by Jesse Joren
What a bitch, what a bitch, what a bitch.
It was bad luck to think mean thoughts of the dead, but the story of how she had manipulated Hex's young crush still made me want to beat her dead ass. Sometimes I knew without a doubt that I was my Uncle Dale's niece.
"You're quiet," Hex remarked as he climbed in on his side.
"So are you."
"Fair enough," he agreed.
We pulled onto a narrow, twisting road with walls of green forest on either side. It went on for miles, so the blackout glasses must have been a precaution. There was no way I could ever find my way back to where we had been.
After so many months at Walden and then last night's cabin, it was fascinating to see the green blurs going past. Like a dog, I almost wanted to roll down the window and hang my head out to catch the passing smells.
Once I slid a glance toward Hex. He was casual in the driver's seat, looking like there was something on his mind.
I knew how that felt. Those heavy, secret words hovered in my mind and on my tongue, but they were going to stay there awhile.
"I bet this place has all the bottled Cokes you could want," he said some time later.
He'd pulled into a huge parking lot surrounding a large country store and gas station called Ford Crossing Quick Stop. It was crowded with trucks pulling fishing boats on trailers.
"I bet you're right," I said, forcing a bright tone into my voice. "Probably the most happening place for miles. Bait, fried food, gas, and gossip. Everything a thriving community needs."
Hex was watching me.
"Are you okay?"
"Of course," I said. "Why do you ask?"
"Something in your voice," he said. "What is it?"
Hex never stopped surprising me with his sharp instinct. Sometimes it felt like he was reading my mind.
"It's the first time I've seen other people in a long time," I said. "It just seems…crowded."
He put his hand over mine.
"I thought that might be it," he said. "Do you want to wait here?"
"No. I think it'll pass. It just seems strange."
"Something else might seem strange," he said, "at least to the people inside."
"What's that?"
He smiled and reached over to touch my throat. For the first time since we left the cabin, I remembered the leather collar. Funny how fast I got used to it.
He began to work on the buckles.
"This did its job," he said almost in an undertone.
His fingers brushing my skin made me flush. He was so close, so beautiful. It made me think of the cabin again, when he had –
"Of course it did," I said sassily. "You told me you were going to shock me."
"No. I said it would keep you close to me," he said as it came loose. "And it did, it seems."
I realized that was true. He'd never said that, and I'd never even tried to test it. Even when he was at his raving worse last night, I knew I wasn't going to leave.
He opened the center console and put the collar inside. My neck didn't feel free. It felt empty and oddly vulnerable without that leather band.
With an effort, I worked up my courage.
"Hex, I have something I need to tell —"
At that moment, his cell phone rang in the console. We both looked at it, lit up next to the collar. "Caller Unknown," it read.
"I can call them back," he said. "What is it you need to tell me?"
My thin nerve failed me.
"Nothing. I'll tell you later," I said, opening the door. "Take your call. I'm going to the bathroom, then I'll be inside."
His eyes touched me like a caress. The phone continued to ring.
"Here," he said, taking some folded bills from the console. "I'll be right there."
He pressed the button to take the call as I grabbed my pack and climbed out. Whatever else he was saying was cut off as I closed the door and headed toward the store.
I was trembling in the aftermath of those words almost coming out. Maybe a Coke would settle my nerves. If not, this looked like a place with plenty of booze.
My jeans, hoodie, and boots fit right in with the crowd around the store. There were a lot of fishermen coming back from a fall day out on the water. I could have been the girlfriend or wife of any of them, except there weren't many girls around.
The bathroom was clean and large, but after so many months of just me and Squatty, it felt strange to be on a real toilet again. Strange in the best possible way.
For all the months at Walden, I'd been both curious and dreading to see myself in a mirror. I thought this would be my chance, but there was only a tiny mirror set too high. If I stood on tiptoes, I could see just down to my eyes.
Guess Hex called ahead and told them you were coming.
Disgusted, I bent over from the waist and gave my hair a vigorous finger-combing. The months of no trips to the salon had left it uncut, but also healthier without the highlights I sometimes had them add.
I splashed my face and dried off with a paper towel, longing for a real bath. Hex hadn't said where we were going in Atlanta, but I hoped a tub was in there somewhere.
In the mirror, my eyes looked a little tired, but my hair was smooth and my face clean. I looked down and checked my clothes to make sure there were no leaves or smudges.
Hex had said I was beautiful. Natalie had said something very similar. From what I saw, I looked okay. That was as far as I was willing to go without seeing a lot more of myself first.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The store was a little bit of everything, crowded and noisy with loud talk, banging doors and bursts of cigarette-roughened laughter. I found the bottled Cokes and grabbed one. Would I even like it anymore after so many months without it?
One way to find out. I twisted off the top and chugged part of it right in middle of the aisle. Question answered. Heaven.
"If you can shoot a whiskey like that, I just might hafta marry you."
