Her Only Salvation (4 page)

***

Two hours ticked by and still no sign of his wife. Eventually, a white Lincoln pulled into the lot. Moments later the neon sign overhead flickered out and the steel door popped open. Sitting up, Randy had his fingers wrapped around his keys, ready to get moving, when that big black bouncer stepped out.

He was alone.

Randy watched as the guy locked the doors, holding out hope that Terri would emerge—from where, he didn’t know. The place was a ghost town except for the newly arrived Lincoln and her car.

As the bouncer got in and the car drove off, Randy thumped the steering wheel with his fist. As realization hit him, rage rose up like a tide, starting in his middle and swelling into every cell of his body.

Somehow, probably while he had been trying to avoid being caught by the police, she had managed to slip away. Now he had no way of finding out where she was.

Once again, Terri had managed to muck things up.

Starting the engine, Randy threw the truck into drive and stomped on the gas. Rubber squealed against asphalt as the truck careened onto the street and cut around the corner, fading into the night. 

Chapter Four

The weather this year had been all over the place. First it was bitter cold, then it turned warm and pleasant like Terri thought spring should be. Today turned out to be a cold, blustery day, quite unlike yesterday’s unseasonable warmth.

Standing at the rear entrance, hidden from public view, Terri curled further into her coat while she waited for Luke to unlock the doors to the club. Her teeth chattered and she held the uniform clutched in her fist tighter to her chest, as if she could glean some kind of warmth from the thin material.

“Come on, Grandpa,” she goaded, and bounced on her toes to emphasize how cold she was and that he definitely needed to hurry before she froze to death.

“Hold your horses,” Luke muttered, trying another key.

Finally the lock clicked open and as soon as Luke turned the handle, Terri shoved her way inside, eager to be surrounded by warmth. 

“Never knew you could be so pushy,” Luke complained. The smile on his face told her he wasn’t the least bit mad or annoyed, not that Terri would have cared either way.

Shrugging a shoulder, Terri headed for the locker room. “I’ll just go get changed.”

After relocking the door, Luke followed. “I’ll be in my office making a few calls if you need me,” he informed her, then ducked inside.

Terri was just pushing open the door to the locker room when she heard Luke’s voice carrying from the open office door. The guy didn’t waste any time, Terri thought.

The locker room was pretty basic, just a few battleship-gray gym lockers lining one wall, a floor to ceiling mirror opposite and a long couch from yesteryear that was remarkably comfortable considering its age and appearance.

Terri opened her own locker set at the far end of the row and shrugged off her coat, hanging it on the hook inside. Tugging the turtleneck over her head, she took her time folding it and placing it on the interior shelf, then proceeded to undress and redress in the same fashion until she was standing in her uniform, goosebumps rising on her arms and legs from the chill that hadn’t quite left her yet.

Terri had never been alone at the club, before or after hours. With no one to talk to and without the chorus of voices mixing with music to drown out her thoughts, it felt strange. Even so, it was sort of nice being caught in the calm before the storm, all alone with her thoughts. It made the task of setting the bar less tedious somehow. And without the constant interruptions from having to take orders or clear the way for another of the waitresses, she found that everything she did went twice as fast.

She had the glasses washed, dried and put back on the shelves in less than fifteen minutes. The counters were already wiped clean from the previous night, so she set about pulling the chairs from the tabletops and replacing them on the floor. Once finished with that chore, Terri wasn’t sure what else to do with herself, so she returned to the bar and started wiping the already gleaming countertops.

When she was finished with that task, she meandered about the room, finally settling herself in a chair. As the pervading silence engulfed the room, her thoughts wandered down a dark path.

She hadn’t been able to shake her worry from the previous night and ended up calling her lawyer first thing that morning. What he told her disturbed her. Randy had been released from prison nearly one week ago. No one had bothered to inform her, not the court and certainly not her own lawyer.

She was furious, and she decided to share some of her outrage with her lawyer.

