I waited almost half an hour for Maggie to show up at the diner. Granted, I didn’t tell her what time to be here, so I couldn’t necessarily be pissed, but that didn’t change the fact that I was. I gave her until close to eight before I left and followed the GPS directions to her house. I hadn’t planned to need her address when I’d swiped her insurance card the day before—only now, I found it useful and nearly patted myself on the back for taking it.

The echo that resounded when I slammed the side of my fist against her front door gave me pause, making me second-guess myself. I had no idea if she lived alone or was shacking up with someone, and I knew beating down her front door wouldn’t help my situation.

When no one answered, I tried again—much lighter this time. Still, it remained unanswered. I peered over my shoulder to the parking lot, verifying that her Honda was there. That didn’t mean anything, though. After everything that had happened, she’d more than likely stolen someone else’s car and taken off. I mean, she’d done it before. It wasn’t a far stretch to assume she’d do it again.

I twisted the knob and found it unlocked, which was a risky move. Just my luck, I’d wind up in jail again—this time, for breaking and entering. So I pushed open the door just enough to peek inside. It was dark and quiet, yet when I closed my eyes, the sound of someone sniffling caught my attention.

“Hello?” I called out, not leaving the doorway. “Maggie? You here?”

Still nothing.

Hesitantly, I stepped inside, leaving the door open behind me. I took two steps to my right, just enough to see down a hallway, and noticed someone sitting on the floor in the room at the end. She had her arms around her shins and her head tucked between her knees, the sleeves of a black hoodie hiding her face.

I’d seen that before. Everything about it, I recognized.

Immediately, my mind flashed to the night I’d walked in and found Maggie in the shower, curled up beneath the spray in a pair of jeans and a bra. And I’d never forget the way she looked in my sweatshirt. How it hung on her, practically swallowing her whole. In less than a second, I’d been transported into the past, to a place where anger hadn’t consumed me. Where I could allow myself to get wrapped up in someone else and not care about the rest of the world.

I leaped into action, running down the hall toward her. Apparently, it was enough to startle her, because she picked up her head and awarded me with a pair of bloodshot eyes. They widened with fear, the brilliant blue stopping me in my tracks before I made it into her room.

The rage came on like a rolling tide, threatening to take me under and never let me return to the surface. I was quickly reminded that she wasn’t the person I thought she was. It didn’t matter how many times I recalled that night in the shower, or holding her hair while she threw up in the toilet. It didn’t matter how I felt when my lips were on hers while freezing raindrops pelted my back as I held myself above her. None of it did…because it was all an illusion.

The real version sat in front of me.

And it seemed she was hell-bent on rediscovering my sympathy.

Never again.

“H-how did you find me?” And there it was—her true colors, despite the tears lining her face or the fear hitching her voice. They weren’t enough to hide the real person beneath.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said from the hallway with my arms crossed over my chest. “I told you to meet me this morning at the diner, and then warned you not to make me chase after you. Did you really think I’d leave without a way to find you? I don’t trust you that much, Maggie. Actually, I don’t trust you at all, so you might as well stop trying to come up with ways to fool me. It won’t happen again.”

“I wasn’t.”

It took a lot of effort to ignore the way my chest reacted to her voice, to the sound of her desperation. I’d heard it before. I’d fallen for it before. There was no chance of it happening again. “Then come on. Grab your bag and let’s go. We’ve got a lot of driving ahead of us.”

“I can’t go with you, Talon.” Her bottom lip quivered. “It’s not that I don’t want to, or that I’m refusing to give you your car. I can’t leave.”

For whatever reason, I decided to entertain her. “Why not?”

“I have to work.”

“And I told you, tell your boss you have to go away for the weekend. Tell him you have a family emergency or something. I don’t give a shit how you get out of it or even if you lose your job. It’s not my problem. Had you not taken off with it in the first place, you wouldn’t have to worry about this now.”

“I need the money. I can’t just call out. I can’t go without a paycheck.”

“Why? Did you blow through all that cash you had? There had to be at least fifty grand in that bag. Don’t tell me you’ve spent it all.”

Her voice lowered to a soft quiver when she admitted, “I don’t have it anymore.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.” I refused to fall for that. “And again…not my problem.”

“I understand that, Talon. I’m just asking for a little time so I can afford to take a few days off. Why do we have to go right now? You know where I work. You obviously know where I live. So what’s the big deal in waiting a week or two?”

