Chapter 10 #2
She spared him a quick, envious scowl before she focused on the dark road. Now was not the time to trip and go sprawling face down on the rural mountain road. She’d watched enough horror movies to know that. “You’re not breathing hard at all.”
That huff was definitely a laugh. “Firefighter training is brutal. I’m just glad I’m not hauling a hundred pounds of gear right now.”
“Don’t…tell Fifi.” Unlike Kieran, Charlie was definitely sucking air. Her body urged her to slow, but the shouts and rattling of the gate—did that mean they’d unlocked it already, or was that just one of the guys shaking the fence in frustration?—kept her moving as fast as she could go.
“Tell her what?” He turned his head to look at her without slowing his pace.
“Watch where you’re running!” she yelled at him, then had to pause to suck in some hard breaths to replace the oxygen she’d just wasted. “Don’t…you watch…horror movies? Focus!”
“Fine.” Although it was too dark to see his expression, she knew he was smirking. She could just feel it. “So what am I supposed to keep from your sister?”
“Fire…fighting…training.” She just had to make it around the next curve and then up the tiniest hill to get to where they’d left his truck. “No details. Fifi…doesn’t…need to know.”
“Okay.” Despite his response, his tone told her he didn’t understand why she wanted him to hit the mute button about that.
He hadn’t been tortured by her training sessions on a daily basis for years, so of course he didn’t get it.
As long as he kept his mouth shut about practicing running while carrying a hundred pounds of gear, they wouldn’t have a problem.
As they rounded the turn, there was the truck, the scarce moonlight reflecting off its shiny bits. Charlie had never been so glad to see an inanimate object in her life.
“Your truck…is…beautiful,” she gasped out with the very last of the air in her lungs.
“I know.”
She sprinted up the slope—which somehow didn’t feel like the “tiniest hill” she remembered from when they’d arrived—and headed for the passenger side of the truck, not even arguing about who was going to drive.
Oxygen was too precious. She yanked open the door and dove inside, grabbing the far side of the seat to haul herself up.
The engine rumbled, warning her she’d better get secured before they took off or she’d end up on the floor. Twisting around so she was actually sitting in the seat, rather than sprawled across it, she braced herself on the dash just as Kieran stomped on the accelerator.
“Seat belt!” she ordered, clicking her own into place.
Keeping one hand on the wheel as they charged down the road, he reached for his seat belt with his other. A sharp curve was coming up fast, and Charlie decided she’d rather the driver have the use of both hands. She leaned over, grabbed the seat belt from him, and snapped it into place.
“You could…probably turn…your lights on,” she said pragmatically, still puffing a little.
“They already know…we’re heading to Moose Peak Road…
since we don’t have any other choice. Plus, lights might help us…
not die.” Settling back in her seat, Charlie affected a look of relaxed unconcern, hiding the fact that her right quad and calf muscles were clenching as she pushed on a phantom accelerator.
Without saying a word, he followed her suggestion, and the road lit up in front of them.
It made the drive both less and—oddly—more terrifying, since everything they could possibly smash themselves into—rocks, trees, even small cliff faces—was brightly illuminated.
From Kieran’s expression—his standard scowl, which Charlie decided was his relaxed face—and his easy grip on the steering wheel, he wasn’t too stressed about hurtling down a mountain on a dirt road that was barely more than two strips on the rocky ground.
Since he wasn’t outwardly concerned, Charlie relaxed back in her seat and enjoyed the ride.
After all, sitting in Kieran’s cushy truck was a thousand times better than running, even if she wasn’t driving.
Her leg twitched again in co-driving solidarity as he barely slowed before twisting the wheel, sending the truck rocketing around the hairpin turn.
“Very nice.”
“Thank you.”
Pulling out her phone, Charlie texted Fifi an update.
Only seconds later, her sister’s response popped up on Charlie’s screen. Glad you’re out. Any tail?
Briefly thinking about all the jokes she could make and discarding them all, Charlie just sent a shrug emoji and then added, Not one we can see yet.
Let me know if that changes. We’ll head to the HS—meet us there.
Charlie frowned at her phone. High school?
Honeymoon suite!
