Page 5 of August

“The trucker who picked me up.”

August sent his eyes toward the ceiling. One thing was for sure: Gigi had a guardian angel watching over her. “I guarantee you he followed you or is close. They wouldn’t let you get away after finally finding you all these months later.”

He whizzed around the room, grabbing his shit and throwing everything haphazardly into the suitcase now open on the bed. Meanwhile, his brain spun like a carousel. Gigi was in imminent danger. She couldn’t stay at the truck stop. The cartel was too close and he was too damn far away.

“Cheyenne, Wyoming,” Gigi blurted. “I just read it on the menu.”

“One sec.” He opened the Maps app on his phone and looked up the distance. “I’m an hour and a half away.” And for a second, that fact stunned him. What were the chances that he’d been led on a job so close to Gigi?

Slim. So fucking slim. Was it the Universe working in his favor? God showing him the way to the woman who’d stolen his heart and ruthlessly trampled on it? Maybe just some sick punishment to tease him. Regardless, he couldn’t overlook the fact that something had steered him to where Gigi would need him.

Which meant he had to get to her in time. For her to die at the cartel’s hand when he was almost—almost—within reach was too cruel a fate.

“What?” Gigi sputtered. “How?” Her confusion would have echoed his own if he hadn’t already accepted that destiny had crossed their paths.

“I’m on a job in Denver. Listen, I want you to take the phone to a waitress. Will you do that?”

“Huh?”

“Flag down your waitress and let me talk to her.”

“Okay... one sec.”

This might be the wildest thing he’d done for a client, but hell. Calling her an Uber was useless when she had nowhere to go. Besides, the cartel could easily get to Gigi before he did.

He had to outsmart them.

***

The cup of tea in Gigi’s hands barely warmed her icy skin. After the night she’d had, nothing short of lava would thaw the cold fear solidifying in her veins.

Time escaped her. Sitting in the manager’s office at the back of the restaurant with a piece of untouched pie made the surreal events even more so. It was too quiet back here. Her brain too loud for the cramped space.

Sounds replayed in her mind. Joe yelling to warn her, the door banging behind her, the barely audible yet oddly deafening wisp of the branches. She’d never get that last one out of her head.

And then the scream for help. Her own scream. In her head, it didn’t sound like hers.

Sherry, the sweet fifty-something server, poked her head into the office. “You okay, love?”

Gigi forced a smile. “Yeah, just fine.” As fine as a person could be when the grim reaper had promised to visit any second.

Whatever August had told Sherry had made her face pale. She’d swooped her arm under Gigi’s and escorted her to the back as soon as she hung up the phone.

“How long’s it been?” Grit scratched her eyeballs. She needed to sleep.

Sherry looked at her watch. “He should be here any minute. I’ll go keep an eye out.” She winked and shut the door.

Gigi blew a breath through tight lips. Numerous times, her gaze had wandered to the phone in her hand. August had instructed her not to make any calls despite the line being safe. But man. This was the first time in months she’d held a phone. And the temptation to dial Ivy was almost too great. She’d recited her sister’s phone number in her head over and over. Waiting for the random opportunity to present itself.

Now it was here and she had August’s fearful words echoing through her mind.

Don’t call anyone.

Hurried footsteps slapped against the linoleum floor outside the door. Gigi froze.

Surely if it was the cartel, they’d be... noisier. Probably gunfire.

The door opened and Gigi shot to her feet. Her knees wobbled beneath her weight, her brain foggy and off-kilter from being awake so long.

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