Worth the Risk_ A Contemporary - Megan Hart Page 0,55

trays had been demolished. Rick's date had finally made it back from the bathroom.

They'd moved to the far end of the bar. Rick had his arm around the lady fair who was perusing the crowd. From the back, she looked slim with sleek dark hair that reminded him disconcertingly of Laila's. When she turned around, Hal saw why. The woman with Rick was Laila.

No. It couldn't be. Laila with Rick, of all people? Why had she hired another LoveMatch escort? The sight of her with another man, another paid man, punched him in the gut.

Hal took a step back, forgetting he had no place to go. Sandy finally managed to work her way through back to him, and now she chirped perkily, "If you need a break or something--"

"I'll take it," Hal said.

He stepped out from behind the bar, heading for the door, just as Laila turned and saw him.

"Hal!" she cried, but he ignored her.

He pushed through the crowd, slammed through the doors, and was gone.

"Babe, you know Kessler?" Rick asked her, holding her by the arm as Laila tried to go after Hal.

"Yes," Laila said impatiently, shaking him off. "That's why I wanted to come here. Because you knew him."

"Huh?"

She didn't have time to explain to Rick, who was easy on the eyes but incredibly difficult on the intellect. "Listen, Rick, I've got to go."

"But--wait!" Rick called after her. Laila didn't turn, even when she heard him cry forlornly, "Dude?"

The crowd seemed determined to keep her from getting out. She dodged one couple grappling in the first stages of drunken courtship, then had to squeeze between a group of women huddled together around a high table. Determined she would catch up to Hal if it meant driving her heel into some poor slob's instep, Laila pushed her way through the throng.

"Hal!" she cried to the night, but he was gone.

She searched the street from side to side, and didn't see him. Her heart hit the pavement, followed by her stomach, but then she looked again. She saw just a flash of his yellow shirt as he turned the corner into an alley only two blocks ahead.

She didn't bother calling out again, needing to save her breath for the jog ahead. Grateful she'd gone with the sensible low-heeled boots instead of the sexy slingback pumps she'd first picked out, Laila took off at a run. Freezing air made the inside of her nose and lungs burn as she ran, but that didn't stop her.

She splashed through a puddle of icy water, squeaking when it hit her stocking covered calves. And still she ran on. One block more. She had to turn the corner before he turned again. Before she lost him again.

Just ahead, the street lamp flickered obnoxiously, casting the alley Hal had gone down into deep shadow. Now Laila hesitated. Did she really want to run down a dark alley at night, wearing an outfit chosen especially to entice a man?

She looked down the street in both directions, but other than an occasional flash of headlights from the next corner, it was deserted. Light and music spilled out of Zane's just two blocks down, but here the storefronts were dark and locked up for the night.

I lost him once, Laila thought. She wouldn't do it again. Heart pounding, she dove into the alley and prepared to run after the man who'd gotten away with her heart.

Before her eyes could adjust to the even darker alley, Laila ran head first into a brick wall. At least, it felt like a brick wall, albeit one wearing a yellow shirt. Both of them went down hard, rolling into a pile of cardboard and garbage overflowing from a dumpster.

Her knees stung and her stockings were shredded ruins. Hal's elbow had caught her painfully just beneath the ribs, and her breath came in labored, whistling gasps. She had never been so happy in her life.

"Hal!"

Hal wheezed. Laila felt him move beneath her, his hands pushing feebly at her knee. It had lodged between his legs. High up between his legs.

The garbage, piled precariously as it was, shifted and slid. Hal and Laila rolled to the cold, wet pavement. She didn't want to think about what was squelching beneath him.

"I know what you must be thinking," she began. "About why I was with Rick."

"It's not a story I need to hear right now," Hal replied, his voice still harsh with pain. "Not in a pile of garbage."

"When you ran out, I thought I'd blown