by V M Black
“He might be interested in a lot more than that,” Levi predicted.
“Doesn’t mean he’ll get it.” Harper parted her hair with her finger on the side, so that part of it slid flirtatiously across her face. It’d give her something to play with—that was always a hit.
Levi started to strip, and she watched him out of the corner of her eye while pretending to ignore him. She had a feeling that he wasn’t fooled.
“Get a ride from someone who looks like he has my shoe size,” Levi said as he dropped his shirt at his feet.
“So, you’re going to take his car and his shoes?” She shook her head. “That doesn’t seem right.”
“You want to stop at Payless and get new ones?” he countered.
She snorted as she reapplied her lip gloss. “You bought your boots at Payless?”
“No, actually, I ordered them from a motorcycle specialty shop,” he said icily as he unfastened his pants. “And they cost a mint, too. But I wasn’t going to bring that up like you bring up your car all the time.”
She snapped her mirror closed and treated him to a glare. She liked to imagine that she was immune to the effects of his washboard abs and square chin now, but she was painfully aware that she was not. “My car is not a pair of boots. You didn’t rebuild your boots from the ground up with your brothers.”
His irritation faded. “Sorry. That was cheap.”
She tossed her hair over one shoulder and adjusted her neckline to be a bit more revealing. “Yeah. Yeah, it was. But I’ll look for a guy who looks like he has your shoe size.” She looked down at his feet. They were big, even for his frame. “But I don’t think it’ll be that easy,” she added.
“If I have shoes, we have more options,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, I get it.” She took the armful of clothes that he offered and shoved them down into her purse. They overflowed the top. She frowned and pulled out her zip-front hoodie, tying it to her hips. The purse still wouldn’t zip, but it came closer to fitting. She looked up to see laughter in Levi’s eyes.
“What?” she said.
“Your hoodie,” he said.
“What?” she repeated.
“It’s red.” He grinned wider.
“So?” She tried to figure out the significance of it. Poor camouflage?
“It’s red,” he repeated. “A red hoodie.”
“Yes, it is,” she agreed. “Why’s that funny?”
“You’re going into the travel plaza with a red hoodie and a wolf,” he said patiently. As she still stared at him, he continued, “A little…red…riding….”
“Oh, my God,” she said as he burst out laughing. “I thought you were actually going to say something that mattered. You think that’s funny? Really? That’s funny to you?” She picked up a stick and threw it out of the trees in a flat arc. “Fetch.”
And then he made a noise like a low growl deep in his throat, and he lunged forward—but at her, not at the stick. Harper jerked back but not even close to fast enough. He caught her wrist and pulled her, hard, against him, and then his mouth was on hers, relentless, his tongue pushing in her mouth, taking, and she kissed him back with a strength that surprised the distant part of her that was still capable of thought.
When he finally broke away, she said, “What the hell was that for?”
He grinned down at her, but his eyes echoed her surprise, as if he’d startled himself. “It was either kiss you or spank you.”
Harper jerked back, out of his arms. “Spank? Really? You’re going to threaten to spank me?”
“You know how assholes in old movies always tell women that they’re beautiful when they’re angry?” he said.
Harper was truly seething now. “Don’t you dare—”
“Well, you’re beautiful when I’m angry. What do you make of that?”
And before Harper could do anything but sputter in response, he shifted, his jaw growing long and his body sprouting hair as he lowered to arms that became front legs as they touched the earth.
“That is a lousy way to escape an argument,” she said to the wolf.
Levi just looked at her.
“What would you do if I told you to fetch now?” she asked. “Would some doggy corner of your brain want to chase the stick?”
He yawned dramatically, showing a line of sharp, white teeth, then closed his mouth with an audible snap.
Harper wrinkled her nose at him as she started across the field toward the travel plaza. “You totally wouldn’t bite me. So don’t even bother to pretend.”
Levi fell in step.
