Naw…”

  He looked shocked by her simple, unimpressed response. “You sure?”

  “Shane, you’re easy on the eyes and, like, I’m sure you’ve worked hard to develop your career and your smooth approach. But, honestly, I’m just not the kind of girl who responds to that.” She laughed into her beer. “Like, if who you are is someone you have to hide away under all that charm, then maybe he’s no better than what I left in my past.”

  “Will you�
�Listen, I need to go check on the guys. If I duck in to make sure they’re all taken care of and having a good time, are you going to disappear?” He’d turn the charm down a little, and it seemed like some genuine interest and personality might be peeking through.

  Lina looked at her glass, which was still over half full. She shrugged. “I’m not chugging this. But,” she warned, “I’m also not waiting around for some player to try again.”

  He grinned and let out a short laugh. “I hear you.” He turned, opened the door, then said, “Keep not chugging.”

  She kept sipping at her drink, watching the crowds. She tried not to change the pace of her drinking. On the one hand, she didn’t relish the idea of being subjected to all of Shane’s moves. On the other hand, he was cute and hadn’t been a jerk when she’d called him out for using a line. She’d had plenty of guys go from lavishing compliments on her to sneering out vitriolic insults when she’d done that previously.

  But I’m going to have a higher bar than ‘cute and not as big a jerk as other players’ if I ever decide that I’m getting involved with someone again, she admonished herself. She was kind of annoyed to discover that, try as she might to focus all her attention on people watching, her eyes and ears were at least partly aimed at the door the pub.

  It wasn’t too long before he was back.

  “Do you mind if I sit?” He pointed at the chair on the other side of her table.

  “If you think the conversation will be long enough to warrant sitting….” She shrugged and her lips quirked up into a tiny smile. She kept her eyes on the crowds while he settled into the chair.

  “So, authenticity is your thing?” he asked. It was hard to tell whether it was just conversation or maybe a little bit of mocking.

  Lina took breath to keep watching the crowd, then she looked at him. His eyes were intense. She wondered if that was similar to how her eyes seemed to others. Casually, she said, “I’ll definitely take authenticity over practiced charm or attempts to impress people with your coolness.”