Secret Babies for the Irish Doctor (Forbidden Silver Foxes #10)

Chapter 1 Lila

LILA

“Come on, come on,” I mutter, as the car rattles dangerously beneath me.

Rain streaks down the windows, the wind howling just beyond the confines of my vehicle. I glance back toward the road to find that it’s mercifully empty; if he’s following me, he’s far enough behind that he’s not going to catch up anytime soon.

And then, the engine lets out one last splutter, and the car trundles to a sudden and final halt on the side of the rain-slicked road. I sit there for a moment, too stunned to move.

Gripping the wheel tight, I silently urge the thing to start moving again, for the engine to roar to life right then and there and spare me the horror of having to deal with whatever is outside of this car right now.

But nothing happens.

No, the car just sits there. Blood pulses in my brain, my head thumping with panic as the lights fade away to nothing in front of me. I’m out here, in the pitch black, with no damn clue where I am, and now I don’t even have a working car to get me out of here.

Just my luck.

I should have checked the roads before I pulled out of the city, but I was in such a rush to get away from him, I didn’t dare so much as slow down.

If I did, I was sure he would catch up to me.

Shit, he’d already blocked the doors, grabbed my arms so hard that bruises were starting to rise on my skin, and told me that if I walked out he would track me down, no matter where I went.

All I could think of when I jumped into my beat-up old car was getting away from him, not where I was going or what I would do when I got there.

I close my eyes, a lump springing to my throat as I rub my hand over my face.

There has to be a way out of this, doesn’t there?

I feel like I’m losing my mind. All the strength it took to get away from that bastard, and now I’m stranded on the side of the road, with no cars coming or going for me to flag down, no insurance company I can call up to try and get help.

It’s like some sick, twisted cosmic joke at my expense.

But then, with the way my life has gone these last few years, why would I expect anything different?

I force myself to think. I can’t give up now.

I have a bag in the back of the car with some clothes and food, so that’s something.

I can camp out here overnight if I have to.

But if he hits the roads to come looking for me, I don’t know what chance I stand of hiding out from him.

He’ll recognize the car in an instant, and I don’t even want to think what he’ll do after I tried to get away from him.

If the way he treated me before was when things were going right, the hell he’ll rain down on me when things go wrong is going to tear me apart completely…

I have to get out of here.

The roads leading out of the city might be quiet at this time of night, let alone on a stormy one like this, but there has to be something, anything I can do to make this work.

It’s not going to be easy, but then, nothing has been these last few years.

The least I can do is give myself a fighting chance to get away from this man for good, no matter how terrifying it might be to think of what will happen when he finds me.

No. If he finds me. That’s his voice in my head, telling me that he’ll never let me go, telling me that I’ll never get away from him. And I have to believe that he’s wrong, no matter how tempting it is to sink into the familiar swamp of trusting him.

I am out. He told me I would never even get this far, but here I am, on my own, out here and fighting for my life. That has to count for something.

I grab my phone and turn on the flashlight, stepping out of the car, pulling my coat over my head in the hopes of keeping the rain off a little while longer.

I squint in each direction; trees line the sides of the road, casting dark shadows where the moonlight filters through them, glistening off the roads in an eerie pattern.

I ignore it. I’m seeing things to be scared of everywhere, but I’m not going to let myself fall into the belief that I’m right to be scared.

I’ve waited long enough, given up enough as it is.

If my life doesn’t change now, it never will.

I point the flashlight up and down the road, trying to see if there’s anyone headed in my direction.

Silence fills the air, aside from the sound of rain on the ground.

I can hear my own breathing, little puffs of breath steaming out before me.

It’s cold, really cold, the kind of cold that leaks into your bones.

I don’t know how long I’ll be able to last out here if I don’t get some help soon—

And then, as if I manifested it by sheer force of mind, I hear an engine.

My throat tightens at first, wondering if it’s him—Thom, coming to track me down.

But a second later, I see a car cresting the hill ahead of me, and the man behind the wheel is not the one who sent me fleeing from the city in the first place.

I wave my phone around frantically, trying to get his attention. I’m all too aware of the fact that I’m seriously vulnerable, a woman on the side of the road like this with nobody to help her, but the universe has to cut me a break one of these days, right?

I hold my breath as the car approaches, silently imploring him to do the right thing. Come on, play good Samaritan, just this once…

The car rolls to a halt beside me, and the driver winds down the window, waving me over. “You okay?”

His voice is lilting, a slight accent to it I can’t place. I can’t make out much of his face, given that I don’t want to hit him full-force with the light.

