by Marla Monroe
Why was Amanda on the run if she was pregnant, and how far along was she? He couldn’t believe he hadn’t known. She should be home decorating a damn nursery somewhere. In a perfect world, that was where she would be right now. Morgan knew there was no such thing as a perfect world. In a perfect world, his family wouldn’t have died in a car wreck while he was halfway around the world.
He pulled off the highway, onto a muddy turnout, and stopped the bike. He needed to decide what he was going to do about her before he returned to the motel room. If he continued to take her where she wanted to go, he knew he would end up sleeping with her again. What he should do was find the next town with a bus stop and buy her a ticket to ride. Somehow he didn’t think she would take the ticket, though.
Could he leave her there and keep going? What was he going to do with her if he let her ride with him? He was going to Oklahoma to visit an old army buddy. He couldn’t show up with her—could he? No.
Nothing was going according to plan, which was why he rarely made plans. He’d spent the last several weeks helping out a couple of buddies protect their women. Now he was stuck babysitting a pregnant one. If she wouldn’t tell him where to take her, he’d choose a large enough city that she could find a job and drop her there. He’d carry her all the way to Montana and drop her there. She’d be able to get help there. He couldn’t do anything for her other than give her a ride.
Shaking his head, Morgan turned the bike around and headed back to the motel. Everything would depend on how she answered his questions. If he felt like she was lying, he would send her on her way.
When he parked outside the door of the room, he realized he didn’t have the key card to get back in. What would be the chances she wouldn’t let him in?
“Damn.”
The door opened.
He climbed off the bike and waited to see what she would say.
“I thought you were going to leave me, but then I noticed you hadn’t taken all your stuff.” Amanda’s face looked freshly scrubbed.
“Thought about it. And remembered all my stuff was still here.”
“Please don’t leave me. I won’t be any trouble,” she all but whispered.
“We need to talk first,” he said.
She nodded.
“Are you dressed enough to ride?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“Grab the key card and the helmets, and let’s get something to eat. You need something besides junk food in you.” Morgan climbed back on the bike and waited for her.
Amanda grabbed the key card and helmets and closed the door behind her. She handed Morgan his and pulled the other one on before climbing on the back of the bike.
“Hold on.” Morgan started the bike and pulled out. “Same place okay with you?” he called back.
“Fine.”
Less than five minutes later, they pulled into the parking lot of the little diner. Morgan was relieved they were open. He figured they would be, but you never knew in little hole-in-the-wall towns. He steadied the bike as Amanda climbed off, then stepped off and opened the door to the diner for her. The waitress at the counter nodded at them to take a seat.
Morgan followed Amanda over to a booth. She slid in one side and pulled a menu off the napkin holder and handed it to him. She avoided looking at him and concentrated on the menu she’d procured for herself. The plastic menu shook in her hands.
Hell, Morgan thought. She’s a nervous wreck now. That sure as hell can’t be good for the baby.
The waitress wandered over to take their order. He listened to her order scrambled eggs and toast, then added his own order to hers.
“Bring her an extra order of eggs. She needs to eat more,” he said.
When she opened her mouth to argue, he lifted his eyebrows and stared at her. She closed her mouth and looked back at the table. That was too easy, he thought.
“How far along are you?” he finally asked.
“About twelve weeks.”
“Does the father know?”
“Yeah, he knows.”
“And?”
“And, he knows. That’s all there is.” She still didn’t look at him.
“Wrong answer. If you want my help, you’ve got to be honest with me.”
The waitress brought them their drinks—coffee for him and juice for Amanda. Still, Amanda didn’t say anything.
“Fine. I’ll take you as far as the next town with a bus station, and then you’re on your own.” He sipped his coffee and waited.
“Look, this isn’t easy for me.”
“I never said it was. Life isn’t easy, and now that you’re going to have a baby, it’s only going to get harder. Deal with it now before you have too much on your plate to do it later.” Morgan clamped his mouth closed. Maybe he’d said too much.
She looked up at him, then away out the window. He could almost hear her thinking it all over.
“He doesn’t want the baby,” she finally said.
“Happens, but you don’t run away just because the father doesn’t want to be responsible.”
“You do when he threatens to make you have an abortion, though.”
Chapter Five
“He can’t do that,” Morgan assured her.
“His goons can. They almost had me strapped to a table when I got away.”
“Who in the hell is the father?” Morgan asked.
“Guy Winthroup,” she said.
The waitress interrupted them with their food. Amanda didn’t think she was going to be able to choke any of it down, but she knew she had to try for the baby’s sake.
“Name doesn’t sound familiar,” Morgan said.
“He’s running for mayor of Memphis, Tennessee. He’s forty-two years old and already had a fiancée that would make the perfect wife of a mayoral candidate. I wasn’t supposed to be in the picture for long. I was a problem to be taken care of.”
“Not to mention a baby on the way,” Morgan added.
“Right.”
“Still, he can’t make you have an abortion. Go public with the affair. Once his name is ruined, he has no reason to try and force you to have the abortion anymore.” He salted his eggs, then picked up the pepper. He looked across the table and nodded at her food.
