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He froze, and his scowl deepened to the point that it seemed to defy nature. How could someone’s mouth turn down that drastically?
Shit, she really had worn out her limited welcome. “Thank you. Uh… for this and for saving me. I’ll get out of—”
“Start talking.” He stood and lumbered to the trash to deposit his scraps.
She blinked her good eye. “Excuse me?”
He rested his back against the motel door and folded those massive arms across an equally massive chest. “Start. Talking.”
“About…”
One of his eyebrows arched up into a perfect rainbow.
Right. He wanted to know why she’d been on the receiving end of Buster’s fists. Well, that was too damn bad for him. “Look, mister, I’m real grateful for your help and all, but I don’t owe you my life story. You’ve done your civic duty for the day. I’ll get out of your hair, and you can be alone and forget you ever met me.”
She grabbed the ragged remains of her uniform top and started for the door.
The man didn’t move or even blink. If he wasn’t scowling with open eyes, she’d wonder if he was breathing.
“Um… may I pass?”
“Start talking.”
Daisy huffed and threw her hands in the air. “Dude, are you for real? I’m giving you an out here. Take it. Trust me… you want no part of my nonsense.”
“Keep the ice on your eye.” There was no response to what she’d said. Nothing. This man would make a fantastic CIA interrogator. Hell, maybe he was.
“Fine.” She stomped back over to the bed and plopped down, pressing the ice to her eye once again. “You wanna know the sordid story, then here it is,” she shouted. “My brother is a piece of shit. He’s seven years older than I am, and the only things he has to show for himself are needle marks on his arms and an empty wallet. He’s been crashing in my house for six months because I’m a sucker who can’t turn my brother away no matter how many times he proves I should.”
Yeah, she was a softy. Always wishing and hoping Ricky would get his life together or at least not be one of the lowest humans on the planet. So far, all she’d gotten for her efforts was chronic disappointment and an extra mouth to buy groceries for.
Daisy inhaled and then blew out a long breath. If she didn’t get control over her emotions, this guy would kick her out on her ass. A second breath with an extended exhale had her relaxing a fraction. When she continued talking, she managed a lower, calmer tone.
“My brother works for Buster, the winning sperm who accosted me tonight. I don’t know for certain what he does, and I don’t want to know, even if I can make an educated guess. Anyway, he split town last week. It’s his M.O. He shows up for a few months, causes all sorts of trouble, then disappears for up to six months. This might make me a bitch, but I was thrilled when he left. I finally got my house to myself. He wasn’t calling at all hours of the night for me to pick him up in some random dump because he was too drunk or high to get home. I stopped mysteriously losing money. I had six days of happiness.”
“And then?”
Then it all went to shit.
“And then tonight Buster informed me that Ricky, that’s my piece-of-shit brother, made off with ten thousand of his and Pete’s, the guy you shot, money. They want it back, and since Ricky is MIA, they’re demanding it from me either in cash or… trade. Hence, the torn shirt.”
Moose didn’t say anything else but merely stared at her with that skin-tingling glare. Anxiety began to creep up her spine. She wasn’t used to such intense scrutiny and had the urge to fix her hair and cover her bruises. Silly since he’d been the one to patch her up and couldn’t stand her presence, so her appearance probably meant diddly squat to him, but the urge still plagued her.
Her life might be a mess, but that didn’t mean she wanted to look like a mess.
“So, uh… unless you’re in the business of doling out no-strings ten-thousand-dollar loans, there’s not much you can do for me. Like I said, I’ll be going now.” She took the ice off her eye and shivered. Her entire body had cooled thanks to the cold pack.
“You’re staying.”
She tilted her head. “I’m sorry, what?”
He shrugged. “You’re staying. Tonight.”
She blinked, then laughed. “Oh, no, the hell, I’m not. Last time I checked, my good-for-nothing daddy was dead and buried, and you are not my boyfriend, so I’m outta here.”
“You have a boyfriend?” His scowl deepened. There seemed to be no limit to how much unhappiness his face could express.
“What? No. What the hell does that matter? The point here is that I’m leaving, and you can’t do a damn thing to stop me. Even if you’re the size of a damn mountain,” she muttered.
