With a breath, a huff, and a lifted chin, she went on. “I have a job, but I can try my best to get you to yours and back if you can find one. Maybe one of my friends could help.” She glanced over at him. “Once I tell them about you.”
“Oh, your friends are going to hate me. Thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather not be a side-show.”
“You could always be a carnie,” Lauren pointed out as if it were a perfectly respectable career choice. “I doubt they need cars. They go wherever the show takes them.”
Zach fought back a smile. Lauren had a sense of humor. “Your friends are absolutely not going to agree to be alone in a car with me.”
“My female friends won’t, but I have friends who aren’t afraid of you.”
Zach adjusted in his seat to see her a little better because things just got interesting. “Come again?”
“As long as you don’t mind riding in the backseat of a police car again, I’m sure either Asa or Dawson would give you a ride.”
The can of worms was finally spilled out all over the minivan. An expletive slipped out, popping the perfect bubble they’d been playing in. “You’re with them, aren’t you? They sent you to pick me up.” He pointed a finger at her. “I knew you were up to something.”
Dawson Keller, specifically, had been relentless before the trial. He was the only police officer who thought Zach would cave and rat on his friends and family, but that was wasted effort. If snitches got stitches, someone in Zach’s position would meet a swift and brutal death for turning into an informant.
Lauren let out a small hum. “You’re right about one thing. I am up to something, but Asa and Dawson aren’t involved. In fact, they don’t know I picked you up today, and they don’t know I’ve been visiting you.”
Zach stared and blinked at the absolutely unreadable woman sitting beside him. “You’ve got to be stupid.”
Her brow furrowed, but she kept her attention on the road. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“You’re buddy-buddy with the police, the ones who locked me up, and they don’t know where you are? You know, you were incredibly easy to pick up off the street that night.”
Lauren had the common sense to tense at his sharp confession. Good. Apparently, no one had taught her about stranger-danger when she was a kid. Too bad she hadn’t learned her lesson after what happened three years ago.
“I’m serious. You’re hot, but you’re not very smart. That means you can easily become another number in the stats. Human trafficking. Rape. You’ve already gotten yourself abducted.”
There. He’d laid out a lot of truth, including his attraction. A man would have to be cold in the grave not to see it, but it was the first time he’d admitted it himself.
Lauren held up a hand. “First of all, I am smart. I have three master’s degrees that say I’m intelligent. Second, I’ve learned a lot since that night, and I’m not stupid. I picked you up because I need your help.”
Hmm. She didn’t care one bit that he thought she was hot. Interesting. Also, three master’s degrees? That was insane. A lot of good those books had done for her. Degrees didn’t equal street smarts. Still, that level of intelligence was kind of impressive.
Snap out of it.“And what is it you want from me?”
Lauren stretched her neck from one side to theother like a boxer getting ready to jump into the ring. “You remember my cousin, Anthony Swindle?”
Zach let out a curse and rested back against the seat. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He remembered Anthony. It was hard to forget the guy that started all of this. Zach and his brother, Bobby, grabbed Lauren, hoping to find out where her cousin was hiding. He owed them alotof money, and it wasn’t a sum they were interested in writing off.
“You were looking for him. That’s why you took me. You and your brother thought I would know where to find him.”
“I recall.” When he found out Anthony had a cousin he was close to, Zach half-expected her to be a junkie. Zach had never been more wrong in his life. Instead, he’d found the sweeter-than-sugar librarian who knew absolutely nothing about where they could find her loser cousin.
That guy had fallen off the face of the earth. Disappeared. Poof. It was like he never existed. No trace of him on the internet, no paper trail. They couldn’t even find someone who knew of him anymore.
“Well, I didn’t know where he was then, and I still don’t,” Lauren said. “I’ve been looking for him, and I need your help.”
“Nope. Not happening.”
“But I?—”
“Lauren, listen to me. I am not helping you find him. I won’t change my mind. This conversation is over.Drop it.”
There. He’d covered all bases and clearly gotten the message across. Nothing and no one could convince him to change his mind. Of course, he’d be looking for Anthony too, but he wouldn’t be teaming up with Lauren to do it.
