a Mariner’s cap on backward, a ratty T-shirt, equally ratty jeans, and steel-toed boots, none of which took away from his easy good looks and tough build. A roofer by trade when he chose to work, he was clearly on his way to or from a job. “Problem?” he asked.
He didn’t blink at the mud. This was probably because he wasn’t looking at her limbs. Nope, that honor went to her braless breasts, now outlined with extra-special clarity thanks to the mud acting like an adhesive. “My Vespa’s battery is dead,” Chloe said. “And I don’t have cell service.”
“No one does right here.” He didn’t say a word about the fact that her Vespa was nowhere in sight. “You know what this means, right?” he asked. “You’re at my mercy.” He grinned, and she sighed. One hundred thousand sperm and
“Come on,” he said. “That was funny.”
“Why are you out here?”
He shrugged. “On my way home from work.”
“Isn’t this way out of the way?”
Another shrug, and he stared out his windshield. “Sometimes I like to be alone, to hear myself think.”
More like he’d gone somewhere remote to get high. But he didn’t look buzzed.
“You getting in?” he asked. “Us outcasts need to stick together.”
“Outcasts?” She shook her head. “You’re not an outcast.”
“Misfits, then.” Something came and went in his eyes when he said this, but she couldn’t read him. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah,” she said, softening. Because she did know. Exactly.
He had a duffle bag on the passenger seat, which he took and stuffed behind them instead. Then he patted the passenger seat.
He was Jamie’s brother. And Jamie was Tucker’s friend, and Tucker was Lance’s brother-but six degrees from trouble was still trouble, and she’d been trying so damn hard to stay
“Come on, sweet thing. I’ve got somewhere I’ve gotta be.”
Guilt didn’t begin to cover how she felt about getting into his truck, but she did it anyway. She glanced over her shoulder and saw his open duffle bag.
She thought she caught sight of ziplock baggies stuffed with-
Todd reached back and shoved the duffle bag farther down so she couldn’t see into it. “You’re going to owe me,” he said, shoving the truck into gear and speeding back onto the highway, flashing her a grin. “Big.”
She straightened and looked at him. Was he carrying drugs? She hadn’t gotten a close enough look, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to ask him while they were out in the middle of nowhere. Besides, she could admit that she hadn’t gotten a good enough look to accuse him of anything. “I’ll pay for gas.”
“Not the kind of payment I was banking on.”
“Shut up and drive, Todd.”
He grinned again. Ignoring him, she huddled into herself for warmth, staring out the window. Clouds sifted through the trees like wood smoke, distracting her for a while. Out here, the growth was extravagantly thick with spruce and hemlock. Moist air rode in from off the coast, something her lungs liked but made her even more cold.
Twenty minutes later, she sat up straight. “Pull over.”
“Yeah, baby,” Todd said, and braked.
“Not for that! Lucille has a flat.”
“Hell no,” Todd said. “I’m not helping that old bat. She’s always calling the damn cops on me.”
“We can’t just leave her there.”
“Hell, yeah, we can.”
“Todd, goddammit, pull over!”
Todd shook his head and slammed on the brakes as he pulled onto the shoulder. Dirt rose. “I’m not changing her tire. She told Kelly Armstrong I was a menace to society, and her husband, Manny, fired me. Cost me three weeks of work.”
“We can’t just leave her out here. It’s chilly, and she looks cold. I’ll help her myself.” Chloe swung out of the truck.
“I’m not waiting,” Todd warned, revving his truck. “I’m late.”
“Then don’t wait.” She slammed the door, not surprised when he peeled out and was gone, leaving her literally in his dust. “Idiot.”
Just as she walked toward Lucille, another truck pulled up.
Sawyer Thompson ambled out of his truck, then stood there in low-slung Levi’s and a soft-looking, thin black sweater over a black T-shirt, eyes hidden behind dark, reflective sunglasses.
Off duty, Chloe thought as a violent shiver racked her.
“My white knight,” Lucille said, dusting off her hands. “I called him a few minutes ago.”
When Sawyer walked up to Lucille’s little Prius, the older woman was giving the flat a kick. He glanced at Chloe, who was very busy studying the highway. “Hey,” he said, taking in the mud all over her. “You okay?”
“Perfect.”
Okaaaaay. He watched her shiver and handed her his keys. “Go wait in my truck; crank the heat.” He headed toward Lucille, not all that surprised when he heard Chloe follow him. “Nice job on listening,” he said.
“Maybe I’d listen if you ever asked.”
“I ask.”
She snorted.
Lucille had stopped kicking her tire and had picked up a lug wrench.
“You didn’t mention you had a passenger when you called me,” Sawyer said.
“I didn’t.” Lucille glanced at Chloe. “She just got dropped off.”
Sawyer turned to Chloe, who was back to studying the highway like her life depended on it. “What does she mean, you just got dropped off?”
“I believe I have the right to remain silent,” Chloe said.
Shaking his head, Sawyer crouched at Lucille’s side by the back rear tire and took the lug wrench.
Lucille backed up and smiled knowingly at Chloe’s condition. “Mud springs, right?”
Chloe nodded.
Sawyer narrowed his gaze on Chloe. “You were at the mud springs?”
“Yes.”
“How did you get here?”
Before she could answer, Lucille cut in with, “I used to take my stud muffin up there, back in the day. That mud has healing effects, you know. And also, it’s an aphrodisiac. Not that you need an aphrodisiac with this one,” she said to Chloe, gesturing to Sawyer with a sly smile.
Sawyer grimaced, but Chloe cocked her head and studied him. “You don’t think so?” she asked Lucille doubtfully.
“Honey, just look at him.”
Both women studied him now, and Sawyer, afraid of nothing except possibly these two, found himself squirming.
“Where’s your uniform?” Lucille asked. “I like looking at you in it.”
“I’m off duty,” he said.
“Aw, and you still came out to help me instead of calling someone else to do it.” She patted him on his arm. “Such a sweet boy.”
Chloe made an indistinguishable sound, but when Sawyer looked at her, she was all green-eyed innocence.
“I talked to Suzie today,” Lucille told Sawyer. “She told me what you did for her boy this week, how you
