Run, Lacy, Run [Appledale] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Lee Rose

  Appledale

  Run, Lacy, Run

  Lacy Martinez was living a lonely life in Detroit since the death of her mother. When she witnesses a gang commit a murder in front of her, she makes a run for her life. She finds refuge in the small town of Appledale, Missouri, and makes new friends.

  She falls for town sheriff Ryan Clark, who has his own problems with an ex-girlfriend. He is hesitant to get involved in another romance, but just when they finally overcome their doubts and give in to the love they feel, Lacy's location is discovered.

  Although the town rallies around her and vows to protect her, the killer finds Lacy and kidnaps her. Will Ryan and his deputies rescue her in time, or will she lose all hope of living her own happily ever after at the hands of a killer?

  Genre: Contemporary, Romantic Suspense

  Length: 35,638 words

  RUN, LACY, RUN

  Appledale

  Lee Rose

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

  RUN, LACY, RUN

  Copyright © 2013 by Lee Rose

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-277-7

  First E-book Publication: February 2013

  Cover design by Christine Kirchoff

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Run, Lacy, Run by Lee Rose from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Lee Rose’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Rose’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  To my husband who encouraged me to put my stories onto paper.

  RUN, LACY, RUN

  Appledale

  LEE ROSE

  Copyright © 2013

  Prologue

  Lacy Martinez stepped off the bus at her regular stop, one block from her apartment in Detroit, Michigan. Her feet ached from standing all day. She worked as a waitress at Mario’s Pizzeria. The work was hard but it paid the bills. That’s all she had been focusing on since her mom’s death in a car accident last year. It had been her and her mom since her dad left them when Lacy was just a baby, therefore she and her mom had had a very close relationship. Her mom’s death left her feeling so lost and alone. She found it hard to make the effort for anything besides work these days.

  All she wanted to do was get home and put her feet up and relax. Although the apartment was lonely without her mom and sometimes she just hated being there, tomorrow would be another long day at work. She pulled her jacket tighter around her body. The evening air was cold even for early September and the wind had a bite to it. Soon it would snow and she didn’t look forward to walking in that weather.

  She turned the corner where her apartment building was and saw Chico and his gang hanging out in front of it. She slowed her steps down, trying to think of a way to avoid dealing with them tonight. She was too exhausted to put up with their lewd remarks or worse, one of them trying to pinch her ass like some immature schoolboy. She usually tried to stay quiet and not look at them in hopes they would ignore her.

  They didn’t even live there but they sold drugs out of an empty apartment on the first floor. None of the residents liked it but they all lived in fear of Chico and his gang. One of her neighbors, Mr. Lopez, had tried to tell them to leave or he would call the police. They had beaten him and put him in the hospital. After that everyone made sure to stay out of their way.

  She noticed Chico was arguing with a man who was wearing different colors than Chico and his boys. The colors they wore indicated which gang they were from. If luck was on her side, maybe she could sneak in to the building quickly and quietly without them noticing her. She jumped and screamed when she heard a loud pop. The man fell to the ground bleeding and holding his chest. Chico shot him! She stood there for a second in complete shock watching the man bleed on the sidewalk.

  Santos, one of Chico’s boys, turned and looked at her. He said something to Chico, who was still holding the gun and started walking her way. Lacy didn’t stick around to see what he wanted. She turned and ran as fast as she could down the street. She crossed the street, dodging cars and people who were beeping their horns at her. She heard yelling and running footsteps behind her. The fear of being caught made her speed up. She was almost at another crosswalk when Santos grabbed her by her long hair. He turned her around and grabbed her arms in a tight grip. She winced with pain, but she fought back, kicking his legs.

  “Ow! Stop fighting me, you stupid bitch. Chico wants to talk to you,” he yelled, shaking her hard.

  “Yeah, right,” she said sarcastically, desperately trying to pull away. She knew Chico wanted to kill her, not talk to her.

  A cab driver stopped at the red light, rolled down his window, holding his cell phone up, and yelled out, “Leave the girl alone, punk. I called the police already.”

  Santos turned with an evil look toward the man and loosened his hold on Lacy. “Mind your own business before you get hurt, mister.”

