I wasn’t sure how long I’d slept or what time it was. Actually, I had no idea what time I’d even fallen asleep. Shortly after taking off last night, I received a string of alarming texts, so I’d turned my phone off and was too scared to look at it again. All I could focus on was that my eyes felt swollen and scratchy—like they were filled with sand—as I blinked them open.

Cheap motels and prisons more than likely used the same mattress manufacturers. When I rolled over to sit up, I groaned at the pain and stiffness throughout my body. I was convinced my spine would never be the same, and I assumed my hip had been dislocated from lying on my side. I wasn’t sure how it was possible, but I actually felt worse after getting sleep. Dealing with exhaustion was definitely better than dealing with a broken body.

I covered my face and focused on the noises in the room to see if Talon was awake—or if he’d taken off and left me in some deserted town in the middle of nowhere. Knowing I more than likely looked like crap, I hoped the silence meant he was still asleep; that way, I’d have time to freshen up. The last thing I needed was to scare him off…in the event he hadn’t already run away. And as soon as I contemplated the possibility of him leaving while I slept, I remembered the backpack.

I dropped my hands and whipped my head around to check the bed next to me. It wasn’t empty…nor was he asleep. He sat against the outdated headboard with his legs bent, his arms propped on his knees and his focus set on me. I was given enough time to calm my racing heart before I noticed the hard line of his mouth, the tic in his jaw, the creases between his eyebrows, and the intensity in which he regarded me.

Something was wrong.

“Did you not get any sleep?” Palpable hesitation filled my voice, and I practically held my breath waiting for him to answer. My pulse galloped, and I suppressed the sudden urge to race to the door and escape this stale room. The truth was, I didn’t know this man, knew absolutely nothing about him. There was a real chance that he could be a sadistic monster.

“No, actually. I haven’t been to sleep at all.” Not once did he look away, and when he spoke, his masculine rumble sounded even deeper than normal, making his words almost menacing. They were harsh and resembled a growling beast.

“Oh, why not? You said last night that you needed some rest in order to keep driving. Was the mattress too hard? Oh my God, I wasn’t snoring, was I?” Based on his demeanor, I assumed it wasn’t that simple, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to lighten the mood and attempt to earn a smile from him.

Which didn’t work.

As if his eyes could bore holes into my head, he continued to glare at me for a few more seconds before answering. “I offered to get you out of town because I was under the impression you’d been attacked or abused. I never believed your story of running into a door; I assumed you got smacked around by a boyfriend or a parent. I thought I was getting you away from a bad situation, and now I’m wondering if I did the right thing.”

“I wasn’t lying.” I sighed, shifted on the bed, and faced him. My shoulders sagged as I settled in to give him as much of what had taken place as I could. “I opened a door a little bit to sneak out, and apparently, I didn’t give myself enough room. While trying to fit my body between the opening, my face caught the corner.”

“I want to believe you, Maggie. I really do. Your story makes sense and it’s something that could totally happen—not to mention, you don’t look like you’re lying about it. The only problem with it is…it doesn’t explain why you’re carrying around a bunch of cash.”

My heart stopped. Just quit beating and pumping blood to my brain. The room began to tilt, and my stomach twisted so tightly I could’ve thrown up all over the floor if I’d had anything more than a small cupcake in the last twenty-four hours or so.

“You…you went through my bag?”

“Don’t put this on me, Maggie. Don’t turn it around to make me look like the bad guy. I’m not. I’m the guy who gave you a ride, no questions asked. You’re the one walking around with so much cash I can’t help but think you’ve robbed a bank. And I refuse to be pulled into whatever mess you’ve created.”

“I didn’t rob a bank. It’s nothing like that.”

“Then tell me…what’s it like?”

I dropped my head and covered my face, only to be reminded of the cut along my brow bone the moment my finger grazed the edges of the bruise. I just needed a minute before explaining something that didn’t even make sense to me. He was right—he’d offered to get me out of town without asking for anything in return. I deserved the ache that spread along the side of my battered face, and he deserved an answer.

Keeping my eyes on my lap made it easier to speak, so without lifting my head, I began. “I was hanging out with this guy I’ve been seeing. It was my birthday, and since my friend had bailed on me earlier, I agreed to go with him when he asked me if I wanted to get some ice cream, but he said he needed to stop by someone’s house first.”

