Silver Falls - Anne Stuart [43]
“Tell me, just how stupid are you?” he said. “If you thought I was going to kill you then why the hell did you come with me? Why did you even open the door to me?”
She was squirming down in her seat, momentarily intimidated by his sheer rage. “I thought you were David when I opened the door.”
“Well, I’m not. And if you were afraid of me you should have told me to leave and called someone. But no, you’re too fucking polite and you’re going to get yourself killed because of it.”
“Are you going to kill me?”
He leaned back against his seat. “No, I am not going to kill you, no matter how annoying you are. I don’t kill women. I don’t kill men, either. I’m trying to…” He stopped midsentence.
“You’re trying to what?”
“Feed you,” he said, putting the car in gear again.
“That’s not what you were going to say.”
“And you have such great instincts when it comes to men that you willingly came out alone with someone you thought capable of murder. I’m not impressed.”
“Well, you didn’t tell me where you were taking me, and this is the back end of beyond. We haven’t seen another car for miles.”
“Don’t tempt me,” he grumbled. “This is a shortcut. I grew up around here, remember? I know all the back roads. I used to come out here with my girlfriends and park.”
“Girlfriends, plural? Like you brought a bunch out at the same time?” She was beginning to feel just the slightest bit foolish. He was right, she had been ridiculously naïve for blithely getting in the car with a man she didn’t trust, a man who might be suspected of murder. She wasn’t usually such an idiot.
“Smart-ass,” he said. “One at a time. I’m a serial monogamist, not a serial killer.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“Well, not about the monogamy, and I have to admit that part seems unlikely. I know you’re not a serial killer.”
“Then why were you ready to leap to your death to get away from me?”
“Overactive imagination,” she said, pausing. “I wouldn’t have gotten into the car with you if I didn’t trust you.”
“Now there’s a mistake. There’s a world of difference between thinking I’m a serial killer and actually trusting me.” They’d pulled back onto a main road, with streetlamps spreading pools of light onto the wet pavement and the distant glow of neon beckoning.
His face was shadowed in the darkness, lit only by the glow of the dashboard lights. He looked slightly brutal, slightly gorgeous, and once again the thought ran through her mind. Why him? Why now?
She straightened, peering ahead. “So you’re taking me to some hole-in-the-wall bar where no one can see us and you’ll be feeding me watered-down beer and playing bad country music on the jukebox?”
She managed to surprise him into a laugh. “That would probably be my first choice, though I like my beer full strength and I’m not sure if there is any bad country music. But there aren’t any around here.”
“No bars?”
“Nope. It’s a dry county. Founded by Mormons a hundred years ago, and the laws have stayed.”
“Well, I’m glad something about this goddamned state is dry,” she muttered. In fact, it wasn’t raining. For maybe the first time in weeks, it wasn’t raining.
“So I’ve found the next best thing. Look over there to your right.”
When she did so, she almost burst into tears and her voice filled with awe. “I don’t believe it.”
“Believe it. An In-N-Out Burger, straight from California. You grew up near San Diego, right? You must have had these things for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You know what you want?”
“God, yes.”
He pulled up to the drive-through. “Double double, no cheese, pickles or onions, fries and a Diet Coke,” he said, and turned to her.
“Shit. The same.” She couldn’t blow her first time at In-N-Out in seven years because of pride. She didn’t care that she had the same taste as Caleb, even down to Diet Coke, though anyone less in need of a diet soft drink she had yet to meet. He’d found out she’d come from the San Diego area, something she didn