Chapter 13

Kyle had pulled the fire alarm.  Obviously.  It was his only way out of the area with the brunette and whoever she yelled for coming up the stairs for him.  Pulling on his hoodie, Kyle stepped out of the bathroom amidst the blaring bells of the fire alarm and blended into the crowd moving toward the door.

“There!”

Without even waiting to see who had yelled it, Kyle made a break for the door and ran.  A Jaguar was parked in front of the doors and he looked at it as he passed.  Grimacing, he prayed it didn’t belong to Simon because if he was coming after him, too, he was pretty screwed.

Crossing the street, Kyle never bothered to look back, but ran partway down the street and then ducked into a parking garage.  Running up the first ramp, he almost went up to the second, but decided to exit into the building, hoping for somewhere to hide.  Coming out into a hallway, Kyle broke left and ran to the end of the hallway to another door.  Opening it, he realized he was in the Convention Center located on the edge of downtown where the Industrial district connected.  Leaning over the railing, he immediately decided against jumping over and dropping the one story to more than likely broken ankles.  Running down to his left, he took the stairs down to the arboretum and crossed it, just as the door above him pushed open and clanked against the wall.  Again, still not looking back, Kyle sprinted across the courtyard just as a single gunshot rang out, blowing past him, forcing him to the right.

“Fuck they’re shooting at me!” he shrieked as he ran down the long hallway.

Women in lingerie blocked his way, screaming as he pushed through them.  He tried to concentrate when he heard more screaming behind him.  Whoever it was following him had caught up pretty damn fast.

“Oh god,” Kyle mumbled.  It had to be Simon.

He had one trick left up his sleeve; one painfully inconsistent trick prone to more fizzles than he’d like to admit.  Concentrating , Kyle grit his teeth as his hearing suddenly picked up the soft breath of the man behind him – so even and soft that after running for almost a good mile, this man was still not breathing hard and had to be more than human, Kyle flexed that inexplicable muscle and cut to his right, through the double doors.

A porn convention.  He was in…a porn convention.  Beautiful, he thought as he pushed into the crowd and disappeared.