I lifted my gaze and met his eyes, unable to look away.

Taking a deep breath, I readied myself to continue with the vaguest explanation of my night. “We arrived at this house. He handed me the backpack and asked me to hold it while he talked to his friend in the other room. He left me on the couch with some guy I’ve never seen before. He creeped me out, saying things that didn’t sit right with me, and then he tried to touch me. It wasn’t like that…just a hand on my thigh or running his finger down my arm. I didn’t like it, except I wasn’t sure how to make him stop. So I ignored it and sat there, waiting for my boyfriend to return to the living room.”

Talon grimaced, yet he never looked away.

“Their voices started getting louder, until the guy next to me on the couch got up and went in the kitchen to check it out. I followed, but I stayed behind the wall to keep them from seeing me or catching me eavesdropping. What I heard freaked me out, so I left.”

“What did you hear?”

“Most of it didn’t make sense. What I did understand scared me. As I stood there, listening to them argue, I realized the guy I was seeing sold drugs—or used them, whatever. He’d seemed a little off when he picked me up, but it’s not like we’d been together long enough for me to tell if it was normal or not. I just assumed he was happy.”

“So you just left?”

I nodded and then cleared my throat to finish explaining. “I wasn’t about to wait around for that one creepy guy to find me, or for the others to return from the kitchen, so I took the opportunity and snuck out the front door. That’s when I ran into the corner of it.”

“And you took the money?”

“I didn’t know what was in the bag at the time. And when I left, looking inside wasn’t the first thing on my mind. The fact that I even still held onto it barely registered—all I wanted to do was get out of there.”

“Why didn’t you take his car? I mean, why walk if he drove you there?”

“The doors were locked and he had the keys.”

His tongue ran along his plump bottom lip. “When did you find out what was in the bag?”

I shrugged, and then I decided he deserved a real answer. “At some point, after walking for however long, I stopped to get my phone. I figured I could use the GPS to find out where I was. That’s when I noticed the cash. There was no way in hell I could return it, which meant I had a choice to either leave it where I was or take it with me. And by then, I was already on the run. I needed the money if I had any chance of making it very far.”

“And what…? You don’t have family to go to?”

My heart sank, stealing the chance of a verbal reply, so I simply shook my head.

“Why not go to the cops?” His question was sincere, honest, even if his interrogating tone sounded more like a lecture than curiosity.

I almost laughed, despite the fact that he wouldn’t understand the irony. “How long do you think I’d last if I turned him in? Haven’t you ever seen Law & Order?”

He finally broke our eye contact by glancing around the room, at anything other than me. “So your only plan is to get out of Dodge? No idea what to do when you get there?”

“My grandfather lives in Florida. He’s older, and I’m not sure how much time he has left. I figured I could go see him and start a new life for myself.” Honestly, it was the only place I could go. And even though there was a chance it would merely be a temporary stay, I didn’t have any other option.

He stared across the room, fixated on the wall while barely blinking, as if held captive by his thoughts, and it made me wonder how much of my story he believed.

He snapped out of his trance and returned his attention to me. “Well, they’ve more than likely figured out by now that you’re not coming back with the money. So I guess that means we keep going.”

I wasn’t sure what I’d done to deserve this stranger. He wasn’t giving up on me, and he truly did seem to have my best interests at heart, which allowed me to breathe a little easier. “Can I ask why you went through my bag in the first place?”

“You left your jeans out, so I went to put them away.”

That could’ve been a lie, yet I doubted it. And the idea that he’d cleaned up after me nearly made me melt. “Well, I guess you noticed I don’t have any other clothes. I’m sure that’ll be incentive enough for you to get to Florida faster so I won’t stink up your car.”

For the first time since we ate my birthday cupcakes last night, a smile graced his face, drawing my attention to the dark scruff that lined his jaw and accentuated his lips. It was utterly breathtaking.

“We have to pass Walmart on the way out. Might as well stop and pick up a few things. Plus, while you were asleep, I tried to plot out some driving directions. I’m not sure where in Florida we’re going, so I wasn’t able to plan much beyond crossing the state line.”

