He smiled again crookedly. “You keep looking at me like that, babe, we won’t need to have sex to cal in trouble.”
Her hands tightened on her napkin.
She tamped down the excitement rising in her blood, the arousal humming like static along her skin. She needed to think.
“I’m going out to the Jeep,” she said. “To get a clean shirt.”
“I’l go with you.”
She shook her head decisively. She needed perspective.
Distance. She couldn’t think when he was near. “I’l be fine.
I’l only be a minute.”
He scanned the diner and then her face. Nodded slowly.
“If that’s what you want. I’l settle up.”
She slid out of the booth, striding past the now-empty counter, her heart pounding as if she were running away.
Which, of course, she was.
She shoved open the door, disturbing the birds that had now settled onto the parking lot. She rounded the side of the building, passed the truck. A crow flapped from the Jeep’s rol bar to the ground, cocking its head to watch her.
Creepy thing.
But she had more on her mind than a bunch of stupid birds.
The bags were in back, behind the driver’s seat. She sidled between the Jeep and the big eighteen-wheeler, shivering in the truck’s shadow. An odd, stale quiet stole over 18 4
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her. Like walking into a dead zone, like being shut into a closet. Leaning into the open door of the Jeep, she snatched the plastic Walmart bag from the back. Turned.
Three men stepped from behind the truck to block her way.
Flannel shirts. Red bandanna. Tattoos . . . The men from the diner.
Her senses, which had been numb and dumb, crackled back to life. Her heart thumped in panic.
Fight? Or flight?
*
*
*
“Everything al right?” the peach-haired waitress asked as she rang up their order. “Fine,” Iestyn assured her.
It was, wasn’t it? Lara had just stepped outside a minute to fetch a shirt, to catch her breath, to set a little distance between them.
He didn’t blame her. This thing—connection—between them spooked her. Spooked him, too. Not the sex. Sex came easy for him and his kind. But the intimacy.
He’d never been tangled up in a woman so fast. He’d liked her looks from the start, those clear gray eyes and the little frown between them, that fal of mink brown hair and the angle of her chin. But it was the whole messy package that appealed to him, her fascinating bundle of nerves, spine, and determination.
He frowned at the curling dol ar bil taped over the register.
He wanted her, sure. But for the first time with a woman, he wanted more. Her safety. Her happiness.
It made him antsy, knowing this time he couldn’t walk away without leaving a piece of himself behind. No wonder she needed a minute to herself.
She sure was taking her own sweet time, though.
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He threw another glance at the door. The windows were too high, too narrow to see out.
“Wait! Your change.”
The crows in the parking lot yammered like gul s.
“Keep it,” he said, and broke into a run.
*
*
*
Black birds ringed the parking lot like spectators at a boxing match. Or vultures. Iestyn’s heart jack-hammered. The three men from the diner had Lara trapped between a big rig and the Jeep.
At least this time none of her attackers was possessed by a demon.
That he knew of.
A chil chased over his skin. Briefly, he met Lara’s gaze, blazing in her pale face. “Get inside.”
She opened her mouth to argue before she figured out his order was for the benefit of their audience. Pressing her lips together, she took two jerky steps toward him.
Tattoos took the toothpick from his mouth and pitched it to the ground. “I say she stays.”
“Let her go,” Iestyn said evenly.
The stocky man with the weary eyes met his gaze. “Or what? You’l cal the cops?”
Duck into the diner, leaving her alone? Risk having the cops run a make on their stolen Jeep?
“We don’t want trouble,” Iestyn said again.
Tattoos laughed.
The man in the red bandanna crossed his arms over his chest. “Then cal off your spies.”
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“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Iestyn said.
“Cal ’em off, or your girlfriend’s going back to Heaven ahead of schedule.”
But Lara was easing between the Jeep and the truck, retreating toward the diner, securing herself space and a wal at her back.
Iestyn started circling with Bandanna Man and the stocky guy, hoping to buy time to let her get away, get inside, trying to keep one eye on Lara and the other on his new dance partners, watching their hands, watching their eyes. Hoping nobody had a knife or, Jesus, a gun.
Tattoos realized Lara was slipping away and made a grab for her. The flock of birds burst from the ground, a feathered explosion of black wings and raucous cries.
Lara dropped out of sight behind the Jeep.
