Chapter 5
Alex couldn’t stop thinking about Recker Rhodes. His face, his body, his voice, his scent. All of it was imprinted on her, and she couldn’t stop grinning every time she thought of how badly her interview had gone. She would have been worried if it hadn’t felt so comfortable. She hoped Recker had felt it too.
Things weren’t supposed to be that natural or easy with a man. She knew this because the three main male figures in her life were bullies and treated her like absolute shit. While living in the same house, her step-dad and two step-brothers treated her like the live-in maid. She did everything, and when mom died, they acted indignant that Alex wasn’t going to move in and take care of them. When she’d made it clear that she had no intentions of moving in to pay bills and to cook and clean for them, her step-father told her she was dead to him, and her step-brothers mirrored their father’s opinion, which was fine with Alex. She didn’t need them. Granted it hurt all the more to have them abandon her immediately after mom’s death, but she’d sucked it up and moved on. She was done letting the men in her life degrade her and treat her like hired help. She hated how they’d so easily discarded her, and it had her despising most men now. Fitz and his friends didn’t help alter her opinion either.
Her distaste for men was one of the reasons she didn’t date. All through college, she’d stayed single and hadn’t dated at all, too worried about her mom to care about boys. The only interaction she’d had with males since mom passed was her daily interaction with co-workers and worse, her weekly dealings with Fitz and his buddies, and they hardly counted as men.
Locking up the diner, Alex tucked the keys in her pocket and then zipped her coat all the way up beneath her chin. It was early spring, but a sharp bite of cold clung to the night air. Before setting out, Alex tapped her hand against her purse to make sure she hadn’t forgotten the sandwich she’d made herself before cleaning the kitchen. She hadn’t lied when she’d told Recker that no customers meant no tips. The pay was minimum wage, and she rarely had enough tips saved up at the end of the month to cover her bills let alone afford much in the way of groceries. Her boss was cool though and allowed her one free meal per shift. She’d arranged it so she could take her meal to go each night, and thank God because without her boss’ charity, she’d likely starve.
Eyeing the darkened street, she shivered at the prospect of the walk ahead. Employees had to park in the city’s parking garage down the block. She had to pass a few bars to get to her ride, but she wasn’t too worried. She may not have had the best of interactions with men, but she’d been in plenty of fights growing up and wasn’t too worried about any trouble. Plus, she had a pistol tucked away in her conceal-carry purse, and a pocket knife slid into her back jeans pocket.
Paranoid much? She snorted a laugh as she walked, but the truth was that it if she went missing, there was no one to know. Well, almost no one.
Just then her phone pinged, and she pulled it out of her purse, smiling at Alessandra’s picture that accompanied the text, which she read as she walked. Alise had taken a picture of herself with Alex’s phone when they’d been out one night. She had one eye pinched shut and her tongue poking out in a crazy face.
‘A-hole, how’d it go?’
Alex chuckled and shook her head. ‘Good I think.’
‘Well, fuck! I was hoping they’d hate u.’
‘LOL! Haters gonna hate!’
‘Can’t believe ur gonna leave me in this shit hole alone. I do hate u so right now.’
‘Liar. N u know I’ll stay n touch.’
‘Go touch urself. U think ur cool, but ur only room temperature. Call me when u get home, beitch!!!’
‘K.’
Alex laughed at the exchange and crammed her phone back into her purse. Lifting her head to eye her surroundings had her paranoia returning.
Loud music from one of the bars blared louder as a drunk stumbled out of the door. Barely able to stand, let alone walk straight, the guy leaned heavily on the building as he took a long time to fish a pack of smokes out of his pocket and miss his lips several times before the cigarette was finally clamped between his teeth.
Alex stared straight ahead and lifted her chin, brows spearing down in a “don’t even try fucking with me” expression as she passed. The guy looked up and tried to whistle at her, only managing to shoot his cigarette out of his mouth before he cursed then dropped to a knee to grab his still unlit smoke.
Alex chuffed a laugh and kept on walking.
The bar music faded, and she considered crossing the street. The bar on the next block was a favorite of Fitz and his idiot friends, and on more than one occasion, he’d seen her walking by and had come out to harass her. Fucking dick!
At the corner, she changed her mind and instead of crossing the street or staying her course and walking in front of the bar, she went down the side street. She’d cut through the alley. The parking garage was at the end of it on the right; she’d just have to hurry past the bar’s back door on the opposite side of the alley.
Even the new spring air couldn’t stifle the scent of garbage and alcohol that wafted through the alley. She could hear the music from Fitz’s favorite bar now and cringed at the whiny sounding country tune that echoed off the walls. She hated Country music, not all of it, just the stuff people tended to listen to when they were drinking and looking for an excuse to cry into their beer.
Walking faster, she reached back and rested her hand on the knife in her back pocket. It was darker in the alley than it was on the street, but she could see her car now. It gave her a sense of relief. It was a relief that was short lived.
She heard a noise and knew instantly what it was. The sound had initially been muffled by the twangy music pouring out of the bar, but the closer she got to her car, the more distinctly she heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh. The second she stepped where she was able to see around a tall dumpster, she found Fitz and his boys pounding on some poor guy.
Fitz’s head jerked up just as Alex slammed to a halt and when his eyes locked on her, a grin split his lips.