I finished making my way the few feet to her bedroom door and stopped with my shoulder against the frame. “Gee, Maggie…how about the last time you disappeared, you didn’t even have a car, couldn’t really drive mine—unless that was all for show and you rode my clutch for shits and giggles—and as far as I was aware, you didn’t have anywhere to stay between Mississippi and Florida. Yet, in case you’ve forgotten, that didn’t stop you from disappearing into the night.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I can’t go anywhere. Hence why I can’t leave with you now.”

“Too bad you fucked me over, isn’t it? Otherwise, I just might believe you. But unfortunately for you, I don’t. Because you did, in fact, fuck me over. Maybe everything you told me was a lie, but I never lied to you. That car was everything I had. And I want it back.”

“And I told you…I can tell you where to get it. If you’re worried about me running off, then stay here and send someone else.” She certainly put up a good fight; her desperation was almost believable.

“You’re out of time, Maggie. Either get your shit together and come on, or I’ll have no choice but to call the cops. Didn’t you say your uncle works at the sheriff’s office or something? I’m pretty sure he won’t take being humiliated too kindly after he finds out what you did. And while I’m at it, maybe I should also inform them of the bag of cash you had, too. Since I’m no longer buying your story of taking it from some drug dealer. After what you did to me, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got that money from some other unsuspecting sap.”

That seemed to get her. She pushed off the floor and stood in the middle of the room, her hands shaking at her sides and her chest heaving with the forced exertion of her breathing. I had to push down the concern that something had frightened her, because I’d learned long ago what a great actress she could be. And this wasn’t any different.

“How long will we be gone?”

“That’s up to you, sweetheart.” I watched the pain cross her eyes when I practically spewed that term of endearment at her. I’d almost forgotten her attachment to it, and at one point, had even questioned if it was real. Now I could see it was, and for reasons I didn’t care to delve into, it hurt her to hear it again.

“We’re just going there, getting the car, and coming right back. Right?”

“That’s the plan. I don’t really have too much desire to spend any more time with you than necessary.”

“And what do I have to go on that you won’t leave me there without a way to get home?” Had she not been so serious, I would’ve laughed.

I was stunned for a moment, wondering how she had the audacity to ask such a question. Then again, I hadn’t kept my feelings toward her a secret, and she more than likely assumed I would do to her what she had done to me. “Considering I never left you—that was your MO—I’d say you don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Yeah, but once you get your car…”

“Then we’ll come home. That’s all I want, Maggie. As much as I’d love to fuck you up the way you did me, I’m willing to let that go as long as I get what’s mine. I’m not out for revenge. I only care about getting what you took from me.” Unfortunately, there was no way she could give me everything she’d stolen.

She nodded and then stared at the wall. “That’s about…two days there, and then two days back. It’s Thursday, so we’ll be home by Sunday, right?”

“As long as you hurry up and get your shit together.” Whatever got her moving. There was no telling how long we’d be gone; I didn’t have a clue where we were going—other than Florida. To be honest, I’d spent the last four years questioning if that was a lie, too.

She didn’t say anything else. Instead, she took a canvas shopping bag and began to stuff a few pieces of clothing inside. I doubted she even paid attention to what she grabbed. Then she moved to the bathroom down the hall and rummaged through the drawers, adding more to the bag. When she was done, she returned to her room and began to close the door.

“Uh-uh. Nope.” I pushed against it, not trusting her enough to let her out of my sight.

“Talon,” she argued. “I need to change.”

“Don’t act like I’ve never seen you. Shit…don’t act like half the town hasn’t, either.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Bewilderment filled her expression instead of the anger I’d expected.

“I found you because you sucked my buddy’s dick on the side of the road and he bragged to the entire shop about it.” When she did nothing but stare at me, blinking as if she had no clue what I was talking about, I decided to fill her in. “Oh, it happens so much you don’t remember? A guy stopped and helped you change your flat the other day, and to show how grateful you were, you blew him in your car.”

Her brows dipped and her top lip curled in disgust. Though it didn’t last long. Her head swayed side to side a couple of times, and she huffed through her nose. “Yup, that’s exactly what I did, Talon. I do it so often they all just bleed together. Is that what you’re hoping to get from me? To suck your dick?”

“Maybe later, sweetheart. Right now, I just want you to change your clothes so we can go.”

Maggie turned her back to me and proceeded to exchange her black, cotton pants for a pair of jeans. She didn’t take off the hoodie or the shirt underneath. Instead, she tossed the pants into the bag and brushed past me into the hallway.

* * *

We’d gone at least an hour in the tow truck without a word spoken between us. She sat curled against the passenger door, staring out the window, and I tried to keep my thoughts as far away from her as possible. There were so many things I wanted to ask, but I kept them all to myself. In the end, it wouldn’t matter what answers she gave. They wouldn’t change anything—not a single word would be true, anyway.

