Page 68 of Crazy in Love

“You don’t say,” he muttered. “We’re not in a hurry. There’s no need to speed.”

“Whatever. Back to my thing. Where is he? Does he live around here? Do you have a phone number? Should I call him?”

This topic had been simmering on a back burner, but now that it had been forcibly moved to the front, the questions came hard and fast.

“Slow down,” he said. “And I mean that literally. You’re going ninety.”

She let off the gas. “Oops. Sorry.”

He took a deep breath. “I ran him through the FBI database—which is a huge no-no by the way—and found him online. I don’t know where he lives, but I do have contact information. Email and phone. Do you want me to reach out?”

“Thanks for doing that. I know how you Walkers hate to break rules. Let me think about it?”

“Sure. No problem. I’ll email you the info, and you can do what you want with it. If you decide to meet him though, call me. Who knows how he’ll react, and I don’t like the idea of you meeting him on your own.”

It was sweet that he was looking out for her. Too bad there was a huge gap between watching out for her safety—which he would do for any woman—and changing his life for her. That was too much to ask. She knew that, and so she wouldn’t.

According to her horoscope, she would need to avoid an argument today. Since her conversation with Tess had gone all right, did that mean it was Nick she might have to walk out on?

* * *

Nick was doing his darnedest to keep his mouth shut about Faith’s driving. Her attention to the road seemed faint at best. Every two seconds, she would fiddle with the radio, sip her drink, or mess with her hair. He was pretty sure that at no point so far had she simultaneously had both hands on the wheel. In fact, more often than not, she drove with her knee and had no hands on the wheel.

Dropping the bomb about her dad at freeway speeds wasn’t the smartest play, but he’d made up his mind to get it out early. That way, they could deal with it and move on before getting to Boston.

Unfortunately, coming clean did nothing to ease his conscience. Mainly because it was only the first step in his plot to lure the guy out of hiding and arrest him. Using Faith as a pawn to do it.

An hour into the drive, they came to a rest area. “I gotta pee. Mind if we stop?”

“No,” he said. “I need to stretch my leg anyway.”

They got out, and she headed for the restrooms while he hobbled around stiffly, trying to ease his cramped leg. When he thought she was taking too long, he went searching for her. A tall, burly man sporting a flannel and a long beard stoodnext to her. As Nick approached, he overheard part of their conversation.

“No, I don’t work around here,” Faith said. “Just passing through.”

“I could use a friend. Are you lookin’ to make some extra money?”

“Doing what?” she asked innocently, clearly not realizing what the man was after.

“A man’s got needs, you see. Being on the road all the time makes it hard to meet those needs.”

“Oh, are you hungry? I have animal cookies in the car.”

Nick approached from behind, and she turned at his grunt. “That’s not what he’s after. Come on, let’s go.”

“I saw her first,” the man challenged.

“Beat it,” Nick growled. The guy was the size of a moving van and uninjured, but Nick had a way with “looks” that made people think twice about continuing to talk. After sizing up Nick, the man thought better of pushing the issue, and left muttering something about a jerk.

“That was kinda rude,” Faith said.

“He thought you were a hooker. Do you want me to apologize and bring him back?”

“What?” Her eyes popped open, followed by her mouth. “Why would he think that? Are you sure?”

He tried not to laugh at her indignation. “On the other hand, we could use the extra cash to buy more Funyuns.”

He took her side-eyed sneer to mean no.

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