Encrypted (25 page)

Swigging back the last of his beer, Zach rose from his stool and headed toward the back of the bar. Grant called after him, “Where you going?”

“Outside.”

Grant laughed as only
a
drunk could laugh
.
“What
?
T
o meet your mystery lover-girl?”

“Shut up,” Zach snapped more out of embarrassment than anger.

Pushing past
Skip
and his new foursome, Zach made his way out into the alley. With the foul stench rising from the open sewer, maybe he should have gone out the front door. But with the ladies of the night prowling and cars honking, Zach thought he might find some peace out here.

But just like the rest of the even
ing, this idea was shit
,
too
.

The door burst open as a young woman staggered out the door, drunk off her ass. Was this chick even eighteen?

She practically fell into the wall, doubling over, retching.

Really? This just topped the night.

He wanted to ignore her, but his mother’s frowning face wouldn’t leave him alone. What did she always say? “Being a gentleman, especially when you didn’t feel like being a gentleman
,
is
the measure of a man.” He wasn’t quite sure if this was the exact situation she had in mind, but he couldn’t just let the girl puke all over herself.

Zach went over and cautiously pulled her hair back. It was the least that he could do. She staggered forward another step, lurching with each hurl. Finally
,
she stopped, gasping and crying. He tried to urge her back to the
bar when she folded herself
in his arms.

Yep, this is what you got when you tried to help o
ut. Puke on your brand new turtleneck
. Firmly
,
he put his hands on her shoulders and back
ed
her away.

“Okay, that is not how a lady
behaves toward
a gentleman.”

Suddenly
,
she lashed out with her elbow, clocking him on the jaw. Reeling back, Zach felt his chin. That was going to bruise.

“What the…
?
”

Was she just flailing
,
or…

The roundhouse kick to his belly pretty much proved
that
the first blow wasn’t an accident. He put an arm up to bl
ock the next kick, but she hammered
away.

“I don’t know what your drama is
,
lady, Daddy issues or whatever, but you
had
better lay off.”

She did anything but that. Instead
,
she hauled back and punched him square
in
the mouth, splitting open his lip. He dabbed the blood away. Unfortunately
,
his
m
other also taught him never to hit a woman.
Ever
.

“I got a barber shave this morning
,
just so I wouldn’t have any nicks.” Zach spun out of the way of a groin kick. “That’s it!”

What his
m
other didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

“On a night like tonight, you do
not
mess with a man’s equipment!”

He waited
until she opened up her midriff
for a kick,
and
then landed a punch to her belly. She doubled over with
a
groan, yet still came out swinging. He blocked another blow
and
landed a right hook to her jaw
. As she dropped
, Zach caught her
before she hit the pavement
.

Just because he was protecting himself, didn’t mean he had to be rude.

What did she think?
That h
e was her
j
ohn and she could just roll him?

No matter why the girl had attacked him, this was not going to look good if Ronnie came around the corner. You know, him dragg
ing a beat-up hooker down an
alley and all. However
,
if there was on
e
woman who might understand, it was Ronnie.

That is
,
if she ever showed up.

Hooking his arms under the woman’s, Zach hefted her down the alley. He couldn’t just leave her here, exposed
and
vulnerable.

He might have heard the squeak of a sole sooner if he hadn’t been cursing his luck so loudly. Zach’s hand flew to his belt
—
only it was empty.
Mexican
alley.
Right.
Therefore
,
no gun.
Once he heard the second footfall, Zach was releasing his grip on the girl and came around swinging.

He clocked one
guy
unaware
s
, sending the large thug reeling backward. The second wasn’t quite so easy, but Zach got a backhanded slap in before following up with a lashing kick to the guy’s kneecap.

The first
man
recovered
pretty damn
quickly and tackled Zach from the side, but he was able to use the momentum to swing the attacker around,
and
slam him against the crumbling brick wall. An elbow to the solar plexus doubled the guy over.

Shoving himself off the wall, Zach turned to his other attacker. This time
,
the guy wasn’t quite so eager to rush him. Perfect. Zach did the rushing, but held back his blow until he saw the other guy commit his left fist. Which meant Zach
came in with a low swing to the guy’s right
side.

Knocked off
-
balance, the attacker stumbled
,
and Zach
kicked the guy’s hip, hard, knocking him to
his knees.

Now to get the hell out of here and find out what
—

The prongs of the
T
a
s
er bit into his shoulder. C
urrent arced
through
his body.