Then she spoke.

Keeping her focus out the side window, her knees close to her chest, she muttered, “I turned around.”

I had to have heard her wrong. “What?”

She rolled her head against the seat to face me. “That night…I turned around and came back to the motel. You weren’t there. Where were you?”

I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached. She would’ve known where I was if she’d been the one who called the cops. But I refused to give her the benefit of the doubt and chalked this up to more of her acting.

“It doesn’t matter where I was.”

“It kinda does. You’re pissed at me for leaving, but really, I didn’t.”

It took everything in me not to slam on the brakes in the middle of the interstate. “You took my phone. You took my keys. You took my car. And you left. It doesn’t matter if you turned around or not. You. Left.”

Rather than continue to argue, she settled her head against the window again, watching the trees as they passed. By now, the rage had begun to eat me alive. I couldn’t let it go. No, I had no intention of explaining anything to her. Nevertheless, that didn’t mean I was done pointing out all the mistakes she’d made.

“I don’t get it, Maggie. I volunteered to drive you anywhere you wanted, planned to take you to New Orleans because you said you’d always dreamed of going, and spent all my money on food and clothes and somewhere to sleep. Why steal from me?”

“It wasn’t like that.” Not once did she turn my way as she answered in a soft, almost defeated voice. “I freaked out, and by the time I realized what I had done, it was too late. You were already gone. I waited all night for you in the room…you never showed up.”

I racked my brain, wondering what could’ve possibly freaked her out to the point she felt the need to run off. “Was it because we had sex? Is that what scared you?”

“Just forget it, Talon.”

I wished I could. But if I hadn’t been able to forget about it while I sat in a prison cell, there was no way I’d be able to with her next to me. Just because I allowed her to drop the subject didn’t mean it stopped taunting me for the next few hours of the trip.

Before we left town, she’d given me the address to her grandfather’s house in Florida. Per the GPS directions, it was a twenty-hour drive. There was no way I’d be able to make it the entire way without pulling over for sleep; I just figured we could get as far as possible before I had to find a motel. It wasn’t ideal, especially since I didn’t trust her not to take the tow truck and leave me behind, yet I didn’t exactly have many other options.

Aside from asking if she had to use the restroom while we were at a gas station, or if she was hungry when I stopped at a drive-thru, we’d gone nearly thirteen hours without speaking. I might’ve been able to push it a little farther, at least cross over the Tennessee-Georgia state line, but I couldn’t deal with the isolation any longer.

It was damn near crippling to sit next to someone—who at one point had made me believe I could deserve someone like her—in complete and utter silence. There were several times I had checked to see if she was awake. The entire ride, she faced the window, sitting in various positions in the seat. And not once did she look me in the eyes after she admitted to me that she’d turned around that night.

It was just after ten when I pulled off the interstate, less than an hour away from Georgia. Aside from glancing around, Maggie didn’t move or speak, not even to ask where we were going. I didn’t think it was possible for her to clam up any more, though when I pulled into the parking lot of a Super 8, I was proven wrong.

“Come on,” I said and turned off the truck. I stepped out, and when I realized she hadn’t budged, I went around to the passenger side and yanked the door open. “You’re not staying in here. You’re coming with me. So let’s go.”

“You have the keys. Why do I have to go with you? Clearly, I can’t steal your truck.”

“No, but there’s nothing stopping you from taking off.”

She rolled her eyes and stared straight ahead, her nostrils flaring. After a second, she gave in and unbuckled herself before sliding out of the seat. I only hoped the attendants at the front desk didn’t see her temperament and accuse me of abusing her. I wouldn’t have put it past her to lie and have me arrested for shit I definitely didn’t do.

Luckily, she remained quietly by my side while I dealt with the woman behind the counter, and then followed me out to retrieve our bags from the truck. Still, even when we made it into the room, she said nothing. And it’d reached a point with me that I was about to lose my mind. Granted, at first, I was happy that she didn’t talk. Hell, I didn’t really have anything to say to her. But she began to wear me down with her avoidance, and I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.

It was like she discovered what button to push to get to me.

And then beat the fuck out of it.

“Take your clothes into the bathroom and change in there. Take a shower if you want.”

“You sure you don’t wanna stand in there and watch me?” Just when I didn’t think anything could’ve been worse than her silence, I was proven wrong. Her angry sarcasm was far worse. “You know…to make sure I don’t try to sneak out?”

“Unless you plan to dig through the bathroom floor and under the building, I don’t think I have anything to worry about.” I pulled my shirt over my head, and immediately, her cheeks glowed red. She turned away, held her bag close to her chest, and scurried to the bathroom.

