Chapter 4
Tank
Shehangsonlikethe road’s got teeth.
Tight. Locked up. Every time I lay the bike into a turn, her arms cinch harder around my middle, like she’s braced for steel and gravel instead of a clean curve through mountain road.
I keep my eyes on the blacktop.
Doesn’t stop me feeling every inch of her behind me.
Morning air cuts cold through the pines, mean enough to bite, but she’s all heat at my back even through leather. Soft where I’m hard. All those tight little lines in her body telling me she’s still wound up bad. Her helmet knocked between my shoulders the first few miles. Still does now and then. Light tap. Shouldn’t mean a damn thing.
It does.
Last night she was shaking so hard I thought she might come apart in my arms. I got in that bed because she was ice cold andthe drugs were tearing through her system. Because leaving her like that wasn’t happening. I kept it clean. Kept my hands where they needed to be and nowhere else.
Didn’t change a damn thing.
Having her tucked up against me did something I don’t like looking at too close.
She fit there too easy.
Small, warm, soft in all the places a man notices whether he wants to or not. For one half second before fear hit her full in the face, she melted back into me like her body knew I had her. Like she could rest there.
That half second has been under my skin ever since.
Now she’s riding a little better. Still scared. Still stiff. Still holding on like I’m the only thing keeping her off the pavement.
Maybe I am.
That thought hits me low and ugly.
I take the cut onto the logging road and feel her grip lock down harder, her body coming in closer behind me.
Christ.
The safe house sits back in the trees where we left it. Weathered cedar. Stone chimney. One story. Quiet enough to bury a man in. Far enough off the main road that nobody comes up here unless they mean to.
Good.
I kill the engine.
Silence drops hard.
For one second, she doesn’t let go.
Then her hands jerk away from my stomach like she touched a live wire.
I get off first and turn back. “You can get down.”
She swings her leg over too fast, boot slipping on loose gravel. I catch her elbow before she goes sideways.
She startles.
I let go at once.
Green eyes lift to mine. Wary. Too wide. Too tired.
