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“So, whatcha doing here, boss?” Johnson turns his attention back to me.
“Nothing. Just came in to check and make sure everything’s okay. Also, to let you know I will be up at the ranch if you need me.”
I hear a groan beside me. “Couldn’t you just call that in,sheriff?” Zoey bites, overhearing the conversation.
I smirk and look over at Johnson, who’s enjoying the conversation already. “I could’ve, but I didn’t want to.” Chuckling, I sit down at my desk and turn to face her. “Besides, with a proper date, I would take you places. So, I took you here.” I hold my arms out.
Zoey’s face turns red and her mouth drops open. After a beat she finds her words. “Seriously?” She lets out a long sigh. “Thanks anyway for the help, I need to get going.” She spins on her heels and heads towards the door.
“Stop, Zo,” I bark. She halts where she stands, not turning around. Johnson gives me the “you have your hands full” look. I nod, agreeing with him. I stand up and walk over to her. I hover my hand next to her back, not touching her. I stretch my other arm out towards the door.
“Let’s go, princess.” There’s a slight hesitation before she stomps off. She closes her eyes and shakes her head and comes back to reality.
“Finally!” Zoey throws her arms up.
We get back in the truck and head back out onto the main road. I sneak a glance at my feisty passenger. She pulls up her legs up under her and turns to look out the window. She taps on door handle as she tucks her other hand around her waist.
“You okay there, Zo?”
“Yeah. It’s Zoey, and I’m fine. Just taking it all in.” She sniffles.
“Want to talk about it?”
“No, I really don’t.” She shakes her head, not moving her eyes from window next to her.
“All right.” What more could I say?
Her cuts and bruises worry me. She’s running from whoever did that, and I need to figure it out before they find her.
In the meantime, I just have to keep her in my sights. She’s going to probably hate me, but there’s something telling me that I need to keep her safe. Whoever it is, they will come looking for her.
And they may find her, but they won’t get her. They will have to go through me.
Chapter 4
Zoey
I’m in hell,sitting next to a demi-god. A man who broke the mold of sexy. There should be a law to limit the amount of sex appeal that comes from him. Ryker is also genuinely kind. He’s a man who in one hand seems to want to help me. I mean, Ryker is helping me find a place to stay, even offering his place to me. Then in the other, he seems to like to get me riled up and get a reaction from me.
Oh, and then there are the jokes. Those are a hell all on their own. Well, okay, maybe I like them just a little. But I will never tell Ryker that.
Ryker keeps trying to dig for answers, and I know he won’t stop, either. But I just can’t give him any. If for any reason I tell him who I really am and he tries to look into me and my past, that could send up the signals and let Mitch know where I’m at. I can’t be certain that Mitch has moved on. For all I know, he could be scouring the internet and databases looking for me. Well, the old me.
There’s something about him, though. I just can’t put my finger on it. My gut’s telling me to trust him and let him in on everything.
His eyes. When I look into his eyes, there’s a sense of safety and security there. I mean, he looks scary, but when I look into his eyes, I see more. What’s that saying? “Eyes are the window to the soul” or something? Something inside me tells me I can trust him.
But then I shake that idea right out of my head. I really can’t trust my instincts anymore. Mitch was a great guy until he wasn’t. So, I just need to keep to myself and become a loner.
“What do you call a bee that can’t make up its mind?” Ryker pauses. I turn to him, glaring. “A maybe.”
“Ugh. That was so bad. Do you actually get anyone to laugh?”
“My mom, some of the ladies at the diner, my dad …”
“Yeah, your dad. Of course your dad. You probably stole them from him since they’re horribledad jokes!”
Ryker lets out a deep, sexy laugh. Oh, god, that laugh. We drive in silence for a minute before he waves his hand around at the open land around us.