Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Luck was on my side because a middle-aged man who was trying hard to hold on to the little hair he had left, wearing a Florida State football jersey, zeroed in on her while getting his soda. She noticed his creepy-as-fuck smile, then spun around and bolted right back to me.
Score. I won.
“Ready? This pizza smells fantastic,” I said.
She glanced around us, then turned her eyes back up to meet mine.
“Can I trust you?” she whispered.
“Yeah, sweets. I swear it,” I replied, then nodded my head toward the register.
She didn’t move. “I just need a ride to a bus station.”
“Okay,” I replied, although there was no way in hell I was leaving her at a bus station.
Did she realize how much worse it would be there than it was here?
She swallowed nervously. “You aren’t going to rape and kill me?” Her question was so quiet that I barely heard it.
I leaned down toward her and held her gaze. “Have you looked at me, sweets? Not one time in my life have I had to force a female to have sex with me. I’m normally knocking them off me. As for killing…” I couldn’t help but smirk. “I’m just here to help you before some other scumbag makes another attempt to pick you up.”
She took a deep breath, but didn’t crack a smile. It was as if she was thinking hard about what I’d said and deciding how much truth there was to it. When she finally let out a sigh and nodded, I wanted to fucking sigh too.
“Okay,” she replied. “Let’s go.”
I grabbed her bottle of water. “Gotta pay for the food first,” I said.
She reached for her purse.
“It’s on me,” I told her, then headed for the register.
“I have money,” she said, hurrying to keep up with me.
“Good. You’ll probably need it at some point. But not right now.”
She didn’t say anything, and when I looked down at her, she gave me the closest thing to a smile I figured I was going to get. Especially since her mouth was so busted up. “Thank you.”
I nodded. “My pleasure.”
• three •
“How could you be lost if you didn’t know who you were to start with?”
Rumor
The woodsy scent of cedar with a touch of cinnamon filled the black Chevy truck as I climbed inside and sat down. I enjoyed the warmth of the aroma until I snapped out of it and focused on the fact that I had agreed to get into a stranger’s vehicle. But it wasn’t like I was having any luck with another option. I couldn’t study the people and approach anyone for help because strange men kept talking to me. This was the only man who wasn’t pushy and frightening. He’d helped me twice, and, well, he was right. He didn’t need to resort to forcing a woman to do anything with him or for him. I was just an exception, and he didn’t seem very interested in my appearance. He’d seemed more concerned than anything.
I heard my suitcase being placed in the truck bed, and then I glanced over at the driver’s door just as he opened it and held out the pizza box to me. I reached out and took it, and then he climbed inside with the plastic bag that contained our waters and my random cashews and pretzels I hadn’t really wanted. I’d just grabbed them to appear like I was shopping and not scoping out the place.
He took the waters out and placed them in the cupholders in the center console, then lifted his ridiculously blue eyes to meet mine. “If we’re gonna share a pizza, we should at least know each other’s name,” he told me, then held out his hand. “King Salazar.”
“Your…your name is King?”
I didn’t think he was telling me he was a king, but I’d never heard of someone being named King before. Oddly enough, he held that name well. I wasn’t going to tell him that though. Trusting a pretty face was something I would never do again. I hadn’t gotten in this truck because he was hot. I’d gotten in it because he had proven to be helpful and kind. Nothing more. And, yes, because most women in there were checking him out, yet he hadn’t seemed to notice.
He shrugged with a nonthreatening, amused smile on his face. “Yeah. My dad lost a bet.”
How interesting.
I slid my hand into his. “Rumor,” I said, then paused before saying my last name. I couldn’t trust anyone with that information. “Beauregard,” I finished, using the surname of my favorite foster family.
He gave me that killer smile that I was sure had women falling at his feet regularly. “It’s nice to meet you, Rumor. Now, why don’t we open that box and have a piece of greasy service-station pizza?”
The way he could so easily put someone at ease was a talent. One I needed to be careful with. Letting my guard down wasn’t an option. Even if this was a nice guy, like I had just about decided he was, I was on the run. No one could be trusted with any of my truths. I’d given him the name I had before I was married. Hill hadn’t felt that Rumor was appropriate. He said it was tacky and sounded backwoods. So, I agreed to have my name legally changed to Carmella. The name he had chosen for me. A name I came to hate so very soon after I said I do.