Beyond Limits (Tracers #8)(70)

“You trust me?”

She hesitated. “Yes.”

“Then relax.” He glanced at her. “Close your eyes, clear your head. I’ll let you know when we get there.”





* * *





Luke stepped away from the throng of people surrounding the bar and pressed his phone to his ear.

“What’s that?”

“I said, it’s Hailey.”

Holy shit. He looked at his phone again. He hadn’t recognized the Boston area code.

“Hang on.” He squeezed through the crowd to the hallway outside the men’s head. It smelled like beer and puke, but at least it was quieter.

“Sorry to call so late.”

“No, it’s fine.” He checked his watch. He hadn’t expected her to call at all, and definitely not at 2200 on a Monday night.

“Are you in Boston?” he asked.

“I’m still in town. I leave tomorrow.” She paused. “Where are you? It sounds really loud.”

“O’Malley’s.” He pushed open the back door and stepped into the alley off the parking lot, where it reeked even worse.

“Guess that means you’re with friends, huh? I was going to see if you wanted to come over.”

He blinked out at the parking lot. “To your hotel room?”

“I was thinking the bar downstairs. I can’t sleep again, and I thought we could get a drink and talk or whatever.”

His mind whirled. He’d had a few too many beers for this conversation. She wanted to get a drink and talk or whatever—which in his experience was girl-speak for sex. He shook his head, trying to shake off the beer buzz and the crazy-ass idea that Hailey Gardner wanted to sleep with him.

“What, you mean now?” he asked.

Silence.

“Sorry,” he said. “My bad. I’m—”

“Sounds like you’re busy.”

“I’m not, I just—” Shit, now what was he doing? He couldn’t actually go over there. He definitely wanted to see her, but he was half loaded. If he got anywhere near her right now, his dick would take over, and he’d waste no time talking her upstairs.

“Luke?”

“I’m here.”

“I can tell I’m freaking you out, and I don’t mean to. It’s not what you’re thinking.” She was talking fast, like she was nervous. “It’s just that I can’t sleep, and it really sucks. And I thought maybe we could, you know, just hang out and talk.”

He tipped his head back and squeezed his eyes shut. “That’s probably not a good idea.”

Was he really turning her down? Hailey Gardner, who couldn’t sleep and wanted to just hang out and talk? And then it was back—the image of her cowering in the corner of that rathole back in A-bad, her face dirty and her hair tangled and her eyes . . . God damn it, of course she had trouble sleeping. But he couldn’t be around her.

“Listen, Hailey—”

“You don’t have to explain.”

“I wish I could come, but—”

“Forget it.”

“Hailey, wait. Hailey?”

She’d already hung up.

He stared down at his phone, feeling like crap. He’d made the right call, though. He knew it. He had no business going anywhere near her or her hotel room in his current state of semi-inebriation.

“Fuck.”

He turned and looked at the door behind him. The thought of going back inside suddenly had zero appeal. What he should do was go find one of his buddies who’d had less to drink than he had and catch a ride home. But he didn’t want to do that, either.

I can’t sleep, and it really sucks.

God damn it. Luke shoved his phone into his pocket and headed for the beach.





Chapter Twenty





Derek drove west, leaving the skyscrapers and the hospitals and the shopping malls behind. He drove through the suburbs until he reached the fringes of the city, and then he exited the freeway and drove some more. Finally, he turned off the highway onto a narrow asphalt road that not so long ago had been nothing but caliche.

Elizabeth stared out the window, not talking. But her body language said a lot. She was clutching the door handle in a white-knuckle grip and glancing at his phone in the cup holder every ten seconds.

Pine trees rose on either side of them. The road curved, and his headlights swept over the sign for the trailhead. The landscape looked different from what he remembered, and he nearly missed his turn.

He rolled to a stop and looked at Elizabeth across the console.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Sugarberry Dam Park.” He pushed his door open and went around back, where he unlocked the toolbox and rummaged around until he found what he was looking for.

Elizabeth slid out and glanced around. She climbed the steep incline to the ridge and stopped cold when she reached the top.

“Whoa.” She stood there, staring out over the reservoir. They were in a dry spell, and what was often a full-blown lake in springtime was now an empty field surrounded by trees. A full moon cast a silver glow over everything.

“Here.” He tossed his jacket onto the ground. “Don’t dirty up your clothes.”