Listening to him reminded me that he’d stayed up all night. It also rendered me speechless to hear him talk about how he’d spent his time—after discovering the cash in my bag. “Why would you even entertain the idea of driving me farther if you assumed I’d robbed a bank?”

“I didn’t actually think you did, sweetheart. Tony used to always say, ‘If it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, sounds like a duck…it’s probably a chicken—a distant relative of the duck.’” He dropped his head and chuckled under his breath. “When you work side by side with troubled teens, sometimes you have to give them the benefit of the doubt. If you’re always expecting them to fuck up, they eventually will, simply because no one expects anything different from them.”

“So you gave me the benefit of the doubt? Even without knowing anything about me?”

Rather than say anything, he offered a shrug and rubbed his eyes.

“You’ve gotta be exhausted.” I was still tired, and I’d gotten some sleep, so I could only imagine how drained he was. “How long do we have the room? Do you think maybe you can close your eyes and at least get an hour or two of good rest?”

“I’ll be fine. I just need an energy drink…or seven. The sun will keep me up, but once it starts to set, it’ll probably be a smart idea to start looking for another place to stop. We’re roughly seventeen hours away from New Orleans. Providing we can log a solid seven hours of drive time in today, we could be there as early as tomorrow night. I figured we can spend half the day in town, and after lunch, we can head east to the panhandle.”

I clearly hadn’t gotten enough sleep last night, because I had to swallow down my dying need to cry. And not just a few tears, either. I’m talking about the need to sob like my dog had just died in my arms after getting hit by a car before my very eyes.

“You…you’re taking me to New Orleans?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, you said you’ve always dreamed of going, no?”

“But…but…” I lost the battle with my emotions and decided to just shut up before he thought I’d lost my mind. When I’d mentioned it to him last night, he’d become quiet, and immediately, I felt like a moron for bringing it up. It was obvious he hadn’t meant it the way I’d taken it, so to hear that he’d mapped out our trip just to take me to New Orleans made my heart rate skyrocket.

“Go get dressed,” he said through a laugh. “We still have to hit up the store before we head out. And I’m starving.”

“I guess it’s a good thing I have a bunch of money, huh?”

The humor lining his eyes lessened. “You probably shouldn’t touch that if you don’t have to. These people obviously know your name, so it’s not completely outside the realm of possibilities that they could find you.”

“I don’t have any other way to pay for things. I turned eighteen yesterday; clearly, I don’t have a credit card. And there’s probably less than two dollars in my bank account, so my debit card is worthless. That cash is all the money I have.”

“It’s okay,” he offered with a gentle smile. “I don’t have a lot, but I should be able to get us to Florida. Once we get there, it’s not like I can’t fix a few cars for a couple bucks. We should be all right. In the off chance they track you down, things could go from bad to worse if there’s any money missing.”

There were so many things I wanted to comment on, yet I wasn’t sure where to begin. “First of all, I can’t ask you to pay for everything. That’s ridiculous. Secondly, should I be worried about your familiarity with drug money? And third…does this mean you’re planning to stay in Florida after we get there?”

“You’re not asking. I’m offering. I already told you I was a troubled kid, so don’t act surprised. But just because I’m aware of how things work doesn’t mean it came from personal experience. And I’m not sure where I’ll go after I drop you off. I might stay, I might visit long enough to earn some cash to take me to the next stop, or I might just turn around and head somewhere else. I’ve already told you…I have nowhere to be.”

If only I’d met him at a different time, under different circumstances. When I wasn’t running from anything, or constantly checking over my shoulder for fear someone was behind me. A time when I could’ve jumped in his car and taken off without a care in the world other than what crappy motel we’d stop at next.

There wasn’t anything to say, so instead, I climbed off the bed and headed to the bathroom to freshen up. As much as I hated the idea of getting back on the road, I couldn’t help the excitement of being trapped next to him for hours on end.

Before I finished, I grabbed the bottle of Axe and sprayed it on the front of his hoodie. I’d never be able to smell this scent again without thinking of the man with the deep, gravelly voice who drove up in his getaway car to save me.

