“Yeah.”
I nodded, took another bite of my burger. “So good.”
Someone called him. He turned from me, started away and said from over his shoulder. “Enjoy it.”
I was embarrassed to say I wolfed the burger, but I hadn’t eaten since that morning. I nursed my beer, thinking the liquid courage would help me scare off the raccoons that were taking up residence in my cabin. The realtor had disclosed that the cabin had sat empty, but I didn’t understand why. From the pictures, it was beautiful, but it was the location that sold me. Nothing but open space and mountains, just like my younger self had wanted.
“Where is he, Liam?”
I glanced over to see the woman from the jukebox. She looked pissed, but it was the change in Liam that fascinated me. He looked, well, there was nothing, he was stoic, which considering the easy friendliness I’d been gifted with, clearly, there was a story there.
“You gotta stop this, Monica.”
“No, I don’t. Just tell me where he is.”
“If he wanted you to know, he’d tell you. You know him. He finds out you were here tonight; he’s going to be pissed.”
“We were good once,” she whispered.
“You were never really together,” Liam countered.
She didn’t like that, swiping her hand across the bar; a glass went flying and shattered against the wall.
“Get the fuck out, Monica. Now!” Liam roared.
“He can’t avoid me forever.”
“That didn’t get you, did it?” Liam’s stride was long as he approached. “You’re not hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
He exhaled. “I’m sorry about that.”
It wasn’t my business, but it wasn’t his fault either. “It wasn’t you who sent that glass flying.”
“No.” He looked at my empty plate, a grin replacing the frown. “Good, right?”
“Delicious.”
“It’s on the house.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Just say thank you, Cedar.”
“Thank you.”
“Give me a few, and I’ll drive you to your cabin, get rid of your houseguests.”
“Seriously?” I’d just been pondering sleeping in my Jeep, but it was cold.
“Yeah. Can’t have you crashing in the bar. How would that look?”
I chuckled. “Good point.”
A half an hour later, we were pulling down my drive, his pickup parked behind me. I climbed from my Jeep, my focus on the stoop. I didn’t see the yellow eyes.
“Stay here,” he ordered, as he came up behind me.
I jumped. He chuckled. About five minutes later, he called to me. I joined him, my eyes looking around me in the dark for those beady yellow ones.
“It’s so dark,” I said, using the flashlight on my phone to see the keyhole. A musky smell hit me when I opened the door. I hit the switch, had a moment’s panic that the raccoons were living in my cabin, but worry over the raccoons took a backseat when I saw the state of the cabin.
“Jesus,” Liam whispered next to me.
“I have a lot of house cleaning to do.”
“Maybe you should stay in the room over the bar tonight.”
“There’s a room over the bar?”
“Yeah.” He held the door for me. “You can’t stay here.” I wasn’t going to argue. “Leave your Jeep, I’ll bring you back in the morning. We can stop for supplies.”
“Thank you.”
“My momma would hit me upside the head if I didn’t help a damsel in distress,” he teased.
I was grateful and exhausted; we drove back to the tavern in silence. There was a staircase in the back, a door at the top. He unlocked it, turned on the lights. There’s a bed in the back.”
“Seriously, thank you, Liam. I’m not sure what I would have done. Probably slept in my Jeep.”
“And we’d have found you in the morning frost bitten. Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night.”
I moved right to the bedroom. Dropped my purse on the chair, stripped out of my clothes, climbed under the covers and fell fast asleep.
Something wet touched my face. I pushed it away; it came back. “Stop,” I muttered. Another nudge on my other side, and, in my dream, it was the raccoons. They’d come back to claim my home as their own. My eyes opened but were still blurry from sleep. “Stop it, you night walking thieves.”
Then I took in what was really in the room with me, wolves, two of them, huge wolves staring at me like I was lunch. I did what any New Yorker would do. I screamed.
“For fuck’s sake.” A deep voice drifted from the other room. The sound of heavy footfalls growing closer had my heart moving into my throat, before it dropped into my stomach at the sight of the man who filled the doorway. Like the wolves, he was huge. Dressed in jeans and a black sweater, his arms and chest were massive. His black hair was short with a little extra length on the top that looked like he’d just run his hand through it. Eyes the color of the sky landed on me; I felt a chill at the coldness in them. “Why the fuck does Liam always go for the screamers. Sweetheart, it’s morning. You’ve had your fun now you need to fucking leave.”
It took me a second because I was half asleep, in a strange room with a strange man, who was ridiculously handsome, staring at me like I was something he picked up on his boot.
“What?”
“Always more looks than brains,” he muttered. “He’s not here. The ride is over. Time for you to do whatever the fuck it is you do during the daylight hours.”
My jaw dropped because I was pretty sure he just called me a hooker. Before I could open my mouth and tell him to go fuck himself, he grabbed my clothes from the chair and tossed them at me. “Party’s over. Get the fuck out.”
For just a second, I thought maybe I was dreaming. It was the kind of dream I’d have, something so contrary, but his cold eyes were penetrating my sleepy brain.
“Today, Sugar.” But there was nothing sweet about that endearment.
He turned to go and I muttered, “Prick.” Of course, he had hearing like a bat when he turned around in slow motion. Menacing was a good way to describe it. A lump formed in the back of my throat but I swallowed it down.
“Excuse me.” I got a chill with how he said those two words, but then he just called me a hooker, so we were even.