She should have been told immediately, she argued. What did she pay him for anyway? If he couldn’t handle making one phone call, he wasn’t worth the fees she paid him. His only excuse was that he had a large case load and was planning to get around to it. Her response: When? When she was dead? Because that was what would probably end up happening if she hadn’t found out for certain that she needed to be extra cautious now. Randy could have sneaked up on her and killed her and all because she hadn’t been made aware that he was a free man. Still could, but the only difference was that she would see it coming.

Maybe this way she stood a chance of defending herself.

The first time she experienced any measure of peace today was when Luke came to pick her up. It was as if the cloud of distress hanging over her head had dissipated. She felt calm and relaxed and definitely safer now that she was no longer alone. She knew it had a lot to do with Luke’s masculine presence, and wished that she could somehow bottle him so she could carry him with her forever—a charm against anything, or anyone, that wished to harm her.

Luke emerged from his office nearly two hours later looking downtrodden and a little ticked off. Terri had intended to ask what was bothering him when the rest of the wait staff started filing in through the back door. Instead of attempting a discussion that would get waylaid in an instant, Terri passed him an encouraging smile and set about doing the final preparations required to open the club to the line of patrons already growing outside the building.

***

The night progressed as any other. Terri served drinks to her tables and filled orders at the bar between rounds. The women were catty as usual, sharing sordid tales of bathroom encounters that she tried desperately to block out. A part of her really wished Luke would do away with the practice of letting everyone do as they pleased, because she had trouble holding onto respect for these women each time she witnessed one slink into the back with another John.

Holding respect for Luke should have been a problem too, but he had some redeeming qualities her coworkers lacked, like self-respect and strength of character. Luke did for others, and by allowing these women to sell themselves for an extra buck, he was giving them the opportunity to make a better life for themselves—if that’s what they could really call it—and to do it in a safe place, while putting himself on the line.

She would never understand the allure, and she never wanted to. The only thing she could possibly say that she would like to share with the women was their ability to share the details of their lives with one another. Between them, there were no secrets. Terri was the odd man out here, for a couple of reasons: One, she was the newest member of the staff. No one wanted to open up to the newbie. There was no history, so there was no trust; two, Terri wasn’t exactly an open book. She liked to keep the details of her personal life personal. She didn’t talk much, and when she did it was usually about business. 

Unfortunately, Terri had never known the benefit of having a good girl friend to confide in, and it looked like she never would. The silver lining? You can’t miss what you never had.

Terri kept telling herself just that while she worked the tables, cleaning up messes from spilled drinks and collecting empty glasses and bottles. It kept her mind busy, but never enough to completely banish all thoughts of her ruthless soon-to-be ex-husband running around as a free man. The very idea had her looking over her shoulder.

When it came time for her break, Terri headed for the tiny break room that used to be a storage room. It was attached to Luke’s office by a thin paneled door with a large pane of glass in the middle. It offered no privacy whatsoever, and as Terri took a seat at the round bistro table provided them, she scooted her chair far enough away to be out of his direct line of sight. She didn’t feel exactly comfortable sitting there listening to a muted soap opera while he ranted at full volume about a lack of adequate supplies and whose ass he was going to fry if it wasn’t resolved immediately. She felt as if she was eavesdropping.

Nibbling on her tuna and rye, she returned to her previous ongoing thought process. Had that kid who had been involved in the hit-and-run last night been an unfortunate victim of Randy’s temper? If, in fact, it had been him, it didn’t take a giant leap to figure out that he had probably been in the club watching her that evening, too. Just the thought of him being so close without her knowledge was enough to turn her into a nervous wreck.

Terri leaned forward, folding her arms on the table and resting her head on top. She should be calling the police, telling them about her suspicions. That would be the right thing to do, wouldn’t it? The problem was, she didn’t have any proof that Randy was involved. She had no idea where he lived or if he was even in the area. He could be miles away for all she knew. With her luck, most likely not, but a girl could hope.

