Luckily, there was an exit less than a mile ahead that had a decent hotel on it.
“Did someone do that on purpose?” Skye asked.
I put down my phone and shifted back into drive. Cautiously, I inched back onto the highway. It wasn’t too busy, probably because of the storm.
“I don’t know,” I said tensely. “Could be.”
Skye let out something close to a whimper.
My heart clenched. “It’ll be okay, Skye. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
I wasn’t sure what someone would accomplish by running us off the road and leaving us there. But I sure as hell would do my best to figure it out.
Minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel.
“What are you doing?” Skye stared at the quaint, but neatly kept building.
I pulled into a space closest to the door. “It’s going to storm the rest of the night.” I had checked the weather while I was looking for a place to stay. “It didn’t look like it was going to let up anytime soon on the radar. We can stay here tonight and go home in the morning.”
Skye’s hand was still on her chest. She shook her head. “I didn’t bring anything with me to stay overnight.”
“It’s fine. I keep a go-bag in my trunk. I have extra basic necessities. You can borrow some of my clothes to sleep in.”
She stared at me like she wanted to argue but didn’t have the energy. She looked exhausted, like she was hanging on by a thread.
“Come on,” I said softly. “Let’s get you inside.”
She followed me in without a word, and stood silent as I checked us in.
Of course, they only had one king available, but I would be fine sleeping on the sofa or the chair—whatever.
With my backpack slung over my shoulder, I led the way to our room. Skye trailed behind me as if she were in a trance. Her arms were gripped tight around her, and she was still trembling.
As soon as I unlocked the room, Skye rushed inside, elbowing past me, saying, “I need to use the restroom.”
She slammed the bathroom door before I had time to register it. I stood there, listening for sounds of distress, but heard none.
I did another assessment of myself, gently touching where the seat belt had been secured around me. Nothing was sore.
We had spun off the highway, but we hadn’t had an abrupt stop or a crash. We had slowed down on our own once we hit the grass and stopped. I reminded myself that she physically shouldn’t be injured, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t scared, maybe even terrified.
I walked deeper into the room, frowning when I realized how small it actually was. It seemed fairly clean, but there was no sofa or chair—just the king bed and barely enough room to walk around it. Between the desk shoved up against the side wall and the dresser with the TV on top of it, there was minimal floor space.
I probably could have searched for a better hotel, but I’d wanted to get Skye someplace safe.
I listened again for any signs of distress in the bathroom, but it was completely silent. I threw my bag on the bed and grabbed my phone, sending text messages to my brothers about what had happened.
There was much to do at this point to figure out who the hell had run us off the road. I hadn’t seen anything through that rain, and no one else had stopped.
I texted back and forth with August for a while, waiting for Skye to come out of the bathroom, but she never did. As the minutes ticked by, anxiety built in my chest.
It was too quiet. There wasn’t a hint of running water or footsteps in there.
The pit that had been in my stomach since we ran off that road got heavier as I approached the bathroom. I knocked softly.
“Skye,” I said, loud enough that she should be able to hear me through the door. “Are you okay?”
No response.
