Forgotten Dawn (Forgotten Book 2)

Chapter 14

 Chad stood to the side of the stage watching the crowd. The accountant looking guy was back. This time he watched Anna. She was on stage in a red crop top, cut-off shorts, and cowboy boots. Her thick black hair hung in waves down her back. When she grinned at the accountant, Chad's blood boiled with rage.

The man leered at her, mouthing something. Then he reached into the inside pocket of his tan jacket and produced a pistol. The shot rang out over the sound of the music before Chad had been able to reach him. With a bellow, Chad leaped across the table, knocking the gun to the ground. As the gun skittered across the floor, Chad wrapped his hand around the man's throat.

A shrill ringing invaded Chad's ears, startling him awake. In the glow of the light over the sink in the kitchenette, he found himself sitting up in bed with his hand wrapped around the bedside lamp which was no longer attached to the wall, its bare wiring dangling from the base. Taking a deep breath, he set the lamp aside and picked up the ringing phone.

"Hello?"

A woman's voice came through the receiver, "Is everything okay, sir? We had a noise complaint."

"Sorry about that. I stubbed my toe on the table. Won't happen again," he lied.

"Oh, is there anything we can do for you?" she asked with concern.

"I'll be fine. I did catch myself on the lamp. I'm afraid it's broken. I'll be happy to pay to replace it."

He heard clicking on the other end of the line. "I've made a note of the damage and reason in your account. I'll have to speak with my manager to determine if compensation will be necessary. Have a good night, sir."

"You too." Chad set the phone back in its cradle. The glowing red numbers on the clock told him it was three in the morning. He rubbed his hands across his face and cursed.

Knowing it would be impossible to go back to sleep, Chad padded into the bathroom. After removing his boxers, he stepped under the scalding hot spray of the shower. The hotel was a cheap chain hotel, so the confines of the shower left him with little room to move around. The scalding water pointlessly pounded at the tension in his neck and ran down his back. His fists clenched and released repeatedly.

The nightmares shouldn't be back. He had moved on. New surroundings usually gave him some peace for at least a couple months. Maybe if he caught the asshole who was stalking the girl at the club, they would go away. He'd find out where the girl lived and wait in the parking lot for the creep to show up if he had to.

Despite only having had a couple hours of sleep, Chad felt restless when he stepped out of the shower. He towel dried his hair before wrapping it around his waist. Finding his bags where he had left them, he rummaged through one until he found his gym clothes and a pair of boxers. Breakfast wouldn't be served for a couple more hours, so he grabbed a bottle of water from the mini-fridge and set out to find the gym.

The directory at the elevator showed that the gym was two floors below him. Stepping out of the elevator, he walked through the deserted halls, following the signs. He wasn't sure what he had hoped for in a cheap hotel gym, but he was disappointed in what he found. The room was small with plain beige walls. The carpeted floors had the obscenely colorful designs that were found in hotels all across America. The only equipment was a treadmill, stair climber, weight bench, and a rack of weights.

He slowly increased the speed on the treadmill until he was running at a nice comfortable pace. He hadn't visited a gym over the last year that he had been staying at the ranch, mostly because working cattle and cutting hay fields was its own workout. He used to run five miles every day, but after the first three on the machine, he found himself struggling. Chad slowed the machine to a walk for another mile, before stepping off to empty the bottle of water he had brought.