“Now that you’re a wolf, you can’t talk back. So that means you have to listen to what I say. Okay, maybe not do what I say, but you at least have to hear it.” The building was only a few dozen yards away. “Don’t play with me, okay? If you’re not that into me, I get it. But don’t play games, and don’t tell me you’re doing anything for my own good. Believe it or not, I’m a big girl, and I can decide what my own good is—or isn’t.”
She stepped onto the concrete parking lot. “I’m going to try to be inconspicuous now, okay? So just kind of…hang back until I come out. Pretend you’re not with me. I’m looking for a prepaid phone with a data plan and a micro USB and a micro SD to micro USB reader. If they’ve got it, I’ll be back as soon as I can, all right?”
The wolf nodded his shaggy head, and lowering it to reduce his intimidating profile, he slunk off behind the dumpsters.
All right. It was up to her.
Harper squared her shoulders and walked toward the truck stop. It was one of the huge ones, with restaurants and gift shops and showers. She went through the nearest entrance and found herself amidst a sea of key chains and postcards, facing a bored girl a couple years older than she was behind a Subway counter.
Best to get food when they could. Harper ordered three foot-longs—an extra for Levi, just to make sure.
“Cell phones?” Harper asked after taking the bags of food.
Wordlessly, the girl pointed.
Harper turned the corner and found a checkout counter on top of a glass case of cell phones, a wall of cigarettes and phone accessories behind.
“I need a prepaid cell with a data plan,” she said. “And a mini SD card reader, like for a camera data card? That will attach to the cell phone?”
The man’s smile was just a shade too friendly. “What are you taking pictures of?” he asked as he turned to the back wall, picking through the products before finally selecting one.
“My dog,” Harper said flatly. “He’s so cute.”
“I’ve got two dogs,” the man volunteered as he set the reader on the counter. He reached for the cell phones under the counter. “Pomeranians.”
“Yeah, mine’s a bit bigger than that.”
The man set three phones on the counter. “Now, we don’t actually have any prepaid smart phones here. But these do come with some data. They’re called feature phones—”
“That’s not going to work for me,” Harper said. She scanned the shelves. “There. That tablet. Does it have a mini USB port?”
“Sure, but it doesn’t have data, either,” he said, pulling it down.
“But it has wireless, right? You know, WiFi?”
“Of course,” he said.
“Then I’ll take it,” Harper said, snagging a pack of gum and putting it on the counter, too.
“You really want to look at those pictures, don’t you?” the man asked as he rung her up. “Two hundred and forty-six and thirty-one cents.”
Harper dug in her purse for Levi’s wallet and handed over the prepaid debit card. “Definitely.”
“Must be a pretty cute dog then.” He watched as the receipt was spit out and handed it to her.
She signed. “You have no idea.”
After a quick detour to the restroom, she popped piece of gum in her mouth, headed out the nearest door, and scanned the filling area. Half a dozen big rigs were fueling up or idling down in their own section. She didn’
t know how to drive one, and she wouldn’t want to bet that Levi did, either. And anyhow, stealing a semi would attract way more attention than hijacking an ordinary car because they were usually filled with expensive things.
But there were four other cars, too. One minivan with a woman at the pump—and even if there weren’t kids in the car, that was out, because her shoes would never be big enough, and anyhow, lone women almost never agreed to take hitchhikers. A truck, but the guy who stepped out wasn’t any taller than Harper, and that was if he stretched. A midsized sedan, carrying a couple. Convincing two people to take her was be far harder than convincing one, and it doubled the chances of things going all wrong when it came time to leave them on the side of the road.
And then there was the fourth car. The soft-top Mini Cooper. Harper watched as the man inside unfolded himself to an unlikely height. She looked at his shoes. And she looked at the car again.
You only live once, right? And they wouldn’t be living long if they didn’t get a car, ASAP.
She put on her brightest smile, pulled off the sunglasses, and started forward.
