Away // Snowbarry

XIII

Moving furniture was newly discovered as my least favorite thing to do. Barry was doing his best to go as fast as humanly possible but it was still taking several hours and my patience was running low.

"Barry, I already moved all the boxes in. Just use your speed for furniture, it'll go faster," I whined.

"This is a flash-free, normal life. No normal person has speed, but they do have perfectly capable wives that can help," he gave me a smile as it was obvious he was struggling with the shelving he was carrying in.

"Only for you, my love," I blew him a kiss and started to help.

Our new lead helped a lot but it also led to a lot of dead ends. Together, Barry and I had spent hours and hours trying to piece together a location for this guy but he was proving to be a ghost.

"I think I may have something!" Barry exclaimed excitedly.

I leaned over and looked at his computer. Someone had just purchased drinks under Troy Meyer in a Central City bar. I'd never heard of the bar which was sketchy to me. The icing on the cake, however, was putting the address into google earth; the bar was in a dark alleyway.

"This gives me the creeps," I pointed to the location on my screen for Barry to see.

Barry sent me an article he had found about the new bar. The date corresponded with the heightened activity of the gang around the time. It could be a legitimate bar or it could be their hideout. Regardless, it was worth checking out.

"I'll go to this one," Barry stated.

It was to protect me. If my suspicions were right and this was a gang-infested space, it would be extremely dangerous for someone who was unarmed to go to. Barry couldn't get past everyone in there alone, though.

"I'll distract them, you can look for a basement or attic that could be where our friends are," I suggested.

He was clearly hesitant to say yes but ended up conforming to my pleading smile. I didn't want either of us to walk in that place alone.

We had to be quick so Barry carried me as he ran there. I walked in first as we couldn't be seen as together. I noticed right off the bat the bartenders had the same tattoo I'd seen on the men that kidnapped everyone. It was definitely a gang-run bar. There were some innocent civilians in there that seemed to be just having a good time, for example the twenty-first birthday party going on at the bar stools.

I sat down in a corner stool by the counter which seemed to intrigue a few guys that almost immediately huddled around me. I looked at them and, off their shoulder, I saw Barry. The plan was in motion.

I talked to the guys who were clearly flirting with me and trying to get me alone. I noticed they all had the same tattoo in the same place. They were from the gang which meant I had to be careful.

"So, gentlemen, tell me your names," I gave them a slight smile, "I'm Catie."

It wasn't my full name so it was safe. They all went through their names but the third, and final, guy was the one I was looking for. His name is Troy.

I kept my statements more general to distract these men so they all were fixated on me and not the man sleuthing around their bar. Anyone hanging around a big-shot like Troy was bound to be important so I tailored my questions to be investigative. They are simple questions like, "do you come to this bar often," or "what do you do for a living." Troy gave the most interesting answers. He told me that he owns the bar which confirmed my suspicion of the bar being gang-owner.

"Hey, how'd you get down there!" The bartender yelled and whipped my head around to see Barry carrying a weak Cisco out of a door.

The men around me all vanished and walked over to Barry with the most infuriated looks I've ever seen. My stomach started to not feel so good as I realized Barry can't get out of this situation without speed. If he used his speed, however, his secret powers would be revealed to people we did not want them revealed to.

I walked over to the men with my extremely heavy purse. I wasn't sure if I was going to try and act innocent or start a fight I couldn't finish but I had to do something.

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