Page 42 of In It for the Long Ride

I suggestedwe stay at the cabin, I even offered to pay for a hotel, but Daisy wasn’t having any of it. As best I could tell, she’d given up on hiding. Without Blaze to keep her going on a semblance of a schedule, she’d just stood at the front door for the better part of the last two days, staring down her driveway.

I refused to leave her side unless it was absolutely necessary, even though it killed me to see her like that. When I glanced up from the magazine that I’d been thumbing through she was gone.

“Daisy?” I sat up a bit and glanced toward her computer room.

The chair was empty, and it wasn’t a large enough space for her to hide in. I stood up and started for her bedroom. She met me at the door. Her hair was brushed and she even had a little bit of mascara on.

“Freshening up, huh?” I smiled, pleased to see her in better spirits.

“I can’t sit here anymore.” She breezed past me and grabbed her purse off the table.

“Whoa. What does that mean…?” I trailed off when she started toward the door without answering.

I raced after her and reached past to shove the big door closed when we got near it.

“Damn it, Carl!” she exploded.

“Where are you going? It isn’t safe,” I pointed out. “Nothing has changed.”

“And nothing is gonna!” she spat back. “Not anytime soon. I can sit here and let it make me crazy, or I can get on with my life. Now, I’m going to work!”

“Work?” I repeated, while trying to turn her in my arms to face me.

“Yes. It is what non criminals do for financial stability, you know? We pay taxes on the income at the end of the year and manage to put food on the table in the meanwhile.”

“You were packing up your shit and hauling ass a few days ago, and now you have a hair salon to get back to?” I laughed.

“I wasn’t thinking clearly. I’ll tell the clients I had a family emergency with Blaze. It’s a small town. Everyone knows the tragedies he has faced this year.”

“You’ve both faced them,” I reminded her. “You’re dealing with this, too, and I’d be an asshole and shitty boyfriend if I didn’t point out that you’re still not thinking clearly.”

“Is that what you are now? My boyfriend?” She made an amused sound and her smile was almost sarcastic before she jerked at the door.

I shot a hand out and slammed it shut, the other found her jaw and I forced her to surrender to my kiss. It didn’t change her mind any. Her nails grazed the back of my arm when she gripped them and then she patted my shoulders and backed away.

“I have to,” she whispered.

I wasn’t her captor. I couldn’t keep her locked up and away from the world.

“Fuck!” I barked over the engine of her car.

I raced to throw on some boots and mount my bike. I caught up with her fairly quickly and trailed her to Daisy’s Mane Attraction.

She’d had a new glass front put in the place, but I still couldn’t look at it without recalling the carnage Demetri had left behind the day of the massacre. I parked and followed her up the sidewalk.

“Babe, I don’t think–”

“I’m babe now, too?” She grinned.

I sighed and followed her inside.

“Daisy, they’ve already hit this place once,” I reminded her.

“You’re right. They did. Best they learn it takes more than a bullet to stop an old bitch like me. This is my livelihood. Running scared doesn’t solve anything.”

She was sounding like the girl I remembered.

“Fine.” I waltzed over to the lounge, grabbed the first magazine I saw and flopped out on the chaise with my leg stretched out across it and opened it to a random page.

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