Saving Treasure (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (2 page)

She watched the people even more carefully. It was a habit that years of moving had cultivated.

The woman, who she believed owned the red car, was toting a small baby and a huge diaper bag. There was a couple that may have been approaching their fifties that was heading toward the SUV with a small dog. That left the person or people that owned the truck. She didn’t see anybody else.

A trickle of apprehension ran along her body as she checked around again for another person who could own the truck. Not seeing anyone, she clutched her bag closer and mounted the walkway that was decorated with a multitude of leafy and flowery plants leading up to the building.

She dashed into the girls’ room and took care of her needs before looking in the mirror. The room was actually fairly clean, and it smelled as though there was someone who came by regularly to decontaminate it. She took her time to wipe herself a bit. Brushing her teeth and washing her face brought a welcome exuberance, but it couldn’t compare to being able to change into the fresh clothes from her bag after washing herself off to rid the dusty feeling from traveling. She wiped a damp rag over her skin.

She studied her newest addition to the marks on her body before covering them. It was a large bruise that blanketed most of her left side and traveled to her back. She was just thankful that it didn’t feel as though any of her ribs were cracked. It was just a bruise, a very ugly bruise. Her side also hurt every time she moved around, but that was to be expected with a bruise of that magnitude.

The act of getting a bit cleaner and the realization of the distance she had driven in less than a day gave her a lift in spirits and a sense of freedom. She giggled as she looked down at the wreckage of her favorite bag. Her dad had been stationed in the Middle East for about six months when she was almost sixteen. She had bought the bag from an older woman while scouting around with a few other teenagers. Eight years later, it looked as though it was going to fall apart, but she wouldn’t trade it for anything. It was bright and colorful, a real one of a kind since the Moroccan women tended to make them to earn income if they found themselves without a provider. The culture was so completely different from the one she had known, but it was their culture, which they held on to proudly.

She stepped outside of the restroom, feeling much better. It had started to rain a bit, and the only vehicle left was the big truck. She studied it more, noting the steel grille and imperfections from rough use, like the scuff marks. This truck was used in the way a truck was intended. It wasn’t a showpiece.

A red light caught her attention, causing her to jump and whirl around. A man was standing a bit to her right, under the awning, still, finishing a cigarette. He was very tall and very broad. She couldn’t quite make out any actual and distinct features other than he looked rough. He was obviously someone who worked with his hands and was strong enough to do just about anything he wanted.

She headed to her car before a sound was uttered, feeling his eyes studying her body. She was not looking forward to any words being exchanged. She felt uncomfortable, like her skin was too tight for her all of the sudden. Every piece of her was hyperaware of the man she was leaving behind as she got to her car as fast as she could walk.

She sighed as she slid into the driver’s seat and closed her door, locking it surreptitiously. She didn’t feel like taking a nap now that her nerves were firing with awareness, and she didn’t want to hang around much longer, although she really did want to walk and stretch. It was really dark outside now that the sun had finished setting, hinting to her that she had lingered longer than she intended while cleaning herself. She didn’t want to be found, but she knew she would need a bit of a nap sooner or later. She decided to wait just a few minutes before leaving. She wanted to continue to watch that man.

Sitting in her car, she held her breath as she turned on her cell phone. It was a rather morbid curiosity that she couldn’t have resisted for reasons unknown to her. She rationalized the action by thinking to herself that she did have a few friends who may have called her, since she didn’t exactly tell a single person that she was leaving.

The phone finally indicated that it had received six text messages, fourteen missed calls, and two voice mails. Her hands were shaking as she began to scroll through the messages. A friend whom she had gone out with a time or two from her job had texted to warn her that Larson was asking around for her. The other five were from an increasingly angered Larson. She had anticipated this, but it still made her shake to even see it. She began to try to calm herself a bit by slowing her breathing and holding the breaths before she called her voice mail.

“Baby, if you come home now, I will forgive you. I will still have to punish you, but I promise it won’t be as bad as it will be when I find you. Come on. I will see you this evening.” His voice was attempting to be cajoling, but promised a world of pain. She rolled her eyes at the nickname that held wonderful memories that he was trying to steal from her. Her daddy had been the last person to call her “baby,” and she knew that he knew that.

There had been a couple of months when they had been nice, normal roommates. They talked and drank together like any other roomies would have done. She deleted that message and allowed the next one to play.

Ice ran through her blood as she heard how calm and low his tone was. She couldn’t even concentrate on the words he threaded with venom as he promised her that he would find her. She was positive that everything she had left in the apartment was destroyed now. Thankfully, she had already planned to just write all of it off. She had only been able to sneak out a few changes of clothes and very few mementoes that she had kept over the years. She’d had to use her experience with having to move with the military to decide what really had to go with her and to pack well enough while maintaining the lightness she needed.

Her head hit the headrest while she blinked back tears. She looked down at the really dark bruise that encircled her upper arm, and growled. She had gotten away. That was most important right now. He couldn’t do much to her since she had left her job. At least, she didn’t think he could.

She sat up, strapped her seatbelt on, and pulled out a soda from her bag she had just bought. The caffeine would be a blessing to help her stay awake and going just a bit longer. She cranked her engine and put her car into reverse, leaving the rest stop. She was also leaving behind the man who had caught her attention and made her uneasy in ways she didn’t want to think about.

