“I bit you like a wild animal.”
“No, you bit me like a woman who was protecting herself. You did everything right back there. But your right hook can use some work. If you’re up for it when we get back to the States, I’ll show you some moves.”
“Maybe if I hadn’t been weakened because I haven’t eaten in days I could’ve kicked your ass.”
It was her turn to joke and my turn to scowl.
“He didn’t leave you food?” Delilah leaned away from me and I did my best to soften my tone but I knew I failed when she flinched again. “And water? Did he leave you any?”
She shook her head and I couldn’t stop the curse. “Motherfucker. As soon as we’re back on the highway you can climb in the back and go through my pack. There are protein bars and water. But for now, I need you buckled up. Can you wait ten minutes?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
Fuck. Whatever headway I’d made with her I’d lost. She was back to being terrified of me and now that I’d had a small taste of what her trust felt like my stomach revolted at the thought of her going back to thinking of me as the enemy.
Chapter 4
“What’s your name?”
The man glanced over at me and smiled.
We’d been driving in silence for a few minutes when I finally plucked up the courage to speak. I wasn’t scared per se; even if I knew he wasn’t mad at me, he was still mad and a stranger.
“Myles.”
“Myles,” I repeated. “Thanks for getting me out of that house.”
His lips twitched, curved up a little bit at the corners, but never fully formed a smile.
“I’m not joking. I really do appreciate you saving me from what I was sure was going to be my tomb.”
“I know you’re not joking. I also know you didn’t want to come with me because you thought I was going to save you from the house only to kill you once I got you out.”
I felt my face heat and I looked down at my lap.
“Boy, you don’t beat around the bush do you?” I mumbled.
“Nope. Don’t see a point in bullshitting or wasting time. The truth’s the truth. It’s always easier to just come right out and say what’s on your mind.”
Myles drove another couple of minutes while I studied my dirty hands. In the last few months, I’d had a handful of showers. Sometimes there would be soap for me to use, sometimes not. I hadn’t shaved, used deodorant, brushed my teeth, or used conditioner since the last shower I took before Tamir had taken me.
I was filthy.
I knew I stank but since I’d become accustomed to sitting in my own nastiness I was nose-blind to it. That probably should’ve embarrassed me, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t muster up the energy or emotion. I was just happy to be alive. To be out of that house and away from Tamir.
“I need to check in,” Myles broke the silence. “Do you mind making the call and putting it on speaker?”
It took me a moment to realize he was asking because he’d given me his phone.
And he’d given me a gun.
If he wanted to kill me would he have given me access to either? Especially the gun.
I hitched my leg and rolled in the seat just enough to pull his phone out of my back pocket.
“What’s the number?”
“Just press the last number that called.”
Zane Lewis.
I was supposed to call him if we got separated. Sudden fear swept over me and I wanted to throw the phone out the window so Myles couldn’t call Zane. What was he going to do with me? Put me on a plane? Drop me off at a bus station? Leave me at a hotel? I had nothing. No money, no ID, no way to get back into the United States. Not that I wanted to go back. I had to hide. Aviv could never know Tamir didn’t kill me. Or maybe Tamir already told Aviv and someone new was on their way to kill me.
“Hey, Delilah, hey. Slow down, sweetness.”
“You can’t call Zane!”
“Why not?”
“Where are you going to leave me?”
“Leave you?” Myles’s hand shot out and he grabbed my arm.
“Hey!” I yanked my arm away and moved over. “Don’t touch me, I’m gross.”
His eyes came off the road and cut to me. They were slitted. His voice sounded incredulous when he asked, “You’re gross?”
For some reason, his question cut me deep. And everything came crashing down. All the trauma, the relief, the uncertainty of my future. Everything churned together in my stomach until I felt like I was going to be sick.
“Yes,” I hissed. “I’m disgusting. He locked me in that house with barely a trickle of water. I sweated my ass off all day and froze all night. I haven’t been clean for months.”
“What else?”
What else?
Was that not enough for him?
“He didn’t give me a toothbrush either. You should get a tetanus shot before your arm gets infected.”
“My arm will be fine. Anything else?”
“I stink and I’m humiliated and you want more?”
“Yes, Delilah. Right now, get everything out. Say it, yell it, scream if that’s all you can do but get it out now so it doesn’t fester. That fucker took you, held you against your will, didn’t feed you properly, didn’t let you bathe, what else did he do to you?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“He did nothing else to me. He didn’t touch me or speak to me. He didn’t even bother to threaten me or point his gun at me because he knew I was a scared idiot who wouldn’t run. He took me and I was so terrified I didn’t even fight.”
The road straightened as we came out over a ridge. The thick greenery was thinning, and off in the distance, I could see patches of brown.
“I didn’t fight him,” I whispered.
“Do you know who Tamir Cohen is?”
“Yes.”
“Then you know it’s a good thing you didn’t fight him. It’s probably what kept you alive. Who knows what would’ve happened if you’d forced his hand. If you’d tried to run. If you made a scene one of the times he stopped he could’ve easily taken out anyone who attempted to help and then killed you. There’re times to fight and times to be patient and wait.”
That might be so, but I wasn’t being patient and waiting. I’d been paralyzed with fear and did nothing.
The phone in my hand vibrated and I fumbled the device and dropped it on the floorboard.
“Shit. Sorry.”
With my heart pounding—yes, from a phone vibrating—I leaned forward and picked it up and saw the name Zane on the screen. The pounding intensified and my hands shook. This was it. Zane Lewis was calling. I was going to discover just how uncertain my future was. My life was yet again in another person’s control.
“It’s Zane, should I answer?”
“Yeah. He’ll keep calling then send a team to find us if I don’t check in.”
I tapped the connect icon and held the phone up between me and Myles.
“I got the package,” Myles said.
“Any trouble?” A voice I assumed was Zane’s boomed.