Beneath the Burn (25 page)

Jay slipped his fingers into the neck of her shirt and caressed the outline of her collarbone. A chill raced up her spine and she sighed. “Are we in a hurry?”

“I’m packing our shit. I assumed you’d be helping.”

What? They were there to grab her tattoo supplies only. “You’re packing?”

“Yeah, Charlee. I’m packing. We’re going, if not to L.A., then somewhere. I just got the call. Photos of you and Laz have started popping up faster than my guys can delete them.”

The folly of the previous night flashed through her mind, suffocating her with replays of the restaurant, the cameras, and their overnight at the hotel. Roy controlled Craigs all over the country. She knew without a doubt he had thugs in New York. The photos linked her to
The Burn,
and if Roy knew where the band stayed, Jay would not only be targeted…”We could’ve been followed from the hotel.”

“We watched for tails, didn’t see any. But, yeah, we could’ve been followed. I’d prefer you stay in the car. I just wanted to check on you.”

She didn’t want him in the apartment alone. Not with their whereabouts broadcasted all over the Internet. Damn. Double damn. That restaurant was only a few blocks away. She should’ve been up there with him, watching his back. “I’m on my way up.”

She hung up on him, pocketed the phone, and faced the deep dark night of Jay’s eyes. It was so fucking painful, having to distance herself from people she cared about to keep them safe. A familiar loneliness spread out around her, cold and harrowing. Pushing Jay away would propel her further into that cavernous pit. Her hatred for Roy tunneled through her like poison, seething in her gut, tightening muscles, and burning her eyes.

She met Jay by chance the first time. Destiny brought them together a second time. If one were to believe in such a thing, perhaps they would find each other again. She needed him alive for that to happen, and the best way to ensure that was to stay the hell away from him. She had to believe it wasn’t too late. If she separated herself from the band immediately, Roy would leave them alone.

Goddammit, this was going to hurt. “I’m heading up to meet Nathan.” A red hot burn seized her throat. “Alone.” She grabbed her messenger bag, slipped his sunglasses inside it, and opened the door.

He reached for her, crawling after her. “Wait. I’m coming—”

“
You
are going back to the hotel, back to L.A.” She stepped away from the door and put as much toughness as she could gather into her glare. “
That’s
my decision.” All the yearning of their moments together swelled inside of her, weakening her knees, making her stumble.

“Bullshit.” Spit sprayed from his shout. He shoved his hand over and between the seats, searching for the glasses. “Something happened. Who followed us?” He punched the seat. “Tony!”

Tony jogged from around the car and stuck her head in the door. “Yes, Mr. Mayard?”

“What the fuck is going on?” His yell rolled across the lot.

Backing away, Charlee strapped the bag across her chest and reached under the flap where she’d moved her Bodyguard 380. She secured her fingers around the grip and trigger guard. Colson watched her from his post by the car, but didn’t follow.

A car motored by. Two young men exited a pizza shop across the street and walked the opposite direction. Rows of trees shaded the lot and furnished a living wall. They also provided an abundance of hiding spots.

“Colson,” Jay shouted. “Stay with her.”

The lot spread over what must’ve been two blocks. Charlee covered it as fast as she could run, flying over the concrete to the side of the building and putting the safety of its brick foundation at her back.

Four stories up, the roof was a stark flat horizon against the glaring sun. Heaps of leaves and garbage lined the back alley. There were so many places to lie in wait. The urge to run back to Jay’s car made her legs tremble.

The alcove for the back entrance to her apartment was around the corner. She side-stepped along the building, back to the wall, paranoia spiking her heart rate. Jay would come after her as soon as he found something to cover his face. What could she say to convince him to leave? Think, think, think.

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Jay pushed off the seat, shouldered past Tony, and sprinted across the parking lot. The endless pavement, the streak of passing cars, and the gathering crowd dimmed away.

Charlee huddled with her back against the corner of the building, her eyes on the trees that lined the back fence.

Someone moved behind the building, just feet from where she stood, but the angle of the corner probably shielded the movement from her view.

Jay rubbed his eyes, his legs burning. The profile of a man shifted toward the corner where she lingered. The man’s walk seemed off, unnaturally stealthy, and too zeroed in on that damned corner.

“Charlee! Behind you.” Jay’s wig shifted sideways as he dodged a parked car.

The stalker reached inside his jacket. A black metal barrel flashed.

“Charlee! Charlee!” Jay ripped off the wig and tossed it, where it hit the man flanking him as he ran. “Goddammit, Colson, I told you to stay with her.”

“The perimeter’s not safe.” The older man gasped, maintaining Jay’s pace.

Charlee slipped around the bend and out of his sight.

“Charlee, no!” The scream barreled from his chest, and he ran harder, faster.

