“Did he…?” he asks, his voice strangled and filled with emotion.
I shake my head. “No, I hit him like you taught me.”
He nods. “Good girl.”
He shuts the door and leans in the open window. “Stay right here. I’ll be back.”
I cover his hand with mine. “No, just forget it. Take me home, Dillon. Please?”
He forces a smile onto his face. “I’ll just be a minute… I promise.”
I have my hand on his, and he could easily walk away, but he stays put, looking at me, waiting.
I shake my head. “Don’t kill him. I don’t want you to go to jail and leave me.”
With a huff, I lift my hand from his. He pulls away slowly. “Honey, I won’t kill him. But he’s probably going to wish he was dead.”
I watch him walk away, and I make myself a promise. I can’t keep this up. I want him to chase me. Heck, I want him to claim me, but there has to be another way.
I watch as Dillon drags Mitch to the front of his car. I hear Mitch’s screams, and I can’t watch.
It’s only a few minutes before Dillon is walking back to the truck. He’s barely broken a sweat, his breathing is normal, and the only way I can see that he’s on edge is the tick in his jaw.
“I’m sorry,” I start.
He grips the steering wheel, and he’s gruff again, void of all emotion. “This isn’t your fault.”
I look out the window as Dillon turns the truck around and starts driving us home. I confess in a hushed whisper, “It is sort of my fault.”
He spits out the words. “No means no, London. If you changed your mind or whatever, nothing else matters. No means no.”
I turn in my seat and look at Dillon. He’s angry even if he’s not directing his anger at me. “I didn’t change my mind. I led him on. I told him I wanted to go get coffee with him, but it was a lie… I just…”
He turns off the gravel road onto the main road that leads to my house, and it’s then, from the glare of the streetlights that I see the blood on his knuckles. I unbuckle my seat belt and slide across the middle seat. “Oh my God, Dillon. You’re hurt.”
He tenses as soon as I touch him, and I have to swallow back my concern. Slowly, I move back to my seat, and there is a tense, awkward silence that hangs in the air.
We’re almost to my house when he asks, “What did you mean back there? Why did you go out with him if you didn’t want to?”
I shrug, embarrassed.
He pulls into my long driveway. My family’s ranch is on one side of the driveway, and mine is on the other. I bought the land when I won my first national title at eighteen.
“London… answer me. Why would you tell him you would go out with him if you didn’t want to? Did he pressure you, threaten you in some way?”
I gasp. Damn, he’s going to think Mitch forced this on me, and then Dillon’s going to go back and finish the job.
I hold my breath as he pulls up in front of my house and puts the truck into park. I blow out a harsh breath and look out the window. There’s no way I can look at him and make my confession. “Because… because I like it when you come after me. For just a second, I let myself believe that you want me. Not because you’re hired to protect me but because you want me.”
I blurt it out in a quick ramble and then open the door and practically run from the truck. My face is hot with embarrassment, and I know I’ve made a fool of myself. I unlock my door and go straight to my bedroom, determined to hide the rest of the night… if not the rest of my life.
CHAPTER 2
DILLON
I sit in my truck and let out a rough breath. Did she…? I grip the steering wheel, and my thoughts go haywire. London McCoy just said she wants me to want her.
Slowly, I get out of the truck and glare over at my personal truck that is sitting on a flat tire.
