Stumbling over her words, she gasped, “You locked me in thebedroom?What if something had happened to you? Would I have just wasted away?—”
“I would’ve informed my captain of your location and given him the code for your release,” he soothed. “You were never in any danger.”
“I— Sloane— Holy fuck, you absolute—” Cecilia made an inarticulate sound of outrage. Spying a glowing rest stop in the distance, she demanded, “Sloane, pull over.”
“Cece, we shouldn’t stop. We need to reach the Orclind?—”
Leaning over the console to hiss into his helmet-covered ear, she informed him, “Sloane Fortuner, if you don’t stop right now and let me buy some damn gummy bears to calmthe fuckdown, I am pulling out that knife you gave me.”
“That… would be unwise,” he said, apparently just catching on to the seriousness of her temper. “But we can stop. Briefly.”
She crossed her arms and stewed as he pulled into the luminescent island that was a desert rest stop. A massive charging station sat at its heart, complete with a sparkling twenty-four hour convenience store, a few drive through restaurants, and a smattering of long-haul trucks pulled off for the night that had yet to get back on the road.
When Sloane reluctantly parked the car in the dirt lot as far from the glare of the convenience store as possible, she barely waited for him to hit the break before she cracked the door open and stormed out.
She wasn’t sure why she was so mad, other than the obvious. Sloane didn’t think like her. She knew that, and she was prepared to accept it. If pushed to it, she’d even admit that shelikedhis weird brain.
But something about hearing that he’d gone off on his own, possibly into dangerfor her,and hadn’t bothered to say anything, made her blood boil. Knowing he’d locked her inside the bedroom while he was at it was the cherry on top.
The hair rose on the back of her neck. She didn’t need to turn around or hear his silent footsteps to know he was following her.
“No,” she announced, throwing her index finger into the air. “You’renotfollowing me. I need a minute to work through this and then I’ll be fine. But you’ve gotta give me space.”
“Cece,” he called out, obviously distressed and confused, “I don’t understand.”
Her heart clenched. Standing there in the cold desert between the cheerful fluorescence of the convenience store and the darkness of the dirt parking lot, her anger left her with all the grandeur of a popped balloon.
She rubbed her suddenly tired eyes. “I know you don’t, champ. It’s okay. I’ll be right back. I just need a second to myself, all right?”
Twisting to give him a look over her shoulder, she softened even more at the sight of his stiff shoulders and clenching claws.
He doesn’t know what I don’t explain,she reminded herself.That’s teaching 101. And I already know where his line is. All he ever does is try to protect me. This is no different.
Shoes crunching in the packed grit of the lot, she made her way back to him. Cecilia laid her hand on his chest and stretched onto her tiptoes to press a kiss to the side of his helmet.
“I’m gonna get us some snacks. You wait by the car. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“I don’t like this,” he rasped, hunching over her like he could guard her with his bulk alone. “We should be driving.”
“A snack never killed anybody — unless that snack was peanuts. Or something you could choke on.” She patted his chest before stepping back. “Five minutes. I need to use the bathroom, too. You should probably do the same.”
Even with his visor obscuring his expression, she knew he was making a very serious and unhappy face as she walked away.
But he didn’t follow her, and shedidneed to pee.
Temper smothered, Cecilia tried to be fast. After using the facilities, she snagged a few bags of candy for her and jerky for him before walking quickly to the counter. Behind the plexiglass shield sat a disinterested young man in a blue uniform, a cap pulled low over his eyes and a wad of what she hoped was gum in his mouth. He was perched on a stool and slumped over the counter, a tablet in his hands.
“S’cuse me,” she said, pushing her items through the hole in the barrier. “Can I get these?”
“Mm?” The young man looked up. Sleepy eyes took her in for a moment before they glanced down at her haul. She expectedhim to shrug and start ringing her up, but almost as soon as his attention settled on her gummy candy, it zoomed back to her face.
Wide eyes fixed her with an unnerving look as his lips popped open. “You’re the woman,” he slurred around whatever was he chewed on.
Cecilia gave him a clueless smile. “I’mawoman. A woman who wants gummy bears.”
Shoving the wad of… something into his cheek, the boy swallowed hard and clumsily dropped his tablet on the counter. “No,” he squeaked, fingers crawling under the counter. A click sounded. “You’rethewoman. The missing teacher from San Francisco!”
A stone, cold and heavy, dropped into the pit of her stomach.