The race to her building was the longest moment in his life, one in which timing and speed could change everything. His heart thundered, his muscles heated, and his legs wouldn’t move fast enough.

Footfalls pounded after him. “Mr. Mayard,” Tony shouted from his other side. “Go back to the vehicle.”

The concrete blurred beneath his Chucks. He neared the side of the building and was slammed into it with the force of Tony’s body.

Her chest pressed against his back, and her hands and gun on the brick caged him in. She bent her neck and shoved her face in his. “The threat isn’t neutralized.” Her gray eyes became steel cannons. “I need you out of the kill zone. Back. In. The vehicle.”

Any other time, her look alone would’ve had him checking his pants for his balls. He bucked her off his back and skirted around her.

She shoved an arm out to block his forward motion. The downside of a top-notch bodyguard was her over-the-top-fucking-notch guarding.

“There’s someone back there
with
Charlee. Move.” He spiked the last word with venom.

Her lips peeled back in a snarl. “Argh!” She spun ahead of him and put her back to his chest, positioning his body behind the cover of hers. Her left hand hovered a wobble away from his hip. Her right aimed a Glock up and out in front of her. “Stay behind me.”

Ahead of them, Colson led with his raised pistol, his other hand on the device in his ear as he spoke low into a mic. “This is Colson. Possible gun threat. The principal will not leave the kill zone. Need a mobile support team yesterday.”

They inched forward, and Tony’s hand brushed his leg. It was a haunting presence of his aunt’s hand on tattered little boy briefs. He recoiled and grabbed his head against the images of the shed, the soiled mattress, and Aunt El’s cruel smile.

He stumbled toward the corner of the building. Fight it. Focus on Charlee. Reaching into his pocket, he fingered the nasal bottle. A lift would sharpen his concentration, numb his trigger, and nourish his strength. Fuck, his grip on the present was spinning, darkening.

Tony crowded him, her nearness invading his focus and conjuring pollution from the sewer of his mind. He could taste the soot in the oven. He could hear the hollow reverberation of his aunt’s mewling.
You’ll stay in the Bolo until you warm up to me, little boy.

A wall of hot ash and rust blackened the sun. Not now. Stop. Fucking stop. His fingers scraped uselessly on the brick building, on the Bolo oven’s door. Charlee could be struggling, hurting, and he was fucking trapped, couldn’t reach her. He fumbled with the inhaler from his pocket and huffed two burning squirts into each nostril.

The rush tipped his balance, and Tony caught his elbow. The sensation from her hand rippled over him, through him, like water. He was sailing, driven by the wind.

“Mr. Mayard?”

A strong sense of buoyancy sighed through his body, and the mist of scared boyhood evaporated into the cloudless sky. Vigor pumped through his limbs and strengthened his spine. He broke away from Tony, racing past her. Urgency flogged his thoughts, pushing him faster, harder.

At the corner of the building, arms wrapped around him from behind and the ground dropped away from his feet.

The same old shit rose in him, but he was fueled now, his senses were armed to fight it. He threw his head back, colliding with Tony’s. She grunted and released him.

He needed to catch up with Colson, who had already vanished around the corner. He held his fear tightly within him and burst into the rear alley.

At first, all he saw was the stiff back of Colson’s shirt. Tony positioned herself in front of him, panting and steadying her gun. “Stay behind me.”

Fuck that. He ran around her and froze.

At the farthest end of the building, a man faced Charlee where she stood with her back against the wall, the barrel of a handgun pressed against her jaw.

Rage buckled through him and dread knotted in his gut. He blinked against the sun beating down on him, whirling under weight of the sky and the buzz of cocaine.

The man looked his way, met his eyes. The wind beneath Jay’s high dispersed and his nervous system crashed. Sweat slicked his palms and panic rode in on a wave of tremors.

If he ran toward them, would the fucker shoot her? Even with Tony and Colson aiming their guns behind him? Not a chance he would take.

Charlee’s hand twisted in her bag. Was her hand on her gun? His heart panted with indecision.

The bag shifted. If she adjusted the angle right, could she point at the kneecap? Jay sucked in a breath. Not without the gun at her face going off.

The man jerked his head back to her and wrenched the bag strap from her chest, the barrel of his gun sliding over her cheek.

Jay ran toward them, air heaving from his lungs, and tension straining his muscles. Tony and Colson shouted his name, their footfalls trailing.

The man wrestled the strap over Charlee’s head and Jay’s panic unfurled in a roar. “Get the fuck away from her.”

Wrinkles marred the unfamiliar Asian features. The barrel twisted against her cheek, but his gaze turned to Jay.

The bag flew up with Charlee’s hand wedged inside and paused at the man’s chest. Jay’s heart rate skyrocketed.

Boom…Boom.

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