Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 103356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103356 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 413(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Sleeping with him had been both stupid and amazing.
“But he can help you if you’re in trouble.”
“I’m not in any trouble.” She smiled. He didn’t look like he believed her, though. Crap. She didn’t have Opal’s ability to lie with ease.
And this guy was good. He knew when to back off and when to press.
“Right. But you want to be paid cash. Because you don’t believe in banks. Is that it?”
Double crap.
“All right. My brother isn’t very nice, and the truth is, I don’t want him to find me. He’s . . . he wants me to do something I don’t want to do. But I’m not in immediate danger.”
Devon watched her. “Jake, that’s the sheriff, he’s gonna want to talk to you. If you’re staying in Haven, you need a guardian. Jake will be that for you if you don’t have anyone else.”
A guardian? They’d heard about this . . . but like other things she’d heard about Haven, she hadn’t been sure whether to believe it or not.
“I can take care of myself. And I might not be here long, um, sorry.” Probably not the thing to tell the guy that had just hired you on.
“I get the deal, Lilac. But if you’re in trouble, you’ve landed in the right place. And if you need help, then you talk to Jake. We take care of our own here.”
That sounded amazing.
But she still couldn’t quite believe in it. And she knew, deep down, that she’d never belong in a place as beautiful and clean and nice as this.
Because at heart, all she was . . . was trash.
10
By the time she got back to the RV, Lilac was sweaty and trembling. Her heart was racing, her head thumping, and she didn’t feel good.
“Really should have taken that bottle of water.”
Yep. She’d had that thought a lot on her trek home. Walking into town hadn’t felt so bad in the early morning with an empty backpack. But walking back in the midday heat with a backpack full of coolant and diapers.
Yep. Not good at all.
So, when she stepped into the park and saw a deputy sheriff’s car sitting next to the RV, Lilac considered turning around and running.
But she couldn’t.
Put your big girl panties on.
Taking a deep breath, she headed to the RV, alarm filling her as she heard Opal talking.
Oh God. Why was Ryleigh letting Opal do the talking?
“Hello!” she called out.
A nice-looking man turned toward her, eyeing her as she moved closer.
Damn. Were all the people in this town good-looking? The deputy sheriff had a fit build and dark hair. He looked like he was in his midthirties.
“Hey, doll,” Opal called out. She was dressed conservatively today. At least for her. Her jeans were skin-tight with rhinestones up the sides, paired with a short-sleeved tight top that was low-cut. “This is deputy Linc. He just wanted to check we were okay. I told him we’d be fucking peachy once you got back.”
“Yep. And I’m back.” She gave Linc a big smile.
He didn’t look convinced. Awesome.
“I’m Lilac.”
“Lilac.” He held out his hand and shook hers. Nice handshake. Not sweaty and clammy, but not too hard either.
Stefan used to shake hands with people like he was trying to break them.
Mind you, he often did go on to break them.
“I was just telling your friend here that we can’t let you park here overnight, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, we won’t be. We just had a bit of engine trouble last night, but I just got some stuff to fix it. So, we’ll be moving on.”
Nothing to see here.
Everything is fine.
Please don’t put our names in the system.
They all had fake last names. But she was worried their identities wouldn’t hold up if someone looked into them.
“Again, I’m really sorry. We’ll move on as soon as we can,” she said. “I just got a job at Dirty Delights, but we don’t have to stay if you’d rather. We can go to another town.”
She didn’t know why but she felt like she was on the cusp of breaking down, of just giving in and crying. She was aware of Opal giving her a shocked look as she shook her head, trying to tell her to stop talking.
Right. They weren’t leaving. Because this was their last option.
“Hey,” Linc said, holding his hands up. “No one is going to hurt you, okay?”
Why would he think she was worried about that? She hadn’t mentioned anything about anyone hurting her.
“Lilac? You okay? Nobody gave you trouble, did they?” Opal demanded, striding over to her. “I’ll fucking kill them.”
“She didn’t mean that,” Lilac told the deputy quickly.
He gave her a faint smile that didn’t dispel the worry in his gaze. “I didn’t think she did.”
If only he knew what Opal was capable of . . . he probably wouldn’t say that.