“You’ve saved me from a lecture. Thanks.”
He headed in the direction he pointed, nodding at a few people in passing and always keeping his eyes forward. He stopped when he saw her going around a corner. Breaking into a run, he took off after her. He couldn’t lose her again.
Ray already fucked this up by being impatient. He couldn’t go home saying he had lost her.
He came around the corner and … hit his knees. The world blurred, and his face felt like it was on fire as he roared, swinging blindly at his attacker.
Once again, he had fucked everything up.
Chapter4
Augusta
Augusta threw out her hand and flagged down the first cab she spotted. She opened the door and flung herself inside.
“Go! Go!” she yelled at the driver before she had even gotten the door shut.
“Yes, ma’am.” He started forward. “Where are you headed?”
“I need a hotel, preferably on the other end of town, far away from here,” she replied frantically.
He sped down the road, and she focused on her surroundings, trying to get her heart rate to slow down. She turned in the seat to look behind her to make sure she wasn’t being followed.
“Are you okay back there, ma’am?” the cab driver asked, noticing her quick movements.
“Yes. I’m fine. Just please hurry.”
“I’ll do my best at that, ma’am. You just seem a bit unsettled.”
“I’m really okay. I just … ran into an ex-boyfriend. The kind you really need to get away from.” She had to lie. He wasn’t giving up, and she didn’t want him to know she was in trouble. She couldn’t involve him.
He finally pulled under the portico of the hotel and stopped the car. She handed him a wad of cash from her pocket, not even quite sure how much she had given him, and raced into the lobby.
The foyer of the hotel he had chosen for her was immaculate. Large white pillars sat at the base of the long, beautiful staircase leading up to the other rooms.
She stumbled up to the red-haired woman sitting behind the front desk, playing on her cell phone, oblivious to someone having entered the building.
“Ma’am?” Augusta asked when the clerk didn’t acknowledge her.
“Oh, hi. Are you checking in?” she asked.
Augusta was rightfully irritated at having been ignored when she was in such a dire situation.
“I would like to, but I don’t have a reservation. I just really need a room for tonight,” she glanced behind her to make sure no one had followed her in. “As fast as possible, please.”
“Yes. Of course. Let me see what we have available. Just a room for one?”
“Yes. It’s just me.”
The clerk’s fingers danced on the keyboard keys effortlessly as she looked at the hotel’s availability. Her eyes lit up suddenly, and she looked up at Augusta.
“We have one room with a queen bed left,” she said after a moment of silence.
“Great. I’ll take it.”
“Wonderful,” the clerk said. “I just need a credit card...”
Oh shit. She didn’t have more than a few dollars left in her pocket. She pulled out her phone and dialed a number she hadn’t called in a long time.