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He was brusque when he hadn’t meant to be, but even just thinking about why he didn’t drive made both him and his lion miserable.
“Sorry, Wes,” Eleanor said as the scent of her guilt and embarrassment drifted to him. “I shouldn’t have pried like that. I have no excuse for my rudeness other than the aforementioned social awkwardness.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “I’m being a dick.”
“You’re not. I’m just being… well, Eleanor.” She laughed, but there was no humour in it. She turned the radio on and turned up the volume, smiling gamely at him. “Let’s listen to some music for a while, yeah?”
He nodded and stared out the window as his lion retreated with a low whine.
CHAPTER 8
“It doesn’t fit.” Eleanor could hear the discouragement in her voice. But considering it was the fifth bus station locker number 732 they’d tried, she had the right to be discouraged.
She stared at the key in the palm of her hand before slipping it back into her pocket. “Why do these stupid things not have, like, an identifying mark for which station it is. This is ridiculous.”
Wes studied the people milling around them, his big body on alert, his gaze sweeping from side to side. “How many more bus stations are on your list?”
“Another four.” She rubbed at her shoulders, trying to ease the tension from them. “If Dad even chose a bus station somewhere remotely close to his house. What if he chose one on the other side of the damn city? What if it isn’t even in this city? This is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“We’ll find it,” Wes said. His voice was calm, and it reassured Eleanor even though she knew he had no idea if they would find the right locker or not. He held out his hand. “Let’s go.”
She slipped her hand into his, the feel of his hard palm against hers bringing on those delightful shivers that made her feel warm and weirdly gooey inside. He’d held her hand in every single bus station. Although she knew he was only doing it to keep her close to him and therefore easier to protect, she’d been indulging in a sweet little fantasy that Wes was her boyfriend, and they were just casually…
Casually what, Eleanor? Looking for some mystery item that your dead father left in a random bus station locker before some nasty men with guns decide to kill you for it?
Casually running errands. Just casually running errands with her very handsome and very protective boyfriend, Wes, who didn’t mind that she talked too much or said whatever she was thinking at the most inopportune times.
Wes led her outside and into the warm night air. It was close to ten, and she was exhausted. She had barely slept last night, and the lack of sleep had caught up to her. She wasn’t someone who could miss a night’s sleep and power through. She needed her eight hours and was grumpy and non-functioning if she didn’t get it.
She unlocked the car as they approached it, and Wes opened the driver’s door for her. Man, she loved how sweet he was. “Where to next?”
“Um…” she took her phone out of her pocket and tried to focus on the list of bus stations. “Uh, I think if we…”
She covered her mouth as a yawn threatened to split her head in half.
“Maybe we should call it a night,” Wes said.
“No, I’m okay. We can do one more,” Eleanor said.
“It can wait until tomorrow,” Wes said. “You need sleep, Eleanor.”
She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. “Yeah, I do. C’mon, let’s head to the motel.”
“Do you want to grab something to eat first?” Wes said.
“Maybe they’ll have a restaurant nearby,” she said. “I’m more tired than hungry, but if you’re starving, I could swing by a drive-thru, or -”
“I’m good,” he said. “Let’s just go to the motel.”
* * *
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Wes literally growled in frustration. The sound made Eleanor’s insides shivery, despite her exhaustion. Was it weird that she desperately wanted to hear Wes growl while he was balls-deep inside of her?
“This cannot be our only option,” Wes said as he stared at the motel and then at his phone again. Eleanor could see the latest hotel where he’d just tried to book a room on the screen.
Eleanor studied him in the dim light of the motel parking lot. “Is this where I get to tell you ‘I told you so’?”
She popped her pain meds into her mouth and swallowed them with a swallow of water before gently rubbing at her arm below the sutures. Fuck, did her arm hurt tonight. Who knew sort of being shot would hurt this much?
