Thomas whirled around, his hands fisted. Right. He probably couldn’t make out the sound of Blaize’s voice over the loudnoises in the bar earlier where voices fought to be heard over the music.
“It’s me,” Blaize said.
Thomas sighed relief. “You scared the sh—” His gaze bounced from Blaize to Carys and back. “Anyway, I wasn’t sure if you would show.”
“I’m here. What did you want to tell me?”
The kid looked around, eyes wild, like he half expected someone to jump out from behind a dumpster. “I could get into a lot of trouble for this.” He caught Blaize’s gaze. “Like, serious trouble.”
“I appreciate you trusting me, Thomas. But you haven’t said anything yet. Do you want to see the pic again?”
“No,” Thomas said, looking taken aback with the fact Blaize said his name. “I never liked how my uncle treated her, you know?”
“Sure.” Blaize had no idea.
Thomas hesitated.
“Before long, another cop is going to drive down the alley or someone is going to open that door to see what’s taking you so long to close up,” Blaize said. “You’ll save us all a lot of angst if you’ll spit it out.” All kinds of scenarios came to mind, none he liked. Blaize needed to hear the truth before his imagination got the best of him.
“She worked here about a year ago,” Thomas said. “Nice lady. I overheard her arguing with my uncle.”
He glanced around like the man might jump out and say,Boo!He sucked in a breath before continuing. “Two days later, she disappeared, and I haven’t seen her since.”
“Did you hear what they were saying?” Carys jumped in.
“No, but my uncle isn’t exactly… He runs this place on the up and up, but this isn’t his only business. People come in and out of here. And it’s not good.”
“Got it,” Blaize said. The timing of her going missing matched with her pregnancy. Was Angel the baby’s father?
“What’s her name? The woman in the picture?” Carys asked.
“Sharon Clark,” Thomas said. “Her roommate got her the job. I sneaked into my uncle’s office after you left.” He pulled a slip of paper out of his apron pocket and handed it to Blaize. “It’s their address. Or, at least, it was. Haley quit about a month after Sharon.”
A random person shouted, and the sound echoed. It was enough to spook Thomas. “I’ve gotta go. I just hope you find her and that she’s okay.”
“Why are you helping us?” Carys asked.
“Because she was nice to me and doesn’t deserve to have anything bad happen to her,” Thomas said. He took off running around the line of buildings. “Keep me out of it.”
The back door to the bar creaked before it opened. The noise gave them enough time to dive behind the dumpster and out of view.
“Thomas. Where the hell did you go?” The bartender’s voice was familiar. He cursed and then shut the door. The lock clicked.
Blaize tucked the paper into his front jeans pocket, reached for Carys’s hand, and then sprinted in the opposite direction of Thomas.
CARYS’S THIGHS BURNEDand her side cramped. Blaize was a faster runner. She strained to keep up as he practically dragged her along, urging her to keep pace with every forward step.
They came to a hard stop at the Jeep. She bent forward, clutched her side, and gasped for air.
“Are you okay?” he asked, moving beside her and placing his hand on the small of her back.
“I will be,” she managed to say through breaths. Standing up straight, she motioned toward his pocket.
He nodded before pulling the piece of paper out of his pocket. Why wasn’t he breathing hard? To say the man was in good shape was a lot like saying butter melted on warm toast.
“Here’s the address.” He showed it to her.
Carys pulled out her phone and mapped the location. “MLK Boulevard. I know the area.”
