“Ashley?”
I jolted from my thoughts, jerking my head his way.
Crap.
I could feel my cheeks burning with embarrassment over the things I’d been thinking.
He cocked an eyebrow at me. Did he know? Had it been obvious that I’d been fantasizing about him, basically salivating over him?
“Uh… yeah?”
“I asked you a question, but you were spacing out for a bit there. You all right?”
His eyes flicked down my body and I tensed with anticipation. Was he thinking the same things about me?
“Did those assholes hurt you anywhere else, other than your face?”
Oh. That was why he’d been looking me over. “No,” I said, with a shake of my head.
“Good,” he grunted, turning his attention back to the road. “We’ll stop in a bit and I’ll take care of that graze for you. We just need to get some distance first.”
“How much distance exactly? Where are we going?” My fists clenched automatically when I considered the most likely possibility. “I’m not going back there, Finn. Stop this truck right now, if that’s what you’re planning.”
The truck jostled violently as he sped down the highway on-ramp. His eyes glued to the road as he gunned it to merge, he called over, “Not going back where?”
“To my dad’s club.”
“That’s the last place you need to be right now.”
I frowned. “Why’s that?”
“The club is under threat. You’d be a sitting target.”
“Oh. Where are we headed then?”
“My place.”
Well, color me shocked. “Your place?”
“Yes.”
“How far are we talking?”
“Three-hundred and six miles from here.”
Wow. Specific. “That’s… what… a five-hour drive?”
“I’ll get us there in four.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Me staying with you?”
“You’ll be safe,” he assured me.
Urgh. I was going to have to spell it out. “I meant, with what happened between us.”
“You planting one on me with that pretty little mouth?”
I brought my hand to my lips.
He chose that moment to look over at me.
I dropped my hand sharply.
He studied me, his eyes sweeping over my face. “You’re a mission,” he said, his voice cold, his face expressionless.
My gut clenched at his brutal indifference. He’d done that several times when I’d gotten too close, or asked questions he’d considered too personal, when I’d helped nurse him back to health at the clubhouse. He’d shut down and it was so jarringly sudden that I never knew what to do with it, or how to react.
I decided turning away and focusing on the highway rushing by outside the window was the best for right now.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before he spoke again, making me jump, as it cut through the long silence like the shocking effect of one of those stupid air horns that people seemed to use far too often these days. “You should get some sleep.”
“I’m fine,” I murmured, my eyes still on the boring view through the tinted window.
“Ashley.”
“I’m not going to be able to sleep, okay? You’d think it would be par for the course with me. I’ve been threatened before. Because of my dad, what he is, what he’ll always be. But it doesn’t get any easier. It freaks me out, okay? I’m not the badass, cold, unfeeling bastard that my dad is.”
“I’m well aware.”
I swung my head his way. “You are?”
“You’re soft and sweet. You feel things deeply.”
“I… wow.”
He shrugged, dismissively. “I’m just a perceptive guy.”
Translation: don’t read into it. “Fine,” I muttered.
“Just try to sleep. It will help with the shock of it all.”
I slumped back against my seat. “Okay.”
Closing my eyes, I tried for several minutes to slip into sleep.
But there was something nagging at me, something that was all the more concerning now that Finn had apparently been assigned as my bodyguard for the foreseeable future.
“Finn?”
“Yeah?”
I braced myself, having absolutely no idea how he’d react. My voice came out as a weak croak, as I forced the words past my lips. “Did you kill those guys back there?”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel.
I tensed, sidling closer to the passenger door.
But then he simply shrugged, almost nonchalantly. “Does it matter? They were there to hurt you. Badly, if you recall what they were spouting off.”
“It matters.”
He took a moment, before finally answering me, “I had no choice.”
“What? Of course, you did. There are other ways to eliminate a threat without resorting to murder.”
He scrubbed his hand over his chin, muttering under his breath, “You’re so fucking young.”
“No,” I insisted. “It’s nothing to do with my age. I have a right to know why the man who’s tasked with ensuring my safety and wellbeing thought it was okay to murder two guys like it was nothing, when they were already incapacitated. We could’ve escaped without you taking it there. I mean, should I be worried? Or, terrified, actually? Are you… unstable? Some sort of psychopath? It wouldn’t be the first time my dad’s befriended that type of person. You’d seemed sane enough when we met during your recovery, but I could’ve misjudged the situation.”
“You spoke my name in front of them. Repeatedly.”
I frowned. “I don’t understand. What’s that got to do with—?”
“I had to silence them!” he snapped. “Permanently, Ashley! To protect both of us. I’m a ghost. I can’t have anybody knowing I’m still alive and kicking. A whole slew of assholes would be gunning for me and they’d never stop. While I could outrun them, you can’t. With you under my protection, you’d be put at risk, too. On top of that, if people found out your father was consorting with the likes of me, all hell would rain down on him. Hell from more than the Rogue Riders.”
I struggled to