  While he was distracted Lacy brought her knee up and kneed him in his groin as hard as she could. Santos bent over in pain and Lacy took that opportunity to run, hearing the cab driver laughing behind her, yelling out his window, “Run, girl!”

  Ahead she saw a parked car with open windows in front of a bar. She looked behind her
but didn’t see Santos or any of the others. She checked to see if the car was unlocked. She opened the back door slowly without making any noise and got in. She squished herself down to the floorboards and held her breath, trying to be quiet. If they found her, she was dead.

  A few seconds later she heard Chico yell. “She has to be here somewhere. Find her and kill her now. Check inside the bar.”

  She didn’t know how long she hid in the car, afraid to get out, but it was cold and dark outside. She got out and her legs cramped up. She groaned with pain and straightened her legs out. Thankfully the owner had never come out to check his car.

  Now what? Should she go to the police? Would it be her word against Chico’s? She was sure they would have dragged the body away by now; they weren’t dumb criminals. If the police had no proof of any crime taking place, then they wouldn’t protect her and Chico would kill her for sure. She was friendly with the other waitresses at work but not close enough to ask any of them to risk their lives by hiding her. Besides, she wouldn’t want anyone in harm’s way because of her. No, she was completely alone. She wanted to break down and cry with frustration and fear at the realization.

  “Hey, lady! You getting on or what?” a voice yelled in the darkness.

  Lacy jumped with fright and turned to see a city bus driver talking to her. She hadn’t noticed she was standing in front of a bus stop. The sign on the front of the bus said downtown, so she hopped on, wanting to get out of this neighborhood before Chico or one of his boys found her. Once downtown she saw the Greyhound station and decided maybe getting out of Detroit might be the best thing to do until she could figure a way out of this mess. She found an ATM and took money out. She bought a ticket for whichever bus was leaving first. She wouldn’t be able to calm down until she was as far away from Chico and this city as possible.

  Chapter One

  Lacy stepped off the bus after two days of traveling and took a look around the small town of Appledale. The cool breeze and shining sun on her face were a welcome change from the stuffiness of the bus. She took a deep breath of fresh country air and smiled for the first time in days. The bus driver she had befriended on the long drive told her Appledale, Missouri, was a small but charming town. He made stops there quite often, he said, and it was a friendly place with lots of character. It was nestled in the Ozark Hills and beautifully green in the summer months. He made it sound so appealing that she decided to stop there and see this town for herself. She couldn’t stay on the bus forever.

  She stood on the sidewalk and took a look around. She had never been anywhere besides Detroit. Her mom had worked hard to just keep a roof over their heads. Traveling had never been an option for them but they had always dreamed and talked about that one big vacation someday.

  Big flowerpots filled with colorful flowers lined the streets, along with a few benches set along the sidewalk and more grass and trees then she had ever seen before. She glanced around and saw a bank, a post office, a general store, and a restaurant lining one side of the street. Mom would have loved this place, she thought sadly.

  She was starving after two days of bottled water and small snacks. She had bought a change of clothes on the road but she didn’t want to spend too much of her money yet. She had yet to figure out what her plans were but maybe she’d stick around here and find a job until she decided how to get out of this mess.

  She crossed the street toward the restaurant and noticed that although it was the middle of the day there was no heavy rush hour traffic or lots of noise and people. She took a look down the street and saw stop signs on the corners of the streets but no bus stop signs and only one traffic light. She saw a few people walking around but not as many as she would see downtown in a city. As she got to the restaurant, she read Ally’s Diner on the large picture window in big white letters. It was an old-fashioned-style brick building but it looked huge. The smell coming from it was making her stomach rumble with hunger. She opened the door and went in. She stopped in the doorway. For a moment, she thought she walked into a fifties diner. Black and white tiles covered the floors. Red and chrome tables and booths were scattered around. There was a long chrome counter with black bar stools and neon signs behind it, and that’s where she headed. She didn’t want to sit in a booth alone. She’d rather not stand out. There weren’t too many people around and she was glad. She felt grimy and sweaty. She turned her coffee cup over and waited for the waitress to come over to her, taking a moment to relax. She had been on pins and needles the whole bus ride. Hopefully the coffee would give her a good dose of energy. Her body felt achy from the long bus ride and she desperately needed to sleep. She had been too nervous to sleep on the bus, so she just dozed for a few minutes here and there. This had been her first traveling experience and it had been under bad circumstances instead of the fun holiday she had always dreamed of taking.