“Eat. You need to get something solid in your stomach besides that junk we ate last night.”
“I’m trying,” she said.
She stirred the eggs after adding salt and pepper, then decided to start with the toast. She picked up a slice and buttered it.
“He made it clear that if I fuck up his chances with his fiancée or the election, he’d sue for the baby. I don’t have anything to fight him with.” She bit into the toast and chewed.
“So you think he will still go after you if you mess up his chances with the society bitch?” Morgan asked around a mouthful of eggs.
“Well, he said, ‘Hell will freeze over before you have that bastard you’re carrying.’”
She dropped the toast back to her plate and leaned her head on her hands. She really wasn’t hungry, and remembering how Guy had looked at her stomach with such loathing only made it worse.
“Do you think he’s still looking for you?” he asked.
“Yeah. I caught sight of his two goons at the last truck stop, which was why I was trying to get a ride when you helped me. Then the guy you almost ran into is one of them.” She twirled her fork in the eggs. “I can’t figure out how they keep finding me.”
“If they have money to spend, they can pay for information. Lots of people will sell out their own mother for a buck. You’re easy to spot, too.”
“Maybe I should dye my hair.”
“That would probably help. Change your clothes style, too.”
“Soon as we get somewhere that I can access some money, I’ll do all that.” She finally made herself take a bite of the eggs. They weren’t too bad.
“Access money? How?”
“I have a savings account that I can tap for money.”
&n
bsp; “Nope, he can track you that way. Have you gotten money out of it since you ran?”
“Yeah, I guess that’s how he’s found me, huh?” She sighed and dropped the fork to the plate.
“I would say so. No more accessing money. Do you have a cell phone?”
“Yes.” She pulled it out of her back pocket.
“Turn it off, and leave it off. GPS tracking is amazing nowadays.” Morgan watched her turn the phone off and then shove it back into her pocket.
“I wonder what else I’ve screwed up.” Amanda sighed.
“Eat. We’ll figure this out.”
“So you’re not going to kick me to the curb?” she asked.
He swallowed and took a sip of coffee before answering her. His mouth worked for a few seconds as if trying to decide what to say.
“No. I’ll help you get somewhere safe, but you’re going to have to do exactly what I tell you. Understood?”
Amanda relaxed. “Understand. I’ll follow your directions, no problem.”
“To begin with, you are going to have to start eating better. You’ve barely touched your breakfast.”
“I’m not really all that hungry,” she admitted.
“Doesn’t matter, you’re eating for two now. Which reminds me, you need vitamins of some kind, don’t you?”
She blushed. “Yeah, prenatal vitamins. I haven’t been to a doctor yet.”
“When we get you some new clothes and hair dye, we can get some from the pharmacy. I think they have some you can get over the counter.”
“How come you know so much about being pregnant?” she asked.
“Never mind. Eat. We have a lot to do today.” Morgan finished his meal and sat back.
It made her nervous for him to watch her eat, but she was afraid to say anything to him about it, so she continued to take small bites in hopes she could finish most of it without getting sick. It wasn’t so much that it tasted bad—it was the texture that turned her stomach. If this was how it was going to be the entire time she was pregnant, she was in trouble.
“I can’t possibly eat any more,” she said, letting her fork clatter to the plate.
“Guess that will have to do then. Let’s get on the road. We’ll stop at the next larger town and do some shopping.”
Amanda sighed in relief and stood up. For a second, she thought she might pass out. Morgan was by her side immediately, holding her up.
“You okay? What’s wrong? You turned white all over.”
“I just got a little dizzy there for a minute, that’s all. I’m fine now.” She shrugged his arm away and walked toward the front counter.
Morgan caught up with her and took her elbow. “You probably stood up too quickly. You’re going to have to take it slower from now on.”
She watched as he paid for their meal, then suffered his guiding her out to the bike. He had the helmet on her and fastened before she realized what he was doing.
“Hey! I’m not an invalid. I can still take care of myself.”
“You didn’t look like you were feeling well. If you don’t pay attention to what your body is telling you, then I will. You need to take it easy,” he said in a rough voice.
They returned to the room and checked out. Morgan wanted to get on the road and find a store soon.
He climbed on the bike and started it. Looking over his shoulder, he jerked his head, indicating she needed to climb on back. Amanda’s lips thinned in agitation, but she knew he was right, so she climbed on and fumed for the next twenty miles until they reached the next exit. By the time he’d pulled into the parking lot of a discount store, she had calmed down enough to be civil.
“We should be able to find everything you need here.” Morgan led her inside and grabbed a buggy.
“Hair color first,” Amanda said and headed in the direction of the hair care products.
“What color do you want to try?” he asked.
Amanda blew out a breath and sighed. “How about dark brown? It will cover the red without turning an odd color, I think. Oh, and we need scissors. I need to cut it, too.”
“Fuck, I hate that.” Morgan shook his head.
“It will grow back. It has to be done. I can’t afford for them to find me.”
He took the supplies from her and dropped them in the buggy.
“Where to next?” she asked.