Agony ripped through Zach’s muscles as his teeth clattered.

Falling to the ground, he couldn’t fight fifty thousand volts of electricity.

Boots, scuffed and dirty
,
stepped in front of Zach.

“Get the van b
ack here,” was the last thing Zach
heard before darkness
over
took him.

* * *

Ronnie tried to hurry down the darkened street, but she tripped on her heels.
Again
. She wanted to pull the damn things off, but then her nylons would get run
s,
and then she would have to take those off
,
and pretty soon
,
before
she
knew it, she’d be standing there in a tattered dress, hair askew.

That was
not
how she wanted to look when she finally met Zach.

“Ronnie!” a voice called from half a block away. “Wait up!”

She ignored it. Far too high-pitched for Zach
’s voice
, she knew it was Quirk chasing after her. Well, he could chase. She had only one stop in mind.
Zach’s cousin’s bachelor party.
And she wasn’t going for the party favors.

Ronnie was about to make her last right turn when Quirk caught up
with her
. He grabbed her by the sleeve, jerking her to a halt.

“Don’t you dare go around that corner before I get last looks!” he demanded.

“Quirk!”

Her assistant ignored her
,
though
.
He
pull
ed
up the hem of her dress
,
revealing far too much thigh for her taste,
and
then pull
ed
down the neckline. Quirk then cupped her breasts, shoving them up.

“That’s enough!”

To her surprise, instead of arguing, Quirk kissed her on the cheek. “
I
could almost bed you…
Almost
.”

She gave him a peck back. That was high praise in Quirk’s world.

Taking in a deep breath, Ronnie stepped forward careful to balance properly on her heels. They clicked along as she approached the flickering lights announcing Corona and Do
s
Equis
in the window.

Before she could make it
to
the door, a van went speeding by, splashing stagnant water onto the sidewalk. She barely jumped out of the way in time. It would not do for her to reek of dog pee and old cabbage.

Straightening her dress, Ronnie opened the door to the bar. Make that
disaster zone
. Sure
,
there was a bar. With naked women dancing while men groped at their legs. Mariachi music blared as patrons hooted.

This was Zach’s cousin’s idea of
fun
? Ronnie certainly hoped it didn’t run in the family. Ronnie hadn’t been to too many bars, but she was pretty sure
that
this wasn’t the norm. What would Quirk call this party? Besides disgusting?

Off the hook.
That’s what he would call it.

Ronnie’s eyes swept over the crowd. No Zach. She double-checked the fondlers, but Zach was not amongst them. Of course
,
there was a shadowy back area. Would he be back there? Given how late she was, wouldn’t he be at the front of the bar? Looking for her?

Unless he found someone else to satisfy his “in person” needs.

She really should just walk out. Try
to
contact him though their communications channels, but Ronnie felt a morbid sense of duty to make sure Zach wasn’t here. Luckily
,
the
naked women on the bar fascinated the bulk of the men
.
She g
uess
ed that
despite Quirk’s best efforts, Ronnie had too many clothes on for them.

Keeping to the edge of the room, Ronnie made her way to the back area lined
with
booths. The first one had a couple, well, fornicating. Yes, full-on fornication. Ronnie
a
verted her eyes. She didn’t consider herself a prude, but
come on
. They were doing it in
a
booth in a bar
!

Quickly
,
she made her way down the line of them, finding much the same. Except
,
of course
,
for the last one
,
which
involved a lizard and a bottle of Tequila. She really should have just assumed
that
Zach was not back here.

But if not here, then where?

Had he even come?

Ronnie grabbed her iPod.
There was n
othing
else to try, except to
attempt to communicate
with
Zach
.

She should have told him
that
she was running late.

But really, what kind of bond did they have if he couldn’t even wait an hour for her? How did that compare to the months and months that led up to this night?

Once again
,
though, Ronnie’s imagination had gotten away with her. It was so easy to conjure up all of these romantic notions when you only spoke to a guy three nights a week for exactly sixty
-
two minutes.

As she walked toward the exit, Ronnie cast her eyes to the floor so that she did not have to see why the men were all chanting, “Lo, lo, lo!”

Besides
,
Zach had his career to think about. Hell, not just his career
,
but also
his freedom.
If he
were
caught meeting her off the books?
Forget parole.

Sure
,
there were a thousand perfectly sane reasons for
Zach
standing her up. But not a one of them, not one, took away the soul
-
wrenching pain of walking out that door all by
herself
.