Maybe? That was probably the best she would get, so she decided to give him part of her story. “I, uh, I hitched a ride. And the man…well, he kicked me out of his car.”
Josh stared at her, his face unreadable. “Why’d he kick you out?”
Remembering the leering expression on the creep’s face, as well as his words, she shuddered slightly.
“He, uh,” she began. “He wanted me to do more than just sit in the passenger seat.” Swallowing over the revulsion she felt at the memory, she shook her head. “When I told him that wasn’t going to happen, he stopped the car and kicked me out.”
Josh’s expression didn’t change.
Did this not shock him? Had he heard of this kind of thing before? Was he like the creep? The idea revolted her, but she didn’t know Josh at all. For all she knew, he was worse than the creep.
“That’s how I ended up here,” she added, as if that wasn’t already obvious.
He nodded, then with a tilt of his head, he asked, “Why were you hitching a ride?”
Okay. Enough of the Q & A. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
He gazed at her a moment. “All right.” He finished off his eggs. “How’re your feet feeling?”
Glad he hadn’t pushed for more information, she wiggled her toes. “Much better.” She didn’t want to gush, but she really appreciated what he’d done for her. Which reminded her… “You said if I told you my story you’d answer my question.”
He grinned, his straight white teeth gleaming in his perfectly shaped lips, then he took a bite of bacon. “I said maybe.”
Dang, he was hot. Trying to focus on her question, she said, “Okay. So, I was wondering why you came after me.”
He lifted his mug to his lips. “Already asked and answered.” Then he took a swig.
It had been worth a shot.
He set his mug down and gazed at her a moment. “The question you should be asking is, why were you so willing to come back with me? I mean, you don’t know me from Adam.”
That was a good question, but she knew the answer. It was because she hadn’t known what else to do. Lifting one shoulder in a shrug, she said, “It was better than walking barefoot for ten miles?”
He nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. But you do realize I don’t have any shoes that’ll fit you, right?”
“Yeah. I guess.”
“So. You have no shoes, and I have no shoes for you. What are you going to do now?”
What did he expect her to do? He’d said he would drive her to the next town. But then what? Was he implying that she’d be walking again soon? After he left her? Hating the idea, and with nowhere to go…
He looked at her face and began shaking his head. “No. Uh-uh.”
“No, what?”
“I barely know you, Shay, but you’re too easy to read.”
“I am?”
One side of his mouth turned up in a smile. “Yeah.”
“Okay. What am I thinking?”
“That you want to stay here. Am I right?”
Yes. “No. No way. That is not what I was thinking.”
He threw his head back as laughter burst from his mouth. After several moments he got himself under control, then he looked at her. “Yeah, right.”
She had to own up to it. “Okay, fine. The thought may have crossed my mind.”
“Like I said. No. Absolutely not.”
As she imagined him kicking her out again, and then walking along the road, blisters covering her bare feet, with only creeps there to give her a ride—a ride she might not even want—warm tears pushed against the backs of her eyes. Don’t cry, Shay. Don’t. Do. It.
She cleared her throat, then to buy herself a moment, she used her napkin to dab at her mouth. Deciding to woman-up, she pushed back from the table and stood. “Can I keep the socks?”
“What?” The sound came out as a bark of laughter.
“The socks. Can I keep them? Since I don’t have shoes.” Clenching her jaw for a moment, she added, “For my walk.”
“Your walk?” His eyebrows jerked together. “Remember? I said I’d drive you to town.”
Shay laughed like all her cares had been resolved. “Oh yeah. That’s right.”
“I’m sure you can buy a pair of shoes when we get there.”
Couldn’t argue with that logic. Except that she only had about twenty dollars to her name. “Alrighty, then. Shall we go?” No point in dragging out the inevitable.
He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “In a hurry to leave now?”
With his arms crossed, his biceps bulged against his chest and she found her gaze involuntarily drawn to them.
“Shay,” he said, and her gaze snapped to his. Cocking his head to one side, he raised his eyebrows as his lips pulled into a smirk.
Why did he have to be so good-looking? Life just wasn’t fair sometimes.
“What?” she asked.
Placing his hands on the table, he stood. “If you’ve had enough to eat, we ought to go.”
Softly sighing, she nodded. “Okay.” At least she’d get to be with him for however long it took to get to town.
With that thought in mind, she followed him out the door and to his truck.
Chapter Nine
“I’m sure you’ll be able to find your way to wherever it is you want to go once we reach Burton,” Josh said as they turned from his dirt road onto the asphalt.
Yeah, Shay thought. Won’t that be awesome?
She stared out the passenger window as they drove along and tried to decide what she would do once they reached this town he kept mentioning. Did she still want to go to Reno?
“Are your feet feeling okay?” Josh asked.
She looked at him, wondering if he really cared or if he was just being polite. “They’re fine.” That wasn’t strictly true. The truth was that they were tender. Probably from her walking on them when they’d left his cabin. What would be the point in telling him that? It wasn’t like he would do anything about it. Not when he was eager to see her go.