“Hi,” she said as she approached.
The man looked up, taking her in with a single glance. He had a close-trimmed beard, a multicolor knit cap, and black plastic-rimmed glasses.
That scored about twenty on the hipster scale. Harper widened her smile, turning her charm up as far as it would go. She hoped his single small hoop earring was ironic and rebellious rather than a sign that he was gay because sex appeal was far more effective than relying on random kindness. She leaned an arm against the pump, pitching her body ever so slightly forward to give him a better view of her cleavage.
His eyes tracked down for a second before snapping back up to her face.
Straight, then. All right. She was in business.
“Hi,” he said.
She ran her free hand through her hair, tousling it slightly. Behind him, out of his range of vision, she could see Levi creeping up on the periphery of the parking lot. “This is really embarrassing, but my friends kind of ditched me. We got into a stupid fight, and well—where are you going?”
“Harrisburg,” he said.
Levi was getting closer—and shaking his head as forcefully as the wolf could shake it. He was not happy about her choice of car, no doubt.
Harper ignored him.
“I’m Christina, by the way,” she said.
“Brett.” He looked slightly dazed, as if he wasn’t quite sure how a busty redhead had ended up beaming up at him.
“Nice to meet you, Brett. Well, that’s really lucky, because I’m headed to Harrisburg, too. Do you think you can give me a lift?” She held his gaze steadily, her smile never wavering.
“Um,” he said. He looked her in the eyes, then not very subtly at her cleavage, and then at her eyes again.
Harper cocked her head to the side and tried to look hopeful.
“I love Mini Coopers,” she lied. “They’re so cute. I’ve never been in one before.”
With another look at her chest, he seemed to make a decision. “Whereabouts in Harrisburg are you going?”
The wolf was coming up behind the Mini Cooper now, close enough that the couple in the sedan saw him and scrambled back into it before their fuel had finished pumping. The woman pointed frantically as the man hit the lock button on the door, over and over again.
Levi was still shaking his head, looking like a dog with water in his ears, and Harper’s eyes watered from the effort of not looking at him.
She just kept smiling. “Oh, you can drop me off anywhere, Brett. I can call my sister, get her to pick me up, if you can just get me that far. There’s no way that she’d drive all the way out here for me, though.”
“Sure, then,” he said, smiling back at her finally.
Just in time, because Levi was about three inches behind him.
“Oh, thanks so much! You’re a life saver! Do you like dogs?” She sprang the question on him without pausing for breath.
“Uh…yes?” he said tentatively.
“Great!” she said, and she reached over and jerked the driver’s side door open just as Levi wormed under the gas hose between Brett and the pump and slid into the back seat, which he entirely filled with his massive body.
“Holy shit!” Brett yelped. “That’s a dog? That’s your dog? Look, miss, I didn’t say—”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Harper said brightly. “He’s perfectly friendly as long as I’m not upset.”
The man opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again….
And nothing came out.
Harper circled around to the passenger side of the car and sat down, swinging the small plastic bag with the tablet and the reader into the back, along with her purse. She dropped the Subway bags at her feet.
“The nine mil’s in there,” she said under her breath, still smiling at Brett. “I’m not going to be the one to hold up this poor SOB.”
Brett hung up the gas nozzle and looked into the car for a long moment. “Do you think he likes me?”
“He loves you,” Harper said firmly. “You can tell because he’s not growling or anything. Don’t worry. He always growls before he bites.”
Levi made a tiny sound in his throat just in Harper’s ear, too soft for Brett to hear, like the smallest hint of a growl. Under the guise of petting his massive head, she pinched one of his ears, hard. You behave.
“If you’re sure….” He still looked more than a little uneasy.
“Absolutely positive,” Harper said, patting the driver’s seat in invitation.
After another moment’s hesitation, Brett got in.
“See? He likes you!” Harper chirped.