James Calloway stopped on his way home to take a break and to smoke his last cigarette since he didn’t smoke when he was home. His best friend, housemate, and unofficial partner, Chad Hardin, didn’t like it when he smoked, and the only time he did was when he was away from home on a job. He was tired, but he was at least close to home now for the first time in a little over two months. Traveling while tired was one of the drawbacks to the freedom that his construction job offered. He really did appreciate his downtime since it usually came in the form of weeks at once.

He turned his head and looked at the small woman coming out of the girls’ room as he took a good drag off the cigarette and studied her as she tried to study him. He knew she would have trouble really taking in any of his features due to the lack of lighting where he was standing, but he had no trouble looking at the tumble of honey hair, the wide green eyes, or any of the bruises that littered her arms, face, or neck. This girl was in trouble. That much was obvious to anyone who would actually look at her.

Before he could have really said anything, she darted toward her car and slid into it. That confirmed that she was running, most likely from the person who had decorated her body in such a brutal way. He couldn’t stand guys like that. In southern Louisiana, guys didn’t brutalize the women, and if they did, the other guys around would take them out and have a nice, long talk with them that ended with the punk getting a taste of his own medicine. That was just how they were raised. A man did not raise a hand to a woman. James really itched to take a few good swings at the guy who would hurt someone who had to be smaller than him. She was rather on the small side, and that made guessing her age a challenge. He felt absurdly protective of this girl, especially since he didn’t even know her name or much else about her. Her eyes were captivating though. He felt a tightening in his groin as he studied her.

He decided not to move as she sat there for awhile. She was scared. That much was as plain as the dark-purple bruise that traced the right side of her face. He had noted that the tags on her car indicated she was most likely running from New Mexico.

When she finally cranked her car and got back on the highway, he went toward his truck and started heading home. He knew Chad would still be at work. His long-time friend had been working the night shift more and more as an orderly at the hospital closest to where they lived. He was attending school on and off, trying to decide how far he wanted go.

James almost wished he could have talked to that girl. She was tragically attractive in spite of her current beaten state, but it was more than that. There was something that had been written in the stiff line of her back that stole his attention, and it wasn’t only her shapely ass. Although, it was probably for the best that he hadn’t been able to approach her or talk to her because that was all he could ever have with the undefined, in-limbo relationship he shared with Chad. He knew that Chad had always completed him in a way, but James also knew that he wanted more. He just kept those thoughts to himself though.

He smiled as he thought about Chad. It may have been a slightly odd relationship since it was still undefined, but he really missed the closeness they shared whenever he was gone. They had been best friends since they had both been old enough to wander down the road. James’s family had lived three houses down from the small, clean, old home where he had lived as they grew up. Now, they both lived in the house that Chad had inherited once his adopted parents passed away following his sophomore year in college.

Since then, they had enjoyed renovating a bit here and there to make it more their home. They had bonded even closer during this project and discovered that there were some buried feelings they had never examined that had exploded in a tense and passionate display. They hadn’t acknowledged the relationship outside of their home yet and even occupied separate rooms at times, but there was no denying it between themselves. It was something that James wished would be the real deal for them. Neither of them had ever been in a relationship with another man though. It was something he could hope they would acknowledge and accept after they confronted whatever their relationship was.

The screeching of tires and the crunch of metal hitting wood startled him as he quickly pulled over where he saw red taillights. His truck was in park and he was running to the little green car he had just seen at the rest stop before he even registered what had happened. He jerked the car door open and dropped down on a knee to survey the damage.

“Are you okay?” He yelled his question at her. His rough tone didn’t seem to faze her at the moment, but his touch on her shoulder did.

Her only response was a nod and a groan as if she was still processing what had happened. Her whole body was shaking as she started to try to tell him what had happened. “There was a deer, and it just came out, and it was just standing there. I tried to swerve, but it freaked and started to run…and…and…I wound up here.”

She was really spooked. It was in her eyes, and he knew that she was in even more pain than earlier. The look in her eyes reminded him of a wild animal. Her next words caused his forehead to pucker in confusion. “No police, please. Don’t take me to the hospital, either.”

“You’ve had an accident, and you’ve got to report it. You also need to make sure you didn’t hurt yourself, so you need to be checked out, darling.” He reached in and undid her seat belt and started to pull her out once he saw for sure that she was moving her head on her own, leading him to believe that she at least hadn’t damaged her neck. Thank God Chad made him take those CPR lessons!

Her frame was very tiny in his hands, and the feel of her appealed not only his dominant male side but his protective instincts as well. He heard another groan from her body as she seemed to lose consciousness. He knew this was not good as she slumped against him. He had to get in touch with Chad, but he needed someone who would be able to help at the moment. The only way Chad could help was if they went to the hospital. He tried to think of someone to call. He pulled out his phone and began dialing Jackson’s phone. He would and could help while keeping it all hushed until they knew this girl’s story.

Jackson was a good friend on his crew who was married to a veterinarian. He knew that she was in major trouble if she would beg him not to take her to the hospital after having a wreck, especially since she was hurting pretty bad. He still couldn’t believe he was doing this, as he hoped that she wasn’t running from the law, dragging him into a mess of trouble. Looking at her face again, he couldn’t believe that she could be in that type of trouble ever. She looked too innocent and trusting and beguiling. He then started planning to remove as many traces of her as possible. They would have to come back pretty quickly to get her car away from the tree if they hoped not to attract the attention of anyone official.

“Jackson, I have a huge favor to ask. I’ll meet ya and your missus outside of her clinic in about thirty. Yeah, I’ll explain then. I know. Big favor. Just please be there.” He ended the call before his friend could even respond. He hoped that he could explain.