Page 20 of Jude

I hesitated to leave, with just one more question on my mind.

‘Why are you doing this?’ I managed.

Jude tilted his head for a moment in thought before speaking with care.

‘Perhaps it’s my fierce sense of duty that refuses to let me look away when someone is in danger.’

‘You deserve protection,’ Sheriff Martinez added as he joined us.

My gaze swung from one to the other as they spoke, realizing they both were good men, and in my world, that was rare.

I blinked, almost undone, refusing to shatter and cry at their unexpected kindness.

Chapter 5

SOFIA

Half an hour later, Kian pulled his marked sheriff’s patrol SUV into the gravel lot of a local car rental agency.

He threw a quick salute from the driver’s window as Jude grabbed our bags and his guitar case from the back.

‘Keep your phone on, son,’ Kian called out, adjusting his aviators. ‘And Sofia, my deputies are monitoring your device. So chill, relax, and rest up. I’ll see you both after I get off my shift.’

Jude went into the agency and emerged with keys to a rental truck.

Soon, the tires of a gray Ford F-150 rumbling over the damp asphalt became the only sound in the cab.

I sat pressed into the passenger door.

My fingers picked at a loose thread on my denim jacket.

I let my eyes wander out the tinted window, catching sight of a green highway sign passing overhead.

Route 100 / Willow Creek.

Vermont was picturesque with mist-shrouded rows of sugar maple and apple orchards rolling across hillsides.

While I gazed at the beauty of nature outside, on the inside, I was a mess.

I felt stripped bare, a displaced person whose immediate future depended on the sudden, unearned charity of the man next to me.

My eyes fell on his sinewed, tattooed hands on the steering wheel.

‘Are you sure your mother is OK with me invading her home?’ I ventured.

His face was chiseled, remote, closed off.

His response came in that husky, hoarse burr.

‘She’s fine.’

‘Is she going to interrogate me?’ I asked, my thumbs tapping a nervous rhythm on my safety belt. ‘About why I’m here?’

Jude’s expression hardened. He shifted his posture, shoulders squaring against the seat back.

‘Nobody intends to examine you, and if they ask too many questions I’ll shut it down. Maggie has a generous heart, and she’s discreet. You’re safe with us, Sofia. I told you that. I don’t break my word.’

I opened my mouth to reply, to thank him again.