Dark Sexy Knight (A Modern Fairytale)(10)

His eyes fluttered open, and Verity made sure that she kept her eyes on his because she didn’t want him to wake up disoriented and frightened. She saw the uncertainty pass over his face for an instant before his blue eyes settled on hers, and all worry slipped instantly away.

“Hey, Ver’ty.”

“Hey, handsome.”

“We home?”

She nodded. “Almost.” Then she turned to Colton. “You know? I could use a few things from that Sunoco station right there. Just drop us off? We can walk from here.”

“I’m tired, Ver’ty,” said Ryan from the back. “I don’t wanna walk back to the motel.”

Colton flicked his eyes to the Econo Lodge across the street from the Sunoco. “You staying over there?”

She swallowed, willing Ryan to let her get away with one little, tiny lie. “Yep.”

No such luck.

“No, we ain’t, Ver’ty. We’re stayin’ at the Thrifty Inn, friend,” said Ryan, leaning forward and pointing right. “It’s down there a ways, right next door to the Methodist church. Nineteen forty-four Glenellen Street. Nineteen forty-four Glenellen Street in Decatur, Georgia. You told me to remember it, Ver’ty, just in case we got separated apart. You forgot, but I remember. Nineteen forty-four Glenellen Street in Decatur, Georgia.”

“That’s right, Ryan.” She nodded, her shoulders slumping as Colton turned right onto Glenellen. “May as well just take us home.”





CHAPTER 3


What a dump.

Colt was shocked that the words on the tip of his tongue didn’t sally forth as he pulled into the weed-covered parking lot of a run-down, ramshackle, by-the-hour, no-tell motel about a half mile down the road from the Sunoco station. He’d seen some crappy roadside motels in his day, but this one had to take the cake.

U-shaped and two stories tall, the motel rooms had identical oncered, sun-faded doors, some with numbers, some with letters, some with door knockers, some without. A chipped, aqua-painted railing with vertical bars outlined the perimeter of the upper level, while unkempt cement patios added zero charm to the lower. Running his gaze over the parking lot, he saw a few sketchy characters hanging out by the fenced-in, empty outdoor pool, and another couple of men leaning against a soda machine that had seen better days. He looked up to see a mother holding her shrieking baby on the second-floor balcony, gesturing to one of the men by the pool to get his ass upstairs.

As Colt pulled into a parking space, he glanced at Verity’s profile, noting the bright red color of her face, the uptilt of her chin, and her rod-in-the-spine posture. She was embarrassed. He’d stake his life on it.

He cut the engine and turned to find her sweet blue eyes looking up at him, guarded and defensive.

“It’s temporary,” she whispered.

“Here we are,” said Ryan cheerfully, reaching for the door. “Thank you for the ride, friend.”

Colt watched as Verity’s brother exited the car and carefully closed the door behind him, ambling over to a ground-floor room not far away and standing outside the faded red door to wait for her. When Colt slid his eyes back to hers, he was surprised to find that she hadn’t moved. She stared at him desperately, searching his face before blinking back tears.

“Tornado took the pecan trees,” she said softly. “I didn’t know that you needed to keep up payments on an insurance policy. Didn’t even know we had an insurance policy. Daddy never . . .” She licked her lips, her perfect pink tongue darting out before hiding again. “There was just so much I didn’t know.”

Colt shrugged, uncomfortable with so much emotion. “You’re, uh, you’re doing the best you can, I guess.”

“I am,” she said, blinking her eyes again. “We’ve been fired from two jobs since we got here. We just . . .” She looked down at her lap before finding his eyes again and offering him a small smile. “We needed today so badly, I can’t even tell you. You saved our skin.”

He shook his head. “No, I just—”

“You saved us,” she repeated. She flicked a glance at her brother, then looked back at Colt. “I want to give you a few dollars for gas. Wait here, huh?”

“No, I don’t . . .”

She reached out, placing one small hand on his arm.

“Don’t shame me by saying no,” she said softly. “I’ll be right back.”

He kept his eyes trained on her through the windshield, his arm burning where she’d touched him—hot and cold, like fire and dry ice mixed together. He huffed softly, shaking his head and rubbing his arm. Damn it, he couldn’t take money from her. If she was living in a place like this, she was in real trouble. Whatever money she had, she needed.

But she had already sprinted over to her brother, reaching into her purse for the room keycard and dipping it into the lock. She pulled down on the door lever and pushed forward, but the door didn’t give. Again she dipped the card; again she tried the door. Nothing. Shaking her head, she dipped the card a third time, but when the door didn’t open, she turned left and started walking at a clip toward the motel office, her brother following at her heels. She disappeared into the office, and through the glass Colt could see her at the desk talking to someone. After a few minutes of heated debate, she exited the office, a duffel bag over her shoulder, a box in her arms, and her brother weighed down with an enormous suitcase in each hand. They stood there in front of the office, her brother’s face confused as it stared down at hers. Colt leaned forward and realized that her cheeks were streaked with tears, then watched, with his heart in his throat, as she let the duffel fall from her shoulder to her elbow and plopped down on the bench outside the office door. Still holding the box on her lap, she bent her head forward, her shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs. Ryan, who still held the suitcases, shifted from one foot to the other, back and forth, back and forth, his lips moving, his face frightened.