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Half questioning his vision when he recognized a blue car coming up the road, Forrest hit the gas harder. The Chevy turned into the nightclub’s parking lot. Forrest slammed on the brake pedal, blocking the car in. He cut the roadster’s engine and jumped out over the door. “What are you doing?”
“What are you doing?” Twyla shouted, climbing out of the Chevy. “Skipping town?”
Forrest was torn between hugging and shaking her. Opting to do neither, he grabbed her arm as they met near the front of the Chevy. “Get in my car.”
“Why? Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you home.”
She dug her heels into the gravel. “Not until you answer a few questions.”
Grasping her waist with both hands, he hoisted her off the ground and flipped her over his shoulder.
“Put me down,” she shouted, while pounding his back. “I mean it, Forrest.”
“I mean it, too.” Thankful he’d never put the top back on his car, he plunked her into the roadster’s passenger seat. “I’m taking you home.”
“Oh, no, you’re not.”
She’d popped up like a child’s toy. Forrest grabbed her shoulders to push her back onto the seat. “Oh, yes, I am.”
“No, you’re not.” Her fingers grabbed hold of the frame of the windshield.
He couldn’t push her back down, not without hurting her. “Let go and sit down, Twyla.”
“No.”
She was as stubborn as a mule. He’d always known that. Forcing her to do something had never worked, so he let go of her shoulders and took a step back. “Fine.” He started walking toward the Chevy.
“Where are you going?”
Forrest didn’t bother answering. He climbed into the Chevy, which was still running, and pulled it to the side of the parking lot. Pocketing the keys, he climbed out.
She was still standing in his car, with her arms crossed, glaring at him over the windshield. “Did I interrupt your escape?”
“I’d like to escape, all right,” he said ruefully. “From you.”
Her glare turned even more bitter.
He walked to the roadster, opened the driver’s door and climbed in while clamping his teeth together to keep his curse silent. He should have known better. The key no longer hung in the ignition. Instead, Twyla dangled it between her finger and thumb.
“I will go home after we talk,” she said smartly.
Forrest leaned back and crossed his arms. “About what?” There was no way he would tell her about the counterfeiting, and he prayed neither Roger nor Ty had.
She plopped onto the passenger seat and splayed her pink skirt over her knees. “Where were you going this early in the morning?”
“I heard you’d stolen your uncle’s car and was on my way to find you,” he answered honestly.
“I didn’t steal—”
“Does Dave know you have his Chevy?”
“No, but—”
“Does anyone know you left?”
“No.” Her eyes snapped to meet his. “No one does. How did you know?”
“I have my ways.”
She glared at him harder for a short time and then turned to look straight ahead. “Norma Rose says you were planning on leaving town.” Her lip quivered slightly. “The night of your graduation. Even before everything else happened, you were planning on leaving. Were you?”
Not about to admit all that had happened that day, Forrest simply answered, “Yes.”
“Why?”
“I’d graduated. It was time I headed out on my own.”
“Without telling anyone?” she asked quietly.
“I’d told Norma Rose.”
“And she was the only one that mattered.”
Forrest’s stomach fell. Twyla had said that so softly he’d barely heard it. He couldn’t tell her she was wrong. That he’d discovered the only way to assure her and her sisters would be safe from Galen was to leave. The protection he’d thought he’d been providing them all those years had in fact put them in more danger. After that day, he was certain Galen would harm them, just to get back at him.
Anger stiffened his spine. That wouldn’t happen again. Never again. “It doesn’t matter now, does it?”
She turned his way slowly, and the glistening in her eyes, that of unshed tears, almost ripped him in two. “Yes, Forrest, it does.” Handing him the roadster’s key with one hand, she reached for the door handle with the other.
Stretching his arm in front of her, he stopped her from opening the car door. “I’ll drive you home.”
“There’s no need.”
“Yes, there is.”
