“How do you figure that?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, but kept his gaze. “I can just sense it.”
Jace eyed her for a few moments, searching her face. He must have seen the one thing he was looking for, because he nodded and said, “Okay, let’s go.”
With Jace in the lead, they moved toward the employees-only door in the far corner of the gym. Jace grabbed the doorknob and jiggled it. It was locked. There was a keypad on the locking mechanism and only an employee would know the right code.
“Damn it. Now what?” Tala remarked.
Winking, Jace grabbed the door handle again and squeezed. Tala heard the audible pop of the door lock snapping. She hoped no one else had.
“Anyone looking?” Jace asked.
Tala surveyed the room behind them. The various occupants were concentrating on lifting weights or counting steps on the stepper and not looking in their direction.
“It’s clear.”
Slowly, Jace opened the door, peered in and then stepped through. Tala followed him in so close she could hear his heart thumping. She wondered if hers was just as loud.
They were in a hallway that led to about four other rooms. Tala held her breath that they didn’t run into anyone along the way that had brains enough to call their bluff. Even with her badge, she’d be hard pressed to give a reason for their presence. They didn’t really have sufficient cause to check on Darryl, except for her bad feeling.
The first room on the left was a men’s washroom. Pushing open the door, Jace listened for a moment then went in. Leaning against the wall, Tala tried to wait patiently. What she really wanted to do was rush in there and help out. She loved this part of police work. Chasing the bad guys. Her adrenaline was zinging through her system. The rush gave her a euphoric high. It was better than drugs any day. It was the reason she had gone into law enforcement.
After a couple of minutes, the door to the bathroom opened and Jace walked out. “It’s clear.” He nodded toward the next door—the woman’s washroom. “Your turn.”
Taking a deep breath, Tala swung open the door and walked in. There was no one at the sinks. She checked the three stalls to find them empty. She was almost disappointed that Darryl wasn’t in there, hiding.
Doing one last sweep of the room, her eyes lifted up to the small window above the garbage can and feminine product dispensers. It was open. The glass pane swung outward. A black scuff mark marred the pristine white wall.
He’d gone out the window.
Her statement was confirmed when she heard metal—garbage cans maybe—crashing onto the cement.
“Jace!” she called. “He’s running!”
Without waiting, Tala set her left foot on top of the garbage can, grabbed hold of the window ledge and pulled herself up. Once there, she was able to stick her head out the window. She saw Darryl running down the alley. She wiggled the rest of the way through, swung her right leg over and jumped down onto the ground.
In a matter of seconds she was chasing him.
Darryl was quick, but Tala had been running all her life. Her mother swore that Tala had been born with sneakers already glued to her feet.
Her long legs pumped like pistons. Her breath came in vigorous measured rasps. She knew how to put on the speed and keep it. So it wasn’t long before she caught up to him.
When he reached the mouth of the alley, he glanced over his shoulder. His first big mistake. He lost his rhythm and momentum when he did that. Good thing for Tala, though. It gave her the opportunity to take him down.
Leaping, she wrapped her arms around his waist and pushed him back. He outweighed her by seventy pounds easy, but she had momentum, gravity and determination on her side. The bastard was going down. And hard.
Darryl landed on his side with Tala on top. Before she could maneuver around and get him into a submission hold, he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her off him. She rolled onto her back, but was scrambling to her feet before he could run again.
Except he didn’t run. He was staring down at her with fury in his face. She probably looked like an easy mark to him: female, slender, a lot smaller than him.
Before she could gain her feet, he kicked her. Instinctively she bent her arms to protect her chest. He had thick meaty legs and his kick was something fierce. But she managed to block most of it with her forearms. Just the tip of his shoe managed to find a weak spot between her elbows and into her gut. The force of the blow sent her sprawling backward.
Her eyes teared up from the pain of the strike. Had he found a rib? From the agony that tore through her, Tala thought maybe he had. Rolling onto her other side, Tala brought her knees up to protect herself from the next kick she was sure was coming.
But it didn’t come.
Through the tears, Tala could see Jace on Darryl. The lycan was behind Darryl and had both of Darryl’s arms twisted and crossed behind his neck in a submission hold reminiscent of the WWE. Tala could also see that Jace’s eyes smoldered like embers in a fire. The veins in his neck had popped and he looked very near to shifting.