“Yeah,” he said, trying to look at the pavement in front of him and keep the enormous wolf in view at the same time as he started the car.
As he pulled onto the road, Harper allowed herself to relax fractionally. Brett was committed now. He probably just wanted to get them to Harrisburg as quickly as humanly possible. He drove in a kind of intense silence, pushing the tiny car fast down the highway.
“Thanks again, Brett,” Harper said when they were a couple of miles down the road. “We really appreciate it.”
“We…?” Brett echoed.
“Yeah, me and…Fido,” Harper said.
Again, the merest hint of a noise.
Brett perked up. “You actually named your dog Fido? That’s kind of cool, because no one actually does that. Like, you know what it means, right? It means ‘I am faithful.’”
“That’s totally what I was thinking when I named him that,” Harper said.
Brett frowned then. “Where’d he go?”
“Who?” Harper asked with all the innocence she could muster.
“Fido. He’s not there.”
“He probably decided to lie down on the floor,” she babbled. “He does that sometimes, you know. Sometimes he likes to hang his head out the window, and sometimes he likes—”
“What the hell!” Brett yelled, the car jerking to the side.
“Watch out, Brett!” Harper grabbed for the wheel.
“Naked,” Brett sputtered. “Naked dude!”
Harper looked back. Levi had shifted back into human form, and he was grinning with his gun pointed steadily at the driver.
“He’s got a gun,” Harper said helpfully.
“He’s naked.”
“I’m not sure why that’s more upsetting than the gun.”
“Where’s the dog?” Brett asked.
“What dog?” Harper said automatically.
But Brett’s brain wasn’t connected to his ears anymore. “We’ve got to run,” he urged, his foot pressing ever harder onto the gas. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“Um. We can’t because you’re driving, and he’s in the car with us,” Harper pointed out.
“Oh, my God,” he said. “Oh, my God, ohmyGod, omigod, omigod—”
“Pull over,” said Levi.
“Slow down
first!” she squealed, grabbing the wheel again as Brett jerked it to the side at ninety miles per hour.
Brett’s foot shifted from gas to brake, hitting it hard enough that Levi grunted as he was shoved against the back of the front seats.
“Now pull over,” Harper suggested as the needle dropped below thirty.
“It’s a man. A dude. A dog or a wolf or a—werewolf.” Brett all but gasped the last word.
“I knew you’d figure it out,” she said encouragingly.
“A naked werewolf. It’s a full moon. A werewolf.”
“Not right now, but it probably will be tonight, from the looks of it. You’re a pretty observant guy, Brett,” she said as the car rolled to a stop. “Still on about the naked, though. Werewolves don’t eat people all that often these days, but I’d hurry up and get out anyway. But take off your shoes first and leave them here.”
“My shoes?” Brett repeated stupidly. He tore his eyes away from Levi for the first time since he changed to stare at Harper.
“Your shoes. Take them off,” she said. When he didn’t move, she invented madly. “Werewolves only eat people with shoes on.”
Brett threw the car into park. His hands shaking, he pulled his shoes off, first one and then the other. And then, for no apparent reason, he tossed his knitted cap down, too.
“Good job,” Harper said. “You can go now. We’ll try not to total your car, but after what happened last time, well, no promises.”
Brett didn’t seem to be processing what she said as he scrabbled for the door handle and tumbled out.
“You’d better get out of there,” he pleaded. “Or he’s going to eat you, instead.”
“He already has,” said Harper, scooting into his seat and mashing the brake as she shifted the car into drive.
Brett was standing on the side of the road and shaking, his hair sticking up in all directions from the knit cap. “You’re crazy. You’re all crazy.”
“Maybe,” she agreed. “But I’m not the one who’s hallucinating werewolves.”
She reached over and slammed the door closed as Brett tumbled free of it, accelerating out hard enough that the wheels spun.
“That wasn’t very nice,” Levi remarked. He already had the box with the tablet open and was tearing open the SD card reader.