Page 52 of Jessica, Not Her Real Name

He frowned. “What does?”

“That you keep things from me. About your life. Your past.”

He squeezed her hand. “Before I met you, I was someone else. Someone worse.”

She studied him, like she could pull the truth straight from his skin. “Worse how?”

There was a loud banging on his trailer door. Terry’s voice came from right outside. “Daniel! You in there?”

He leaped up, head snapped from the door to Julia sitting naked on his bed and back to the door again. “Jesus. Fuck.”

Terry pounded again.

He didn’t have time to come up with a plan. So, he just ripped the sheet off the bed, bundled Julia up in it, then unlocked his wardrobe and pushed her into it.

“Daniel, what?—”

He silenced her by stamping a kiss on her lips. “Just stay in here a minute, okay? While I get rid of him.”

She nodded mutely.

Terry had gotten fed up with waiting and pushed open the trailer door.

Daniel slammed the wardrobe door shut and whirled around. He grabbed his jeans off the floor and pulled them on. “Ever heard of a little privacy,güey?”

Terry shrugged. “I tried knocking, man.”

Daniel finished buttoning his jeans. “Yeah, you nearly took the fucking door off.”

He grabbed his singlet off the floor and his phone from the table and, with a last look behind him at the wardrobe, headed for the door.

Terry climbed down the steps ahead of him. When he stepped onto the grass, the trailer visibly groaned in relief. Daniel always needed to reset the wheel chocks after Terry came calling.

He crossed his arms and peered up at Daniel through his sunglasses. “Paq said you never showed back up last night to finish that last drop.”

Daniel scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, I, uh, had —”

“Personal stuff,” Terry cut in. He turned his mirrored gaze to the trailer, as if he could see through its walls, its doors, right into his wardrobe.

Daniel didn’t know what would anger Terry more: knowing that Daniel had broken his cardinal rule about getting involved with a woman or knowing that the woman in question was the same one who could go to the cops anytime she wanted and report what had happened in his trailer that night. Daniel had trusted Julia when she’d said she wouldn’t do that. But Terry trusted no one.

Daniel lifted one shoulder but said nothing. He could feel his heart beating a steady drip of adrenaline into his veins. He ran through all the scenarios in his mind, imagining what lengths he’d go to protect Julia.

Any length, he realized.

Any fucking one.

He tried to keep his expression neutral. A confrontation wasn’t something he could deal with right now. He had to stay calm and hope like hell the big man was bluffing.

Terry looked back at him. Took his cigarette from behind his ear and stuck it in his mouth. Then he turned his head toward the ’Cuda. Tequila, relaxed but alert, was tied up beside the car.

“Fuck, that thing’s ugly,” Terry said.

Daniel didn’t know if he was talking about his car or his dog, but he let the insult slide.

For a long moment, neither of them said anything.

“Your old man was a mechanic, right?”