Blaine gave him a snicker as he pushed away from the car, finally moving out of Alec’s way. “It’s my ride. Uber’s even out here. Imagine that.”
“You’re leaving me?” Alec asked, disbelieving, as he stood from his bent position, clutching tightly in his palm the small hand towel he had found. Typical Blaine.
“Of course, I am. It’s four thirty in the morning, and I’ve got work,” Blaine said, coming to a stop at the edge of the road, not bothering to give a second glance.
“It’s Sunday. Besides, you don’t work,” Alec shot back.
“Then I have church,” his friend countered as the driver of a large SUV came to a stop before rolling down his window.
“You’re seriously leaving me out here alone?” Alec asked incredulously.
“I don’t change tires,” the Uber driver stated loud and clear.
“It’s okay. He’s staying.” Blaine threw his thumb over his shoulder in Alec’s direction. “I need a ride to McKinney to get my car. Do you go that far?”
“You can’t be serious,” Alec shouted, shocked. He tossed the towel back in the small trunk area and started for Blaine. This was what they did for each other. They stuck by one another through the hard times. Each other’s wingman. Blaine seriously couldn’t leave him alone out in the middle of nowhere.
“You made your decision.” Blaine climbed in the backseat with Alec not two feet away, staring after him, truly stunned to his core. How many times had Alec had to carry his friend home from a drunken night out? How many blind dates had there been where he’d come to the rescue to save Blaine from utter boredom? Hell, for almost a year, he had opened his home to Blaine when he’d remodeled his place in the New England area. Then he hadn’t liked the way it turned out, so he’d started all over again. Fucker!
As Blaine shut himself inside the backseat of the SUV, the driver seemed to hesitate. At least for a minute, he paused in indecision then gave a shrug and put the vehicle in drive before saying, “I wouldn’t leave that car out here alone. It’s South Dallas. It won’t be here when you get back. Probably shouldn’t talk to strangers, either.”
As hard as he might try, Alec found no comfort in those wise words. After a few awkward moments, the driver’s window slowly rolled up and the car started down the road, leaving Alec standing there. He watched the red taillights until they were completely out of sight. The silence of the early morning hour had an eerie feel that he just now allowed himself to recognize. Alec looked all around, turning a full circle as if seeing his surroundings for the first time. The silence was almost deafening. He tried to shake off the feeling of being swallowed up by the lack of noise. Alec was on the verge of freaking himself out. He needed to get control. He was a grown man and… Shit! Alec almost lost it, his heart threatened to beat right out of his chest as he jerked back toward the road when a sound from across the street startled him. Hell no, there could be wild animals out there.
Great.
What had he done? Blaine would pay for this little stunt. Although, if he had just called the service instead of trying to impress a biker, Blaine would have stuck around. Damn Blaine for being an intuitive ass.
Even with Blaine sticking around, neither of them would be much of a hindrance to a biker intent on harm. Did the guy possess some hidden charm that had easily lulled Alec into a false sense of ease? Maybe their shared moment wasn’t so much a moment of interest and more a moment of assessing his newest victim.
The nervousness increased tenfold as Alec tried to pinpoint the source of the unexplained noise from earlier. Nothing but silence filled the night, bumping the dial on the creepy factor up a few notches. He was hoping the biker would hurry and make his appearance, be it for better or worse.
Damn it. Blaine had nailed it. He liked the hot, grungy hard-to-read types. Alec let out an audible groan and lifted his gaze to the dark sky above. When was he ever going to learn? This was probably going to go down as one of the dumbest things he’d ever done. He really hoped he had read the biker right.
At a complete loss as to what to do next, Alec rocked back on his heels, refusing to give in to the urge to run to the trunk to identify some sort of weapon. He worked out regularly, had taken fencing in college, watched some self-defense courses on Viceland. On second thought, he carefully, so as to not get dirty tire marks on his Armani slacks, reached for his phone to call roadside assistance. At least they might be beneficial in identifying his body.