“Hand feeding her, sharing a bed, then showering together,” Driver listed off. “What next, you going to take off her blindfold and issue proper introductions?”
Elise paused mid-chew, and Manhandler grew so quiet, she swore she could hear his labored breathing.
“You need to watch how you speak to me.”
Driver grunted. “Really? Because I’m beginning to think I need to watchyouabout as close as you’ve been watchingher. Do I need to worry about your loyalties?”
The fork dropped to the table with a clank. “Two days and you’re already paranoid I’m turning against you? Wow, I gotta say, I thought you had better sense than that.”
“Don’t question me. I trust my instincts, and right now they’re saying this shit between you and her is off.”
“You think I got something going on with her?” Manhandler’s chair scraped the floor as he bolted to his feet. Elise shrunk back, wishing she could become invisible. She did not want to be caught in the middle of their feud. There was no telling if things would get violent between them, and she wasn’t prepared to find out.
“Do you?”
“So what if I did? Doesn’t mean I’ve jumped ship. Doesn’t mean I’m not still a wanted man. It changes nothing. At the end of the day, we’re still gonna do what we gotta do.”
“So if she becomes a liability?”
“Then we’ll handle it,” Manhandler said, and his chilling delivery caused Elise to shiver…in a bad way.
Driver seemed to take a moment to ponder his partner’s words. “So you’re just looking for a piece of ass then, and you got your eyes on this lil’ fil?”
“Do you see anything better around here to pass the time?” Manhandler growled.
Elise’s lip curled. Betrayed. That’s how she felt. She should have known he was just using her, but instead she’d gone and given him attributes that he didn’t deserve. He was just another man looking to get laid. And she just happened to be the closest thing with a vagina available.
It made her want to kick him square in the balls. If she thought she could get away with it, she would. In a heartbeat.
Driver chuckled and pulled out a chair of his own. “Beats watching TV. Antenna doesn’t pick up shit through all these damn trees.”
“That’s because people don’t come this far out into the boonies for the reception, dipshit.”
“Hey, this dipshit just cooked you a meal. Try showing some of that basic human decency you’re always spouting off about.”
They shared a friendly laugh and Elise was forced to listen to more of their idiotic banter, which now grated on her last nerve. Just an object to be used, was she? Well, she’d just sit and stew about that awhile and try to come up with a plan to get the hell out of Dodge ASAP.
Chapter Seven
“You’re mad.”
Elise ignored Manhandler’s surprisingly astute observation, considering he was pond scum. With her shoes still on, she laid down on the bed and curled onto her side. She had been perfectly silent all day, playing the perfect hostage while formulating every possible escape plan she could come up with. So far, the only real opportunity she thought she had would fall to pure chance. Specifically, if she got the chance to run, she was going to have to think later and take it.
The bedsprings squawked like an injured crow, and the mattress sucked her into its center like a vortex, pulling Elise toward her captor’s warm, hard body.
She grabbed the edge of the frame and hauled herself back into position, refusing any and all contact with the creep. Stockholm’s could suck it. She wasn’t falling into that trap. No way, no how.
That didn’t mean she was unaware or unaffected by the male presence lying beside her, though. He wasn’t something she could easily ignore, especially since her body was hyper alert whenever he was nearby, which was all the time. She couldn’t escape his presence any more than she could escape the effect he had on her.
But it didn’t mean she had to give in.
“Is this you giving me the silent treatment, buttercup?”
Elise’s response was to scoot closer to the edge of the bed until her knees overlapped the side and she felt a chill along her back.
“You should know that silence doesn’t work on men. We like a woman who knows her place.”
“You mean on her back?” Elise sniped, incensed. She wasn’t normally a violent person, but she wanted to gouge his eyes out.