4
R ose glanced over her shoulder. Her shoulders itched in warning; she just didn’t know where the trouble was going to come from.
There’s nothing there.
Has he found me?
Crap.
This cannot be happening right now.
She tramped down the unease that she knew from experience would make her freeze. She scanned the street behind her, peering into the shadows between the lights, but couldn’t see anything.
Maybe I should have taken a cab or allowed Indy and Draven to pay for the hotel room they’d offered.
It wasn’t in her nature to accept anything that smelled remotely of charity. Her family had drilled it into her head for way too long. Handouts or help are charity, and if you can’t do it yourself, then you are worthless, which was why she was walking to the bus stop less than two blocks from the hotel. Of course, the closest stop didn’t go her route. She’d checked and double-checked and decided that rather than changing buses by taking the one closest to the hotel, she’d walk an extra block and take the bus closest to where she wanted to get off instead.
I’m regretting all my life choices right now.
Stupid. Stupid. You know better than to be out in the open. He has spies everywhere.
Not in California.
He’s got no foothold here.
That you know of.
God, she really hoped he didn’t. It was annoying that she had to work harder than she wanted to to convince herself that she was imagining things. Even harder was believing that there was no point in second-guessing herself. She already knew she’d go over and over the decisions she’d made every single time she closed her eyes for freaking months. It sucked so bad to be this—ugh, what was the word—insecure, stupid, crazy, all the above?
Her instincts said to get to where there were other people, and to do it fast. She’d be all of those words if she didn’t listen to it. Rose turned in the direction she was meant to be going and prayed it wasn’t deserted when she got there.
Just make it to the bus stop.
There will be people at the bus stop.
I hope.
Please let there be people at the bus stop.
He’s not going to do a damn thing if you are around people.
She glanced at her watch and picked up speed. If those footsteps she could hear behind her were from a regular person rather than one of his goons, then hopefully, they would think she was just sprinting for the bus and not because she was a weirdo. If it was his goons, then hopefully they too could see the lights of the bus stop and would leave her alone. She recognized how futile it was to wish he’d leave her alone. He’d never stop hunting her. She snorted in her head at herself for wishing for things that would never come true.
It’s time to move on.
When you get home, pack your stuff and leave.
You can email the photos to Indy. She’ll understand.
The footsteps behind her sounded as if they had moved from a fast walk to a jog, and in response, she also increased her speed. If she could just make it to the bus stop, she may be safe.
Please let there be people there.
Please.
She glimpsed someone’s outline in the bus stop shelter and thanked any god who might be up there for looking after her. “Did the number fifty come yet?” she asked breathlessly as she skidded to a stop.
Act normal, for heaven’s sake. Act fricking normal.
Yeah, I checked the receipt for you. You didn’t take the ‘act normal’ upgrade.
Shut up.
Her hands closed into fists, and she made an attempt at not making herself stand out by acting twitchy, which was difficult for her at the best of times. Twitchy should have been her middle name.
“Not yet.” The older gentleman glanced at his watch. “It should be here in about five minutes, though.”
Five minutes. She could hopefully keep her collective crap together for five minutes, right? “Thank you.” She sidestepped away from a man in a dark hoodie who joined them from the direction she’d come from.
Were you following me?
She shifted her feet, getting ready to bolt just in case he had been chasing her, and made a move toward her. If this was one of her nemesis’s goons, then the man waiting for the bus with her was in danger. She’d never forgive herself if he got hurt because of her because one old man would never be strong enough to take on killers like the ones who hunted her.
You should have thought of that before you bolted down here.
Idiot.
The man in the hoodie stepped closer to her. Every step she took, he took one too, until she stood on the edge of the sidewalk. Any minute now, she’d have to step onto the street. Was that what he wanted? To have her step into traffic? She didn’t want her life to end under the wheels of that dark gray pickup truck driving past. As if the driver heard her talking to herself in her head, the driver hit the brakes, and the reversing lights came on a split second before the truck returned to the bus stop. Rose eyed it warily as the window on the passenger side came down.
“Can I give you a ride, Rose?”