* * *

We wandered around Walmart for at least fifteen minutes. Talon didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave, and as much as I couldn’t wait to get to New Orleans, I couldn’t deny how normal it felt to walk around a store with him. Also, checking out all the stupid things people bought helped feed my fantasy of us being more than strangers.

When we came to the section of lingerie, his body turned rigid, only slightly relaxing when I bypassed it for the rack of pre-packaged undergarments. I could wear the same clothes for several days if necessary, but a girl needed new panties. Currently, I wasn’t wearing any, because I couldn’t bring myself to pull on a dirty pair after my shower last night.

“Which one should I get?” I asked, holding up two different packs.

Talon cleared his throat and ran his hand along the nape of his neck. “Is there a difference?”

“Yeah, one has six pairs and the other has ten.”

“How many do you need?”

“I’m not sure how long it’ll take us to get to Florida…your guess is as good as mine.”

“Well, you technically have one already if you count the pair you’re wearing.” He must’ve caught something on my face because he bent over the cart and muttered, “Jesus Christ, you’re gonna fucking kill me.”

“What? I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t have to. Get the bigger package.” He rolled his wrist in a dismissive wave without looking in my direction. “If you say you need a bra, I’ll just wait in the car.”

Part of me tried to believe that was a compliment, though I wasn’t so sure. It could’ve very well been a show of his irritation over shopping with a woman. I guess it was a good thing I wasn’t on my period. I didn’t care to see how he’d react if I had to grab tampons.

“No, I think I’m good there.” I tossed the package of ten into the cart and stopped in front of the socks. Figuring he’d still be nursing his red face from the underwear aisle, I grabbed the first bag I saw and threw it in as well. “What else?”

Still leaning over, he studied the items in the basket as if taking inventory. “You’ve got sweatpants, T-shirts, socks, and…underwear. A brush, hair shit, deodorant.” He finally looked at me. “Hell if I know what females need.”

“Should we get stuff to eat in the car? Like chips or something?”

The corners of his mouth turned up. “Good thinking.”

By the time we walked out of the store, we’d been in there for almost an hour. Talon ended up convincing me to get another pair of jeans—ones he’d picked out. I didn’t argue, despite his choice of the baggier style. Even though we were traveling to warmer weather, he was worried that with parts of my skin exposed through the rips in the denim, I’d be cold.

And as if we hadn’t already wasted enough time in Walmart, when we got out to the car, one of the tires was flat. I began to wonder if this was a sign that we shouldn’t leave this lost town.

While he worked at changing the tire, I stood back and admired the scene in front of me. Talon had taken off his shirt, and I wasn’t sure if it was because the sun was too hot or if that was just how he was used to working on cars. Either way, it made me contemplate going around to the other three tires and popping those, too.

Ink lined his upper back, from one shoulder to the other, in a detailed tribal piece he more than likely got when he was eighteen. One of those trendy pieces you select as soon as you’re legal. If he could see it more often, he’d probably regret it. Regardless, I thought it was sexy as hell. Along his left side, he had a joker that stretched from just below his armpit to his hip. It smiled, but the one on his right side, which was mostly identical to the other, frowned. And it seemed his arms were a hodgepodge of random art and words intricately woven together, yet his right side appeared to have more than the left.

He glanced up and caught me staring. I wiped my chin, praying I hadn’t also been drooling.

“What kind of car is this?” It was my lame attempt to pretend I hadn’t been staring at his perfect body.

Last night, it looked black, yet under the light of day, it was the most brilliant blue I’d ever seen. Running down the center of the hood and trunk were two white stripes, giving it the appearance of being meant for racing.

“It’s a four-four-two. Olds. Nineteen sixty-nine.”

I shouldn’t have asked, because that didn’t mean anything to me. “Are you like one of those guys from Fast and Furious? Drive souped-up cars and race for money?”

His shoulders shook, depicting laughter even though I couldn’t see his face. “No. I work on cars—that’s it. I’m not into hotrods and don’t get a hard-on for muscle cars. I only have this one because it was Tony’s.”

“Did he give it to you? Or did you just claim it after he died?”

He shoved the old tire into the trunk and turned my way. “He left it to me. Don’t worry, Maggie…I didn’t steal it.”

