Breaking Beast (Pounding Hearts 4)

“Why?” I ask.

Has he changed his mind after all? Fuck, I hope not.

“Because I’m giving you a ride.”

I shake my head. Yeah, no… “I’m good.”

“It’s not a fucking request, it’s an order.”

Is he serious? One look at his face and resistance seems futile.

“Fuck,” I curse under my breath. I thought I was off the fucking hook.

“Hurry up,” he warns, walking up to the driver’s side door. “Before I change my mind…”

Great, now I have no choice. I can’t risk him ratting me out to Chase.

Hands clenching in my pocket, I stomp up to his car. He slides in his side and leans over, pushing open the passenger side door for me.

“You really don’t have to,” I say as a last ditch effort to get out of this. “I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself, and I like walking.”

Grabbing his gym bag off the passenger seat, he tosses it in the back and tells me to, “Get in.”

Sliding my backpack off my shoulder, I set my jaw and climb in. I know when I’ve been beat, dammit.

Placing my backpack on my lap, I fasten my seatbelt then look over at him.

He looks over at me and I notice his own jaw seems to be clenched. He seriously looks pissed.

If he doesn’t want to do this then why the hell is he doing it?

“Where to?” he asks and turns the key in the ignition. The car roars to life and I jump a little in surprise.

His lips curve at the corners, hinting at a smile, and I snort, a little pissed off that my reaction amused him.

“Do you know where the Super 10 is?” I ask, fingers curling around my backpack.

He nods his head sharply.

“That’s where I’m staying.”

Chapter Four

Alex

Why the fuck am I driving her to a Super 10? I’ve taken women to motels before… but yeah, that was for a completely different reason, right?

This is serious jailbait territory right here.

I’ve got this feeling some guy is going to come out of some hidden room and tell me to have a seat.

She was absolutely full of shit when she said she had been working out. I was there from two until close, and it wasn’t that damn late when I left.

She’s lying, but why? Why not just tell me what’s going on? Probably some kid shit… boyfriend doesn’t want to be with her anymore or something like that.

Driving through the streets, I find myself looking over at her a couple times.

She still looks beautiful, but man she looks so young huddled against her door. It’s not like I would push myself on her or something like that.

Shit like doesn’t fly with me at all.

“Let me get some heat on for you,” I say to her as I switch the heat on in the car.

It’s not that cold outside for me but I guess to these southwestern people this is freezing or something

“Thanks,” she mutters but just turns her head to stare out the window.

Feeling annoyed by all of this shit, I focus on driving to the motel. It’s in a rougher part of town, and as I drive through the streets, I can feel the eyes staring out at us.

There’s not many reasons a car like mine would be driving through this part of town at this time of night. Drugs or danger are the only reasons that come to my mind as we pass a corner with a couple guys standing on it smoking something.

Things are going from bad to worse tonight. First, I forget to lock the building up. Then I stupidly decide to help some jailbait waif out, and now I am driving through the very wrong part of town.

Turning right, onto the street with the Super 10, I slow my car down. Turning into the parking lot, my eyes search around the building. The thing is at the least forty years old and it’s showing every single year.

The place is rough, and I can only imagine what kind of bugs or other forms of scum are living inside of it.

Rolling closer to the main entrance, I glance over to see Christy’s eyes opening wide.

“You live here or something?”

“No,” she says quietly.

“Your parents own it or work here?”

“No… nothing like that.”

“You work here?” I ask, and I know very well that could have several meanings—one of which makes me feel sick.

Looking back at me, she asks, “Why do you care? I didn’t ask for you to drive me here.”

Shaking my head, I look all around the place. I can just feel the bad vibes from the place leaching into us.

“I don’t like the idea of letting you off at a place like this. It’s…”

“Look, it’s all I can afford for the weekend. I just need it for a few days. We can’t all afford the Ritz, ya know?”