Chapter 3 #2
The Caesar salad sat like a ball of lead in her stomach.
She curled her arms around her abdomen and pressed her back deeper into the cream-colored leather seat.
If someone had told her that morning that she’d be sitting in Milo’s Range Rover, heading to his house, she’d have died laughing.
But thank god for him. There was no way she would have thought to report the incident to the police.
They’d found her vehicle, but not the vehicle that had hit her.
She’d confessed that she stabbed her attacker, but the police had said a body hadn’t been found.
“There was so much blood. Wouldn’t they be able to tell that someone died by the amount of blood?”
Milo pulled off the interstate, and the wipers on the windshield slowed. He turned them off and shook his head. “I don’t know. It was raining at the time, so whatever blood was on the road was probably washed away.”
“He couldn’t have gotten up and walked away. I—” The image of his slack face, of his wide eyes as his body crushed against hers blinked through her mind. The moisture left her mouth. She licked her lips and tried again. “I saw his eyes . . . I’m almost positive he’s dead.”
Heavy metal hummed low through the speakers.
For the dozenth time, Serena slid her gaze toward Milo.
His left wrist hung loosely over the top of the steering wheel and his other arm rested on the console between them.
His long legs stretched into the footwell.
Despite the rainy weather, he didn’t appear the least bit cold in a T-shirt.
Jeez, he’d matured. Gone was the baby face of his teenage days, and the clean-shaven skin.
Thick hair sprouted around his mouth and halfway up his cheeks, just enough to hint that he kept it neatly trimmed close to the skin.
They passed under a streetlamp and the yellow glow that flashed across his face revealed the white, shiny skin of a scar on the edge of his jaw, where a tiny patch of hair hadn’t grown.
That hadn’t been there when they were kids.
Milo’s hand stretched across the console and folded over her thigh, reminding her of the solid reassurance he’d emanated at the bar.
It hadn’t taken much convincing for him to get her to go with him.
As a matter of fact, it had been pathetically easy.
The safety his large, warm hands and soothing green eyes offered had been impossible to refuse.
“Maybe someone called the paramedics and he was rushed to the ER. We’ll find out more tomorrow once the police check the hospital.”
Her leg tingled beneath his hold and her toes curled into her shoes.
“Do you think I’ll go to jail?”
His thumb moved across her leg. “No. I talked to a friend before I called the cops. He said you were acting in self-defense.” His other hand slid from the steering wheel to hit the turn signal, and he slowed at the red light.
“Besides, there needs to be a body before anything like that can happen. My guess is the attacker was someone from your past. You were involved with a lot of dangerous people, Serena. People who wouldn’t want loose ends. They would have fled the scene.”
“How could he flee the scene if he was dead?”
His shoulder lifted. “Maybe he didn’t. Maybe the guys you said were after you went back and collected his body.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. Murder, self-defense, hiding bodies . . . it was all too much.
“Try not to think about it. You reported the incident, wrote your statement, and had your vehicle towed. There’s nothing more to do right now.”
She nodded and coiled her arms tighter around her. A few minutes later he pulled into the attached double garage of a large stucco house.
Is this his house?
The single-family home was in Lakeside. Not where she’d expect to find a bachelor, let alone Milo.
Oh my god . . .
What if he wasn’t single? Milo’s marital status was as foreign to her as that of a stranger. Hell, he could even have kids.
Maybe she should have gone to Dani’s. But in that moment at Tasha’s bar when she’d been so close to losing it, she’d grabbed on to all the safety and security he’d offered.
Being at Dani’s would only bring trouble to her door.
Being at Milo’s would keep her family safe, and he was more than capable of protecting her.
Even after all this time, and all the shit that had gone down between them, in her heart she knew he wouldn’t turn his back on her when she needed him.
She closed her hand around the door handle, and her gaze took in the interior of the garage. The second half held a bike, tool bench, lawn mower—no room for a second vehicle.
Milo got out and grabbed her bag from the back. “You coming?”
She hopped out and followed him into the house. Her gaze took in the light wide-planked hardwood floors and cream-colored walls of the entryway. Not too feminine. She removed her shoes and then curled her toes. Despite the change of clothes, she hadn’t been able to shake the chill.
“I have a spare room you can use. Want some coffee?”
“Sure.”
“Feel free to shower if you want.” He reached over and flicked on the hall light, illuminating their way to the kitchen.
She swept her gaze around the tidy living space. No high heels at the door, purse on the kitchen chair—nothing that indicated a woman lived here.
She cleared her throat and flung her hair over her shoulder. “Uh, does anyone else live here?”
He turned on the coffee maker and leaned against the gray granite countertop of the island. His lips twitched with amusement.
Damn him.
Her fingers ached to brush the dark strands of hair back from his forehead, but god, they only made him even more tantalizing. The cords of his bare forearms flexed. She trailed her gaze up his body, tilting her head back to take in every towering inch of him.
“Relax, Serena. There’s no one else.”
That one word drummed into her. “Else” indicated there was someone—her.
The playful smile flew from his face. He’d caught the slip.
She floated closer to the island. Only a few feet separated them.
His eyes never left her body, coasting over her shoulders and down to her fingers with a feather-light caress.
They moved back up to her face, and the earthy-green irises slammed into her.
She tucked her chin and narrowed her eyes.
He’d walked away from her when she was seventeen, not giving a shit about the turmoil in her life. Her ruthless uncle had taken custody of Dani and her when they were eleven and nine years old, after their mother died from a drug overdose. They’d never known their father.
Losing their mother had been a devastating blow. She remembered the day she’d gotten the news, remembered the funeral and how Milo, at the ripe age of fourteen, had held her while she cried. They’d been close before that moment, and inseparable every moment after.
Life with Uncle Sebastian had been hell.
He’d used Dani and her to lie, cheat, and steal from everyone and everything.
And he’d always held their sick aunt’s well-being over their heads as collateral.
Serena had needed Milo then. He’d been her rock.
The only piece of stability in an ocean of sharks.
If he thought for one second that they’d pick up where they left off eleven years ago as if none of it had ever happened, he was sorely mistaken.
His eyes sharpened. “What?”
She tucked her top lip into her teeth.
Don’t do it, Serena. Don’t fight with him.
He lifted his eyebrows. “Did I say something wrong?”
“You’ve got a lot of balls, Milo. That’s all.”
He laughed. “Why does my being single piss you off?”
“It’s not that you’re single. It’s that you hinted I’d be mad if there was someone other than me. And, for your information, there is no you and me.” She wagged her finger between his body and hers.
He cocked his head. “I think you read too much into it.”
Her body temperature spiked. “Why did you bring me here?” She shook her head. “I was stupid to come.”