Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Vaden steps out of the forest and onto the road that leads toward Main Street. That would ordinarily be a perfectly okay thing for him to do if he weren’t currently butt-naked.
I’m in a T-shirt, which I guess is better than nothing, but if it weren’t the middle of the night, cops would be arresting us for public indecency.
“What happened to your clothes?” I ask as we approach a dark gray Volvo, the only car on the side of a deathly quiet road. Just ahead is the turning that leads to Fisher’s house.
He shrugs, distracting me. “I left them in a tree.”
I stare at him.
He left his clothes in a tree.
“Put me down,” I demand, wiggling.
He glances at me, and amusement fills his gaze. “I’m not crazy. I just didn’t need them at the time.”
I frown. “You said that before, but you still haven’t told me what you meant.”
“I will.” He walks to the car, opens the passenger door, and helps me into the seat.
“Did you always leave your car door unlocked?” Only the crazy or na?ve would do it in New York, or quite frankly, any big city. Things must be different in small towns, I guess.
“Yep.” He reaches for my seatbelt. I grab it before he can, turning my face away from him. He’s naked, bent over, and dangly parts of him are inches away from me, making my cheeks burn. And frankly, I’m far too tempted to touch.
“I’ve got it,” I mumble, face hot as I buckle up.
He slams my door shut and walks around the back of his car while I fail spectacularly at avoiding checking out his ass in the side mirror outside my window.
After retrieving something from the back seat, he opens the driver’s door, and I’m relieved he’s in a pair of black sweatpants, though he’s still shirtless and barefoot.
“You keep sweatpants in your back seat?”
“For when I go for a run and can’t find my clothes,” he explains, getting in and slamming his door shut.
“In the middle of the night? Naked?”
“I’ll explain once I get you somewhere safe.” And he starts the engine. With the key he left in the ignition.
“You left the key in your car.” I stare dumbly at him.
“It’s the middle of the night. Who would steal it?”
I consider how deathly quiet it is and concede he has a point. “And your clothes?”
He shrugs. “I’ll grab them tomorrow or not. I have more.”
He says it so casually, as if leaving clothes hidden in trees while going for naked runs in the middle of the night is perfectly normal. Honestly, if someone didn’t want me dead, I’d have risked heading back to Fisher’s house to grab my stuff so I could hightail out of town.
A hint of amusement flickers across his gaze. “I promise there’s a good reason.”
“You can’t tell me now?”
“It’s a long story.”
“There must be a shorter, condensed version of this story.”
“There really isn’t.”
Curious, I study him as he drives toward town, and then through it.
We’re heading deeper into the mountains, and it hits me that I might have done something very stupid getting into this car when the only thing I know about Vaden is his name, and that my boss’s son is dating his sister. Oh, and that he likes to go for naked runs at night.
My stomach twists, my heart races, and I frantically think of a way out of this car.
He shoots me a rapid glance. “Don’t be afraid, Jane,” he says softly. “I won’t hurt you.”
I didn’t say a word about being afraid. I didn’t even move away from him, so how did he know? How does he always seem to know when something has scared me?
“What were you doing in the woods near my house?” I ask. “Normal people don’t wander around naked in the forest in the middle of the night.”
He pulls off the road and down a worn path bracketed by tall trees. “I’m not normal.” He risks driving into a tree to glance at me. “But that doesn’t mean I’m a threat to you.”
The steel edge in his voice reminds me that it wasn’t that long ago he was getting ready to go after armed men while utterly defenseless. “Who are you a threat to?”
“Anyone who wants to hurt you for one.”
Figured as much, though I don’t know I’m worth risking prison for. “For two?”
“Anyone who hurts my sister has a death wish.”
Despite my fear a moment ago, his anger reassures me. I saw the way Vaden was with Averie. There’s no doubt in my mind that he loves his sister and she loves him right back.
We emerge from the dirt-trodden, tree-lined path, just wide enough for a single vehicle to pass, into a small clearing with a gorgeous farmhouse with a wraparound porch.
The lights are off. Everyone must be asleep.
The cars parked around it tell me that more than a handful of people live here.
A forest lies just feet from the farmhouse, with several paths leading into it from different directions.
You can relax. Other people live here. Vaden is not a serial killer who brought you to a nice isolated location to kill you and bury your body in the woods.
“I came to Colorado looking for my sister,” he says, parking his car near the others and cutting the engine.
I eye him warily. “Why?”
“She was in a really bad situation a few years ago. She ran. Bad people were after her, and she came here to hide in a place no one would think to look for her.”
“And what did you do to the bad people after her?”
“Well.” He unsnaps his seatbelt. “If I were to tell you that, you really would be afraid of me. More than you are already.”
I give him a long look. “Okay. I’ll stay long enough to hear this story of yours, but that’s it.”
“It’s not safe for you to go back to your house,” he warns.
I unbuckle my seatbelt. “I can look after myself.”
He opens his mouth.
My eyes narrow. “I’ve been alone a long time, and I still don’t trust you. Please don’t push yourself into my life.”
I was expecting an argument. Instead, he lets out a sigh.
“I’m staying in a cabin over there.” He points into the forest on the other side of the house.
My eyes bounce between the dark farmhouse and the even darker forest. “And I’m supposed to follow you to an isolated cabin where no one knows where I am, and no one will hear me scream?”
He grabs his cell phone from the center console and passes it to me. “Call or text anyone you want. Tell them where you are and who you’re with. And keep hold of the phone. I’m not a threat to you, Shelby.”
I glance at the phone, but I don’t take it. Even if I wanted to, I have no one to call. No one to care whether I live or die. It’s yet another painful reminder that I’m on my own.
“Fine.” Ignoring his cell phone, I push open my door and step out, my bare toes curling instinctively when they hit cold, damp grass. The drizzling rain has stopped now, but my hair is damp, and it’s cold enough that I fight back a shiver.
Slamming my door shut, I wince at my bloodied knee, then walk toward the forest. Approximately two seconds later, I’m in Vaden’s arms. He’s shirtless, yet he’s still so much warmer than I am, and I have to fight the urge to burrow closer.
I glare at him. “This habit of picking me up and carrying me around like a purse has to stop.”
“Of course.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” I frown.
“Perhaps you’re in shock,” he suggests. There’s no change to his expression, but I get the sense he’s secretly laughing at me. “And I would never mistake you for a purse.”
The heat in his eyes makes me look away, hoping we get to this cabin soon and that he puts on some clothes. Maybe then I won’t be so attracted to him.
“You’re beautiful when you blush,” he says, voice soft. “You’re beautiful already, but I like it when you blush.”
I risk glancing at him and feel my cheeks burn hotter. “It’s the middle of the night. You shouldn’t know I’m blushing at all.”
Striding through the forest, seemingly less concerned about walking into trees and more interested in looking at me, he shrugs. “I have good eyes.”
I frown. “But what about—”
“We’re here,” he cuts in, stepping out of the forest and into a small clearing.
There’s a small wooden cabin and a gently humming generator a few feet away. Close to the cabin is a covered storage with chopped wood inside. There’s not that much wood, but the ax nearby suggests he was going to add more soon.
“Why aren’t you living in the farmhouse?” I ask, recalling all the cars outside. “And how many people live there?”
“The Blackshaws. You’ll meet them tomorrow, probably. My sister and Fisher, her mate, live in another cabin not that far from this one.”
“Mate?”
He shakes his head. “I’m telling you things in the wrong order. Let me get you inside, and we can talk then.”