Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Jake strode into the kitchen, wiping his hands on an old rag. “It’s fucked.” No point in not saying it how it was.
The car, a dated Toyota, was marooned in the middle of the garage, held together with not much more than spit, chewing gum, and a prayer.
The thing, he’d found, once he’d got his head beneath the bonnet, was a death trap.
God alone knew how it’d got Ru as far as it had without exploding.
The car wasn’t going anywhere other than a scrapyard, and that left Jake with an even bigger problem than he’d had just a couple of hours before, and which was staring at him through big, grey eyes, from the kitchen table.
“Oh.”
“Oh?”
“Well, I knew it wasn’t in the best of shapes but I didn’t realise… I live in Zone One, you see. Nobody needs a car in Zone One.”
Zone One on the London Underground, which covered the centre of the city.
“Then why do you have it?”
“I used to use it for work. Never got around to selling it when I moved.” Ru’s brow furrowed and he looked away.
He started to nibble at the side of one of his thumbs before he looked up and met Jake’s eye, his gaze steady as though he’d reached a decision.
“I’m really sorry that I’ve kind of dumped myself on you, and that you’re now saddled with my excuse of a car.
Is—is there any way you could get me to Bobblecombe in that big four wheeled drive of yours?
I’ll pay for the fuel and your time. Obviously.
Once I’m there, I can make arrangements to have it removed when the weather clears a bit. ”
“The weather’s not clearing. It’s going to get a lot worse.”
“What?” Ru’s eyes widened.
“It’s forecast to be like this for days.”
Ru blinked. And blinked again. “But… how will I get to Bobblecombe?”
“You won’t be getting there.”
Ru flinched and Jake swore silently to himself.
He’d barked. Again. The weather wasn’t Ru’s fault, but driving a death trap on wheels all the way from London was.
The man’s idiotic decision hadn’t only landed Ru in a fix, it had landed him in one, too.
Jake didn’t like not being able to fix things, not one little bit.
“What about a train station?” Ru asked, misplaced hope in his voice even as his shoulders slumped, already knowing the truth.
Jake took a second to tell himself not to bite.
“Look, I’m not trying to be difficult. You don’t want to be here as much as I don’t want you to be.
” Ru's shoulders slumped some more. Ah, shit. But it was the truth, no point in glossing over it. Jake attempted to soften his tone. “The nearest station is over twenty miles away, across terrain that’s already impassable in places. My Land Rover’s built for this kind of weather, but even it has limits.
We’re looking at whiteout conditions by this afternoon. ”
Ru’s shoulders slumped so much they were almost on the floor. “So I’m well and truly stuck.”
“For the time being, yes.” Jake ran a hand through his short hair, a habit from his army days when he’d been trying to find the right words to explain a difficult situation to his team.
“I check the long range weather forecasts every morning. This system is moving slower than they initially predicted, which means we’re in for at least a week of this. After that, we can reassess.”
“A week? What am I going to do?”
Jake hesitated, the words he one hundred percent didn’t want to say waiting on his tongue.
Yet, what choice did he have? Ru had no transport, no way of getting to the isolated village on the other side of the moor.
He was woefully unprepared and as much as that annoyed and also kind of offended Jake, he knew without any doubt what he had to do because Ru bloody Parker would find himself in serious trouble within five minutes of walking out the door.
Much as he wanted the guy gone, Jake refused to have that on his conscience.
“You’ll have to stay here until there’s a break in the weather.”
Fucking hell.
The only people who found themselves at High Tor farm, which was no longer a functioning farm, were the regular groups of men, and increasingly women, who came for between three days and two weeks. And they never, ever, set foot in the house.
They didn’t come to the farmhouse for a holiday, even if that’s what some of them thought they were getting when they arrived.
They very quickly learnt otherwise. They stayed in one of the converted barns; basic accommodation, no frills, and that’s exactly where Ru could stay, too.
Yet, as soon as he made his decision, he had to unmake it.
The boiler which served the conversion, which supplied hot water and heating, was broken.
The part needed wouldn’t be arriving until after Christmas, which was now just days away.
If the delivery could get through, that was.
Ru really wasn’t going anywhere, not even to the accommodation block.
Fucking, fucking, hell.
“I could stay in the barn? The one you found me in? I mean, it was quite warm. Well, not exactly warm, but I survived the night so I could do so again. I really, really am grateful for your help, and I don’t want to intrude any more than I’m already doing.”
Ru was staring up at him, through the dark, heavy fringe that had fallen across his eyes; he was also chewing on the side of his thumb again, and his face was flushed red.
A small flare of embarrassment, mixed with shame, ignited in Jake’s chest. Ru might not have read his mind, but he’d read his face, because he could feel the tight scowl that had taken root on his forehead.
“That’s not an option,” Jake said, surprising himself with both the firmness in his voice, and the firmness of his decision.
“The temperature’s dropping by the hour.
That barn isn’t insulated properly because it’s meant for equipment storage, not people.
You survived one night because you got lucky. Tonight will be different.”
Jake went to the window, looking out at the heavily falling snow. It was beautiful, in its way, the kind of pristine white landscape that appeared on Christmas cards, but he knew better than most how deadly that beauty could be.
“It’ll not only be cold enough to freeze your bollocks off, but you’d be risking hypothermia. I’ve seen what that does to people, and it’s not pretty. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, not even someone who drives across country in a death trap in spite of a weather warning.”
He turned back to find Ru watching him, those grey eyes wide and vulnerable.
Silence settled between them. There was only one solution, and they both knew what it was. Jake made the offer, an offer he’d made to no man in over three years, an offer he’d been determined to never make again, but as he looked at Ru it was the only thing he could do.
“You can stay here, in the house. With me.”