Chapter 8 #2
She moved past him out into the hallway, then down it to her bedroom, and logical or not, she was more touched by his protectiveness than she was frightened by the threat. She was constantly surrounded by Brands. It would take an army to do her harm.
Ethan followed, then leaned in her doorway while she opened dresser drawers and took out clothes.
She stepped into panties and pulled them up under the towel.
Then she grabbed a sports bra and turned her back to him, dropping the towel entirely.
She pulled the bra over her head, and then the first blouse she’d found, and when her head popped out, she realized she was facing the mirror, so he’d had the full view the whole time.
She grabbed a pair of socks, then opened another drawer and took out a pair of jeans. As she pulled them on, she said, “Given how far your eyeballs have emerged from their sockets, I don’t think my hands-off policy is our solution.”
“Why not?” His voice cracked like an adolescent boy’s.
She buttoned the jeans and sat on the bed to don the socks, then stood up again. “Because you’re not gonna be able to keep your hands off me. Are you, Ethan?”
“Not unless I leave town.”
“Oh, I see you’ve given this some thought already.”
“A little, yeah. And you’re the one who kissed me, today. After you said hands off at work. To be honest, I don’t know if I’m comin’ or goin’.”
She nodded. “I’d apologize, except I mostly don’t either.” She crouched to pick up her dropped towel, and when she straightened again, he was right there, close to her. “Are you gonna run from me again, Ethan? Leave in the morning like the stars at sunrise?”
“I feel like the mornin’ might be too late.” He slid his arms around her waist.
“Hot damn, I was hopin’ you’d say that.” She put a little Texas twang into the words, then slid her arms around his neck and leaned up close to nibble his lips before kissing them, and then there was a shout from the front door.
“Lily! Bubba! You okay in here?”
She jumped away from Ethan a fraction of a second before Garrett Brand appeared in the doorway, the badge on his chest. “Everybody okay?”
“Yeah, fine,” Lily said. “Um, Ethan, why don’t you fill him in? I’m gonna um…dry my hair. Yeah.” She went into the bathroom and closed the door. Beyond it, she could hear their male voices, tones muffled, concern evident even though she couldn’t hear their words.
She stared into the mirror. Ethan wanted her so much it was undeniable, yet he was willing to leave town to get away from her, yet he’d raced to her side, terrified she might be in danger.
What the hell was a woman supposed to do with a guy like him?
Terrence Clay had been Angus Silver’s driver for three years.
His dad had been Angus’s father Devon Silver’s driver.
Terrence had made it clear from the get-go that driving was all he did.
Oh, he could keep his mouth shut all right.
Mr. Silver never needed to worry about Terrence running his mouth.
He was no rat. His dad had taught him better.
To work for the Silvers, all you had to do was follow orders and keep your mouth shut.
He’d never been asked to do anything illegal.
But he didn’t like that his boss had threatened those women. He’d threatened women in the past, and some of them…well, bad things had happened to some of them. He didn’t know his boss had anything to do with it…but he suspected it.
Angus Silver drove recklessly as hell, while in the back, Terrence held on for dear life. He hadn’t buckled up, and the sharp curves sent him sliding across the seat, smashing against the door, then sliding to the other side.
“Boss, Jeeze, slow down!”
They came to a crossroads in the middle of nowhere, and Angus didn’t even let up, just blasted right through the stop sign.
A brown car came flying from the left and T-boned them, hitting the driver’s side, just ahead of where Silver was sitting.
The Caddy’s nose snapped right, the car went into a skid, fishtailing wildly as Silver fought the steering wheel.
He brought the car to a stop off the road in a cloud of dust. The other car was off the other side in the road. It had wound up in a weed patch with a steep ravine behind it. The engine had stalled, and the driver was trying to start it.
The big guy’s words back at the cantina floated back into his head and he thought they must’ve been prophetic. He opened his door, started to get out.
“I’ll kill that fucker,” Silver yelled. He wrenched the wheel, jamming the car into drive.
Terrence pushed off, barely clearing the car door, landing in a tuck-and-roll that hurt like a bitch.
He got up on all fours in the road in time to see the Caddy speeding away from him toward the brown car, which had its nose smashed to hell and gone.
The driver kept cranking it, over and over again, but it wouldn’t start.
Silver gunned the Caddy, aiming it right at the guy, and Terrence was sure he was about to witness a murder.
