Connor shook his head. “Fuck no, she’s been through enough. But if she stays?”
“If she stays, we make sure those fuckers didn’t send or pay anyoneelseto grab her.”
Connor looked at me as he flicked his cigarette away, his eyes flashing. “Notgonna fuckin happen, brother.”
I nodded. “Damn right. We’ll chill in town tonight, and see what happens tomorrow.”
4
Abby
I’d left in a hurry, and even though my credit card was tucked inside my purse, I knew I couldn’t use that. Credit cards left trails, and trails were something I couldn’t afford to leave - not with a family like the DeMona’s possibly looking for me. So that left cash, and cash was going to run out sooner than later.
“You okay, hon?”
The middle-aged woman behind the desk of motel office who had to be the Marge that Jackson and Connor had told me about gave me a concerned look. Her gaze locked onto the bruising around my eye before I remembered it was there.
I should get some concealer or something.
I smiled as best I could at the woman. “Oh, yeah,” I rolled my eyes, forcing out a weak laugh. “Stupid mistake, really. I was painting, and I wasn’t looking where I was going, and-”
“That’s okay, honey,” she said softly, reaching out and patting my hand and giving me a knowing look.
Don’t cry, don’t you fucking cry.
“Been there, honey,” she said with a motherly nod. She quietly shook her head and pushed the crumpled bills I’d given her for the room back across the counter-top. “Why don’t we say tonight’s on me, okay?”
I shook my head. “No, really-”
“I insist,” she said with another shake of her head, passing me a key.
“I-” I could feel the lump rising in my throat. “I can pay you back.”
“I said it was on me,” she winked before giving me a more serious look. “Anyone I should be looking out for and denying ever seeing you too?”
I choked out a laugh. “I hope not.”
“Well get some rest, sweetheart. Ring if you need anything at all, okay?”
“I-” I took a shaky breath. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, honey. Get some rest, and I promise you’ll feel a lot better.”
* * *
Sleep wasn’t exactly goingto come easy that night, I knew that much. But the hot shower and the robe on the back of the door feltdivine. I sank down on the edge of the bed, finally letting myself exhale a bit more of the stress that’d been riding my shoulders since I’d left two nights before.
I grinned when I saw the mini-bar.
Fuck it. I’d never been one to evenopenmini-bars - I wasn’t even really much of a drinker. Butthatnight? Yeah, consider me part of the club.
The motel rooms all had these skylights in the ceiling up above the bed - which made sense since the place was actually called the “Full Moon Motel”. And so I turned the lights off as I cracked the little nip bottle of tequila from the mini-bar and dumped it over the little plastic cup of ice, and sat back in the bed to look up at the big desert moon.
My thoughts were still jumbled from the events of the last few days, but the tequila quickly let me relax. And then before I could stop myself, I found my thoughts drifting back to earlier.
Back to Jackson and Connor.
I still felt strange thinking such - well,heatedthoughts about other men so soon after leaving Joe. But I couldn’t help it. They were there, stuck my head, and I couldn’t get them out. I didn’t want to, either. I thought of Jackson, and his bright blue eyes blazing and his muscles rippling as he’d stepped towards my car. I thought of Connor and his pulled back hair, his rugged, rough beard. I thought of the swirls of dangerous and captivating ink trailing over their skin, and wondering what it looked like on parts of their bodies Ihadn’tseen.