“Then I won’t give you lessons.”
“This is blackmail. I had a perfectly valid point.”
“I’m still an arsehole, like you said. I want you and I’ve been without a woman for a really long time. I think it’s only fair we do the deed.” This was far from romantic. If a guy spoke to his sister like this or gave her this kind of ultimatum, he’d be so fucking pissed off.
He wasn’t talking to his sister though, and this woman belonged to him.
“Fine. You’ve got a deal,” she said.
****
The streets and towns all blurred into one.
Tulip didn’t know how long it took them to find somewhere to stay for longer than a night. Landon was always careful. Jade dyed her hair at each stop and even applied fake bruises or did something to make herself look different. Tulip stayed the same. She wasn’t on anyone’s radar, at least not yet.
Landon didn’t like it when she went in to pay for the room. She had to wonder if he even trusted her, but she knew in his own way, he cared.
After what felt like a month of hard traveling, Landon found a place. It looked like an abandoned farm. There was no one living there, and it even had an old for sale sign out front. It had faded over time. The land was overgrown, but the shed was big enough for them to park the truck and stay hidden.
Jade groaned the moment they looked at the house. “It looks like people just forgot to want to buy this place, or sell it.”
“It could be sold, but they’re waiting for the right time to build on it,” Landon said.
“I don’t want to go in there. It already looks like animals are living inside.”
“We’ve got nowhere to go and this isn’t the first house we’ve crashed in that was a fucking mess.”
“It’s a shit tip,” Tulip said. “I bet there are rats, mice, bugs, death. I mean, even the devil wouldn’t live here.”
“We’ll make the most of it,” Landon said.
“I’m not going to get lice, am I?” Jade asked.
“With the gun, you look all fierce and badass, now you sound like a girl.”
“I am a girl. I don’t want to have to deal with lice. I like my hair.”
“You dye your hair so much, I doubt they’ll live on you.”
“Oh, that’s cool. What about you?”
“I’ve lived with lice before. I can deal.” She would simply shave her hair off if needed. Maybe then, Landon would find her less attractive, or maybe this was a test from him, to see if she was easy.
Landon grabbed her hand, giving her no choice but to follow or have her arm ripped out of the socket. He walked up the broken porch steps.
“This is straight out of a horror movie,” Tulip said. “There is a murderer here.”
“I’ve never seen horror movies. I wasn’t allowed to,” Jade said.
“How come?”
“There’s a lot of stuff my family wouldn’t allow. I wasn’t even allowed to watch romance movies. Falling in love, that kind of thing. I couldn’t even read sex scenes in books.”
Tulip stared at the girl. “Your family is a bunch of control freaks?”
Jade laughed. “You could say that again. They were training their daughter to be the perfect, dutiful wife, who would make them proud for a husband of their choice.”
“Wow, that’s messed up.”