Ace (Riptide MC 1)

Ace (Riptide MC 1)
Anne Kane
All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2024 Anne Kane

Emma

It was midnight by the time I left work. My shitty excuse for a car had crapped out on me yesterday and transit didn’t run this late, so I had to walk home. Short enough walk, but this wasn’t the safest part of town for a woman alone to traverse after dark. I knew better than to take the shortcut through the park, especially at night. The bad guys came out when the sun went down, clinging to the shadows in the park as they went about their illegal activities. Drug deals, illicit arms sales and who knew what else. Still, that route would cut the length of my walk in half, and after slinging drinks at the bar all night, the temptation was too much to resist.

My aching feet won the argument with my common sense, and I risked it.

It was dark under the towering trees. The heavy branches blocked out the majority of the moonlight, making it feel eerily like the setting of a horror movie. More than half of the lights on the concrete path had been knocked out by kids throwing rocks. I stepped up my pace.

I was halfway through the park when the sound of a gunshot rang out loud in the still night air. I jumped, automatically turning toward the sounds.

In the clearing off to my left side stood a big guy holding a gun. He had it pointed at another guy who had a splash of red spreading from a hole in his chest. The shooter took two more shots, hitting the other guy right between the eyes. The victim crumpled to the ground as blood and brains splattered from the back of his head. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. A thin trickle of blood trailed from the corner of his lips and splashed the ground. In the light of the full moon, I could see the life fading from his eyes as he stared at the man holding the smoking gun.

I slapped my hand over my mouth, desperately trying to stifle a scream. I wasn’t successful. I stood rooted to the spot, my mind trying to process the horror of what I’d just witnessed.

The murderer swiveled and looked straight at me. He was a huge monster of a man, with tattoos covering every available inch of skin on his heavily muscled arms. His chest was wide, and no doubt just as muscled beneath a skintight shirt.

His eyes were cold and hard as he brought the gun around and pointed the deadly weapon straight at me.

Survival instinct kicked in. I turned and ran.

Shots rang out behind me. One. Two. The bullets went wide, the shooter’s aim hindered by the moving target.

Me.

I was the moving target. He was trying to kill me. The third shot scorched a fiery path across my side. When I brought my hand down to my ribs, I could feel sticky dampness oozing from a ragged hole in my jacket. A coppery smell filled the air. Blood.

No time to stop and assess the damage. That wasn’t a warning shot -- it was meant to kill. Hopefully, that was a regulation gun, with a six-shot magazine like you see in the movies. Three shots to commit murder, and three fired at me. The asshole was going to have to reload before he could finish me off.

Enough time for me to escape? I had to hope so. One hand pressed to the throbbing wound on my side, I plunged into the heavy shrubs lining the pathways. I’d be an easier target if I stayed on the paths. Better to get a few scratches. At least it was too dark away from the path to follow the trail of blood I was undoubtedly leaving behind.

The murderer didn’t waste any time coming after me. His progress was marked by heavy thumps of his boot as he charged down the path. Hopefully he hadn’t seen me dart into the bushes. “You can’t escape, you little bitch,” he snarled. “You’re pissing me off, and that’s going to make it worse when I catch up. Give up now and I’ll take it easy on you.”

I doubted that. Considering I’d just watched him kill someone in cold blood, he wasn’t likely to pat me on the head and send me on my way. I paused and crouched down beside a flowering shrub. My heart beat so loud it was a miracle he couldn’t hear it. Looking around, I tried to figure out the shortest way out of the park.

“Did you see which way she went?”

“No, but she didn’t pass us, so she must be heading for the road.”

Shit! There were two of them. I hadn’t seen a second man, but then again, I hadn’t stuck around long enough to take in details.

“Makes sense. We need to stop her.” The sound of branches snapping filled the air.

“These damn bushes are thick.” Even muttering to himself, the murderer sounded closer. And cold-blooded. As if he were discussing an annoying insect, not a human being. “You recognize the bitch?”

There was a long pause. “She did look familiar. Maybe works one of the bars in the brewery district? I think she might be a bartender. That shock of red hair should make her easy to find.”

“Pity we didn’t get a pic.”

That remark was met with a derisive snort. “If we had time to get a picture, we would have had time to end her and solve the problem.”

“Do you think she can ID us?”

“I doubt it. It’s dark enough out, even with the damn moon shining and she only saw us for a few seconds. I’m not even sure she saw both of us.”

“Doesn’t matter. The boss ain’t going to be happy with a witness running loose. We need to find her and wrap up the loose ends.”

I had no illusions about how they intended to wrap up the loose end, meaning me. I needed to get out of here and call the cops.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to move. I veered to my left, away from the two thugs. Weaving my way as quietly as I could between the ornamental shrubbery, I stayed low to the ground. I didn’t dare stand up and make myself an easy target. That damn full moon was not helping me now. The thought of being outlined against the sky terrified me, and the bullet wound on my side hurt like hell.

The distance between me and the assassination squad widened. They were following the path, but headed in the other direction, presumably directly out of the park. Which meant I needed to circle around and exit by a different route.

Thug number two raised his voice. “Come on out and discuss this, girl. It’s not what you think. We can explain.”

That would be interesting. How did he think he could explain shooting someone at point blank range? And the fact that he’d taken a few potshots at me didn’t inspire much trust on my part. Not to mention their talk of ending the problem, with me being said problem.

I worked my way in the opposite direction, lengthening the distance between me and them. It felt like forever before I reached the edge of the park, not too far from where I’d originally entered. Seems I’d been walking in a circle.

I took a careful look around to make sure it was safe to emerge before scurrying across the road and into the sheltering darkness of an alley. I reached into my pocket for my cell phone to call for help. Not that I had a whole pile of friends who could come to my rescue, but the cops needed to know there was a dead body in the park. Maybe, if they were quick enough, they could catch the murderous twosome before they escaped the area.

Crap! The phone wasn’t in my pocket. I knew I’d tucked it in there when I left work, which meant it had fallen out somewhere in the park.

An icy river of fear trickled its way down my spine. If the murderers found it, they’d know who I was. Sure, there was a password, but I wasn’t naïve enough to think it couldn’t be hacked, and guys who committed murder wouldn’t balk at illegally hacking a phone. Even if they didn’t manage to bypass the password, my home screen picture showed me grinning like an idiot while standing in front of the bar where I worked, the name of the bar clearly visible above my head. I thought it was cute when I tagged it as the home screen picture. It might as well say, come and get me!

Dumb. Dumb and Dumber.

Now what? I couldn’t very well go home and wait for the bad guys to figure out where to find me, and I definitely couldn’t go back to the bar.

The rustling of bushes in the distance made me jump. Sitting here stewing wasn’t helping any. Sooner or later, those guys would double back to find me.

Where to go presented an issue. It wasn’t like I had a loving family waiting to protect me. I only knew one person who might be able to help me. Then again, I’d dated his little brother in high school. I may have burnt that bridge behind me.

Justin Maclean and I had been close once upon a time. Friends close, not lovers close, although we had dated. It kept the other guys away. It was a tough neighborhood, and we’d had each other’s backs. I’d had a crush on his older brother James though. Tall, dark and brooding. Just what every teenaged girl longs for.

Turned out the younger Maclean and I had very different dreams.