Page 32 of No More Secrets

“There’s got to be a women’s shelter around here. You need to go there.”

“No!” Panic sharpens her eyes. But there’s something else there, too. There’s more to her story, and he suspects what she told him about her parents is a lie.

“Your home life crap?”

She nods. “My mom’s boyfriend. He... He tried to...”

“Don’t say it.” He doesn’t need to hear more.

She looks away, ashamed.

“Your mom still alive?”

She nods.

He swears. He can’t take her to the shelter. They’ll contact CPS, who’ll notify her mom. She could land right back where that bastard will have access to her. He only sees one option for her, at least for the night.

“Come home with me. I have a spare room. You can stay there.”

Her face pales.

“There’s a lock on the door. Barricade it with the dresser, I don’t give a rat’s ass. But come back with me. I won’t be able to sleep tonight if you’re out here.”

“Sounds like a personal problem.”

“Yeah, smart-ass, it is. A big one. So are you gonna return to your car and risk Tweedledee and Tweedledum getting their hands on you again, or are you going to stay at my place?”

“Bob and Barton.”

He tilts his head. “What?”

“Bob and Barton, those guys. That’s their names.”

He grinds his teeth. The fact she knows their names tells him she’s spent more nights alone in that car than he cares to think about.

“And the woman I found in your car?”

“Ricky. I think she’s their mom. She acts like it. She’s a bitch.”

“Yeah, she is.”

Her mouth twitches, which makes him smile. Just a brief, strained one. God, what if he’d arrived a minute later? That thought alone will give him nightmares for the week.

He tucks his hands in his pockets and nods toward his place. “Let’s go before Bob and Barton regain their wits.”

“What did you do to them?”

“Finished what you started.”

Her chin lifts with pride.

“Come on. It’s late and I’m exhausted.” He starts walking.

When he hears her shoes kicking up dust behind him, he releases a pent-up breath. He wasn’t sure she’d follow.

16

Shiloh hugs her ribs and steps into Lucas’s bland apartment. She warily looks around. The walls are stark white, the furniture is spartan, and an old coffee table stands on three legs. Above her a ceiling fan whirls. Frightened, stressed, and unusually exhausted, she realizes that she’s alone with a stranger and worries she made the wrong decision coming here with him.