“Good. Let’s go.” We head back to the car and climb inside. I’m proud of my ability to keep the keys from shaking as I jam them into the ignition and turn.
Nothing.
I try again. The car makes a whirring noise but doesn’t turn over. Again and again. Still nothing.
Daren grunts in frustration. “Here, let me try.” He grabs the keys and tries himself, but the car won’t work.
“The battery’s probably dead,” I say.
Daren mutters, “Fuck.”
We sit in silence for a good full minute.
“What now?” I stare at the steering wheel.
He rubs a hand down his face and exhales. “I don’t know.”
“We’re in the middle of nowhere with no food or water.” I pull out my phone. “And no freaking service.”
“I know.”
“We need a plan, Daren.”
“I know! I don’t know what to do… Wait. Yes I do. Get out.”
“What? Why?”
“Just get out of the damn car,” he barks.
I sneer at him but get out anyway.
“Willow Inn is about a mile away,” he says. “If we hike through the forest we can be there in half an hour and Angelo, one of my coworkers, will be able to get these damn things off of us so we can figure out what our next move is. So come on.” He marches past me, leading us into the trees. “Let’s hurry,” he says without looking at me. “I want to get these damn things cut off of us as soon as fucking possible.”
“Me too,” I say, but even as the words leave my mouth a little piece of my heart falls away.
30
Daren
I’ve never been in this heavy of a fight with a girl before. I’ve never had a reason to fight like this with a girl before—probably because no girl has ever meant anything to me or mattered in a way that I felt was worth getting hurt over. But this hurts like hell.
Kayla’s words about me being a pity screw… I know she didn’t mean them. I could tell by her quivering lip that she was just trying to lash out at me, but I’ve never been more hurt by words in my life. Except maybe when my mom left and told me her love for me wasn’t enough for her to stay in an unhappy life. That rejection was pretty awful. But Kayla rejecting me is a whole different kind of pain.
I don’t know why she matters so much to me, but she does. And now she’s marching through the trees beside me and all she wants to do is be done with me. She’s even willing to give up the inheritance money to get away from me.
This is what I do. I drive valuable, important women away from me. Women are willing to leave behind great wealth just to flee from me. I could almost laugh out loud.
I’m completely unwanted.
We walk for a little over a half hour—in tense silence—until I see the inn in the distance. At first, I’m relieved. But then I see two figures out back and I bite back a curse.
Levi and Ellen.
Of course Ellen and Levi are out back when I’m trotting up to the inn with a girl chained to my wrist. I swear to God, it’s like I’m trying to ruin my questionable reputation. Or at least keep it intact.
They look like they’re having a deep conversation. Good. Maybe Kayla and I can sneak past them without being noticed. That would be good. Levi and I aren’t exactly pals right now. Or ever.
The last time I saw him, Levi was choking me on Monique’s hood because I’d tried to drive drunk—with his girlfriend, Pixie, as my captive. Needless to say, Levi’s not one of my biggest fans.
His eyes shoot to mine. Ah, hell. I hate the way he’s staring at me, and I hate the way Ellen is now staring at Kayla. And I hate myself for bringing all this on.
“Daren?” Ellen takes a step forward as we near.
“Uh, hi.” I smile sheepishly and start to wave with my cuffed hand, causing Kayla’s wrist to yank up with mine.
She whips her arm down and hisses, “Use your other hand.”
“What the hell…?” Levi stares horrified at me and points to Kayla. “Did you kidnap this girl?”
“What? No!” I say. “Hell, no. You think I wanted to be handcuffed to this girl?”
Kayla glares at me. “Oh. Like I wanted to be chained to you?” She rolls her eyes. “Please.”
“Will someone please explain what’s going on?” Ellen looks around in confusion. “And where you guys came from?”
I sigh. “It’s a long story.”
“It’s a stupid story,” Kayla corrects. She sneers and my anger bubbles up.
I glare at her. “Are you incapable of shutting up for even a second?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she snaps back, raising our cuffed wrists. “You’ll have to excuse my bad mood. I’ve been attached to a douche bag for two days.”
“And who are you?” Ellen asks.
She holds out her free hand. “I’m Kayla.”
“Ellen.” Ellen slowly shakes her hand, glancing between the two of us.
Kayla cuts her eyes back to me. “See how I used my non-cuffed hand to do that? It’s not rocket science.”
I narrow my eyes at her before turning back to Ellen. “Is Angelo here?”
Ellen hesitates. “Uh, yeah…”
“Excellent. If anyone can get us out of these things, it’ll be him. Come on.” I pull Kayla by the cuffs to the back door and inside the inn—while she mutters death threats and curse words at me—and walk us through the lobby and into the dining room.
Angelo is behind the bar, right where I thought he’d be, wiping it down with a white rag. His bar is always ridiculously clean, but still the guy insists on polishing its surface day in and day out.
He looks up from his shiny bar top, glances at our cuffed wrists, then goes back to wiping like seeing a guy chained to a girl is an everyday occurrence for him.
“Looks like you two had an interesting day,” he says.
“Something like that,” I say. “You don’t by any chance have a pair of bolt cutters here, do you?”
“At the inn?” Angelo laughs gruffly and shakes his head. “We ain’t got no bolt cutters here.”