Chasing the Moon

Prologue

Fear was building up in the pit of his stomach once again, Cade followed the boy's gaze to his pocket. There hanging out was the gold chain from his watch. Fear washed over Cade as he realized that it must have fallen out when he had his hands in his pockets.

You filthy rich bastard, we'll teach you to show your face on our turf,” cried the boy, a heinous expression etched on his face.

Instantly Cade panicked, and instead of doing the smart thing and running into the bar to find his sister, he shoved the boy aside and took off across the street. He barely managed to dodge an oncoming car as he ran down the sidewalk.

For a second he was tempted to look behind him to see how close they were. However, when he heard their feet pounding the pavement he knew they were right behind him. Terror coursing through his veins Cade's mind raced as he looked for a way to lose them, but all there was were side alleys. He was not about to go down one of those and risk heading into a dead end. As he ran, he could hear his father's voice shouting in his head. “Son how could you be so irresponsible as going into such an impoverish area. We are in the middle of a recession; people like that blame people of money for all their woes.”

As he turned a corner, he saw a huge market square filled with a large group of people. The only conclusion Cade could come to was they were there to watch the fireworks. Seeing a chance to lose his pursuers he ran straight into the crowd and began to wade his way through all the people. Excusing himself repeatedly, Cade suddenly change direction half way through the crowd.

Once he cleared the group, Cade ran into a nearby alley. When he was out of sight, he took a second to catch his breath, as his heart pounded against his chest. After a few seconds, Cade looked around the corner to see the boy, girl, and two thugs emerged from the crowd. They glanced around trying to see where he had gotten to. Cade instantly ducked around the corner. Without hesitation, he darted down the alley, wanting to put as much distance between them as possible. He took several turns, looking over his shoulder repeatedly.

Making one last turn, he came out of the alley next to a factory, from the looks of which was abandoned.

Moving from the mouth of the alley Cade bent over to catch his breath. After a minute, he decided he had lost his pursuers, and it was time to make his way back to the bar. Standing up straight he started to walk around the factory. However, he did not take more than three steps before a voice cried out behind him.

“There you are,” shouted a wicked feminine voice.

Cade froze where he was; fear was swelling up inside his chest once more. He craned his neck around to see the girl standing there with a smug look spread across her face.

“Please just leave me alone,” begged Cade, his voice shaking, as he backed away.

The smirk disappeared from her face and was replaced with a hurt look. She began to walk slowly over to him, never breaking her eye contact with his.

“Why would you say that, don't you like my company?” she asked softly as she came right up to him. Mesmerized by her beauty Cade wasn't sure whether or not she meant to do him harm.

“Well, I was sure that you wanted to hurt me?” stammered Cade as she suddenly pressed up against him. She draped one of her arms around his shoulders and kept eye contact.

Smiling sheepishly, the girl reached into her jacket, but Cade was only vaguely aware of this; he was too busy staring into her eyes. He had not had much experience with the opposite sex, so he was at a loss.

“Now what gave you that impression?” she said still frowning.

Starting to feel uncomfortable, Cade tried to get out from under her one arm embrace. His struggling however just caused her to pull him closer. Moving her mouth to his ear she whispered,