Curious about him, she angled her body in his direction. “So, Josh.”
He glanced at her, his right hand hanging loosely over the top of the steering wheel, his left arm resting in the open window frame. “Yeah?”
“What’s your story?”
A half-grin turned up one side of his mouth. “My story?”
“Yeah. You wanted to know mine, now I’m asking yours.”
He laughed. “I don’t have a story.”
“Come on. Everyone has a story.”
He shook his head, his smile nearly slaying her. “Not me.”
Wondering why he wouldn’t tell her only made her more curious. Too bad she'd never see him again once he dropped her off. “Do you live at that cabin year-round, or do you have another place?”
After a sidelong glance at her, he shook his head, but didn’t reply.
“It is your cabin, isn’t it?” she asked.
This time he laughed. “Yes. It’s mine.”
“If you live in that cabin—which is in the middle of nowhere, I might point out—what do you do for money?”
He gazed at her a moment, then he threw her a smile. “That, lovely lady, is none of your business.”
Pleased that he’d called her a lovely lady, but slightly irritated that he’d refused to answer such a basic question, she decided to tease him a little. “So you either do something online—although I don’t know if you even have Internet way out here. Or you’re a criminal.” Remembering the Guns & Ammo magazines she’d found in his second bedroom, she looked at him, her head cocked. “Maybe you’re an assassin.”
He threw his head back and laughed, but didn’t give her a hint as to what he did. Once he’d gotten himself under control, he said, “I can only assume you’re unemployed.”
Shay didn’t like his assumption, although it was a hundred percent true. She frowned. “I don’t know why you’d assume that.”
; “So you have a job?”
Not anymore. She was sure that when she hadn’t shown up at the burger joint for her shift the day before, they’d fired her. Maybe they’d even called to see if she was coming in, but since she had no cell service, she had no clue.
Which led her to thoughts of Will. Had he tried to contact her? Almost afraid to get cell service since it would mean he’d be able to reach her, she was absurdly grateful to be completely out of touch with the world.
“I did have a job, but…well, I don’t anymore.”
“Why is that?”
She wasn’t about to get into the details, but since it was her ex’s fault, she decided to lay the blame at his feet. “Someone…made me quit.” That wasn’t technically true, but it kind of was. If she hadn’t had to escape Will, she wouldn’t have quit her job.
Josh shook his head. “Sounds like you’re too easily swayed.”
No one had swayed her to quit her job, but telling him that would bring up a whole host of questions she wasn’t prepared to answer. But was it true? Was she too easily swayed? She thought about Will and how she'd always gone along with what he wanted whether it was good for her or not. Was that because she was too easily swayed, or was it her way of keeping the peace?
She didn’t want Josh to think she was like a dandelion getting caught in the wind, blowing whichever way the breeze took her.
“I’m not easily swayed,” she said, trying to project confidence although she wasn’t certain he was wrong.
“Oh yeah?” he shot back. “Tell me a time when you didn’t do what someone else wanted you to.”
He’d nailed her, and she didn’t like it. “That’s none of your business.”
He laughed like he knew there wasn’t a time.
She knew darn well that fleeing Will was definitely not what someone else wanted, but since that bit of information wasn’t for public consumption, she had to come up with something else. Wracking her memory to come up with something—anything—she gave up when nothing came to mind.
That’s when she had to admit that up until that point she had been too easily swayed. Well, that was about to change. From then on she would do what she wanted to do. Her days of being swayed were over.
They rode in silence, her stewing over her resolve to have a backbone from now on, him thinking who knew what.
Josh was sure of it. Shay didn’t know who he was.
Kind of thrilled by the novelty of it, Josh looked at her as she stared out the passenger window, deep in thought.
What was her story? Really? Who had made her quit her job? Why was she out here with nowhere to go? With nothing?
Was she a criminal? On the run from the police?
He had to admit, the possibility intrigued him. Was she really a tough chick playing at being an innocent girl? If she was, she hadn’t planned her escape very well. Nothing but the clothes on her back, and he had a feeling there wasn’t a lot of cash in that little purse slung across her body.
Okay, maybe not a criminal. But who knew?
Didn’t matter anyway. Once they reached Burton he would drop her off and never see her again. He'd done his part. He'd fed her, tended to her blistered feet, and now he was giving her a ride to town. There was nothing more he was expected to do, right? She wasn’t his responsibility. He didn’t know her. Yeah, she didn’t know him either, but he wasn’t the one who’d broken into a stranger’s home and slept in their bed. Just like Goldilocks.
She was a brunette though. With emerald-green eyes. And when she smiled, dimples appeared on both sides of her cheeks. There was an innocence there that he found endearing. But those lips—full and ruby red—those didn’t speak of innocence. Those were the kind of lips a man wanted to kiss.
Wait. Why was he cataloguing her assets? Yes, he found her attractive, but what did that matter? When they reached Burton, he'd never see her again.
