“I know I’m being weird but… Zeb and I are just… looking for the same things.”
“Will you call if you need anything?”
“Like what, a defense attorney?”
“Why? Did you do something?”
“No. Just joking.”
“Duh!” Rana says, laughing. “Janelle, what crime could you even commit? You are like… way more of a good girl than I am. Except for the hot biker you’re hooking up with.”
“We haven’t hooked up.”
“What?!” Rana’s high-pitched scream almost deafens me instantly. We probably only have five minutes left on this phone call before Zeb comes out to hunt me down. “I thought you were lying to me about that.”
“I’m not.”
“Well… don’t wait too long.”
“Or what?”
“I don’t know. You won’t get to”—VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
I can’t hear a word she says. I didn’t hear the engine noises getting closer, but now they’re close enough that I can’t ignore the background noise rapidly entering the foreground. A loud motorcycle engine erupts to life seemingly out of nowhere as a large bike comes skidding down the highway exit followed by three more louder bikes that stop in front of the parking lot exit.
“What?” I ask Rana, hoping to get her to repeat her statement. My eyes can’t move away from the bikers though, and even Rana looks worried now.
“Are you good?” Rana asks, concern coloring her face. I’m shocked she hasn’t asked me to turn my location on, because I wouldn’t really have a good excuse.
“Yeah. Some guys just got here…” I mutter, trying to sound more cool than I feel. I guess these guys could be friends of Zeb’s. It’s a motorcycle club, right?
“Friends of your new boyfriend?” Rana asks, making me feel more comfortable in my intuitive guess. Still, I can’t focus on her face on my screen.
“Maybe…”
“Listen, call me later, okay? I’ll let you go.”
Rana blows me a kiss and hangs up. I get up to enter the motel again, shoving my phone in my back pocket. I press my hotel key card up against the closest side entrance, but stop dead when I feel fingers curling around my forearm, and gripping me in place.
“Hey, can I ask you something?”
I whip around, yanking my arm away from the man who grabbed me instantly, but when I turn to face him, I know that I’m totally screwed.
Chapter Fourteen
Zeb
Trust issues. You got trust issues, Zeb.
Recognition doesn’t quiet the noisy emotions.
I know I have trust issues, because Janelle has only been talking to her friend for seventeen minutes on the phone and I’m at a point of despair and panic. I know I said I would be out there in ten minutes, but that was just to keep her conversation brief. I promised myself that I wouldn’t let my demons get the best of me. But each minute she spends away from me, a dark possessive shadow climbs into my mind.
Is she still talking to Rana, or someone else?
My urges aren’t helped by how pent up I feel after all those days on the road with Janelle and no way to relieve my desires. I don’t even have the promise that she might one day cave to my yearning to get me through this trip. I peek out the window and don’t catch sight of her.
Logically, I know she probably just walked around the building, but I can’t help the surge of paranoia. I shove my phone and a hotel keycard into my cut pocket and sprint out of the room like somebody threw Janelle on the back of their bike and disappeared with her. When I pass the front desk, I hear a squeak coming from behind it.