I watched as he loaded the shopping bags into the trunk, leaving the ones with food for the back seat. The way his muscles shifted with every move he made nearly hypnotized me. I’d seen plenty of hot guys in town, but none came close to him.

“I didn’t think you did,” I said when he held the passenger door open for me to get in. He did this whenever we got in the car, and I swooned every single time. “I was just curious. You said he had the car to work on with the guys, so I was just wondering why he’d leave it to you instead of someone else.”

“I guess I was his favorite.” He added a smug grin before closing the door.

The car shook a few seconds later when he slammed the trunk, and then he climbed into the driver’s seat with a new T-shirt in his hand. I felt a little brazen, especially after his comment in the underwear section, so I said, “You don’t have to put that on. I was enjoying the view.”

Either a low growl rumbled through his chest, or the three slices of pizza he’d eaten in the store didn’t fill him up. He slipped the cotton over his head and started the engine. And without a single glance in my direction, he stifled my boldness with one simple, husky demand. “Don’t say shit like that.”

“Sorry. I was just teasing.” I swallowed back a rush of emotional rejection. God, I needed more sleep. There was no reason why his comment should’ve put me on the edge of tears.

Just before pulling out of the parking lot, he came to a stop and faced me, though I couldn’t bring myself to meet his gaze. “Listen, Maggie…I told you I’d take you wherever you needed to go, but we can’t entertain the idea of making this more than what it is. You’re young, so maybe you don’t realize the big picture here. A few teasing remarks become flirting, and then it’s sexual innuendos. Before we know it, we’ll be fucking, and then I’ll drop you off at your grandfather’s house and leave. You don’t seem to be that kind of girl.”

“It’s fine. I get it.” I balled my hands into fists to keep him from seeing how his words, his tone, his dismissal affected me. I’d only known him a day, but my insides shook, and clenching my jaw was the only way to prevent the tears from forming.

We couldn’t have made it more than a mile down the road before I lost control of my temper. I broke the uncomfortable silence without a care in the world over how he’d react to my outrage. “So, how’s this supposed to go then, Talon? If we can’t joke around and have fun, are we just gonna spend hours upon hours in a car together without saying one word to each other?”

The asshole laughed. He ran his hand over his mouth as if he could wipe away his smile, but it didn’t do anything to hide the humor bouncing in his chest. “We talked plenty last night, didn’t we? And again this morning, and while shopping and fixing the flat.”

“Basically, you’re saying I can’t make comments about seeing you shirtless…yet you can say things about a package of underwear.” I didn’t even bother to hide the irritation from my tone.

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.”

“Well, I did.”

“Okay, then I guess we’re even. Right? I said something…you said something. We can move on now.” He swung his head in my direction and eradicated my anger in one, very dramatic, toothy smile. His brows jumped while he pinned me with his charming stare, and then he returned his focus to the traffic ahead of us. “We can talk about all kinds of stuff. Like…are you in school? Or, I mean, were you?”

Yeah, that was exactly what I wanted to talk about—reminders of how young he thought I was. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d meant high school. “I signed up for classes at the community college, which I guess ended up being a waste. Nothing like going for a few weeks and then running away.”

“What classes were you taking?”

And just like that, we fell back into a normal conversation. Without discussing anything too personal, I learned he’d never gone to college and had only graduated from high school because of Tony—who had been more of a father to Talon than a boss. I told him about my friends, and how they all went to Iowa State. That had been my dream, too. Unfortunately, things didn’t always work out the way I planned.

“How far away are we from NOLA?” He pointed to his cell, which I’d held in my lap since shortly after leaving Walmart. Oddly enough, he’d trusted me with the passcode to unlock it—which was more than likely so I could help with directions.

“It says we’re a little more than thirteen hours away.”

He huffed, scrubbed his face, and lifted his sunglasses to rub his eyes. “I was trying to get seven hours in today, but I’m exhausted.”

“Did you need me to drive?”

“This is a four-speed manual. Have you even driven one before?”

I stared at the shifter and tried really hard to hide my confusion. “I, um…I’ve driven a stick before. Is there a difference?”

He smiled and licked his lips—apparently, “flirting” only went as far as words in his book. “Let’s find a place to stay first, and then we’ll take a few laps around an empty parking lot if we see one.”