He thought about her question, about whether he lived in his cabin year-round. Of course he didn’t. He had a small place in Sacramento where he stayed when he needed to be in town for practice and games and such. His cabin was over an hour away from Sacramento, so it only made sense to have a separate place there.
He was glad Shay hadn’t noticed that he hadn’t answered her question of whether he lived in the cabin year-round. Admitting that he didn’t would only raise more questions, questions that he didn’t want to answer.
“Here we are,” Josh said as they pulled into a parking lot next to a cluster of stores. “You should be able to buy yourself a pair of decent shoes and be on your merry way.”
Chapter Ten
On her way? To where? Reno? Shay wasn’t sure that was where she wanted to go now. She really had no idea where she should go.
Dragging her gaze away from the window, she looked at Josh, but he was busy driving. Moments later he angled into an empty parking space and shut off the engine, then swiveled his head in her direction.
She didn’t move from her seat, but when he continued staring at her, she said, “What?” As if she didn’t know he was waiting for her to get out.
“Good luck, Shay.”
Not ready to face the inevitable, she looked away from him and scanned the stores as if she was carefully selecting which one to shop in. That’s when she saw the beat-up black truck the creeps had been driving. At least she thought it was theirs. They’d been headed this way, so it only made sense that it belonged to them. It was parked in front of a restaurant so she figured they were inside eating.
Great.
With a glance at Josh to see if he’d noticed, she found him watching her, his right arm resting on the console between the seats.
I’ve got it! “I thought of a time when I wasn’t swayed,” she said, glad for a reason to postpone getting out. “Just today, in fact.”
His eyebrows rose. “Oh?”
Proud of herself, she smiled. “Yes. When those creeps insisted I get in their truck and I flat-out refused.”
His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, they insisted?”
Guess she'd never told him what had happened. “Well, they offered me a ride, but I got a bad feeling about them, so I said no. They implied that I wasn’t safe out there all alone.” The memory sent a sharp pang of fear into her chest. “I told them no again and I started walking the other way. They, uh, they turned their truck around and when they stopped next to me they demanded that I get in.” She paused a beat. “That’s when you showed up.”
Fury swept over his face. “Holy crap, Shay. Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
Lifting her shoulders in a shrug, she said, “I don’t know. I guess I was just glad you came along when you did.”
She looked at the black truck parked at the diner and Josh followed her gaze.
“That’s their truck, isn’t it?”
“I think so.” Her voice was soft.
He sighed and shook his head.
There was nothing he could do. She just had to face her reality. She threw open the passenger door and gingerly hopped to the ground.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
Confused, she looked at him. “To get some shoes and be on my merry way.” Just like you said.
He looked at the black truck again, then back at her. “Get in.”
Her right hand rested on the door frame. “What?”
“You heard me.”
Her mouth opened but no words came out.
A partial smile curved his mouth. “Please.”
“But you drove me all the way here. So I would leave.”
“I don’t think you’re equipped to protect yourself against those guys, or other guys like them.”
Not equipped? What did that mean? Not sure if she should be insulted or not, she stayed where she was. Then, remembering that she was supposed to stop letting herself be swayed, she turned and began hobbling away. That would show him that she could do what she wanted even if someone was trying to convince her otherwise.
A moment later
she heard his door open, then slam shut, and then he stood in front of her—tall, ripped, hot. His hands were on his hips as he stared down at her. “What the heck are you doing?”
Shay crossed her arms over her chest. “Whatever the heck I want to.”
He stared at her a moment, and then he smiled.
Stop being so gorgeous, would you?
“You can be stubborn when you want to be, Shay.”
“I guess that’s better than not being equipped, whatever that means.”
Chuckling, he nodded. “Okay. I’m sorry I said that. From where I stand…” His gaze slid up and down her body, sending a wave of heat through her. “You’re equipped just fine.”
Was there a double meaning there? Not sure, but happy that he’d apologized, she said, “Thank you.”
“Now, would you please get back in the truck?”
Not that she didn’t want to climb right back in with him, but she wanted to make sure this way he had of boomeranging between her getting on and getting off and getting in and getting out wasn’t going to strike again. “And then what?”
“And then I’ll take you home.”
“Home?” She didn’t have a home.
He spread his arms to the side. “To my cabin.”
Suspicious that it wouldn’t last, she narrowed her eyes. “For how long?”
He rolled his eyes. “For however long it takes.”
Still uncertain—she didn’t want to have to hot foot it back to town with blistered feet—she asked, “For however long it takes to do what?”
He turned and walked two steps in the other direction before coming back to the truck and leaning against the side and crossing his arms. “Look. I know you have nowhere to go and I don’t feel like being responsible for throwing you to the wolves, okay?”
“Okay. But that doesn’t answer my question.”
“Which is?” His voice was very soft, like he was doing all he could to control his exasperation.
“How long is this generosity going to last?”
He chewed on his lower lip for a few moments. “Maybe we can work something out. Like, maybe you can…I don’t know…keep the house clean, cook the meals, do the laundry. Crap like that.”
Illegal Procedure (Fair Catch Series, Book One) Page 5