Charlie could almost hear her sister’s exasperated sigh through the text. Ohhh, right, she thought, before texting, Ohhh, right.
“We’re meeting Fifi and her husband-stalker at our hotel in Rosehill.”
“Okay,” he grunted, not saying anything else, even though she waited for him to ask the usual question.
“Don’t you want to know why that’s Bennett’s nickname?”
“I’m a firefighter.” Kieran guided the truck around another curve so tight and fast that the truck juddered and hopped before smoothing out on the straightaway.
Charlie blinked at him. She wasn’t accustomed to being thrown off her game.
Usually, she was the one who discombobulated people, not the other way around.
When it was clear he wasn’t about to elaborate on the relevance, she asked, “What does that have to do with anything? Or do you just like announcing the firefighter thing to gain hotness points?” Not that he needs any more of those.
Despite the tricky driving conditions, he slid her a sideways look. “Hotness points?”
“Sure, you know.” When it became clear that he, in fact, did not know, she made up a little example. “Say you go to a bar, looking for a hookup.”
That got her another side-eye, but she ignored the incredulity in it and pressed on.
“You see a beautiful woman at the bar, so you sit down next to her.” Charlie had to consciously stop grinding her teeth, weirdly jealous of this imaginary person.
Why did I have to make her so gorgeous? “She glances at you, rates you about a four or five on the hookup-able scale, and turns back to her chocolate martini.”
He makes a sound in the back of his throat—a choke or possibly a gag. “Chocolate martini?”
A gag then. “Not important—also, don’t yuck other people’s yum.
Let her enjoy her chocolate martini without feeling like you have to make a negative comment.
Anyway, moving on. In order to up your score, you introduce yourself.
” She lowered her voice to as much of a growl as she could manage.
“Hey, beautiful. I’m Kieran Crabbypants Byrne. I’m a firefighter.”
“Sullivan.”
“What?”
“My middle name.”
“Gotcha.” She dropped to that low register again. “Hey, beautiful. I’m Kieran Sullivan Crabbypants Byrne. I’m a firefighter.” She smacked her hands together. “Bam! Suddenly, you’re a solid five and a half on the hookup-able scale. It’s like magic.”
The two-track road they were on ended in a T intersection, and Kieran slowed the truck just a hair before turning left onto the new gravel road.
The tires slid, rocks pinging against the undercarriage, but then they managed to grab the road and propel the truck forward.
Turning around in her seat, Charlie squinted into the darkness behind them.
“I can’t see anyone following, but that could just be because it’s dark.
There aren’t a whole lot of streetlights out here in the middle of nowhere.
” Turning back around to face front again, she felt her body being pressed back against the seat as Kieran stomped on the accelerator, blasting them forward.
“Not that I don’t love going fast, but Fifi did warn me that a few of the more dickish deputies like to speed trap this road, and being pulled over will not help our main goal of, you know, getting away. ”
Although he made a grumbly noise, he slowed down. “I don’t sound like that.”
Apparently, the grumpy sound he’d made had been due to her impression of him, not her request to reduce his speed. “Of course it’s just a reenactment, since I wasn’t there at the bar, but I have a feeling I was pretty spot on.”
“I don’t…I—it would never happen.” He sounded flustered enough to make Charlie grin. Now it was her turn to throw him off his game. The universe had righted itself. He huffed. “Besides, that’s not what I meant. I wasn’t looking for…hotness points.”
“Mm-hmm…” She purposefully made the sound as skeptical as she possibly could, loving that she had him fumbling for words. Talking with Kieran was always stimulating, but this was an extra side of fun.
“I wasn’t,” he grumped, sending her such a glare that it buzzed through her, waking her nerve endings.
The adrenaline hadn’t subsided yet, so her whole body vibrated with the thrill of Kieran and the break-in they’d just done.
She wouldn’t have been surprised if she was lit up like a sparkler.
“I just meant I already know the whole story about your sister and Green.”
She cocked her head at him, honestly not making the connection.
“Firefighters gossip, remember?” he said. “Not much happens around here—”
She interrupted him with a barked laugh. “Except for lots of murder-y crime-ing.”
He waved a hand as if dismissing the incredibly felonious recent history of the town as irrelevant.
