Page 4 of Run

“You need a drink, Gage?” I asked, keeping the smile plastered on my face.

He waited a moment, then another, and then finally went back to the VIP area, though his gaze didn’t leave me.

I’d known it before, and today only confirmed it. Gage was trouble, and I didn’t want trouble. Couldn’t have it. Because every brush with trouble was one that threatened to take me back to my past, a past I had given up everything to escape.

It might be time to retire “Kelly,” start over somewhere new, somewhere fresh.

I had done it before, at least a dozen times since I’d left home, so it wouldn’t be hard.

Yeah, I decided as I again wiped the bar, it was time for Kelly to get gone.

Maybe I’d go out West.

I loved the ocean, and I hadn’t been out there for years. It was time to go back. I didn’t know people there, so it would be easier to disappear, sink into the underbelly that was the only place I felt comfortable.

Just that quickly, my plan had come together. Soon, I’d be gone, off to start my life yet again.

Less than five minutes, and I had everything figured out.

Then the bar door opened.