14. Odell
FOURTEEN
ODELL
Despite the car being warm and toasty, I lowered the window and stuck my head out, enjoying the breeze on my face. Not being in the panic room was a joy, but instead of being holed up in a regular apartment, I was with my fake husband headed to a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere.
I was a city guy. What did I know about chopping down trees and cooking over an open fire? I’d never been kidnapped either, but in the space of one day, it’d happened twice. Though I was thinking of this trip as less of an abduction and more of a reluctant road trip. Or perhaps I was in protective custody.
After a while, I sat back in my seat and put the window up, leaving it open a little. To distract myself from whatever lay ahead, I pestered Hunter with questions.
“Tell me about your family.”
He shot me a look. “You met them.”
“Yeah, and they’re nice but kinda bonkers.”
He sighed. “To an outsider, I guess that’s true.”
“Trust me. Even an insider would take a step back and say, ‘These people are a little unusual.’”
He side-eyed me. “Look, we’re loud and proud of our heritage, and sure, we talk over one another and our history to non-mafia people is a little out of bounds, but we love one another.”
“True. I could see that in your interactions. And how do you feel about being banished?”
He didn’t respond immediately, and I counted the seconds until he spoke, breathing in his unique cologne, and thanks to the moonlight, studying his strong hands with the manicured nails on the wheel.
“Flint was overruled. That’s one thing you need to learn about our kind. There is a strict hierarchy.”
“Tell me more about your dad and uncle. And what happened to your alpha father?”
He took a deep breath, and I sensed those long tapered fingers tightening around the steering wheel.
“Well, as I said, he was assassinated and so was my grandfather before him.”
I couldn’t imagine living with day-to-day violence as Hunter and his family appeared to. And despite their quirks, of which there were many, they were a loving family unit. And what niggled at me, though I thrust it down deep, was that a tiny part of me was like them after our impromptu getaway.
“My turn.”
Providing answers about my messed-up family wasn’t at the top of my to-do list, but what else were we going to talk about? That I’d be alone with my new husband, miles from anywhere?
“Your parents are dead and your aunt and uncle raised you?”
“That sums it up.” I dusted off my hands, indicating the subject was at an end.
“Come on. You’ve got to give me more than that.” He sent me a cheeky grin. “I am your husband, after all.”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
I raked my hands through my hair. I’d always thought we were fairly typical. Both my aunt and uncle worked, and I went to school before attending college and getting a teaching job. But uncle’s accident flipped our lives and the trajectory was down, down, and further down.
“My uncle gambled and got us into this mess. The end.”
“What does your aunt do?”
“Aunt Louisa is amazing. She’s a receptionist at a realtor’s by day and cleans offices until late evening, sometimes the early hours of the morning. We both work two jobs.”
“I admire what you did. You kept your family afloat.”
I stared out the window at the countryside, clad in darkness. “Until I didn’t.”
“Okay, enough for tonight. Sorry to make you relive that. But tomorrow we start strategizing about how to find Draven and expose his scheme.”
I had so many questions, but my body was drained of energy. Food, shower, and bed were in my future, I hoped, unless Hunter expected me to cloak myself in a lumberjack persona and fell some trees before building a shelter for the night.
My imagination was racing away, creating improbable situations, but if this time yesterday someone had laid out today’s events, I would have said they were jerking me around.
The road narrowed, and Hunter slowed a little, though he drove faster than the speed limit, whatever that was out here in the wilderness. The road became steeper and twisted around the mountain curves.
My thoughts drifted to the man himself. Physically he was a prime specimen. Not how I usually described alphas, but that was how some of my fellow teachers used to talk about men when we went out for a drink at the end of the week.
His dark hair stayed in place, not one strand making a run for it. His green eyes dazzled when they looked in my direction. Nothing to do with me. That was just who he was.
But a teeny tiny part of me wished those emerald eyes lit up for me.
I hunkered down in the seat and gave myself a stern talking-to. That was crazy talk. I’d been thrown into an impossible situation and now wanted my captor to like me in that special way? Nope. Not happening.
But could I call him my captor when I’d come willingly? If I hadn’t agreed, would he have picked me up like he did at the entrance to the apartment and plonked me in the car? Based on his past behavior, yes.
And what would have happened if I’d stayed in the apartment?My mind didn’t go there.
Being with Hunter was ten times better than being married to Draven. No, make that a thousand times. I shuddered, thinking of spending my wedding night with the man who didn’t see me for me but as repayment of a debt.
Shit! Wedding night. That was now! Cold shivers spread over my skin. Hunter didn’t think that… but carrying me over the threshold suggested maybe he did.
