“Let’s see if this works.” Number Two held out his hand for her phone and she passed it over nervously. He plugged it in.
“Right, I’m Cash,” Number One said to her. “This is Ralen.”
Ralen nodded to her before leaving. “I’m going to make hot chocolate.”
They had hot chocolate? She had definitely read them wrong.
They couldn’t be bad guys or even morally gray if they liked hot chocolate.
Right?
It should have made her panic, being held on his lap like this. She didn’t like being pinned down. Generally, she didn’t like being touched. But his touch made her feel weirdly protected.
Get it together, Addie!
She pointed at the sofa next to him. He raised an eyebrow, but to her surprise, he set her down on the sofa.
Moving on instinct, she slid into the corner of the sofa, raising her knees up against her chest to protect herself and Snaggles.
The blanket came with her and she grabbed it, wrapping it around her head and shoulders so just her eyes were visible.
Her phone beeped, alerting them that it had turned on as Ralen walked in holding a cup in one hand and two bottles of beer in the other. Cash took one bottle and the cup. Then he held the mug up to his mouth, taking a sip.
Oh, was he having hot chocolate too? With beer? Seemed a weird combination, but what did she know? They made chocolate beer, so maybe this wasn’t much different.
“Hey! Not for you, asshole,” Ralen said as he sat across from them in a comfortable-looking floral armchair.
Yeah, this really didn’t seem like a place that the two of them had decorated. In fact, she was pretty certain that her grandmother had had the same drapes in her house.
Twenty years ago.
“I was just checking the temperature. Here you are.” Cash held it out to her.
Wait.
What?
He’d taken a sip to check the temperature of the drink? Wasn’t that a bit excessive?
And now she was meant to drink from the same cup he’d sipped from? Like put her lips where his had been?
Calm down, Addie.
It’s not like he’s trying to kiss you.
“Do you want me to hold it for you, Stowaway?” he murmured.
“She looks more like a bat than a stowaway right now,” Ralen said.
A bat? Jeez. That was rude. She glared at him and he just grinned back at her.
Then she suddenly realized what she was doing. She shouldn’t be glaring at either of them. At any moment they could turn on her, hurt her.
They were strangers.
Her mother always warned her about the bad things that strangers would want to do to her.
Her breathing grew faster, panic circling her as her throat growing tighter and tighter until she could barely breathe.