The water ran for close to ten minutes before it shut off, and then maybe another five before she opened the door, dressed in the same black pants she had on this morning and my hoodie.

“Do you ever wash that thing?” I asked from my spot on the bed, pointing to the black jacket that was far too big for her.

She tucked her chin toward her chest and shrugged. Other than that, I got no response. It was hard to tell without her looking at me, but it appeared she’d been crying. Her blue eyes were bright against the red rim lined with dark lashes. Yet I didn’t comment on it. I didn’t put it past her to use it as a way to manipulate me, and if I didn’t play into her games, then she couldn’t win.

Maggie set her bag near the door and moved toward the vacant bed. She stilled when she stood next to it, staring at the comforter, and I wondered if she thought the same thing I had before I’d gotten beneath the covers—we didn’t have our blankets. I could’ve mentioned the reason why we didn’t have them, because they’d been left in Mississippi. In the end, I decided against it, in favor of something that would get to her more.

I grabbed the silver bracelets from beneath my pillow and slid off the mattress to stand behind her. When she realized how close I was, she craned her neck and looked up at me. I don’t know why, but this time, I took note of how much she’d changed.

Her hair was a deeper shade of brown, darker than the sandy color from before. The arches in her brows were more prominent. It made them more expressive when she had them knitted together like she did now, and when they were relaxed, I couldn’t help but think about how they were a perfect blend of sexy and devious. And it was obvious she’d put on some weight. Granted, I hadn’t seen her in anything fitting—yesterday she’d been in her uniform with the shirt untucked, and ever since this morning, she’d hidden behind my jacket. It was in her face though, the slightly rounder parts of her cheeks—which were now tinted crimson. Then there were her lips. The way she held them barely parted reminded me of how it felt to have them against mine.

I had to shake it off and take a step back. There was no way in hell I’d allow myself to get sucked into her trance. I’d lost so much last time by getting wrapped up in her, and I refused to let that happen again. I held up the bracelets, and then smiled to myself at her gasp and panicked eyes.

“We have about seven hours left on the road tomorrow. I need to get some sleep, and that won’t happen if I’m too worried about you taking off. So, in order to relax while ensuring you don’t skip town—again—I’ve devised a plan.”

“What? Handcuff me?”

“Yup.” I grabbed her wrist. “As long as you’re cuffed to the bed, I won’t have to worry.”

She yanked her arm away and held it close to her chest. The bedframe prevented her from backing away, though that didn’t stop her from trying. “You’re not chaining me to the bed. How do I know you won’t leave me here?”

“I think it’s safe to allow our pasts to speak for themselves. Maybe you wish you could change the shitty things you did to me, but I have no regrets where you’re concerned. I never did anything to you. So really, there’s no justification behind why you think I would now.”

“Other than the fact that you hate me.”

“I hate a lot of people, sweetheart.”

She grew quiet, defeated, yet she continued to hold her wrists close to her chest. When her gaze lifted to my face again, she squared her shoulders, showing defiance—or courage, I wasn’t sure which. “I’m not letting you handcuff me to the bed.”

“Fine.” I grabbed her arm, hard enough to pull it away from her body while remaining gentle so I wouldn’t hurt her physically. I locked one side of the cuffs around her right wrist, and then clicked the other end in place on my left. “Then we’ll do it this way. Now you can’t leave without waking me up, and you won’t have to worry about me leaving you behind.”

“How are we supposed to sleep like this?”

“Easy.” I picked her up, pulling her arm with mine behind her, and released her in the center of the bed. With her on her back, I climbed in next to her, our linked hands side by side between us. “See? Problem solved.”

A snarled huff erupted, and I didn’t even try to hide my satisfied smirk. Although, she seemed to get the last word when she yanked my arm over her head, stretching across the pillows, and then turned onto her side, facing the wall.

Too wrapped up in the push and pull of our “reunion,” I tucked my arm beneath her shoulder and curled it toward me, which rolled her over until she faced me with her hands trapped between our chests. It wasn’t until her glacier-blue eyes were on mine, her breaths wafting across my chin, that I realized what I’d done. And it took far more effort than I cared to admit for my anger toward her to return.

When I relaxed my hold around her, she hesitated for a moment, and then rolled onto her side, once again turning away from me. Jesus, I needed to get it together before I completely forgot about why I was here. About why she was here. About what we were doing and how it had come to this.

I turned off the light next to the bed and cloaked the room in darkness. At least this way, I could fool myself into believing she wasn’t next to me with my arm resting in the crook of her neck. I could lie to myself much easier in the dark.

I’d be fine.

Just as long as the sun never came up.