“You’re cold.”
“No, just thinking of...” I couldn’t say I was conjuring up an image of a naked Hunter.
“Draven?” Gods, no, not him. Ewww! “There’s been enough upheaval for the day. Let’s not allow him to interrupt what’s left of it.”
I didn’t respond, my mind on how many beds there were in the cabin and whether he was going to join me
The headlights picked out a building on the mountain slope. It might’ve been a big hill but looked more like a mountain.
“Home sweet home for the next few days or weeks.”
We got out and gathered the bags. “Fingers crossed the power lines weren’t knocked down in last month’s storm, but there is a generator.”
We made it to the porch, and while he stepped out of his boots, I surveyed the scenery. There was a steep slope in front of the cabin and moonlight picked out a rock garden, and beyond that, rugged ground framed by tall trees with pointed tops. The aroma reminded me of a recently cleaned bathroom. If I was anywhere else, with anyone else I’d have said it was magical.
“Come in. Lights are on.”
I suddenly felt alone out here by myself, and I hurried inside after removing my shoes. Slamming the door behind me, I gazed at the largish room. I was all wood with iron chandeliers and checked curtains, sofas that were a little worn, and thick rugs under our feet.
The adjoining kitchen was small, but there was a fridge and a stove. Two doors led off the main room, and I hoped they were two bedrooms. But my hopes were dashed when Hunter followed my gaze and said he’d sleep on the couch.
I hid a yawn behind my hand, but he caught me. “Bet you’re pleased I bought those frozen meals now.”
“I was thinking of just making a sandwich.”
“No, I’ll make us a…” He grabbed a packet from the cooler. “Delicious curry and rice.”
Not sure I could get excited by a frozen meal, but if he was going to heat it up, I’d eat it.
“I’m a frozen meal chef extraordinaire.”
“Pfft. Those meals have too much oil, salt, and sugar. Don’t you have a stove where you live?” All that privilege and he bought supermarket crap.
“I do. The kitchen is stunning, but I do little except boil water.”
“No one ever taught you to cook?”
“Uncle Arnie tried, but I wasn’t interested. Also, I manage the club. La Luna Noir. So I’m often in the office with Flint and Ranger during the day and at the club until late. Too tired to cook.”
“For us, it was too expensive to buy prepared meals.” We dashed to the supermarket when we could just as they discounted food at the end of the day. A memory hit me of us sitting around the table on December 25.
“Our Christmas Day meal was based on whatever fresh food was left in the supermarket on Christmas Eve, an hour before they closed.”
Hunter’s cheeks blanched and he took a step, brushing against me. I didn’t hate him being so close, and my skin prickled with something like desire. But that couldn’t be. I wouldn’t let it
“I’m so sorry. You’ll never have to go without food again.”
The room was cold as he’d just turned on the heat, and the warmth of his body distracted me.
“Ummm, no… no, it wasn’t like that. We made it into a game. One of us would go into the grocery store earlier in the day and check out the fruit, vegetables, and meat. And Aunt Louisa and I would race in later. We never knew what the meal would look like until then.”
Sometimes we had ham, others duck, and others barbecue chicken and sometimes fish.
“It sounds kinda fun. Maybe we could start that tradition in our family.”
I scoffed at the suggestion. “Hunter, your madcap family tearing around the grocery store on Christmas Eve would… I don’t know… set off the fire alarms, and then the sprinklers would turn on and ruin everything.”
But I pictured a scene with Hunter’s lot and him and me sprinting about a grocery store late on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t bonkers but felt just right. I captured the images and stored them in my memory because it would never happen.
Hunter tilted his head to the side, those green eyes fixed on me. “You’re probably right. They’re an eccentric lot. Instead of the whole family, let’s keep it a secret, and it’ll just be us two.”
“What?” I turned on my heel, the warmth I’d experienced toward him for whisking me and my family out of danger forgotten. The pictures in my head were torn up and an irrational anger at him and his damned family bubbled up. What the fucking fuck? Did he really think we were going to play happy families?
Shit, I was angry at him for saying out loud what I’d been not accepting but gravitating toward. This was so messed up. My head needed a reset, similar to a mechanic getting under the hood of a car and reattaching whatever they did under there.
“I’ve lost my appetite.” I grabbed the bag of clothes Flint had packed for me and flung myself into the bathroom. Damn. I’d hoped this was the bedroom. I could shower, but then I’d have to face him when I stalked from here to the bedroom. My “wedding ring” snagged on my shirt. Shit! Should have taken it off.
“Way to ruin a less-than-perfect day, Hunter.”