Huh?
What?
Is he talking to me?
It took a couple of seconds to realize the driver was talking to her, and a couple more before she did a double-take and recognized the man behind the wheel.
What is he doing here?
Thank God he is!
“Rose?” he called again. “Can I give you a ride?”
“Ca—” She glanced nervously over her shoulder at the man she was sure had been following her, reluctant to give Caleb’s name when she just wasn’t sure if she was in trouble or not. “Why?” she asked instead.
“Because I’ve called it a night and decided to go home,” he answered. “I’ve only had two beers, the champagne I shared with you, and I took a sobriety test before I got in the truck.”
It was almost as if he was trying to persuade her that he was safe to drive. As the man in the hoodie growled something under his breath, she was grateful Caleb had shown up when he did and even more relieved he’d given her that information as it made her decision easier to make.
“Rose—”
Hoodie dude stepped closer to her, still muttering. His move made her decision for her. She barely knew who Caleb was, but there was no way he could be as bad as the alternative… she hoped. If she was jumping from the frying pan into the freaking dumpster fire which was her past, then she was going to be so pissed with herself. The bus stopping behind Caleb’s truck and hooting at him to move was the final deciding factor. “Thank you.” She stepped off the sidewalk and caught the door as he pushed it open. He tossed his jacket into the back, and she stepped up onto the truck step and slid into the passenger seat next to him. “I appreciate you stopping.”
He waited for her to shut the door and put on her seatbelt before he smoothly pulled away from the bus stop. “You’re welcome. Where am I going?”
She placed her camera bag onto the floor at her feet. “Oak Tree Apartments, if that’s okay.” She immediately gave herself a mental kick for being an idiot and telling him where she lived. No wonder her asshole ex kept finding her. She made it freaking easy by telling almost complete strangers where she lived.
“You got it.”
She glanced at him and caught him watching her out of the corner of his eye as if he were trying to decipher the most important code on the planet. She immediately turned away.
Crap.
Heat built up in her face. She refused to acknowledge it, shifting her camera bag with her toe and fiddling with the strap she still held in her hands. The next time she looked at him, his focus was on the rearview mirror. But it was the frown on his face that made the breath catch in her throat. “Is something wrong?” Damn it, there went her hope that she’d been overreacting. She regretted taking the ride from Caleb. Dragging him into her mess had never been her intention.
“It’s probably nothing.” He shifted gears and eased into the other lane, then checked the rearview again and narrowed his eyes.
She looked over her shoulder, but all she could see was what looked like normal downtown traffic at night. “But you think it is something, don’t you?”
He did the lane change thing again and growled low in his chest before admitting, “Maybe…”
You should tell him.
God, no. He’ll think I’m crazy.
Maybe he wouldn’t, but she wasn’t sure what to do. But telling him was admitting it out loud for the first time since she’d bolted in the middle of the night and gone off-grid using witness protection rules she’d found on Google in an attempt to escape.
“Um, what do we do?” That sounded like a reasonable question, right? At least, she thought it was.
“You don’t seem surprised that there may be a problem,” he said softly. “Why?”
Shit.
“Too many action movies?” The quip was out of her mouth before she could stop it. But as far as she was concerned, it was something a logical person would say. Although calling herself logical was a stretch of the imagination, even for her, but hopefully Caleb would believe it—hopefully.
“Hmm.”
His non-committal response told her he didn’t believe her in the slightest.
Tell him. Maybe he can help.
No. Do you not remember what happened to Joey? He tried to help. How can you forget what happened to him?
Telling Caleb that she thought it was her crazy, scary ex would no doubt not end well. Now was not the time to screw up more than she already had. She wrapped her fingers around the handle on the door, bracing herself as Caleb hit the gas and the truck shot forward. This wasn’t the movies or some book she’d been reading.
It’s a coincidence.
She snorted in her head. She knew better than most that a coincidence was a red flag she should pay attention to. All she could do now was wait until Caleb stopped at a traffic light; maybe then she could run and disappear into the city before the people chasing them figured out she’d left his truck.