Page 51 of Malice and Surrender
“Oh, that’s great,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Thanks, man.” Wilder dropped down into his maze, and a second later, he sprinted across the open lot to the center of his chaos.
“I should’ve just used the black market,” I grumbled and stomped toward my bike. This was turning out to be a weird fucking day, and I didn’t see it getting any better from here.
Raine
“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Avro asked as we pulled up to the employee entrance of the bar, or maybe it was more of a club now. It was tough to decide.
Mondays were my paper and general catch-up day at work. We weren’t open Monday to Wednesday, so the place was blissfully quiet. Why I thought running everything for Chris would be fun was beyond me. He was off spending more time with his other businesses, and I was left holding the reins. The pay increase was nice, though.
“No, it’s fine. I like the quiet to get the paperwork done, and I have a feeling you’ll just be a distraction. In the best way possible, of course,” I teased. Getting out of the car before I did something stupid like say yes, I walked around and leaned into his driver-side window.
“Me, a distraction? I take offense that I resemble that statement,” he quipped, and kissed me.
It was more difficult pulling myself from the bed with Avro and Jace than I ever thought it would be. The warmth of their arms soaked into my body, and it felt like they were warming my bones and healing parts of my mind. Avro was a cuddler, and the few times I wiggled away to try to cool off, I was quickly pulled back into his arms. It was totally adorable, and I was so not used to it. There was something to be said for being able to sleep in a starfish position when you wanted.
“Try not to have too much fun going to the airport,” I said, hitching my backpack higher.
“The drive there won’t be much fun, but once we get there, I plan on molesting Jace one more time before he gets on the plane.”
I couldn’t tell if he was joking, but knowing Avro, he fully intended to take his fill of Jace Everly. Jace still made me as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof, and I found myself talking too much or stumbling over my answers when he looked in my direction. He was amused, and I was not.
“I’m sure you will.” I smiled, and he smiled back. The expression lit up the whole car. “I’ll talk to you later,” I said and waved as I flicked through my keys to find the one that opened the back door. Avro waited until the door was open, and I gave him the thumbs up before he drove off.
Jace’s regular driver was sick, so everyone from the band was finding their own way to the private airfield. The drive took a couple of hours, and his flight didn’t take off until eight, so long as the weather held out. They’d both offered to stay and keep me company until they needed to leave, but that was all sorts of a bad idea, and I needed time to unpack everything floating around in my head.
Grabbing the remote, I turned on the television as soon as I walked into the office. I loved that the place was quiet, but sometimes it really freaked me out. Every shadowy corner felt like someone was hiding. I was starting to realize that the thought was very conceited. The very idea that every guy was looking at me, hiding to attack me or whatever else my brain conjured, was irrational.
The channel was on the local news station, and I watched as the reporter pointed to the large screens showing the coming storm. By the look of it, there was a good chance that Jace’s flight wouldn’t get off the ground.
Sitting down, I booted up the computer and laid my hands on the desk. My emotions swirled as much as the colorful clouds on the news screen as I tried to digest the last two days. Closing my eyes, I played over the conversation from last night and the feel of their touch. But all that did was make me wiggle in my seat.
“Okay, you came here to work. You can wonder about your rapidly changing personal life later.” I looked at the ‘In’ basket on my desk and groaned.
“Darryl,” I grumbled, not seeing the final inventory boards from the alcohol storage. That was the one spot I hated to go, even when people were in the building. When the bar was empty, I avoided it like it held the plague.
“Shit, shit, shit!” I was tempted to go home and get Avro to go down with me tomorrow. “That is the most chicken-shit thing you’ve considered doing yet,” I scolded myself as I pushed to my feet. “You’re trying to be braver, remember?”
Squaring my shoulders, I stomped out the door and down the hallway that led to the storage area, like the stomping would somehow make the images of ghosts in my mind go away. I whipped open the door and swallowed hard as I stared at the black hole. It was only six stairs down, and technically it was still above ground, and yet it felt like a bottomless pit that disappeared into a cavernous void.
“You got this. You now have a wicked right hook,” I encouraged myself, reaching for the light switch. Why were these storage areas so scary? Was it because from the time we were children, there were a million movies with things sneaking in or crawling out of these things? Or was it because we intuitively realized this was the closest we came to being in a windowless coffin while still alive? I paused with my foot hovering over the first stair. Unless, of course, you were buried alive in a coffin.
Okay, enough of that.
I trotted down the wooden stairs and decided to start at the farthest spot and make my way forward. That seemed logical, and then each aisle I completed was a reward, getting a little closer to the exit.
Walking down the last row, I swallowed hard and picked up the clipboard. I suddenly wished I’d turned on some music. At least then, it wouldn’t be so quiet. I jotted down the remaining wine on the chart and grabbed the paper. When I stepped out of the row to move to the next, I heard a scraping sound. I froze as my eyes searched the rows of bottles and boxes, but with the product on the shelves, I could only partially see to the end.
My heart pounded hard as my fear spiked, and every muscle shook as I put one foot in front of the other. I moved toward the spot where I’d heard the sound. It seemed way too loud to be a mouse. Gripping the pen like a weapon, I glanced down each row I passed. I looked up the stairs as I stepped in front of them and once more contemplated saying fuck it and getting the hell out of here, but I was determined to stare fear in the face and defeat it. Too many years, too many ghosts, too many demons of my own making, and I was done.
Everything seemed to be heightened, the smell of the cardboard, the faint scent of mildew from the dampness that permeated everything, and the stale aroma of old alcohol from broken or spilled bottles. The scraping sound was louder now that I was closer, and one of the boxes moved slightly. My nostrils flared, eyes wide, and pen at the ready as I counted down each remaining row. As I reached the last row, a rumble of thunder echoed down the stairs, and the lights shut off, plunging the room into complete darkness.
Terror gripped my throat, and I slammed against the wall as the memory I tried so hard to forget stormed to the front of my mind.
“Shit,” I mumbled as I jogged down the street.
It was late, and this was a terrible part of town, but I had to speak to Kai. I just couldn’t leave things the way that I had. I couldn’t believe he kissed me, and instead of hanging on forever, I freaked out. It was my first kiss, my first real kiss, from the guy I always wanted it to be, and I pushed him off me and ran from the room like a loser.