  A few minutes later an older blonde woman in her midfifties, dressed in jeans and a red T-shirt with Ally’s Diner printed on it, came over and poured her coffee. She smiled but seemed a little frazzled. “Sorry for the wait, dear. One of my girls walked out on me last week and I haven’t had time to hire another waitress yet. So what can I get for you?”

  Maybe this was her lucky day. “I have experience as a waitress and I need a job. Maybe I can talk to the manager?” Lacy said hopefully, sitting up straighter and wishing she had taken more care with her appearance.

  The woman smiled at her and put her notepad back in her pocket. “I’m Ally Clark, owner of this place. I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new in town?”

  Lacy nodded and smiled at the woman. “I just got here today. My name is Lacy Martinez and I’ve been waitressing for two years now. I decided to stay for a while and could really use the job.”

  Ally studied the young woman in front of her. She was pretty, with long reddish-brown hair past her shoulders and big brown eyes that had dark circles under them. The girl looked tired and hungry. She kept looking around as if nervous, but Ally didn’t think she was a criminal, maybe a young girl in trouble. Ally decided to trust her instincts and take a chance on helping her. “How about we do a week’s trial and see how it goes for both of us? Sound like a good deal?”

  Lacy nodded, grateful for a chance. “Thank you, Ms. Clark for giving me a chance. I won’t let you down.”

  Ally excused herself for a moment to wait on another customer. Lacy took the time to look around. A tall, slim girl with short black hair, dressed in jeans and a red T-shirt, was clearing off a table. Lacy wondered where all the other waitresses were. Surely two waitresses wasn’t enough. A lot of the customers were starting to leave and it was getting quiet.

  A few moments later Ally came back and sat next to Lacy at the counter and sighed. “What a crazy week it’s been. We close at three p.m. Not many people eat dinner out, so it wouldn’t be worth it to stay open,” she explained and waved to the other brunette who was leaving. “That’s Stella, she works six to one, so you can have the eight to three shift, and I can get back to helping Henry in the kitchen. I love to cook. That’s why I opened this place twenty years ago.”

  Lacy was grateful for a job and didn’t care what her hours were. “Eight to three sounds great. Is Stella the only waitress?”

  Ally nodded and explained, “I’ve been helping her since Emma quit but this is a small town and two waitresses is plenty. We have a few tourists passing through now and then but not very many. We have a lot of parks here and people camp, but not too many come into town to eat.”

  “Is there a motel around here?” Lacy desperately needed to sleep if she was going to start in the morning.

  “There is a bed-and-breakfast,” Ally answered, “but it’s about a mile and a half outside of town on the edge of the park. We get an occasional vacationer, but most people like to camp out at the park.”

  Lacy’s shoulders slumped in defeat. The adrenaline she had been running on the last few days had already worn off. She couldn’t even come up with a plan B s
he was so exhausted. Now what should she do?

  “Be right back, Lacy.” Ally went and put the closed sign up and locked the door. She disappeared into the kitchen and came back with two turkey club sandwiches and iced tea. “I haven’t had a chance to stop and eat and I hate to eat alone.”

  Lacy thanked her and chewed her sandwich slowly even though she wanted to stuff it in her mouth. That probably wouldn’t make a good impression on her new boss.

  “So what brings you to Appledale? Not many young people want to come to a small, quiet town these days,” Ally asked casually, studying her new employee. “Most of them want the exciting city life and can’t wait to get out of here.”

  Lacy looked at her new boss and wasn’t sure how to answer. She had never been good at lying, so she decided on a partial truth. “The bus driver said he’d been here many times and it was a charming place. It sounded appealing and different so I thought I’d give it a try. I’ve lived my whole life in one of those big cities and I needed a change.” She hoped she didn’t get fired before she even started. She wanted to tell Ally the truth but she was afraid she’d just break down and cry. And now that the shock had worn off she felt guilty for running away and scared that she was now a criminal for running away from a crime scene.

  Ally sensed there was more to Lacy’s story but decided to leave it alone for now. The young girl looked ready to break down.

  After they finished eating they took the empty plates to the kitchen. Ally showed her where she kept the red T-shirts for work and told her to wear jeans.