Hugo’s eyebrows shot up. “Language April! Look, let’s call it off, I’ll arrange a courier to come and pick up the ring and drop your things back at your apartment-”
April opened her mouth but no sound came out. She couldn’t believe it. Four years and now it was over just like that? She didn’t feel hurt, she felt mad. The one time she needed him in her corner, to believe her and take a chance on her and help her. And he’d hung her out to dry. She blinked furiously, trying to make sense of it all.
“I think it’s for the best really, April, don’t you?” She heard him say.
She looked down at her hand, at the large diamond engagement ring he’d given her that she wore on her left hand ring finger. She wrenched it off with her other hand.
“Here, have it back,” she spat, tossing it on the floor amongst the smashed glass and ice. She took a deep breath in and yelled, “I was going to dump you anyway, you lazy, selfish asshole!” Her voice cracked, betraying her emotion. She wasn’t sad, she was angry. Her hand felt lighter without the ring on it. Her heart felt lighter without Hugo’s grease on it. She took a breath. Her chest felt lighter.
She had a moment of clarity, a moment of realization then. She didn’t want to spend a second longer with these people. Judging, tutting, gasping. She didn’t want to spend a moment longer with Hugo, cold, unwelcoming; judging Colt for what he was wearing, what he was saying. Hugo, now focusing all his social embarrassment on her. Blaming her. When she had done nothing wrong.
She took a breath in. She wasn’t sure what she was going to say, but she was fully prepared to lash out with her tongue. She didn’t get the opportunity.
The fire alarm went off.
Loud. Continuous beeping.
People gasped and screamed.
Security lights came on.
“Quick!”
“Fire!”
“To the exits!” people yelled and hurried toward the doors. The launch, forgotten. Social nicety forgotten. People pushed and shrieked. Her foot got stamped on by a stiletto heel. The glamour and slickness of the evening, long forgotten, too. Was it even a real fire or just a drill? She couldn’t help but feel it was related to the trouble she was in. Was this the MC already, literally smoking her out of the building? She stopped and diverted to the coatroom, nabbing her leather jacket on the way out. She didn’t go anywhere without it.
She could hear Hugo across the parking lot, mouthing off about how the criminal who just came and gate-crashed his launch probably had set the fire alarm off. Everyone had gathered in the parking garage of the hotel. Guests from Hugo’s business launch, but also other hotel guests, other evening guests. There were other conference rooms and they were obviously being used for other evening functions. Lots of people, well dressed, glamorous, now reduced to milling around outside. Cooks and cleaners and waiters were filing out of the building, too. Someone had a clipboard, and started counting the staff, and trying to get guests to stand still in one place. April didn’t know what to do. She felt creeping dread growing in the pit of her stomach. She looked around. Were the MC there, hiding in the shadows? Blocking the exits to the hotel?
She was standing alone. She looked on at the glittering crowd and sighed. She can’t run from this, from what happened the other night. From the truth about her father. She can’t run from where she came from, though her whole life had been an attempt to do just that. She had always sensed it with her grandparents. With the expensive schools and the trips away. They were always trying to keep her distracted, on the move, moving forwards, moving upwards. Away from her roots. Because as it turned out, they were dirty roots.
She turned from the crowd and there in the darkness, at the other side of the parking lot, in between two cars, a figure crouched. Fear gripped her for a second. Was it Cleaver? Or another MC member? His face then lit up briefly as he inhaled on a cigarette.
Colt.
She instantly puffed out a breath in relief. She pursed her lips, feeling sheepish, and grudgingly walked over to him. Away from who she was, away from the people she had stood shoulder to shoulder with. It was time to embrace her roots. It was time to put her head on straight and think her way out of this mess.
“Hey, Kitten,” he murmured, but he didn’t stand up. He looked up at her. His eyes lingered more than was necessary. He tilted his chin in a nod, beckoning her to crouch down with him. She could barely see him in the darkness. She was realizing this is her life now, crouching in shadows, looking over her shoulder, being chased. The threat was real. She dipped down low.
He blew out a plume of cigarette smoke by tilting his head back and forcefully blowing it up, above her head. He looked so hot doing that, the way his neck moved, his lips pouting together. Almost like a kiss. She shook herself. What an inappropriate thought. But God, would she love to be kissed by him. Jesus, she needed to stop. Now was not the time.
“Where’s your rock?” he asked huskily, breathing in, wincing a little, the tip of the cigarette glowing orange.
April blinked, unsure what he was referring to at first. He nodded down to her hand. Her ringless finger. “He... we broke it off,” she said, her voice quiet. Not because she was sad but because she was appalled at how little she actually cared that her future wouldn’t have Hugo in it. She realized she didn’t actually mind at all. No, she was quiet because she felt embarrassed in front of Colt. Her pride was hurt. She was almost sulking about it. She’d left Colt standing at the side of the road because she deemed herself better than him. Turned from him and his offer of safety because she thought she could do better. She realized her mistake now, she was wrong to turn down the freedom he had offered her. It was more than what she had waiting for her with Hugo.
Colt held the smoke in his lungs thoughtfully for a moment. She almost began to worry. Then he ejected it again, above her head, in a plume. She thought she saw a flicker of amusement in his face. Maybe not amusement, triumph. He scanned her face and she felt very exposed. She broke his gaze and looked down.
“Best to leave them to it, they are not from our world,” he said finally.
“I’m not sure you and I are from the same world, Colt. But I believe right now we are in the same boat. They are coming to get us, aren’t they?” she asked.
He breathed in and blew out again on his cigarette, making her wait for his response. She almost lost her patience, this guy had a serious attitude. Everything on his terms, and everyone else around him fit in with that. She would find it impressive, sexy even, if she wasn’t feeling so panicked by the urgency of the predicament.
He stubbed the cigarette out on the ground and flicked the butt away. She pursed her lips, saving her lecture on littering for another time.
He nodded to a brown paper bag at his feet. “Put those on.” He instructed.
She opened her mouth to argue back. What on earth could possibly be in the bag that would warrant taking time away from escaping? She blinked into the bag. A pair of black biker boots stared back at her. She reached in and pulled them out. They weren’t new, but they looked hardly worn. They were her size.