Then the brown car caught and started, and just as Terrence braced reflexively for the crash, the car shot forward. The Caddy blasted right through the spot where it had been, kept right on going, over the drop-off on the other side of the road. It sped to the brink, then vanished from sight.
The brown car sat rumbling in the road. Terrence pushed himself up onto his feet, stunned and shaking. He wanted to see what had happened to the boss and ran closer. The mangled wreckage at the bottom gave all the information he needed.
It occurred to him that he probably ought to run for it. Then the brown car’s window lowered, just a crack. And from within a voice said, “He did that to himself. No point you or I gettin’ dragged into it, is there?”
“Nope.”
“You had a blowout. You lost control and got thrown clear before the Caddy went over. You never saw any other vehicle.”
“That’s just the way it happened,” he said.
The window rolled back up and the brown car rolled away into the road.
Lily took her time getting herself put back together.
Ethan was driving her so crazy she felt like her hair must be standing on end.
But no, she didn’t look as crazy as she felt.
She pulled on a flannel over her T-shirt, which was slate blue and bore a pair of stylized aviator sunglasses on the front.
By the time she emerged from the bathroom, Ethan was the only one waiting for her. Garrett had already gone.
“Hey,” Ethan said. He was standing in the middle of the living room.
“Hey.” She looked around her empty house. “I thought Garrett would want to talk to me.”
“They got a hit on that guy’s car already. Willow called. It’s been in an accident. No wonder, the way he was drivin’.”
“Oh.” She looked at the sofa, but didn’t sit down.
“I’m hoping Garrett can put him on notice that his welcome in this county is revoked. Scare him off.”
She realized she should be more interested in the criminal who’d threatened her, but most of her mental capacity was busy with the fact that they’d probably have had sex if Garrett hadn’t shown up—a fact that sat between them like a boulder. They both ignored it.
“The guy’s license plate didn’t exist,” Ethan said. “Silver-1. Garrett says it’s probably a custom fake.”
“But we know his name.”
“Yeah. So he’s keepin’ a deputy watching your house.”
“That’s good. I guess.”
Ethan was not sitting down. It felt as if he intended to leave. So she said, “Dad texted while I was getting dressed. He’s spending the night at Cat’s.”
“That progressed quickly, didn’t it? Are you okay with it?”
She took a breath and wandered past him into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and took out a pitcher of sweet tea.
“I’m processing it,” she said. Then she got two glasses and filled them both without asking if he wanted one.
She carried them into the living room, set them on the coffee table, and sank onto her plush brown-teddy-bear of a sofa.
“I think my mom would be okay with it. She’d say, ‘Life’s short, and you ought to be as happy as you can every day of it. ’”
With a sigh, he came around the sofa, but instead of sitting beside her, he took her dad’s recliner and reached for the tea. After a sip, he said, “He’s been lonely without her,” he said.
“He’s been heartbroken without her. And it’s been two years now. I don’t think she’d have wanted that. Now, though, since Cat…” She shook her head.
“He’s lit right up,” Ethan said. “Looks ten years younger and it’s only been, what? A week?”
“A week that I know of,” she said, in a tone that suggested there might be weeks she hadn’t known of. “I think he’s been tinting his hair. That stuff that works gradually?”
“I think it’s more than that,” he said.
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “He seems happy, doesn’t he?”
Ethan nodded.
“Well, I’m glad he’s happy. I think Mom was right, you should grab happiness wherever you can find it. And on that note?—”
“My label’s releasin’ ‘Home’ as a single.”
His attempt to distract her from talking about the two of them maybe having sex tonight was a complete success. A smile stole control of her face. “That’s fantastic!”
“My agent said they couldn’t argue with the numbers. I’m all over the internet, thanks to you.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I’ve been unmasked already.
” She grabbed her phone off the end table and tapped one of the saved reels.
It was a series of photos of her; receiving her R.N.
pin, the shot from her ID badge at the hospital, a shot of her with Ethan outside the Cantina. Under the photos were bullet points.
Lily Ellen Hyde, R.N. from Ithaca, New York
Works at a small-town hospital
Father Hyram Hyde, chef & restaurant manager, retired
Mother Lily Maria Hyde: R.N. Died of cancer two years ago
One brother, Harrison Hyde
Brother is married to Ethan Brand’s cousin, Maria Brand
Lily moved to Texas a year ago with her father and brother