She nodded. She didn’t have a pair of anything except what she was wearing, but he didn’t need to know that. She’d get some, somehow. “What time?”
Drumming his fingers on the bar, he tilted his head. “The late shift. Come in around eight. You’ll do great. Friday nights, this place is packed. We’ve got a live band starting at nine.”
Biting her lip, Jewel nodded. She still had to tell Colton, but if she could get tips tonight, she could start stashing back some money and planning her escape.
If she could stay alive until then.
Later, after letting herself into Colton’s house with the key he’d provided, she poured herself a glass of iced tea and snagged the rocking chair on his front porch. When she spotted his truck heading toward her, she felt a welcoming surge of joy, as though she were suspended in time, the eternal woman, welcoming her mate home.
More foolishness.
As she got to her feet, running one hand nervously through her newly shorn hair and watching Colton climb from his truck and stride toward her, she squashed the urge to run at him, fling herself on him, until they were locked in a deep, drugging kiss.
His first words dispelled that notion entirely.
“What happened to your hair?” Prowling around her as though he were truly a shifter, Colton stared.
Jewel lifted a self-conscious hand to her neck, reminding herself she didn’t care what he thought. “I needed a better disguise.”
“A disguise?” He shook his head. “You could shave your head and people would still recognize you. Your eyes alone would give you away.”
“Then maybe I’ll get colored contacts,” she snapped. “I’m just trying to stay alive until I can get together enough money to leave, not trying to win a beauty pageant.”
His gaze darkened. “Oh, you’re still beautiful.” The intensity of his eyes pulled her in, keeping her legs rooted to the floor when she wanted to run. “If anything, that short, choppy haircut makes you look even sexier.”
“Sexier?” she repeated stupidly, wondering how she could want to kiss a man and slug him all at the same time.
“Uh, yeah.” Blinking, he looked away, but not before she saw a hint of red under his tanned skin. “Sorry.”
No need to ask what the apology was for—they both felt the strong tug of attraction. She ought to be glad he wanted to resist its pull as badly as she did. Instead, she couldn’t help but feel…bereft.
“I got a job,” she said, needing to distract them both. “I’m now a waitress at Jack’s Grill on the Water.”
“Really?” Colton frowned. “I know that place. On the weekends it’s the closest thing to a meat market that Anniversary has.”
Her wolf stirred with interest, though she knew he didn’t mean that literally. “A meat market?”
“Yeah. For guys on the prowl. You’ll be bait.”
The idea made her smile. Bait? Though Colton didn’t know it, as a shifter among humans, she was the predator, never the prey. Her smile faded. Until now. Since she couldn’t change, she didn’t know what she was anymore.
“I should make good tips then.”
“True.” He still didn’t look happy. She wanted to ask why, but didn’t need to open the door to more complications.
Instead, she found herself babbling. “The more tips, the better. I really need the money, you know that. I’ve got to get another car and buy a gun. I rescued my stash of silver bullets from the glove box of my wrecked car.”
“Silver bullets?” He stared. “You mentioned that once before, and I thought you were joking. You’re really serious?”
Cursing her slip of the tongue, Jewel nodded.
“And you have a stash?”
“I like being prepared.”
“I don’t know of any place that sells such a thing, outside of horror novels and the kind of movies designed to make teenage girls hold on to their dates.”
She lifted her chin. “You have to search, but there are specialty bullet-makers. Leo buys them there. I stole them from him. If I could have gotten to one of his guns without him knowing, I’d have done that.”