* * *

Talon finished bringing in the blankets and pillows from the car and set them on the bed.

We’d driven another hour before finding a shithole to stay in, and then he took me to a side road and let me drive. Needless to say, he didn’t trust me on the highway with it. I could get it to go, and I could even switch gears, though he said I was a little rusty and would need more practice before he’d feel safe letting me take the wheel. And as the sky began to darken, he decided it was time to head back so we could get sleep and leave at a decent time in the morning.

“Would you like the shower first?” He hitched his thumb behind him toward the tiny, one-person shower stall positioned right next to the toilet.

“That’s okay. You can take it.” And as soon as he had the door closed and the water on, I reached for the drinks he’d stopped to purchase after my driving lesson. Inside the grey, plastic bag was a twenty-ounce, room-temp bottle of Coke and a small thing of Jack Daniel’s.

I’d never had any alcohol before, and for some reason, I rationalized that this would be the perfect time to try it. My anxiety had begun to build. The only time it didn’t affect me was when Talon was around. With him in the other room and the door closed, my chest grew tighter and the razor-sharp claws of fear began to dig into the skin around my throat. Between Talon finding the money, me telling him what had happened last night, and then his rejection earlier in the car…I wasn’t sure how much more I could handle. All I wanted was to drink enough to make me tired so I could sleep it off and wake up to a new day. So we could get on the road again and put more miles between us and them.

I twisted off the top of the liquor and took a sip…and then nearly spit it out. My entire mouth was on fire, and when I swallowed it, the liquid burned my esophagus all the way down to my stomach. It instantly warmed me, and that’s when I decided to pull the bottle to my lips again. When the heat became too much, I opened the Coke and used it as a chaser.

Not a good idea.

It might not have been as bad had the soda been cold. But it wasn’t. The warm Coke only made me drink more of the Jack, which forced me back to the carbonated beverage. It was an endless cycle. I wasn’t sure why anyone would choose to drink this stuff.

Then again…I wasn’t in any hurry to put it away.

As I continued to sip the two, back and forth with intermittent bouts of wiping my mouth and burping, I thought about Talon’s life before last night. If he weren’t with me, I wondered where he’d be, who he’d be with—no doubt drinking Jack and piss-warm soda.

With an image in my head of a blonde wearing skin-tight jeans and a tiny top, her fake boobs spilling out, I drank more. I imagined her with Talon, maybe at a pool hall, possibly throwing darts, each with a drink in their hands. And the more I stared at the plain wall across the room, dazed by the alcohol fogging my mind, I pictured the way he’d touch her. She’d probably purr or hum when his lips settled on hers, his tongue dipping into her mouth. And then, in my perverse imagination, he’d call her sweetheart.

I took one more hearty swig, nearly choking on it. The heat no longer got to me, but the longer I held it in my mouth without swallowing, the queasier my stomach became. So I got down as much as I could and then chased the rest with soda.

The water in the bathroom shut off, and for some reason, I panicked. I doubted Talon would be pissed if he found me on the bed, drinking his liquor. There was still plenty left for him—actually, there was less remaining in the bottle than I thought. But that didn’t stop the tremors from seizing my body, making my hands shake as I desperately fought to get the screw tops back on. And when the bathroom door opened, I nonchalantly—or rather, very obviously—stashed the bottles behind me.

Talon stalked out in sweatpants and a plain white T-shirt, barefoot, hair still wet. He was magnificent. Like a tree I could climb. I wanted to swing from his branches and relax in his shade. When I began to imagine reading a book while lying beneath him, I realized how ridiculous that was and couldn’t stop laughing.

“What’s so funny?”

“I was just thinking about something.”

“Care to share? From the way you’re laughing, it sounds hysterical.”

Out of nowhere, hiccups attacked my diaphragm and I couldn’t catch my breath. I clutched my stomach, feeling another burp building. Except…it wasn’t a burp at all. I slapped my hand over my mouth and stumbled off the bed toward the toilet, only to hear, “What the hell, Maggie?” come from somewhere in the room.

By some small miracle, I made it to the toilet in time. Throwing up was embarrassing enough—I didn’t even want to think about how mortified I’d be if I’d lost my cookies on the floor in front of him.