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Hazel didn’t even wait for my reply before she hurried out the door.
I palmed my cell, barking instructions into it the second the door shut. “Elias, you have two minutes to pull up front. If I don’t get there in time, follow Hazel to wherever she’s going. I’ll find a way to get to you.” This irrational need to follow her wouldn’t leave me. As I strode out the door setting it to lock behind me, I dialed the man I’d been working on convincing to sell me his company.
“Jareth.” His smooth voice grated on my nerves. Clearly he thought that me calling put him at an advantage.
“Simon, I’m out. You can find someone else to sell to.” I hung up on his sputtered gasp. It didn’t matter that after I’d implemented the necessary changes, his company was projected to make me billions in the next two years.
Part of me railed at the incredibly asinine decision I was making. I only needed a little more time and I would have convinced Simon to sell. Made him think that it was the most logical choice even though he had no thoughts of selling until I approached him this morning.
The other part didn’t give a rat’s ass about anything except knowing who Hazel was meeting. The world could catch fire around me—nothing would stop me from finding out that information. At the back of my mind, that semi-rational voice tried to pipe up again, to remind me I could’ve called the PI I had on retainer to find her or even messaged Jess who likely knew where she was going.
I ran a hand through my hair. What was I going to do when I found her? I already knew I wanted to pound her date into the ground. For him to know without a shred of a doubt that this was his first and last date with Hazel.
I inhaled, the fury in my mind clearing. Maybe it was for the best. I wasn’t good enough for her. Maybe this guy was.
She climbed into a waiting car with the blue Uber sign lit up in the window just as I cleared the front door. Fuck that! She was mine. And I’d kill the bastard if he touched her. I ran to my own vehicle and threw myself inside. “Go!” I yelled.
Elias quickly swerved into oncoming traffic in order to keep Hazel’s departing car in sight. Horns blared around us as the city buildings whipped by. The Uber driver was fast and had gotten through the next light just before it turned red on us. If I didn’t know any better I’d wonder if Hazel had seen me and ordered the driver to take evasive measures. But I was fairly certain she hadn’t.
Now I wished I’d engaged the tracker on her phone. It was too late for me to do anything about it, but I knew someone who could help. I dialed the employee who handled my IT needs in addition to any hacking I requested.
“Amelia, access Hazel’s phone and engage the tracker.”
“On it,” she responded. There wasn’t a request I could give her at this point that she’d bat an eye at.
“Go through the light,” I demanded, irritated that my driver was following the law. “I pay you good money to get me to where I need to go.”
He laughed and pointed. “Not when there’s a cop on the other side of the intersection.”
“Fuck,” I growled. “Amelia, work faster.”
“Give me a second. I’m sending the information to your phone so you can access where she is. Everything alright?”
“Everything is fucking fine,” I ground out.
She laughed along with my driver who I was going to fucking fire if he didn’t catch up to Hazel soon. It didn’t matter that he’d worked for me for the last fifteen years. My phone buzzed with the incoming information.
“You just need to?—”
“I know what the fuck to do.” I hung up on her. She was fired too for taking so long.
Immediately a light blipped on the map attached to the link she sent me. “Turn onto Estes Road,” I shouted.
She was only a few minutes away and since the dot had stopped either Amelia was fucking with me or Hazel had reached her destination. I frowned as the name of the establishment flashed across my screen. The Wooden Nickel.
“What the hell?” They weren’t in direct competition with the bar I owned downtown, Luminosity, but if Hazel was going to meet anyone why did she choose this place? And why would she accept a date here? While it was taken care of, it was old and rundown. Didn’t this dipshit know she deserved better? Didn’t Hazel know she deserved more?
Elias pulled in front of the building. He knew better than to question the mad dash across town. Not that I’d be able to explain why I’d followed Hazel anyway. I had no fucking idea. But seeing her in that dress, the thought of another man touching the sexy dip of her hips… I couldn’t handle it.
“Stay close. We’ll both be out soon,” I snapped.
He nodded, ignoring my behavior.
I wasn’t giving Hazel a choice of whether she was coming home. Willingly or not I wasn’t leaving alone. A gust of cold wind whipped through my thin dress shirt and undershirt, reminding me that in my haste I’d forgotten my coat. I tucked my chin low as I drew closer to the door. December was such a mixed bag in Rhode Island. Some days felt warm and the others like tonight felt like my fucking balls were going to freeze right off.
The door swung out as I got closer. A large man, with the physique of a WWE wrestler, who must be the bouncer lifted his chin in acknowledgement. I responded with one of my own as I shifted past him, looking into the main room.
A large bar sat in the middle with small tables to my right and then a stage just beyond that. I held back a shudder as I took in the decor. It looked like Christmas threw up in a dive bar. Multi-colored strings of lights decorated each wall, faux poinsettias were placed in the middle of each table, and there were at least three evergreen trees decorated garishly to various themes like Christmas clowns, the Grinch, and trains. Not a single thing coordinated or matched.
