Teagan
"Get out of the car, Teagan," Noah growled as he revved the engine menacingly. "I'm not joking around here. I need to leave."
"I wonder how many years the judge will give you for abduction and grand theft auto," I hissed in a spiteful tone as I fastened my seatbelt. I may have just put myself in a dangerous situation, but I wasn't suicidal. Seatbelts were a given in any circumstance.
"They'll have to catch me to sentence me," he shot back, casting me a sideways smirk as he took his foot off the clutch and accelerated, slipping into second and then third gear as he tore down Thirteenth Street. "And I'm very fast, Teagan."
Noah Messina looks good behind the wheel of my car, I begrudgingly thought to myself. His dark hair was mussed up in an effortlessly sexy way and the way he absentmindedly ran his tongue over his lower lip as he drove was wickedly distracting.
I folded my arms over my chest and stared defiantly ahead.
"So, what's the plan?" I asked when the silence got the better of me. He'd taken us away from the hill. We were heading into the mountains and I was growing anxious. It pissed me the hell off that he could make me feel anxious. I wasn't afraid of him. I wasn't. "Drop me off in the middle of nowhere? Set fire to my car? Hold me at ransom in some secluded shed?"
Rain beat against the windshield and Noah flicked the wipers on full-speed to clear it. To be honest, I didn’t have a clue how he could drive in these conditions and I was truly surprised we were still in one piece and with four tires on the ground.
Noah laughed softly as he changed gears before taking a sharp corner. I was forced back in my seat from the speed he was driving and I thought I might pee. "You know, for a little girl who's all alone in a car in the middle of nowhere, with a strange and insanely attractive man…"
"Strange is a good word for you," I said, interrupting him. "Also, the word kidnapper comes to mind."
"Oh please," Noah snorted. "I didn't kidnap you. It was your choice to get in. I need to borrow your wheels."
"What?" I turned in my seat to gape at him. "Hang on, let me get this straight. You break into my house in the middle of the night, almost smother me to death with one hand and sexually assault me with the other…" I inhaled a calming breath. "Because you want to borrow my car?"
Noah shrugged nonchalantly. "Pretty much."
"You're crazy," I mused as I studied the side of his face.
"And you're a huge fucking thorn in my side," he shot back, not taking his eyes off the road. "Because of your little tantrum with the paint I'm still without a ride."
Holding the wheel with one hand, Noah used his free on to pull a box of cigarettes and a lighter out of his pocket. "If I don't have a ride then I can't work," he continued as he sparked up and took a deep drag from his cigarette before exhaling slowly. "And If I can't work I can't keep the wolves from the door." He looked over at me, his brown eyes dark and meaningful. "Now can I?"
"You broke my windshield first…" I tried to argue, but Noah cut me off.
"What's worse, Thorn?" he asked in an eerily calm tone of voice. "Me accidently cracking the windshield of your mediocre Honda Civic, or you purposefully destroying the paintwork – and windshield – of my Lexus I.S 200?"
I opened my mouth to defend my car, but he had a point. Dammit. "Your sister started it…"
"I'm not Ellie," he all but roared before adding in a husky voice. "I'm worse."
"I'm beginning to gather that," I whispered before swallowing deeply. "If you need to use my car to get to work that's fine, but drop me home first. Please."
"No can do," Noah replied calmly. "I'm already running late. You chose to get in the car with me." He shrugged. "You're gonna have to suffer the consequences."
"What do you do?" I asked nervously. It didn't take a genius to know it wasn't good. We were in the middle of nowhere and he'd stolen my car. Oh sweet merciful Lord…
Noah gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, a vein in his neck throbbed, and when he spoke the fury in his voice was obvious. "I do what I'm told when I'm told, no questions asked." Turning his face to look at me, he stared straight into my eyes and for the second time he said, "Let's hope you can swim, Thorn."
We didn't speak again for the remainder of the drive.
I chose to keep my mouth shut and stop asking questions.
I had a feeling the less I knew the safer I would be.
But the minute Noah took a left and headed down a familiar dirt-road, my heart sank into my stomach. I suddenly knew exactly where we were going and that knowledge made me want to cry.
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