Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
RYDER
She was lying.
Something weird happened. There was no way I passed out, and she somehow got me here. Her jeans flexed around her thighs and ass as she sat a coffee mug underneath the spout.
“Why didn’t you stay home and make coffee?”
“Why didn’t you if you were wanted by…what? Mafia? Loan sharks?”
“I work in cyber security. I saw some stuff I shouldn’t have seen.”
“You said that. You didn’t answer much, though. I guess you ought to just go back to your home.”
“Wouldn’t they follow you here?”
She smiled stiffly. “No one followed me here.”
“You say that, but you don’t know.”
“I do know, though,” she said in a haughty tone.
I chuckled uneasily. “You can never be sure. I didn’t think they would have tried to gun me down in public.”
“You have a gun right now.”
“I bought it after they robbed my place, looking for evidence.”
“You know you’re screwed, right?”
“I’ll be fine.”
Daphne shrugged. “Okay then. Where do you want me to drop you off?”
“Uh, I guess…could you take me to my mom’s old place? It’s out west?”
Her shoulders deflated. “I guess. Guess it’s a good thing I walked to the coffee shop today.” She pursed her lips as she sat down.
“Really?”
She looked away. “Yeah, most definitely.”
“You looked annoyed at the coffee shop.”
“’Cause I should have been able to walk over, get a coffee quickly, and then get in my car. Simple,” Daphne replied. “But the line was long, and you loudly had a conversation instead of using headphones or anything like that. Rude.”
“I’ve been stressed.”
“Doesn’t excuse being a jerk.”
“I wasn—”
“No. Lies. Very jerky. of you. It’s like common courtesy.”
“Are we going to sit and argue about this?”
“I can all day, if you want. But you want to go out west, right? After I finish this coffee, we can go.”
“Fine,” I replied.
“I mean, it should be a simple trip, right?” she muttered.
“Yep. Twenty-minute drive, depending on where we are.”
“Who’s the big whizz you are running from?” she asked.
“Mr. Carville.”
Her face paled. “Are you sure it was Mr. Carville?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“Crap,” she muttered.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as her body tensed. She waved her hand.
Daphne laughed. “I’m fine. We’re fine. Surely, whatever you saw wasn’t that bad. They’ll forget you, probably. Maybe.”
Another lie.
“Are you sure about that?” I asked.
“I mean, even if you had seen something that bad, surely it won’t affect us.”
“You don’t seem that confident,” I muttered.
She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I’m plenty confident.
I’m going to finish this coffee and I will take you to your mom’s house west. It should be easy.
” With that statement, she blew the top of her coffee and it looked like it glimmered slightly.
Daphne tossed her head back and chugged the rest of her coffee.
“This is not how I imagined the day. So tell me, what did you find out?”
“I think it was a movie he was producing on the side. It’s the only way I could explain it.”
She pursed her lips and nodded. “How?”
“It was a few of the bodyguards slinging fire balls or orbs of magic. I’m not even sure why. It looked like a kick ass movie honestly. Best SFX I’ve ever seen.”
Daphne swallowed and nodded. “Great. Just great.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Nope. Everything is just fine.”
Another lie.