I whipped around to see a guy in a baseball cap grinning at me. He and his friend beside him were both wearing plaid shirts over dirty white T-shirts, along with faded jeans and muddy boots.
"You ain't from around here," he announced. "I'd sure as hell remember a girl like you."
His eyes went over me with open appreciation. That's when I remembered that I hadn't bothered with my bra as we left the cabin. It had been okay with the hoodie over it, but now it was tied around my waist. It didn't leave much to the imagination.
"You're right. Somewhere else," I said with a smile.
"Hope you got a sister," his friend said, wafting an aroma of beer my way. "Looks like Jeff here beat me to you, 'less you wanna change your mind. I'm the better pick, hon. Count on that."
"Aw, bullshit," the other guy said. "Don't listen to him. Hey, you like four-wheelin'?"
My regional instinct told me that these guys were harmless. People not from the South sometimes think every redneck guy is an extra from Deliverance. Not so. Most are salt-of-the-earth gentlemen who treat their girlfriends and mamas like queens.
Both of them were sunburned and good-looking in a rough way, with obvious marks of being blue collar workers. Construction was my guess.
Even knowing all of that, I was uncomfortable. It wasn't them. It was me, not ready for this country store that seemed too loud, too crowded. I wanted to be back in the Rover, safe with Hex.
"Thank you for the compliment," I laughed, hoping to ease past them to the register. "I gotta get going, but nice meeting you."
"Aw, come on, don't be like that," Jeff said. "You can at least tell us your name, can't you?"
"I'm Colton," his friend said. "See, we showed you ours, now you show yours. That's how this here works."
Both of them snickered.
'Don't be hittin' on my girl here," Jeff said. "What's your name, honey? I sure would
like to take you out. How about it? I don't bite, least not too hard."
I was passing him just then, and he put out a friendly hand to stop me. He was reaching for my arm, but when I flinched to one side, the shift made his fingertips brush my breast.
His friend chuckled, but a flush of red surged under Jeff's tanned skin as he jerked back. I suddenly realized he was maybe a year or two younger than me, trying to be smooth.
"Oh shit," he said as his friend continued to snicker. "Sorry, I didn't mean –"
He broke off and stared over my shoulder, taking a step back. Colton stopped laughing and also backed up. Both of them had gone pale under their ruddy tans. I looked over my shoulder.
Hex had come up and was standing almost directly behind me. He didn't move. He didn't say anything. He just stood there with his thumbs hooked into his jeans, giving my two admirers a cold, level stare.
In all my time with him, I'd never seen him look like that. Even though the look wasn't directed at me, I went cold.
With that low-grade telepathy that forms the grapevine of small towns, everyone in the store seemed to realize that something was up. The store got very quiet, making the football game on the TV behind the register seem loud.
Jeff cleared his throat.
"I sure am sorry," he said again, this time to Hex. "I didn't mean no disrespect to your girl."
Hex said nothing.
Colton opened his mouth to say something, probably a smart-ass remark. Hex's icy gaze swiveled to him, and he closed it with a snap.
The entire store was watching as Hex went to the counter and handed the cashier a ten. She stared at him with a mixture of unease and attraction as she made change for my Coke.
He took my hand and led me out of the store. Behind us you could have heard a pin drop.
"Holy shit," I heard Jeff say. "Did you see that guy's face? I though he was going to beat the shit out of me."
"I don't think I want to meet her sister after all," Colton agreed.
We drove down the road in silence. Hex had made sure I was buckled in before we went back on the highway. He was eerily calm, driving with smooth precision.
I took a swallow of my Coke. This time it didn't taste quite so delicious.
Gradually some of the tension went out of Hex as he drove. He glanced sideways at me.
"I messed up your Coke, didn't I?"
"Maybe," I said with a weak smile. "Or maybe I just need to leave them off the menu."
We drove for another few miles as I thought about what had just happened.
"You just came in at the wrong moment," I said finally. "They weren't hurting me, or harassing me. They were just sort of flirting, I guess."
"Of course," Hex said. "They'd be blind not to, assholes or not. You looked ready to claw a hole through the wall to get away from them."
A wave of guilt washed over me.
"They were okay," I said. "I just felt kind of smothered. Like it was just too many people, too loud, too much everything"
Hex's eyes were on the road.
"I should have gone with you. I know what it's like to be isolated, then have too many people thrust on you."
"When were you isolated in a cabin?" I teased.
"Better that you don't know," he said with a little grin. "So how about lunch? I've starved you on this trip."
"Anything to lose more fat," I joked.
He glanced sidelong at me.
"Those guys back there didn't seem to think you need to lose anything. Maybe you'll believe them, since you never believe me when I tell you that you're beautiful."
"Well, you said they were assholes," I pointed out. "That kinda puts a hole in your argument."
Hex took my hand in his, bringing it to his lips. Even that brief touch brought back every heated moment from this morning.
What was this thing we had between us? I didn't know, but what I did know is that I was falling. Falling fast. Nothing mattered when he looked at me like that.
