Chapter 2
Two
Charlie
I walked through the door of a rundown-looking bar, thankful for the warm air that rushed over me once I was inside.
I kept my head down and walked toward the bar in the back as I ignored the curious looks I got from those sitting at the tables around me.
It was a small town, so it shouldn’t have surprised me that everyone would stop what they were doing the second a stranger walked in.
“Hi. Can I get a glass of iced tea, please?” I asked as I attempted to climb onto the barstool.
I avoided looking at the man behind the bar as he studied me intently.
I adjusted my hair, trying to pull it over my shoulders in an attempt to hide the bruises along my throat.
The last thing I needed was for anyone to start asking questions about how they got there.
“Iced tea?” he asked, his deep voice surprising me enough to get me to look up at him.
I nodded my head and then quickly looked away before he could say anything else.
He grabbed a pitcher from behind the bar and filled a glass before setting it in front of me.
“Thank you.” I grabbed the glass and held it between my hands for a few seconds to let the cold calm my nerves a bit. “Is there a restroom I can use?”
That was my only reason for stopping here, and had there been anything else around, I would have gone there instead.
But the snow was falling faster than I could clear the windshield, and I knew this might be my last chance to stop somewhere safely before I had to get back on the road and pray to get to the next state safely.
I had been driving for the past five days, making sure to go through as many towns as possible and stopping only in big cities where everyone was too busy to notice me.
I slept as much as I could in the car, finding hotels or parking lots that were full so I could blend in easily.
“In the back by the window,” he replied, pointing in the general direction.
I attempted to smile as I struggled to get off the barstool, but it hurt. Everything in my body hurt.
I was pleasantly surprised that it was a single-person restroom so I could have a few minutes to myself without worrying about anyone else walking in.
My eyes quickly scanned the bruises on my face, hating that even the best makeup in the world hadn’t been enough to hide them.
They hurt like hell, but being pregnant meant that I was cautious about what I took for the pain.
I no longer had the luxury of going to see a doctor when I needed to, so I was entirely responsible for keeping my baby girl safe until she decided it was time to come.
I rubbed a hand over my stomach, wincing when my shirt pulled across the tender spot where I had been cut.
I let out a shuddered breath and stepped away from the sink before I gave in and allowed myself to break down like I wanted to.
I didn’t have time to fall apart ever because I was now a single mom on the run with my unborn child.
Life just got more complicated than I had ever dreamed.
I used the restroom and washed my hands, then opened the door to find a woman waiting on the other side. Her eyes narrowed on me as her jaw tightened. I looked away as I felt her taking me in, noting every bruise and cut on my body that I had tried to hide.
“Sorry,” I apologized awkwardly. It wasn’t like she had knocked or anything, so I really didn’t need to apologize.
But the way her icy blue eyes burned into mine made me take a step back.
It was like being an animal in the wild and having her assert her dominance over me.
Thankfully, this was just a quick stop in a small town I would never see again, so it didn’t matter. I had bigger things to worry about.
“It’s all yours.”
I stepped out of the bathroom and ignored the heat of her gaze as it stayed on me while I made my way back to where my drink was sitting.
I had no intention of actually drinking it, especially since I had walked away and didn’t have any way of knowing whether it had been tampered with.
I had no idea how deep the trouble Jason was in, which meant I couldn’t trust anyone or anything.
While this seemed like an innocent place to stop, that didn’t mean it was.
For all I knew, they could have been tracking me and sent someone to intercept me before I reached the next big town.
“How much do I owe you for the tea?” I asked, pulling my wallet out of my purse.
I was running low on cash but couldn’t risk using any of my credit cards.
I didn’t want to make it easy for them to find me, and tracking my credit cards would be a sure-fire way to know exactly where I had been.
I would need to get food later, so splurging for tea wasn’t the best use of what money I had left, but I also couldn’t ignore when nature called.
“It’s on the house,” he responded, resting his hands on the bar as he leaned in and pinned me with a look.
