“Gee, thanks. You look great, too.” She bit her lip like she hadn’t meant to say that.
“Sorry, Sav, I didn’t realize you were fishing for compliments. I like your jeans.” From the way she tensed her jaw, I didn’t need to mention appreciating them while I’d been “manhandling” her, but she didn’t take the bait. At least, notfor now. “Grab some sleep,” I reiterated. “You’ll need your energy later.”
She sank down in her seat as she blushed again. A gentleman would ignore what was obviously another response to memories of our past together.
“Fortalking,” I said, then winked at her, because where Savannah was concerned, the odds of me behaving like a gentleman were nil.
5
SAVANNAH
When I woke, it took me no longer than a split second to remember where I was, who I was with, and why I needed his help.
Damn it.
“Tik Tok”, the song that had been a hit a decade before the app had taken off, played on the radio. Mai and I had memorized all the words and screamed them at the tops of our lungs as we’d driven around town, she the queen of our high school and me, an unlikely princess created from her reflected shine. If the song meant anything to Ben or if he was even listening to it, he was doing an excellent job of hiding it. He focused on the road, seemingly unaware of anything but the long, slightly curved ribbon rolling out in front of us.
“You feeling okay?” he asked without so much as glancing in my direction.
I jumped up in my seat only to be yanked back down by my seat belt. I laid my hand over my pounding heart. “How did you know I was awake? You weren’t even looking at me.”
“I can see you.” He still had his gaze straight ahead. “And your breathing cadence changed.”
“You could hear that over the song on the radio?”
He raised his eyebrows. “That song you and Mai used totorture Michael and me?” he said, referencing his younger brother. “Yes. There are some sound gaps. It’s easy to hear you breathing then.”
“Wow.”
Had he always been this still, silent, observant? Yes, I decided, he had. Maybe his years in the Army had honed his natural tendencies to a fine point, but there were definitely parts of the boy I’d met when he was only thirteen that I could still see in this man who was now almost thirty.
“You should hydrate, and there are some snacks in the front pouch of my backpack.” He inclined his head toward the back seat. “Help yourself.”
Now that he mentioned it, I was starving. I’d been surviving on adrenaline, caffeine, and dry toast for the better part of the two weeks since Devlin had disappeared. I’d barely noticed hunger, thirst, or exhaustion. Now that I’d stopped running, or more precisely, had let someone take over the task for me, all those needs crashed over me. I finished off the bottle of water, then rummaged in Ben’s backpack and pulled out a handful of snack options. I ripped open a high-protein bar package because the picture on the wrapper looked like a candy bar.
Ben, eyes still forward, said, “That might not taste like you expect,” as I bit into the bar.
Chewy cardboard with an odd tinge of sweetness filled my mouth. I snatched a tissue out of my backpack and spit the gross bite into it. “That is vile.”
He shrugged. “It serves its purpose.” He was still practical as ever, too. “I’ll take the bar. The crackers are probably a better option for your stomach anyway.”
I handed him the bar and opened a pack of saltines for myself. I went through one pack, then a second, then a package of orange-dyed peanut butter crackers. I washed it all down with another bottle of water.
“Better?” he asked.
I hesitated, knowing his next question would be about the shitshow. “For now. I wouldn’t mind a real meal soon.”
“We’ll stop for dinner in a couple of hours, then get some rooms at a hotel. If you need a bio break before that...” He glanced at the thick trees on either side of the highway.
“I’ll let you know,” I said, but I planned to hold it. I was not a pee-in-the-woods kind of girl.
He pulled off his sunglasses and laid them on the console between us. He glanced sideways at me. “Are you ready to talk?”
I looked forward again, watching the blacktop, the trees and brush lining the road, the darkening sky, and the swirling flock of birds that rose out of the woods to our right. I’d thought about nothing but the mess Devlin had made of our business for the past two weeks, but sitting beside Ben as the sun set behind us and my unknown future stretched out ahead of me, I didn’t know what to say. At least, I couldn’t come up with words that didn’t make me sound like an idiot. How could I have trusted the guy for all these years?
“Does the guy in question have a name?” Ben asked.
I startled, unaware I’d spoken out loud. Oh, well, it was a place to start. “Yes. Devlin Masters. My business partner for more than six years now.”
