“Lathan is psychotic,” she grumbles.
“Ex of his or something?” Snake pries.
“Sister,” she confesses, allowing all the tension to leave my body with that word. At least I hope he didn’t cross that fucking line.
“Why are you hiding from him?” I ask, hearing her breath hitch at the sound of my voice.
“Because he’s psychotic,” she says again, forcing my lips to twitch. “Lathan blew through his trust fund and now he wants mine. Long story short, he had his thugs bring me to his place tonight, and the conversation ended with a gun pointed at my head.”
There’s more annoyance to her tone than surprise, so I wonder if the gun pointed at her head statement is a euphemism.
“I’m almost positive he was planning to kill me tonight,” she goes on. Her tone is flat, almost as though it’s no surprise.
Fucked up families everywhere, it seems.
“So what were you guys doing there? Buying? Selling? Working for him?” she asks us.
Snake and I both snort derisively while shaking our heads.
“We’re not junkies or dealers,” I tell her, listening to the way her breathing hitches at the sound of my voice again.
What’s her deal? People freak out over the scars, but not my damn voice.
Irritated, I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. I assumed all the terror in her eyes when I saw her cowering on the floorboard was because of her fear of Lathan. Now I half wonder if it was just the sight of me that had her shivering in fear. Wouldn’t be the first fucking time that’s happened.
“So what were you doing there?” she asks.
“Our business. Not yours,” I tell her curtly, ignoring the sound she makes this time.
“Sheesh. Sorry. Just making conversation.”
“You need better conversation skills,” Snake points out as we ride out of town and head toward Halo.
“Where are we dropping you?” I ask her.
Fucking eh. Why does she make a sound every time I speak?
“Wherever you’re going, that’s where I want to go. I can’t go back to my place. Lathan’s goons got in too easily, and I don’t trust him not to just repeat the performance. I doubt I’ll get lucky enough to escape twice.”
The sky thunders and lightning crashes in the distance, reminding me why we took the SUV in the first place. She’d been shit out of luck if we’d taken our bikes.
“Can’t go home with us, sweetheart,” Snake drawls.
“Yes. Yes I can,” she says quickly.
She doesn’t make a sound when he speaks. Just me. Guess the monster is scarier than the pretty boy with some ink.
I keep my mouth shut the rest of the way to Halo, but Snake continues to argue with her the second we hit the town line.
“No, you can’t,” he says, sighing heavily. “Our place isn’t for pretty, sweet girls with junkie brothers. Promise.”
“I’m not stupid enough to think you guys are legit or anything, which is why I want to stay with you. You could probably protect me. I can pay you. I have a lot of money, hence the reason Lathan wants me dead. Not that he can touch my money if I die.”
“Then he doesn’t want you dead. He’s trying to scare you into handing everything over,” Snake points out helpfully.
“Regardless, I can’t go home. I can’t check into a hotel either. He has guys everywhere. And I can’t leave Halo.”
“Why can’t you leave Halo?” Snake muses, asking the questions I can’t, since she doesn’t like the sound of my voice.
I feel her eyes on me, and it makes me tenser than I already am. Not sure why she’s getting under my skin like this. Probably because of the fear in her eyes… The way she looked like she’d sell her soul for just one more breath.
I’ve held a breath like that myself once upon a time ago.
“Because,” she finally says, “I just can’t.”
“Well, we just can’t let you into our clubhouse.”
“Oh, so you’re a motorcycle club,” she says in surprise, causing me to cast a sideways glance at Snake.
He curses himself before staring out the window and zipping his lips, putting the burden of finding out where to take her on my shoulders.
“Where do we drop you off?” I ask her, this time hearing a soft sigh pass her lips.
“Wherever you’re going, I’m following. I’m not ready to die just yet.”
Rolling my eyes, I turn on the street toward the warehouse, and Snake cuts his eyes toward me.
“We can’t take her there,” he hisses.
“We can’t leave her on the street. We’ll let Drex deal with this, since Herrin’s the one who set up that meeting to begin with and didn’t do any of his homework.”
“You seriously want to let Drex around her? Next to Rush, he’s the worst person to speak to a woman.”
My eyes flit up to the rearview to see a dark set of eyes staring right at me. Fuck. Her bottom lip is drawn between her teeth, and she’s staring like she can’t look away. Guess she’s never seen a face like mine.