Michael gave a dismissive wave. “Anyway, that wasn’t the reason I came out here. I just wanted to thank you. For helping Naomi. She’s the most loyal, selfless person I know. Impulsive and hotheaded, too, but I probably don’t need to tell you that.”
Asher felt a grin tug at his mouth. “Just a few of her finer qualities.”
Michael nodded. “My friend is independent as hell, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t need someone to lean on now and again.”
“She’s got you,” Asher pointed out.
“Not what I’m talking about. I guess what I’m asking is, does she have you now too?”
He didn’t know how to answer that. Part of him wanted to reassure the man who loved Naomi like a brother that nothing would ever happen to her so long as Asher was breathing. But he didn’t know how he could make that promise when he didn’t have the right to feel so protective of her, so possessive.
“I will keep her safe,” he vowed solemnly.
Even if that meant keeping her away from himself.
CHAPTER 17
They drove for nearly an hour in awkward, strained silence before Asher finally spoke.
“We’re going to need some gas before we get back to the ranch.”
He gestured to a dimly lit gas station with an attached convenience store, the only sign of civilization they’d seen for countless miles on this stretch of I-15. As they pulled off the deserted road and into the rundown station in the middle of nowhere, Naomi thought back to something Asher had told her.
“Is this the place where you first met Ned?”
He gave a curt nod and killed the engine. Some of her enthusiasm to be sitting in the very spot Asher had been fifteen years ago dimmed at the way he hardly acknowledged her. In fact, he seemed vaguely annoyed by the idea that she knew something about his past. As if after everything they had shared before, now she was trespassing.
He was drawing away from her emotionally, returning to the stony loner she’d met that first night in the desert. She supposed she had no one to blame but herself for the abrupt change in him. After all, she was the one who’d tried to pretend there was nothing between them when it seemed like he had intended to stop her from going to see Michael and the kids. She had felt cornered and her hackles went up. Now, she wasn’t sure how to take back what she’d said. If he even cared one way or the other.
“Asher—”
“This won’t take long,” he said, climbing out of the truck.
She sat back against the old leather seat and waited as he fueled up. A few moments later, the gas cover thumped closed and he rapped on the driver’s side window.
“I’m going to pay inside,” he said through the glass. “Be right back.”
She nodded and watched him walk toward the station. The young woman standing behind the counter was watching him too. Tall and curvy in her low-cut tank top and layers of Vegas showgirl-heavy makeup, the platinum blonde barely concealed her interest in the muscled male prowling with preternatural grace across the empty station lot.
She turned on a big, flirty smile as Asher stepped inside and approached the register. They spoke for a few seconds while he pulled some cash out of his back pocket and handed it to her.
Naomi didn’t like the sharp jab of possessiveness she felt to see Asher conversing with another woman when he had hardly uttered a dozen words to her since they’d left Michael’s house. Frustrated, she turned the key in the ignition and started scanning for some music on the radio. There wasn’t much to choose from, just an old country station that sounded like it was being broadcast from out of a tin can.
“Screw it,” she said, turning it off and slumping back to glance out the front of the truck.
Asher was gone.
And so was the pretty cashier.
Naomi’s stomach dropped, cold and heavy as a rock. Where were they? She didn’t want to think about why they had both disappeared so suddenly, nor did she want to acknowledge the hurt and suspicion that was taking up residence in her breast.
A few moments later, she spied Asher’s head and shoulders towering over the top of one of the aisles. While he stalked out of the place and headed for the truck, the cashier went back behind the counter adjusting the strap of her top.
Asher got in without a word of explanation.
Naomi watched him put the truck into gear and turn back onto the road. “Everything all right?”
He nodded. “Good to go. We should be back at the ranch in less than twenty minutes.”
