“Hello, there.” He doesn’t even hide his eyes drifting to my breasts. “Do you, uh…have any rooms available?”
“We do,” I reply. “Sixty dollars for a single, eighty dollars for a—”
“Thank you.” He smiles. With another quick glance at my chest, he leaves the way he came in.
Well, that was odd. But I’m used to odd around here, so I just shrug it off and get back to my writing. Again, my laptop is on the fritz, but my three-close-trick gets it working again. I start typing, trying not to think about the fact that my period is coming soon and what I’m going to do if I miss it. Missing it once doesn’t necessarily mean I’m pregnant, but it is Gage here we’re talking about. That man could impregnate an entire village just by looking at them, and I let him come inside me.
Do I regret it? That’s an impossible question to answer, because if I had a time machine and I could go back to that moment, I’m absolutely certain I’d let him do it again. That’s how magical and passionate and utterly incredible that moment was. I was simply out of my mind with lust and desire for him. Gage took me to places I didn’t even know existed. He touched places inside me that I didn’t even know existed, and I will remember that time between us forever. But now that I’m not with him and will most likely never see him again, I’m worried.
With a sigh, I grab my purse and step outside. Someone is smoking, and I hold my breath as I pass their room on the way to the vending machines. I’m just about to slide my card when a reflection appears beside me in the glass.
“Angel.” My heart nearly leaps out of my throat as I whirl to see Gage standing there. He is dressed differently than I’ve seen him before, in dark black jeans and boots with a heavy black leather jacket. He’s holding a motorcycle helmet in his right hand, and his hair could use a comb.
“Gage!” I have to cover my mouth with both hands to keep from nearly screaming his name. “What are you? How did you find me?”
“There will be time for all of that later. They’ve found you. We have to go. Now.”
Panic dumps over me like an ice-cold blanket.
How could this happen? I was so careful. I did everything to get away without leaving a trace. How could they find me? How could Gage?
But there’s no time to think. Gage’s iron hand has my wrist in his grip, and I’m being pulled so fast that it’s all I can do to will my legs to keep up with his. Which they barely do. He’s taking me around to the back by the dumpsters, into the shadows where I hate going because it’s always dark, and it always scares me.
“Where are we going, Gage!?”
“We’re leaving,” he hisses. In the blackness, I see the outline of a motorcycle that looks capable of speeds that would terrify me. One of those they race around tracks on television. He plucks a helmet off the back and hands it to me. “Put this on now.”
“But my laptop!”
Gage leans in, his face red, his eyes fierce and terrifying. “This is more important than that right now, Billie! This is your life!”
“My writing is my life, Gage!” I spit back, my words fueled by the absolute terror raging inside me like a hurricane.
Gage holds my gaze then snarls.
“Stay here!” he spits, pointing a finger at my face. “Don’t move a muscle. Don’t make a sound.”
And like that, he’s gone, into the shadows like a light being switched off, leaving me standing there trembling. So many emotions are warring within me right now it’s hard to even process them. Seeing Gage again was like the universe had been listening to my thoughts and sent him a GPS location of where I was. My feelings for him bloomed inside me, and it was like I was back at his safehouse, cradled in his arms after we’d just made love.
But then immediately after he said what he said and seized my wrist, that fear came back. It shot into me like a massive needle of terror being injected straight into my veins. Now I don’t know what to do. Smile? Run? Can I even trust this man? For all I know, he’s the reason they keep finding me in the first place. Maybe he’s even in on it?
Don’t even think that, Billie. I hate myself for having those thoughts, but if what Gage says is true, this is my life on the line. I can’t discount any possibility.
“There you are,” a voice hisses behind me. I gasp and whirl to see the man from minutes ago emerge from the shadows, his suit jacket still slung over his shoulder. “So it is you. Boss is going to be pleased that we found you.”