“Not much has happened lately, so the story of a bounty hunter and PI chasing a skip and getting kidnapped was the main topic of conversation—still is the main topic. So I don’t use the firefighter thing as a hookup tool.
” He curled his lip, as if the last two words tasted gross.
Feeling fizzy with all sorts of energy, she wanted to poke the grumpy bear. “What do you use then?”
“What?”
“What’s your hookup tool?”
“I don’t use a hookup tool.”
It was completely believable to her that he didn’t need any help getting all the action he’d ever want, but adding to his adorably flustered state was just too tempting.
“So, you just frown at the ladies, and they come running? That’s a bit hard to imagine, isn’t it?
” It’s so easy to imagine. In fact, it was easy enough that her jealousy of these hordes of women she’d just made up flared up again.
“No—I mean, that’s not how… I don’t…” He gave up with a frustrated huff.
Charlie couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore. “Sorry. I have a lot of sisters. We’re the masters of teasing. I couldn’t help myself.”
His grumpy sound was her kryptonite, and she couldn’t stop herself from reaching across the seat to squeeze his knee.
She meant it as a friendly gesture, a sort of way of telling him that no harm was meant, but her fingers wanted to linger on the rock-hard muscle.
His leg jumped just the tiniest bit under her touch—as if he’d quickly controlled the motion—before the truck lurched forward, rocking her back and making her realize she was being weird.
“Sorry,” she apologized, moving her hand back to her own leg as she glanced at the speedometer and cleared her throat. “Sheriff deputies with a grudge against my family.”
The reminder—and possibly the removal of her hand—made him lighten up on the accelerator, and the truck slowed until it was going the speed limit. It felt impossibly slow, especially out in the dark emptiness, where it seemed like she and Kieran were the only people in the universe.
That wasn’t true though. She turned around, peering into the darkness behind the truck. The running lights didn’t do much for visibility behind them, but she squinted, undoing her seat belt so she could turn completely.
“What are you doing?” Kieran snapped. “Put that back on.”
“I will.” She leaned closer to the rear window. “Just confirming something first. Yep. Someone’s following us.”
“Sure they’re militia?” Kieran asked as she returned to facing front and rebuckled her seat belt. “Could just be a random car.”
“With their lights off?” she asked skeptically, and he grimaced, speeding up again. “Know where you’re going?” She grabbed her phone and opened a navigation app. “I can give you directions.”
He shot her a flat look. “I’m a firefi—” He snapped his mouth closed before finishing that sentence, but Charlie still laughed.
“We’re back to that?”
“No, I’m just saying that my job requires me to know how to get around this area,” he grumbled as Charlie grinned at him.
She had no idea why she liked him so much—especially his growling, especially, especially when she was winding him up—but she really did.
Keeping his gaze straight ahead so she was smiling at his scowling profile, he continued.
“Besides, map software is notoriously unreliable in this area, especially since cell reception is spotty.”
As if he’d just cursed her, the last bar disappeared from her phone, and the dreaded No Service message appeared instead. “Humph.”
He laughed outright at her disgruntled sound. “Don’t worry.” A small, smug smile stayed in place, and she completely forgot about her phone. “I know how to get us there—and I’ll lose our tail in the process.”
“You’re adorable.”
“What?” His tiny grin slipped away as he stared at her, horrified.
“Oops.” She knew she didn’t look repentant, but she couldn’t stop grinning at him. Besides, she hadn’t lied. “Sorry. I meant to say that you’re very competent.”
This mollified him enough that he returned to his usual scowl.
Curious if she could get him back to his happy smile, she tried again. “Very geographically aware.”
He didn’t smile, looking more baffled than anything, but she couldn’t stop. She was discovering all sorts of fun games to play with Kieran.
“Your driving is good. Not as good as mine, but it’s still good.”
That just received a grunt.
“And your posture is excellent.”
“Okay.”
“That’s rare in the time of smartphones.”
“Hang on.” He cut the truck’s lights, and the dark outside seemed impenetrable.
“Why?” Despite her question, she grabbed for the handle above the door with one hand and braced her other on the dash.
“You didn’t mention I’m also great at evasion techniques.”
Cranking the wheel, he drove them right off the road.