Runaway Vampire (Argeneau, #23)(20)
“Down Bailey,” she ordered firmly when the dog jumped up onto the seat to peer curiously out the window after their absent guest. The dog jumped down at once to sit on the afghan and Mary shook her head, thinking with irritation that she really should have made him put on some damned clothes. He was obviously crazy and incapable of looking after himself. Why hadn’t she insisted he go to the bedroom and get some of her husband’s clothes and put them on, she asked herself grimly. But knew the answer was that she’d been reluctant to see anyone in her Joe’s clothes. She hadn’t even been ready to remove them from the RV and give them to charity, as she should have. It had been a year, and she still hadn’t removed a single item of his from either their home or the RV. She’d clung on to them as if keeping them meant he wasn’t really gone and that he would walk through the door one day with hugs and kisses and flowers.
Her gaze lifted to the ceiling of the RV as the sounds of movement overhead reached her ears. Dante was moving along the roof of the RV. Dear God, she had a naked-ass man on her roof! That thought kept screaming through her head as her gaze continually shot from road, to mirror, to mirror, to camera screen, but it went suddenly silent when she spotted the lights of the gas station ahead.
Five
“Damn,” Mary breathed, knowing there was nothing else but for her to pull into the damned station. She couldn’t afford not to unless she wanted to be stuck on the side of the highway, as helpless as Jonah in—what in this case would be—a beached whale. So she had to stop, and with a naked-ass man on her roof.
Mary muttered under her breath and slowed the RV to turn in. She was more than relieved when she saw that there were presently no other vehicles in the station. She would only have a shocked and probably hysterical attendant to deal with then, she thought with a grimace.
“My apologies, Mary. You will have to pump the gas. I must remain up here to watch for our hunters so that I may control them if they pull in after us.”
Mary rolled her eyes as that announcement floated through her open window. Not because she had to pump gas. She’d pumped her own gas all the way south and had intended to all the way back. What caused the eye rolling was his claim that he had to control their hunters. Really? Did he believe he could? Or that she’d believe he could? Dante was pretty but crazy and that was just sad, she decided, maneuvering the RV as close to the pumps as she could get. It seemed a terrible shame that God had made such a perfect specimen and forgotten to ensure his brain worked properly as well.
“Dear God, I have a naked-ass man on my roof,” Mary muttered the thought aloud this time as she put the RV in park and turned it off. Saying it aloud did not help. Shaking her head, she slid out of her seat and moved to the door. Bailey immediately tried to follow, but Mary gave her a firm, “Stay,” and managed to slide out without the dog escaping.
Closing the door with a firm snap, she glanced toward the gas station, expecting to see the attendant either plastered to the plate glass window, gaping like a fish out of water, or on the phone to the police. But the young man inside the building was looking down at something on the counter and didn’t seem to have even noticed their arrival.
Grateful for small mercies, Mary walked hopefully to the pump, but of course it was prepay. The pumps were prepay in Canada too. You either paid at the pump with a credit or debit card, or you prepaid. At home she would have just used her credit card, but Mary never used them in the States. She’d get soaked when it came to charges and exchange by her credit card company. Despite that, she almost used her credit card anyway this time, but in the end, headed for the building.
Mary glanced toward the highway as she walked, searching for the van. But it hadn’t made an appearance. Yet. Her gaze then slid to the RV and she saw that Dante was lying on the roof at the rear end of the vehicle, his bare ass shining under the glare of the station lights like some kind of beacon. Closing her eyes, she shook her head and then turned and slid into the station to pay for the gas. It didn’t take more than a moment. The attendant was busy reading an auto magazine and barely glanced up to ring up her request and take her money. He wasn’t even interested enough to look out the window to see what kind of vehicle might need so much gas.
Beginning to think they might make it out of there without causing the scene she’d feared, Mary headed back out to the RV, her gaze steadfastly avoiding Dante on her roof and shifting to the passing vehicles. If anyone was taking note of a naked man lying on his belly on the roof of an RV, you couldn’t tell. The cars were just cruising by, none of them with any sign that he’d even been noticed.
Marveling over that, Mary set about the business of pumping gas into her vehicle, her attention shifting between the pump and the oncoming traffic.
“There is no need to fret. I will control them if they come.”
Mary glanced up at that announcement to see Dante peering over the back of the roof at her. Nodding, she said wryly, “Good to know.”
His eyes narrowed, but Dante didn’t comment and merely ducked back out of sight, presumably to continue watching for the kidnappers, so he could control them. She shook her head at the thought. As if anyone could control another human being with his or her thoughts.
Muttering under her breath, she glanced from the spinning numbers on the pump to the passing traffic and back. The van had dropped back in traffic, which when she thought about it was weird. It wasn’t like the RV had been speeding down the highway. It simply wasn’t capable of speeding. She’d been driving the speed limit, maybe even a little under it, yet the van had backed off, going under the speed limit to do so. What were they up to? she wondered with a little concern and then glanced to the pump with surprise when it clicked and stopped pumping. She’d reached the amount for which she’d prepaid, which should just about fill it up, by her guess.