Daniel’s heart dropped as they skidded to a halt. His dragon tensed for the fight.
One of the men stared in shock, but the second one nodded. “It’s clear from here on out,” he said.
“Thanks, Marco” Josh said as he patted his friend on the shoulder.
Daniel looked them over and memorized their names as he and Josh hurried past.
“Wait,” the shocked man said. “Aren’t we supposed to stop him?”
The other man wrapped his arm around his buddy’s shoulder. “There are times when the best thing you can do is turn and walk away,” he said as he pulled his friend around and started down the hall in the opposite direction. “This is one of those times.”
“But!”
Marco shushed his friend. “I’ll buy you a beer when this is over. Just remember, you didn’t see anything.”
The flustered man glanced back at Daniel once more before following his friend’s pull. “All right, but you need to explain this later.”
Daniel smiled as the pair disappeared around the corner. Some of his men were still loyal. He picked up his pace and raced after Josh.
When they got to the door leading out, Josh stopped. There were three guards between them and the checkpoint. “Wait here.”
Daniel drew in a breath and held it as Josh went to check with the guards. Two of the men nodded but the third gripped his weapon tighter and started grilling Josh. Daniel watched as one of the guards, a large man with rich brown skin, cracked the combative man in the back of the head, dropping him like a stone.
Josh waved for Daniel to come out.
Pushing from the building, Daniel hurried over to where Josh and his friends were stuffing the downed man in the little guard shack. “Will he be okay?” Daniel asked. He looked at the two guards, identifying them. The heavy set man was Mac and the thinner one with the red hair was Corry.
“He’ll be fine,” Mac said as he finished shoving the unconscious man into the box and shut the door. “We’ll take good care of him.”
Daniel glanced at the man once more before letting the three guards usher him out of the gate. Putting the unconscious guard from his mind, Daniel looked up and down the street, wondering how he was going to get away. The road outside this checkpoint ran between the fence and a very tall building and, for security reasons, Eternity kept cars from parking along the curbs. That was an awful lot of open space to cover before he could make it to some kind of safety.
“Wait right here,” Josh said as he pressed Daniel back against the outside of the guard shack.
Not sure what was going to happen, Daniel squatted next to the shack so he was out of sight from the main building.
After a few long minutes, a car cruised up with the radio blaring. It stopped when it got close to the curb.
“Go,” Josh said, urging Daniel up from the ground.
Daniel scrambled to his feet and hurried to the car. He didn’t stop to thank Josh or the other men that had risked everything to get him out. Once this was over, he’d find a way to make his appreciations known.
Getting in the car, Daniel turned to look at the young woman in the driver’s seat. She was a slip of a girl with shockingly pink hair.
“Hey,” she said with a smile. Turning her attention back to the road she took off at a nice easy pace.
“Hi,” he said back. Every nerve in Daniel’s body pulsed with the beat of the heavy metal music blasting from the radio. So many things rushed through his mind that he couldn’t follow any of them. He slouched in his seat, sure the bass would draw attention. He wanted the woman to go faster but forced himself to be calm. If the noise didn’t get them noticed, racing off at break-neck speeds definitely would. Sitting back in his seat, he pulled his seat belt on and watched in the mirror to see if anyone was following them. After about three blocks with no signs of a tail, he looked at the strange woman again. Her hair was still glaringly pink, but it fit with the series of piercings running around the shell of her ear and the gem in her nose.
She shot him a sidelong glance and smiled as she popped her gum. Reaching out, she turned down the volume. “So, where to?”
Daniel blinked a few times as his senses kicked in. There was something strange in the calm way the woman spoke. “What?” he asked, trying to figure out what wasn’t right.
Irritation took a little of the brightness out of her smile. “My brother said you needed a ride. Where ya going?”
The truth dawned on Daniel. This woman wasn’t tense about the situation because she didn’t know that there was a situation. He drew a breath in through his mouth as his mind spun. “Yes,” Daniel said as he thought. He needed someplace safe that Eternity didn’t know about. There was only one place he could think of. “There’s a gas station over on River and Vine. Can you take me there?”
“Sure thing,” the woman said, pointing her car in the right direction.
Daniel slipped his hands into his pockets and looked out the window. Josh had done a fantastic job of getting him to safety, but from here on out, he was on his own.
4
Letting out a weary sigh, Angela pulled her key from the dash of her car. Her eye twitched with exhaustion as she brooded over her situation. For two weeks she’d been camped out in the college library studying for finals while Jocelyn, her roommate and ex-best friend, fooled around with her new boyfriend on every flat surface in their dorm room. Nothing was sacred to those two.
Angela had finally had enough when she’d come back from an intense cram session to find the pair screwing on her desk. She had naked ass prints all over her political science notes! She could forgive a lot of things, but that wasn’t one. To make matters worse, Jocelyn’s boyfriend hadn’t bothered to stop when Angela came in. They had paused, but only long enough to invite Angela to join in. That had been the last straw. Angela was not going to put up with it anymore.
The ensuing fight had been brutal. When the smoke cleared, it was decided that the two girls shouldn’t be friends anymore. With only a few weeks left in the term, Angela had packed her things and left. She’d deal with finding a new roommate later, but anything would be better than trying to sleep through another night of her roommate’s sexcapades. Even a daily, two-hour drive to her father’s house.
Getting out of the car, Angela glanced at the row of vehicles lining her father’s driveway before gathering her bags and heading to the barn. She wasn’t up to dealing with whatever event her father was holding. As an elected official, he was always hosting some type of gathering, and dragging a suitcase through a formal function was not on Angela’s list of things to do tonight. One of the apartments in the barn’s loft would work as her haven for the night. Years of ranch hands had occupied the small rooms so they could be close to the horses, but those quarters had been vacant for a while. They weren’t much more than a place to sleep and a communal bathroom, but that was all Angela was interested in for the night. Tomorrow, when her father’s function was over, she’d go see him and claim her very nice bed in the main house.
The smell of hay and horses met Angela as she opened the door in the side of the barn. It had been years since her father kept the animals, but their scent still lingered. It brought back fond memories of her childhood. Turning to her right, Angela climbed the steps into the loft. Placing her hand on the wall, she closed her eyes and trusted her memory to guide her. The apartments shouldn’t be hard to find in the darkened space. They lined both sides of the building. When her hand hit a door, she pushed it open and looked around.
Moonlight streamed through the window making the room bright compared to the darkness of the loft. The space wasn’t very big. Just enough to hold a bed and a nightstand, but that was more than enough for tonight. Angela dropped her bag on the floor and shut the door. The bed screamed for her attention. Stepping out of her shoes, she crossed the room and dropped herself on to it. The sheets smelled stale from lack of use, but Angela didn’t care. Pulling the blanket around her, she curled up, happy to be able to sleep in peace for a change.