“Clothes, I’m hoping they have something a little tougher-looking. Your jeans are fine, but the blouses and girly T-shirt have to go.”
Amanda fallowed him to the ladies’ apparel and searched through the various racks of clothes for something more to Morgan’s liking. Unfortunately, she didn’t find anything. Morgan, on the other hand, had a handful of things for her to try on. Taking a good look at them, she wasn’t surprised she hadn’t found anything. His taste ran along the line of trashy.
“You expect me to wear these? I mean, they don’t exactly cover all of me,” she pointed out.
“Not my idea of decent either, but it’s what we need in order to fit into the crowd we’ll be traveling with.”
“Crowd? What crowd? You didn’t say anything about there being others.”
“I figure the best way to stay under Guy’s radar is to be somewhere he won’t be looking for you. I doubt he would expect you to be riding in a biker gang.”
Amanda swallowed, then swallowed again. “Um, no. He won’t expect that. I wouldn’t expect that.”
“See, it will work. Plus, these guys are good friends and will help us if we need it,” he added.
“Fine, let me try these on.” She took the proffered clothes and hurried to the ladies’ fitting room.
Twenty minutes later, she had four new tops and a pair of riding boots. Even she wouldn’t have recognized herself if she didn’t know better.
“I’ll pay you back for all of this as soon as I can access my money,” she assured him.
“Don’t worry about that right now. Last stop is the pharmacy. You stick back here until I come get you. That way, if Guy happens to choose this pharmacy to stop and ask questions, you weren’t with me when I asked for prenatal vitamins.”
Amanda had to agree it was a good idea, but she wasn’t real happy about standing alone waiting on him. Somewhere along the way she’d grown to trust him and feel secure around him. She needed to shake that feeling because it wouldn’t be for long, just long enough to get her somewhere safe.
Five minutes later, Morgan reappeared with a white paper bag bearing the pharmacy name on it.
“Okay, I think we’re set.” He took all the bags from her, but let her carry the pharmacy bag.
Once they were outside, he pulled all of her clothes out of her backpack and discarded the old ones in favor of the new ones. He bundled them up in one of the bags and stuffed the bag deep in a Dumpster.
“What about my hair?” she asked.
“We’ll grab a room at the next stop, and you can do your thing there. Eat these peanut butter and crackers for now. Then we’ll meet up with the rest of my friends and see what their plans are. They ride in some rallies along the way to whatever town they plan on staying for a while. I think they are considering somewhere in California this time.”
Amanda climbed back onto the back of the bike and held on as Morgan pulled out of the parking lot and headed back toward the interstate and another four hours on the road. By the time they reached the next town Morgan planned to stop in, Amanda could have sworn her ass was numb from the constant vibrations. Her poor baby was probably seasick, she thought.
Morgan got a room in a motel, having her hide behind the line of cars until he had the room key.
“No reason for him to know what you look like now. He can see what you look like after your cut-and-dye job,” Morgan explained.
As soon as they got into the room, she made a beeline for the bathroom, carrying her supplies. She wanted to get this part over with, and she was dying for a shower. She felt like road grime.
With the first cut of the scissors, she wond
ered if Morgan would like it or not. Then she wondered why that would be important to her. They didn’t even like each other really, did they?
* * * *
Morgan tugged off his boots and then pulled off his T-shirt. He was hot and sweaty and needed a shower. As soon as Amanda got out, he planned to take one. For now, he sat on the love seat and stretched his legs out in front of him. It felt good to stretch. He spent a lot of time on his bike, but it still left him stove up after long rides. Add to the fact that he’d spent several weeks in a soft bed helping to protect two of his best buds’ women, and he was a little out of shape for long rides. This would be one hell of a ride.
His thoughts turned to Amanda and what she might look like when she came out. No matter what, he knew better than to laugh or stutter. Whatever the outcome, he hoped it would work for what they had in mind, which meant he hoped she wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb.
After what felt like forever, the doorknob turned and the bathroom door cracked open, letting steam escape. He waited, but she didn’t appear. He got up and walked over to the bathroom and peeked inside. She stood with a towel wrapped around her and the hair dryer in her hand, fiddling with the buttons.
“Having trouble?” he asked.
She squealed and jumped. He caught the hair dryer in one hand and grabbed her arm with the other to be sure she didn’t fall and break her fool neck.
“Don’t do that!” he thundered.
“Don’t sneak up on me then,” she yelled.
“I didn’t sneak up on you. You opened the door.”
“I needed to let some of the steam out so I could see to dry my hair. Now I can’t get the stupid dryer to work.”
He could hear the tears in her voice and knew they were just before falling. Shit, her hormones were kicking in. He fiddled with the surge protector on the wall and turned the dryer on for her.
“Here you go,” he yelled over the noise of the dryer.
“Thanks.” She took it and began blowing her hair.
Morgan took a face full of hot air and quickly stepped out of the bathroom. He realized he hadn’t even gotten a good look at what her hair looked like. Shrugging, he decided to jump in the shower while she was drying her hair. With the door open, the steam wouldn’t be a problem. He’d get a little bit of a draft, but he could handle that.
