1
Kit
“Heads up!”
A split second after someone shouted that warning, a huge duffle bag landed right in front of me. I jumped back with a startled yelp and looked up at a guy hauling ass down a fire escape.
Once he reached the bottom level, which was maybe ten feet off the ground, he could have lowered the ladder and climbed the rest of the way down. Instead, he launched himself over the railing, landing nearby in a superhero pose—down on one knee, left arm back, right hand lightly touching the ground in front of him. Clearly, he had a flare for the dramatic.
When he raised his head and smiled at me, it was all I could do to keep my jaw from dropping. He had tousled dark hair, a sparkle in his eyes, and a face so handsome it probably let him get away with murder. There was also a sexy rock star thing going on, with his leather motorcycle jacket and the electric guitar slung across his back.
“Sorry I almost squashed you with my bag. I didn’t expect anyone to be in the alley,” he said, as he straightened up and approached me. He towered over me, since I was barely five-foot-six. Then again, so did a lot of people, but he had to be close to six-one.
“I was taking a shortcut on the way home.” I could hear a man yelling and banging on a door somewhere inside the building with the fire escape, so I asked, “Out of curiosity, did you just rob someone’s apartment?”
“Technically, yes. We should go, in case he decides to come after me.” I started power walking away from this guy, but he grabbed the duffle bag and jogged to catch up with me. “Don’t worry, I’m not a criminal. I’d rented a room in some guy’s apartment, but he turned out to be a creep. After I shot down his super aggressive advances, he took my key and kicked me out. Totally unfair, right?”
When I didn’t say anything, he continued, “I had to get my stuff, so I came back today and jimmied open a window. He was supposed to be at work, but he came home early and got super mad when he saw me. I locked the bedroom door to give myself time to escape, which is why you heard that pounding and yelling.”
I started walking faster. “It seems like you don’t believe me,” he said, “but I can prove this is my stuff.” He hurried ahead of me, dropped the bag, and pulled out a T-shirt, which he held to his chest. “See? It’s my size. Plus, it’s got Green Day on it, and I love them. Want me to sing you one of their songs, so you know this belongs to me?”
I stepped around him, barely breaking my stride as I muttered, “You don’t need to prove anything to me.”
He grabbed the bag and ran after me. “I do, though. Otherwise, you’re going to be totally freaked out, because you’ll think you had a run-in with a criminal in a dark alley?—”
“It’s three p.m.”
“What?”
“It’s only three. It’s still light out.”
“The alley was kind of shadowy, though. It’d be the perfect place to run into a marauder, or a desperado.” I couldn’t help but grin. Who talked like that? “In fact, you should really stop taking shortcuts down seedy alleyways. Someone as cute and little as you could get snatched up—not by me! Again, I’m not a criminal.”
“Newsflash, you don’t have to be six feet tall to kick some ass. I’m perfectly capable of defending myself.”
“Crap, now I’ve offended you. I’m sorry.” After a moment, he asked, “Could you please slow down a little? It’s hard to carry on a conversation like this.”
“We don’t need to carry on a conversation,” I said. “I don’t even know you.”
“Devon Hughes, formerly of Baltimore, Maryland, and as of six days ago, San Francisco, California. And you are?”
“Kit.”
He waited for me to continue. When I didn’t, he said, “Let me buy you a drink, Kit.”
“As previously discussed, it’s three o’clock in the afternoon. Isn’t it a little early for a drink?”
“Definitely not. Please? I could really use one after that harrowing attempt at liberating my possessions, and I hate drinking alone.”
“It seems to have been more than an attempt, since you got your stuff.”
“I was only partially successful. I had to leave my amp and backpack behind, because I thought my former landlord might stab me.”
“He had a knife?”
“Worse. A sword.”
“You’re kidding.”
