Page 2 of Spring Break with a Pilot

The guy is so focused on staying out of her range while still holding on, he doesn’t see me come up behind him. I put him in a choke hold.

The woman kicks out at me, aiming—and thank god—missing my jewels. “Hey, hey. I’m on your side.”

She gives me a hard look before taking off. Pausing briefly under the streetlight, she glances back. I get a decent look at her. That body, that hair, that face, I’ll find her. Just a matter of time.

I release her attacker and he drops to the ground cursing, coughing then struggling to his feet.

“You fucking idiot. You probably just got us both killed. He wants her back,” he rasps out as he hightails it the other direction.

The night just got a hell of a lot more interesting.

I grab her water bottle from the ground. Next to it lays a phone that I’m hoping is also hers. The corner’s busted and the glass shattered. I’m sure my buddy can work with this. He’s salvaged information off equipment with more damage.

Wide awake now, I head for the hanger. I can catch a nap there. I’ll have the plane prepped and ready for take-off when Silo shows up. The sooner we leave, the sooner I can get back and find the woman from the alley.

Maybe Love Beach has more to offer than I thought.

The flight to Vegas goes off without a hitch. Deisel’s been staying with me, but now that he’s got his sister’s baby, he wants a house if possible. Man, did he step into a shit storm. Thankfully we got people on the ground in Vegas to help.

Not much going on for me so I said I’d start looking around to see what I can find for him. Hell, it will give me a good excuse to be driving around town looking for Alley Girl.

Sent the phone to I-Tee via courier before I left for Vegas. After waiting the mandatory hours to fly again, I just got back to Love Beach.

Knowing him, he started working on the phone the minute it was in his hand. I call on my way back to my apartment. “Did you get it? Do you have anything for me?”

“Yeah, I got some info off the phone. But someone has—had—a really sweet tracker on it,” I-Tee replies.

“You know who?”

“Not yet,” he laughs, the one he uses when has a new challenge to decipher. The man won’t sleep until he finds what he’s looking for.

“Any luck finding her on street cameras?”

“Nope. Not any that pointed to that location. I checked the surrounding streets but didn’t find anything matching your description. I can give you a log in and you can watch the feed I could recover.”

Boring. “Nah, I’ll hit the ground later. What about a name or address?”

“Name is Melia Rome. Photocopy of her driver’s license has her living on one of the islands, but it’s expired. I’ll shoot it to you to make sure it’s the same woman.”

“Thanks.

“Hey man, be careful. This was a really high-tech tracker. There’s some money behind this.”

2

Melia Rome

How the hell did they find me? My phone. I pat my pants pocket. Damn, I lost my water bottle and my phone.

Probably a good thing. I can’t have anything that will lead him to me. He must have had a tracker on it to find me so quickly. How did he do that? God, I wish I was more techy.

Darting from alley to alley I’m thankful that guy stepped in. He may have been interested in his own agenda, but he got me free.

I’ll pick up a burner phone. I need to be frugal, but a phone is a necessity. I’ve been helping at Boots & Daisies Flower Shop the last two weeks. The owner lets me store my bags in her storage space. I can’t leave anything at the sketchy boarding house where I’m staying. Hell, I don’t even like sleeping or bathing there. It’s only a small step up from living on a park bench. Maybe.

Me and my damn curiosity. Why couldn’t I leave well enough alone?Because Mom is sick.

Mom never lied to me. I’ve known the name of my sperm donor my whole life. I know he gave her a pittance before I was born and told her to get rid of me, and that he never wanted to see or hear from her again. But she’s sick now, and he should have paid child support to help her out. I thought I could just get her a little relief since she can’t work anymore.

---