You better slow down. Do you even remember how to do that?
The problem wasn't that I couldn't slow down. The problem was that I didn't want to.
Hex and I were taking a wild carnival trip, one that no one on the outside would ever understand. For better or worse, I was taking the ride to wherever it ended.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The Perfect Pear was small and probably packed during regular hours, but right now we were the only customers. The bright, sunny space with its red walls and fresh yellow tulips on the table made me feel at home.
The highway signs had suggested that we were heading back to Atlanta, avoiding the straight shot of I-16. Right now we were in Perry, south of the city. Hex was taking a scenic route, for sure.
"The hours on the door said Monday thru Wednesday," I said as we studied a menu full of upscale Southern goodness. "How did you get us in on a Friday?"
"Because the owner is nice," Hex said, "and I was extra charming."
The food lived up to the promise of the menu. The Krispy Kreme pudding alone made me think I might need to move here. Which led to something that was on my mind.
"I wonder how dirty my apartment is after all this time?" I said. "It probably needs a good maid service right now."
"It's fine," Hex said as took a bite of my dessert. "It gets a 'white glove' service once a month."
"You seem to know a lot about what goes on there, for spending so much time at Walden," I said, stealing the last bite.
"Of course I do. I own that property now."
My gulp of sweet tea almost went down the wrong way.
"It was a good investment," he went on. "Good location and space, but that security is getting an upgrade. It could be penetrated."
His eyes danced with hidden laughter as he sipped his own tea. He used even more sugar than I did.
A hundred thousand acres. Walden. The casual purchase of my apartment building, just like that.
I was no gold-digger. Who cared what anyone else had? I made my own way. Even so, I was starting to wonder just how many zeros were in Hex's bank book.
"So you're my landlord," I said. "Don't you think that might be a conflict of interest?"
He smiled and put his hand over mine. A thrill went through me.
"I want to show you something when we get to Atlanta," he said.
"We seem to be taking the back roads," I said as we climbed in the car.
Hex was watching the road with more attention than the light traffic seemed to require.
"Smart girl," he said.
"And you have a reason that you won't share with me. What a surprise," I said.
He turned and looked at me, and I couldn't read the expression in his eyes.
"This route delays real life coming back," he said. "When I don't have you to myself anymore, and things get complicated."
"I wouldn't exactly call the last few months uncomplicated."
He looked at me another moment before turning his eyes back to the road without answering.
The rest of the drive was largely silent. Hex and I were both following our own thoughts as we chased the pavement back to Atlanta.
"Welcome to the Ritz Carlton, Mr. D'Amitri."
The valet manager greeted us with enthusiasm as we pulled up to the shimmering tower. His smile looked as if he really meant it.
The Atlanta Ritz was bustling with Friday night activity. After the incident at the country store, I had been bracing myself for crowds. Somehow the hum of the city was balm to my sore nerves.
A valet took the keys, and Hex took my hand. I saw several girls checking him out appreciatively before glancing at me with irritation.
Hex was oblivious to the attention, smiling down at me in a way that made my heart do funny things. A little thrill of smugness surged through me.
"I guess we're kind of underdressed,
" I said once we were in the elevator.
Hex punched in a code, then floor twenty-two.
"Not for long," he said.
"What does that mean?"
Suddenly he pulled me close, making me remember this morning's warm passion in the rough little bed. His lips brushed mine, coaxing my tongue against his. We seemed to climb for a very long time, but it might have just been the kiss.
The doors opened. I didn't care if someone else got in with us. If he started to undress me right here, I wasn't going to say no.
"This is our floor," he murmured.
The next moment he swept me up in his arms as he strode down a long, elegant hallway. He stopped in front of a door at the end, and I had a glimpse out the hallway window at Atlanta skyline. Somehow he managed to punch in a code while holding me.
I wasn't wearing a white dress, and he wasn't wearing a tuxedo. Somehow that didn't matter when he crossed the threshold with me in his arms. I still felt like a bride.
Oh my god. Slow down, Eva. There's so much about him that –
I squirmed around and kissed Hex fiercely, blotting out that warning in my head.
"Welcome home," he said again my lips.
"So what do you think?" Hex asked.
Inside he'd set me on my feet and kicked the door shut, then met my kisses with a passion that left me breathless. I wasn't even aware of my surroundings until he pulled away from me.
"Snakebite didn't hurt your kissing abilities," I teased, loving the feel of his arms around me.
"Smartass. I meant this," he said, turning me around to face the view.
Floor-to-ceiling windows framed a fairy tale view of Atlanta, just coming to life as dusk fell. The sun was setting with a fiery glow off to the west, the lights of Buckhead sprinkled below us.
"Nowhere close to the kisses," I said, "but beautiful. I can see why you live here."
"I don't," he said, his arms tight around me.
"Okay, then it's a great penthouse for a night," I said, wondering just how much something like that would even cost.
