Page 34 of Roughing
Trent and Jarrett reluctantly left a half hour later after I promised I’d see Heidi home safely and Leila to her car.
The bar closed at ten on Monday nights, and I nursed a beer as Heidi and Leila closed up. Once everyone was done, we exited the back door. Leila headed for her car. An ear-splitting scream of terror reverberated down the narrow alley. Every one of us froze. Heidi was poised for flight while I was ready for a fight.
“What the fuck?” I roared and spun in a slow circle in an attempt to identify where the sound had come from. We waited for several seconds and didn’t hear anything further.
“Get back in the bar and don’t come out until I tell you it’s safe. Lock the door.”
Michella grabbed my hand. “Briggs, you could be getting into a situation you can’t control. You’re not armed.”
I nodded grimly. “Someone needs help. I can’t ignore that.”
“Should we call 9-1-1?” Leila asked. Heidi said nothing, just hugged herself.
“Not yet.” The scream may have been nothing more than a teenage prank, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t that simple, not after what I’d heard.
I sprinted down the alley and onto the main street, looking left and right. The sound had echoed off the brick walls of the buildings, making it almost impossible to judge the origin.
Desmond emerged from around the corner. His eyes glinted with fear, and his breathing came in erratic gasps. He skittered down the alley while looking over his shoulder and stumbled to a stop a few steps in front of me. I guessed he’d heard that bone-chilling cry just as I had.
“Did you hear that?” I asked the obvious.
“I did. I can’t find her.” His tone reeked of desperation, and his gaze darted about the alley.
“Let’s go,” I said, already breaking into a jog. Desmond caught up with me. We scoured the blocks and alleys near the bar and opened every dumpster. We didn’t find a woman in distress or any signs of anything amiss, no purse on the ground or dropped cell phone, nothing to indicate a struggle.
“I guess it was nothing,” Desmond said, still surveying the surrounding area nervously.
“It didn’t sound like nothing.”
Desmond shrugged. “Everyone’s spooked since this is the serial killer’s hunting grounds.”
“I know.” I hated giving up, but we had nothing to go on. I held out a hand. “Thanks for helping.”
“Not a problem. By the way, I watched Gordon leave,” Desmond said.
“He could’ve come back.”
“He could’ve.”
“Should we call the police?” I was mistrustful of the police. I probably got that from my parents and my negative experiences with cops over the past few years.
“There’s really nothing to report. We didn’t find anything.”
“Well, thanks again.”
We said our goodbyes, and I did an about-face toward the alley just as Leila, Michella, and Heidi turned the corner and came toward me.
“Didn’t I ask you guys to wait in the bar?” I didn’t disguise my anger.
“We did for a while, but we were worried about you.”
“I can handle myself.”
Michella rolled her eyes. “Sure, Superman, you stop bullets with your palm to prevent someone from shooting you.”
I ground my teeth to stop myself from saying what I really wanted to say. Michella and I held each other’s gazes like two gunslingers sizing each other up. Damn, she was hot when she looked fierce like that.
“Did you find anything?” Heidi interrupted my fantasy of dressing Michella in a Wonder Woman costume to go along with my Superman and having superhero sex together. Could Superman fly and fuck at the same time? It’d be worth a try—if I had the gift of flight, that is. I tamped down my agitation before speaking to Heidi.