I shake my head. “My car broke down,” I tell him. “I—I need to get off the road. Away from here.”

I know how it sounds. I’m surprised he doesn’t roll that window up and carry right on down the road, but instead, a silence falls between us.

“There isn’t a garage open this late,” he tells me. “But I have a guest room—it’s not far from here. If you want, you can stay there for the night.”

I feel the lump tighten in my throat. I know there could be something underlying his kindness, but the way he speaks, it’s hard not to believe that he means it.

I swallow hard. “I…I would…”

“I can bring you back down here to pick up your car in the morning,” he says. “I know a place nearby that would have it fixed by the end of the day.”

I bite my lip. It’s not as though I have much in the way of money to my name, not after Thom all but chased me out of every job I tried to hold on to.

“Sure,” I reply. This stranger, as kind as he is, he doesn’t need to hear my life story right now.

Shit, maybe he’d take it badly if he knew the real reason I’m out here.

How many times did Thom tell me that nobody would believe me if I tried to tell them what was going on?

That I would look like the crazy one for trying to bad-mouth a man who had done nothing but support and care for me these last few years… ?

“You want to text someone?” he suggests. “Let them know where you are?”

It’s a sensible thought. I don’t know this guy, and if I accept his offer to stay in his guest room, I’ll be far from anyone who might be able to help me if something goes wrong.

“I don’t have any signal,” I mutter, holding my phone up to check. “Can I do that when I get to your place?”

“Anything you need,” he replies, and he pushes open the back door. “Here, there’s room for you and anything you want to bring back there.”

I grab my stuff from my car, and shoot one last look at it before I climb into the back seat.

I hate leaving it here, but what choice do I have?

I prayed that someone would come by who was willing to help me, and now that help has arrived, I’m not going to turn my back on that aid.

God knows, life has been hard enough for me as it is, and maybe this is the break I’ve been waiting for.

In the car, I study his face as he pulls away from the side of the road. In the dim light, I can make out some flecks of silver in his reddish-brown hair, green eyes glinting in the mirror as he looks back at me.

“Not many people out on these roads at this time of night,” he remarks. There’s a careful tone to his voice, like he’s aware he might be getting a little too close to the truth.

“I…I guess I got lost coming out of the city.”

“You lived there long?”

“A while.”

I hate being so evasive, but a part of me is still waiting for the penny to drop, for the floor to crumble out from beneath my feet.

I know it’s ridiculous, but I can’t help but wonder if this man is actually something to do with Thom.

Sent by him to see if I would accept help from another man, as proof that I’m nothing more than the vile, cheating bitch he has always made me out to be.

But this stranger doesn’t seem to take my answer badly; he just nods, fixing his eyes back on the road, his hands firm on the wheel.

And as the engine purrs beneath us, I finally let out a sigh of relief.

I’m not out on the road anymore, at least. This might not be ideal, but the chances of Thom being able to track me down to this random man’s house are next to nil.

For a moment, I look out the window, gazing into the dark trees around me.

I never liked the forest when I was growing up—it always seemed too dark, too dense, like it stretched on for a lifetime and I might never be found if I set foot in it.

But now, I don’t want to be found. I want to vanish into this place and never be seen again.

I want to forget everything that has ever led me to this moment, and pretend that everything that came before is nothing more than a bad dream.

I lean against the window to get a better look outside, and wince as I put pressure on one of the marks Thom left on my arm. I suck in a sharp breath and draw back quickly, hand flying to my arm, and the man notices.

“You alright?”

His accent—it sounds Irish, or at least some memory of it on his tongue. It’s comforting. Sounds like something out of a fantasy movie or a fairy tale, at least to my American ears.

I nod. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I reply, forcing a grin onto my face. “Must have just slept a little funny last night, that’s all.”

He nods. I’m over-explaining, giving him more reason to doubt me than ever. I keep the smile fixed on my face, though it feels more like a rictus grin than anything else by now.

Finally, he takes a turn off the road, and we head up a long, winding path through the trees, separated from the highway by a large gate. He reaches out of his window to key a code into a box, and my eyebrows rise. Okay, so he is a man of some means, if he can live in this gated home…

The gate swings open smoothly and we continue up the road. I shoot a look behind me one last time, making sure that we’re not being followed, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone else for miles around. Which should really freak me out, given that I’m alone with a man I have never met before.

But, given that the last few years of my life have been spent with a man I know all too well, maybe what I need is a stranger to make things right. Because trusting in Thom has brought me here. And I would do anything to leave it all behind.