Page 4 of Laying it Bare on the Run

Mike’s lips twisted into a carnal smirk. “I’d love to get you out of your panties. What time will you be leaving?” His blue eyes danced with amusement.

“Do you mean get off?”

“Oh, no. That won’t happen until you’re under me tonight and numerous times.”

Her cheeks pinkened. She might have tried to come on strong but she was no match for Mike. “I usually get out of here around two.”

“I’ll be back at that time. I’ll park right out front and wait for you.” Mike winked at her.

She walked off with a little sway to her hips.

“Guess I won’t be getting anything to drink after all.” I laughed. “You had to go and get her all hot and bothered before I got my drink.”

“She has no idea what she’s in for.”

“And please don’t enlighten us with your plans. I still have about an hour of work to go. I don’t want to vomit.”

A moment later, she returned with what looked like a Coke for me. “I’m Terri by the way. Flag me down if you need anything else.” After dancing her fingers lightly through Mike’s short red hair, she blew him a kiss before heading to another table.

Smirking to myself, I had to wonder if she had walked away earlier to take a shot of something strong for some liquid courage now that she had gotten a small taste of what she was getting herself into with Mike.

I had just taken a huge gulp of – nope not Coke but Dr. Pepper which was even better – when a nervous older lady approached our table. “I hate to bother you when you are relaxing but I noticed you were still in your uniform so I hoped that meant you were still on duty.”

I set my glass down on the table and smiled. “Even if we weren’t, we would help you out. What seems to be the problem?”

Even though it was probably something the bouncer should take care of, it didn’t hurt to have police backing sometimes.

“I know we’ve been seeing a lot more vandalism lately around here.”

I groaned inwardly. I was looking forward to a bar brawl.

“But I’m worried this isn’t just vandalism and I don’t think it’s teenagers. Someone told me early this morning she saw a person go into the old medical supply company a few doors down. The person was carrying a back pack. I’m not sure what that means.”

“I’ll check it out. Thank you.” I wasn’t sure why she had waited until now to report it. It had to be the universe making sureIwas the one to have to deal with it. Ugh. But maybe by some odd chance luck would be on my side for a change and the person would have moved on by now.

After giving me another worried glance, she headed back over to her table where an older gentleman sat.

“Hey, in case this is something unusual, Joe and I will go with you. We’ll leave Ben here to guard our beers.”

“What the hell! Why do I get let out of the fun?” Ben protested as he slammed one hand down onto the table and ran his other agitatedly through his blond unruly mop.

I stifled a chuckle. We did tend to do that to him, a lot.

“It’s probably nothing, so don’t get your panties in a twist. I can go myself.” I stood up.

“We’ll go just to be sure and when it’s nothing we’ll come back and finish our drinks.”

Shaking my head, I walked toward the door. “You guys have been drinking and . . . never mind you always have your weapon on you. But you’ve been drinking.”

“We each had one beer before you sat down. Andbecausewe have our weapons on us, we weren’t planning on over doing it tonight. Maybe tomorrow night, when you can join us. But we won’t draw our weapons unless you need us to.” Joe clapped me on the shoulder as we strolled out the front door.

Once we were standing on the sidewalk in front of the bar, I scanned up and down the street. While it was nowhere near New York City busy, the sidewalks bustled with people coming and going from the few bars and small late night restaurants that lined this strip of the city. But nothing was out of the ordinary. “Let’s get this over with.” Groaning, I led our entourage to the weathered front door of the old medical supply company.

Since the abandoned building no longer had electricity, I flicked on my tactical flashlight, immediately illuminating the space in front of us. Then I slowly pushed at the door. It opened on a creak. As I edged myself inside, I swung my flashlight in small arcs to search for anyone hiding in the corners.

During one of my sweeps, my beam landed on a dark bundle huddled in the far corner. After lowering my light, I slowly, so as to not startle the sleeping figure, moved toward him before tapping him slightly with the tip of my boot. “Hey, you can’t be in here.”

Just as I was about to tap the figure again, he unfurled and jumped to his feet. “Don’t touch me!” Without warning, his arms shot out in unpracticed lunges making to swat me away. I dodged the first two blows, however was taken off guard when he then shot his leg out at me and nailed me in the thigh, hard. But thankfully I had managed to twist slightly to avoid getting hit in my junk.

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