AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eli studies me for a long time in his detailed, leave-no-information-out way.
“How far is the next city with a five-star hotel?” he asks.
Of all the responses I was dreading from him—from a polite brush off to a disgusted, ‘Brady can take over for me as your partner from here on out,’ his response leaves me speechless.
“Jebediah,” he repeats impatiently. “How close to the nearest five-star hotel?”
Still in shock, it takes me a minute to figure out my response. “Probably Wyoming?”
“Start driving,” he orders.
“But—”
“Now,” he says, his voice razor sharp. “You don’t need to spend one more second back in this place.” He reclaims my hand in his. “And if we don’t get out of hereright now,I’m going to burn down whatever you left standing of this fucking town the first time.”
I do what he says, put the car in drive, and with Eli’s hand locked with mine, I finally leave my past behind.
Chapter28
Eli
Wyoming
While Jeb drives, I find the ritziest, most exclusive, multiple-amenity, five-star hotel I can find, book it, and direct him to drive to it.
All the while I’m performing this simple task, I’m raging. Furious at everyone who had a starring role in hurting him. It wasn’t hyperbole when I told Jeb we’d better leave Inyan behind or I’d burn it down. The miles we’ve managed to put between us and that horrid little town haven’t diminished the urge. I’m still set on burning it down, but I’ll burn it down my way. On my short list are the people who hurt him—truck stop owner Mike, shitty, food-withholding foster parents Derk and Rina, and once I’m done with them, I’ll find the truck driver, Road Rage Carl. The bastard who hurt Jeb. I’ll use every hacking skill I possess to make him suffer.
That will do— for a start.
“We’re here,” Jeb announces in a subdued voice that doesn’t belong on him.
My aim is to fix that, too.
The entire backside of the hotel suite is made up of huge windows that showcase a lake view. Its terrace door opens to a hot tub and small sauna.
Jeb stares out at the beautiful view like he’s still looking at the ugly burned land that he once called home. I had room service deliver his favorite whiskey, along with a few other things I plan on needing tonight, so I pour him a large shot and hand it to him. He looks at it disinterestedly and sets it down.
I want nothing more than to hug him to me and tell him how sorry about the pain and humiliation he went through as a child, and how amazing I think he is for becoming the man who took—no, stole—his own destiny.
But that’s not what he needs from me. Jeb needs from me is to bring him back to himself.
I’m gonna borrow a signature Jebediah Ezekiel Jones move I learned by watching him—Shock and Awe.
“This isn’t going to work for me,” I tell him, picking up his whiskey and taking a sip. I immediately start coughing.
Oh shit! He really likes this stuff? It’s like drinking turpentine.
Jeb’s lips lift slightly. “Careful,” he warns, taking the glass from me, this time taking a long draw from it.
“What’s not going to work for you?”
“You acting like what you told me today somehow makes you a different man than the one who’s been equal parts annoying the hell out of me and turning me on since I met him.”
His eyebrow arches. “Since you met me?”
I nod. “From the first time I looked up at you from my computer.”
“I was lucky to be born pretty,” he says with a bitter twist of his lips. “It helped me pay Mike my nightly rent.”