I swallowed hard, trying to look away, but I couldn’t. It was like he had me in some trance, and I couldn’t break free. But the last thing that I needed was for anyone in this bar to remember what I looked like or to be able to say that I had been there.
“Thank you.” I turned to leave but stopped when his words made me freeze.
“Whatever you’re running from won’t find you here,” he said so matter-of-factly that it made my heart stutter. I slowly turned to face him, assuming I had heard him wrong.
“What makes you think I’m running from something?”
He leaned against the counter behind him and folded his arms over his chest.
“You’re clearly not from around here. You ordered a drink that you didn’t touch so that you could use the restroom before trying to rush out of here.
You’re covered in bruises and blood that I’m guessing is from a wound you haven’t seen a doctor about, given the way you wince every time you move.
You have bags under your eyes that say you haven’t slept since you decided to run, probably because you’re constantly looking over your shoulder. ”
The door opened, crashing against the wall on a gust of wind, making me startle as a gasp slipped out.
“And you freak out the moment the door opens because you don’t know who is going to be on the other side,” he added, giving me a pointed look.
I swallowed hard and pressed my lips together. Shit. I really sucked at trying not to be obvious or going unnoticed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied, the words burning my throat as my nose stung from trying not to cry.
“Fine. If you’re not running, then come sit down and have dinner. It’s on the house.”
My stomach growled at the thought of something other than the junk food I had been eating from random gas stations along the way. I missed real food.
“I can’t,” I said, hesitating instead of just getting the hell out of there like I needed to. “I have to go.”
It was true, yet I didn’t know what was stopping me from leaving. It was like my feet were glued to the floor, refusing to take another step into the unknown. While this place was also the unknown, there was something about it that felt somewhat calm... and safe.
“I hate to break it to you, but you’re not going anywhere for a few days at minimum,” the woman from the bathroom said, walking past me and taking the seat where I had been sitting at the bar. She pinned me with a look as she picked up my iced tea and took a long sip of it.
I worked my jaw back and forth as I watched her. I was too tired to try to get into things with her, let alone over stupid stuff.
“And why is that?” I questioned, hating the attention currently on me.
So much for keeping my head down and staying unnoticed.
But I needed to know why exactly she thought I wasn’t going anywhere for a few days.
Was she part of the whole baby-stealing operation?
Or was this something darker, and I stepped into the wrong small town, where they were going to keep me there until they got what they wanted from me?
“Because that storm is just barely getting started. We’re about to have one of the biggest blizzards we’ve ever seen, which means all roads in and out of town will be shut down,” she replied matter-of-factly.
I blew out a breath, feeling more relieved than I should because getting stranded in the middle of nowhere during a blizzard wasn’t something I needed on top of everything else.
But it was also nice to know that they didn’t have plans to rip me apart and take my baby.
Or at least they didn’t seem to... for now.
“Great. That’s just great, given that I don’t even know where I am,” I admitted, trying to keep from looking at the attractive man behind the counter who was still watching me.
“Nowhere.” The woman smiled, but it didn’t feel genuine.
“Nowhere?” I arched an eyebrow, not having the time or patience for her to bullshit me. My nerves were shot, I was exhausted, and my stomach growled loudly, reminding me that I had been neglecting basic human functioning for the past few days.
“Nowhere, Colorado.”
“This tiny town is seriously called Nowhere?” While I knew I had crossed into Colorado at some point, I seriously doubted they would name a town something as silly as Nowhere.
“Yes.” She pressed her lips together and raised her eyebrows as she challenged me to continue questioning it.
“A lot of people don’t know that this town exists,” the guy behind the bar said. “We like it that way.”
“That seems odd. Why wouldn’t you guys want people to know about your town? Don’t small towns thrive off of people visiting them?” I asked, not sure I really wanted the answer.
“Because people don’t come to Nowhere to settle down and start families. They come here to be forgotten,” the woman answered.
As she turned her head, I noticed a long, jagged scar that ran down her neck.