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I swallowed another mouthful of the spicy, tomatoey cocktail. The bartender had made sure it packed a good wallop, exactly the way I wanted. Enough to wash away most of the discomfort of thatencounter.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and smiled when I saw the name on the screen. “Hey, Kylie!” I said. “Are you really supposed to be making calls in the middle of yourshift?”
“I made a deal with my supervisor that I’d cut out early tonight in exchange for an extra long shift tomorrow,” my best friend said in her chirpy voice. “Birthday surprise! Where are you, Ren? We need to rock tonight,hard.”
I laughed. Maybe this was what I really needed. Mom was long gone, doing whatever had been more important than sticking with her only kid, and of course no piece of jewelry was going to bring her back. But I didn’t need her anymore. I’d gotten through the last seven years alive if not completely unscathed, and now Kylie and I had finally scrounged together enough money to put a down payment on anapartment.
It was a crappy apartment, on a street so seedy there were more weeds than concrete on the sidewalks, but it had four walls and a ceiling with no holes. It had a door with a lock, and only we had the keys. These days, that washeaven.
Kylie normally worked the evening and early night shift cashiering and stocking shelves at a rundown grocery store in the ‘hood. I’d be back hauling boxes at my warehouse job tomorrow morning. No fun, but whatever paid the bills. And I could sleepwalk through the job, so I didn’t need to worry about ahangover.
I turned around one of the coasters sitting on the counter to check the bar’s name. “I’m at a place called Carmello’s,” I said. “It’s on 5thAve a few blocks from the park. But I can meet youwherever.”
“No, no,” Kylie said. “I’m coming to get you. And then I’m taking you on one epic adventure, littlegirl.”
“I’ll hold you to that promise,” I said. Not that I had any doubt Kylie would deliver. She was only a couple years older than me, but when I’d first run into her a few years back, that had seemed like a much bigger gap than it did now. She’d looked out for me as much a big sister as afriend.
Carmello’s would definitely be too much of a snore for her to want to stick around here. I gulped some more of my Bloody Mary so I’d be finished before she showedup.
The door sighed open, too early for it to be Kylie already. My heart leapt despite the talking-to I’d given myself. But it definitely wasn’t my mom walkingin.
The guy looked young, maybe mid-twenties, but there was a confidence in the way he prowled into the bar that seemed to carry the weight of a lot more experience. His round face was broken by the jut of sharp cheekbones—not exactly handsome, but definitely memorable. His hazel eyes swept the room and came to rest onme.
I jerked my gaze away, realizing I’d been staring. And he wasn’t at all the kind of person I wanted to be staring at. Living on the streets had given me a keen instinct for danger. This guy? He was not someone to mess with. A sense of purpose radiated off of him too. I figured it was better not to get in the way of whatever he was upto.
Just my luck, he sauntered up to the bar right beside me. “Give me the best thing you have on tap,” he said to the bartender, and turned toward me. “Nice night to be out on thetown.”
“I suppose,” I said noncommittally. How long was it going to take Kylie to get here and give me an easyexit?
Cheekbones cocked his head. “All the early summer energy in the air, it really brings the beastout.”
What wasthatsupposed to mean? I shrugged and acted fascinated by my Bloody Mary. He didn’t take thehint.
“Maybe we could take a walk, get to know each other a littlebetter.”
I cut my eyes toward him. Hewasconfident, wasn’t he? My quick tongue got a little ahead of my better judgment. “Who says I’m looking to get to knowyou?”
Cheekbones grinned at me, looking unfazed. “I’m just saying, we clearly have a lot in common. This isn’t our kind of place, is it? Why not come back to the fold, at least for avisit?”
A lot in common? The fold? Was this guyonsomething? No dilated pupils, no jerky movements, but you never knew what drugs were making the rounds thesedays.
I drained as much of my drink as I could in one swallow and set down the glass. The hit of spice and alcohol sharpened my inner claws. “I’m pretty sure we have exactly nothing in common,” I said. “For one thing, I know how to take a ‘No.’”
Before I had to find out how he was going to answer that, I hopped off my stool and made a beeline for the back hall with itsRestroomssign. He wasn’t likely to follow me into theladies’.
Washing my hands, I peered at my reflection. I hadn’t put on anything other than my standard mascara and light maroon lipstick combo today. I was dressed casual in a faded Nine Inch Nails tee and jeans. I’d been blessed with a good hair day, my chocolate-brown waves drifting artfully across my shoulders the way I usually struggled and failed to style them, but otherwise nothing extra special was going on. So why were guys honing in on me like flies to a jar of sugarwater?
It didn’t matter. Cheekbones made me too uneasy. Either he was drugged out or partly insane, and neither would lead to a good outcome. I’d text Kylie to meet me at the all-ages club on the other side of town and grab a cab to be on myway.
I was reaching for my phone as I came out of the restroom, and a pair of arms slammed around me from behind. One clapped a damp cloth over my face. The other wrapped around my waist. A sickly sweet smell washed over me. I swung back my elbow—and the world wentblack.
Chapter 2
Ren
Iwokeup with a muddy feeling behind my eyes and velvety fabric against my cheek. Neither of those sensations feltright.
Blinking, I rubbed my forehead. The room around me came into focus. It still didn’t make muchsense.
