The Chase

Prologue

Prologue

'I'm almost there, where in the bar are you?' I messaged Amia as I rounded the corner and could see the bar she asked me to come and meet her in. I had received a call from a crying Amia over an hour ago now. Her boyfriend through the last year and a half had ended it with her, and she was devastated. He lived in the city and she had been visiting him for the weekend. She called me saying she needed me. She wanted to talk while getting a drink. So I got on the first train in her direction and had been walking in her direction for the past 15 minutes now.

'On the first floor, by one of the windows. Want me to order you a drink?'

I replied yes thank you and pulled out my ID as I was almost by the bars front door now.

Amia and I have known each other almost our whole lives. Her parents and my parents were good friends and lived close to each other. We even went to the same school. We had pretty much grown up as sisters.

'Hi hon' I said as I spotted Amia and gave her a hug. 'How are you holding up?'

'Not great. It came out of the blue, and the worst part was he was so sweet about it. He just wasn't in love anymore.' I could see tears welling up in her eyes and she was already drunk. But she was one of those people who liked to drink her sorrows away, so I was here to make sure she was going to be okay.

'I'm sorry sweetie, what else happened?' I asked sitting down across from her and listened to her tell me about her weekend.

'Okay I'm taking you home now. We have a long journey and it's getting late.' We had spent the last few hours talking about Andy , Amia's now ex boyfriend. She had been trying to figure out what had gone wrong, while I had tried to tell her that sometimes the spark just disappear.

'You didn't drive here?' Amia asked as she stumbled to her feet. She was wasted, and I knew then from experience that we wouldn't be able to get a cab to take us to the train station.

'No, you know I don't drink and drive.' I said as I grabbed her arm and tugged it through mine. A subtle way to help supporting her without her knowing. Plus I hated parking my truck in the city.

"No that's true. Let's head to the train station then. I know a shortcut I normally took with Andy." I wasn't sure letting drunk Aime lead the way was a good idea, but a shortcut would be great about now, so I started taking us in the direction she was pointing. "I'm sorry I've been talking all evening, how was your weekend?"

"It's okay to just talk about yourself all evening when you need it. That's what's best friends are for you know?" I gave her an affectionate squeeze and started telling her about my weekend.

We had walked for almost ten minutes and Amia was getting harder and harder to keep on her legs. She had started to not respond much and was pretty out of it. I didn't trust her to give me the right directions, and I couldn't be on my phone looking at google maps and keep her up at the same time. Maybe then she would sober up and I could get a cab to take us to the train station. I needed to get some water in her, maybe get her to throw up. She was not doing well, she had drunk too much. I looked around us to try and find a place I could get her some water and sit her down. I might have to try and get a cab to take her on. But the pathway she had taken us on had led us away from the main road, and there was barely anything around us anymore. I could see a few houses, and a lot of green, I think we had made it to a park area. As we got closer to some of the houses I could hear people from one of them, it was a bar. I dragged Amia over towards it, she was becoming more and more like a drunk zombie and I knew I needed to get some water in her and get her to puke. When we approached the door I noticed a big sign which read 'Private party', and a big guy guarding the door.

"Sorry girls, this is a private party, I'll have to ask you to turn around and leave." The man in front of the door said. He was at least 6 foot 2 inches and you could see his muscle under his shirt, he was not a man to mess with.

"I know, and I'm sorry, but my friend is really drunk, no cab will let her in their car with her in this state, can I just please have some water to get in her? We can wait out here?" I asked him putting on my sweetest smile hoping it would help.

He looked around as to see if anyone was close by before he let out a sigh. "Okay wait here I'll go get her a bottle of water, I also know a cab driver who owns me a favour and might be willing to bring her along. Where do you need to go?"

"Thank you so much. We just need to get to the train station. It's very sweet of you to offer, but no need for you to pull any favours, I'll get her home. May we sit on the step and wait?" He gave us a short nod before he turned around and went inside. "Come on, let's sit here and wait."

"I'm not that drunk, I'm fine." Amia said as she stumbled over to the step and almost fell down on her ass instead of sitting down. "Sure you're not."

"Well I'm sober enough to see that, that man was hot! I hear the best way to get over a guy is to get under another. I would not mind getting under him!" Amia said fanning her face laughing. She looked drunk off her ass as she did it, but it was good to see her laugh.

"Here you go." The man said as he came back out again a minute later, passing a water bottle to Amia.

"Thank you. So what's your name?" Amia asked after she had downed half of the bottle.

"I'm Hayden, and you are?" He asked, holding out his hand to shake.

"I'm Amia." She replied in her what would have been her sexy voice if she wasn't this drunk. "Do you work here?"

"Not really, just doing a friend a favour. So what are you girls doing out here? We don't get many passers-by around here."

"My boyfriend dumped me today, so we went out drinking. So I'm newly single and ready to mingle." Amia laughed and swayed a little bit. "So, would you like to exchange phone numbers and maybe meet up at some point?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sure you're a great girl, but I'm unavailable." After that there was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Hayden broke the silence.

"So what's your name?" He leaned forward and looked at me. I was about to reply when Amia interrupted me. "I'm going to be sick." Before I could even blink Hayden had moved and scooped up Amia in his arms and was running into the building behind us. I got up and ran after him through the door. I followed him through the first door on the right and saw he had taken us to a bathroom. He made it just in time to put Amia down next to the toilet before she started throwing up. I ran over to her and held her hair out of the way, stroking her back.

"Thank you." I turned around to look at Hayden who was standing by the door. He was about to say something when the door suddenly burst open and a very angry looking man walked in. "Who let people in?" He bellowed looking at Hayden before he turned around and looked at me and my breath caught when we got eye contact. He was the sexiest man I had ever seen. He was tall, brown hair, a short beard and the most mesmerizing eyes I had ever seen. He didn't say anything, he just stared at me. He started striding towards me when another male appeared in the door opening.

"Logan I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's an emergency, we need you." The guy in front of me, who must be Logan looked from me to the guy and then back to me again. He let out a growl and said "Stay." Before he turned around and left.

"So, the ceb driver I mentioned earlier is outside waiting, if you want to go? I have another bottle of water you can have, some chips and a plastic bag, in case she throws up again." Hayden said, he looked a bit uneasy, I guess that Logan guy was the owner and he was in trouble for bringing us in. I nodded and helped Amia up as he went to get the things before he led us outside.

"Thank you so much for all your help. You have been so kind, I'm sorry if we get you in trouble in there." I nodded towards the house with my head. I had just put Amia into the cab and went to get in from the other side.

"I'm glad I could help, and don't mind Logan. I hope you get home safe." He shook my hand and turned around to walk back inside. I got in and told the driver where to take us.