The only thing she could grasp on to was the truck description. Luke had mentioned that it was an older blue pickup. If she could point the police in Randy’s direction, and it turned out that he owned a truck matching that description, then she would be doing everyone a favor. In her experience, however, the police didn’t usually take the worrywart of a wife very seriously and, with the exception of the last time, Randy never got more than a slap on the wrist. He could be very slippery when it came to the law.

Maybe she could ask her lawyer instead. He might be willing to check into it. She didn’t have much confidence in the man after that stunt he pulled, but with the threat of taking her business elsewhere, she might be able to set a fire under him long enough to get some answers.

The door to Luke’s office opened and Terri lifted her head to find Luke drawing up a chair beside her, a look of concern pinching his brows together.

“You okay, Terri?”

Sitting back, Terri sighed, knowing what she must have looked like to him. Her eyes felt tired, her body fatigued, and her heart heavy. She was a mess.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” she offered as an explanation. Gathering her garbage, she was prepared to head back to work when Luke stopped her.

“Is there anything you want to talk about? You look…I don’t know…troubled.” He frowned, as if those weren’t his first choice of words, but he didn’t know how else to explain himself.

Terri rolled her lips in a barely there smile. “I just have some things I need to work out right now, but thanks for the offer.”

The silence stretched between them as Luke regarded her a moment longer. Finally, he nodded, seeming to accept her words. “All right, but you come to me if you need anything, okay?”

“Sure, Luke.” Pulling the door open, Terri strode off, eager to get back to work. 

She wasn’t on the floor for more than five minutes when Cathie called her behind the bar.

“You have a phone call, doll.” Passing off the receiver, she flashed a quick grin over her shoulder and said, “It’s a guy.”

Not knowing anyone who would possibly be calling her, let alone a man, not to mention at work, puzzled Terri. With a dark frown, she lifted the receiver and pressed it to her ear.

“Hello?”

At first she didn’t hear a thing, the noise in the bar drowning everything out. Turning her back to the room, she cupped her hand over the phone and repeated the greeting.

At first, she didn’t trust what her ears were hearing. The voice was too distinct, too familiar to be real. Her first inclination was to throw out the most obvious explanation and come up with something that she was better equipped to handle mentally. However, when his voice came down the line again, rough and laced with menace, reality slammed into her like a freight train.

“Hi there, sweets,” Randy said smoothly. “Miss me?”

Terri’s voice seemed to be caught in her throat, a lump that she had difficulty even getting her short breaths past.

“Judging by your silence, I’ll take that as a yes. Don’t try to deny it,” he snapped, then quickly reigned in his temper.

Terri didn’t realize she had been shaking her head. In that instant, she knew he was watching her. Immediately, she spun on her heel and scanned the crowd. There were so many people tonight, she could barely make out their faces, let alone single one out. As he continued to talk, she slowed her visual inspection, breaking the room down into square foot sections, taking in every face methodically. Randy had distinct, pale blonde hair, and anyone who didn't fit that description, she tossed out of the equation, and those with similarly blonde hair she subjected to intense scrutiny.

“You’re looking good, sweets,” he complimented her from his hidden vantage point. “Always knew you would live up to your full potential one day.”

She could almost feel him moving through the room, his eyes pinned to her every step of the way. It made her skin crawl.

“From housewife to barmaid,” he continued. “Wouldn’t your mother be proud.”

“My mother was always proud of me,” she sneered into the phone. Bringing up her deceased mother had always been a sore spot for her, and he well knew it. She would not allow him to sully her memory any longer.

Randy snickered, loving that he had managed a reaction out of her. “You always were easy to rile up, sweets.”

“Don’t call me that,” she nearly shouted in return, but managed to lower her voice at the last minute to avoid attracting any unnecessary attention.

“Not so fond of that nickname anymore?” He clicked his tongue thoughtfully. “How about love bug? Does that suit you better?”

“I hate it,” Terri growled, hoping to sound as angry as she felt.

“Good, love bug it is. Now,” he went on, uncaring of her growing temper. “I must be going, but before you beg me to stay, I want to assure you that I won’t be far.” Suddenly it was as if the sound coming through the other end of the phone had entered a vacuum.