Page 52 of Savage Cravings

“You’re driving me home?”

He laughed. “Yeah.”

“Then how are you going to get home?”

“I’ll call for a ride. Of course, if you’re worried about me, you can always let me sleep over tonight.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Didn’t think so,” he said, his voice tinged with amusement.

I quickly gave him the address to the motel before looking back out the window. I planned on spending the rest of the short ride home in silence. Only, the longer the silence held, the more I thought about what happened with Lenny. The adrenaline was already going down. Who knew how I would be once that happened?

“What were you doing back at the restaurant?” I asked. Perhaps a conversation with him would get my mind off everything.

“I came to see you again, but I forgot how early the restaurant closed. It’s a damn good thing I came when I did, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Early?” I asked. “This is early for you?”

“Where I’m from, the restaurants stay open a little longer. Though New Orleans isn’t exactly known for being peaceful and quiet, now, is it?”

“Where are you from?”

“Chicago.”

I could feel all the blood draining from my face. “Chicago?”

“Yup,” he answered casually, but I swore there was something he wasn’t telling me.

This had to be a coincidence. A lot of people were from Chicago. Just because I’d barely escaped Chicago doesn’t mean everyone from there was out to get me.

“What about you?” he asked.

“Here,” I lied.

He laughed right in my face. “You’re from here, and you’re staying at a motel?”

I looked away, not really having an answer for him. It shouldn’t matter that he caught me in a lie. He didn’t matter, notin the grand scheme of things. I was sure once I moved on from this place, I would never see him or his brothers again.

“What are you running from, little angel?” he asked, his voice quiet.

“What makes you think I’m running away from something?”

“You got that look about you.”

I frowned at him. “Look? What look?”

10

SILAS

I didn’t answerher right away.

I wondered if she really didn't know.

She had the same look my brothers and I had in the months after her father ran us out of Chicago.

The haunted, traumatized, thinking “everyone is out to get me” kind of look. Even if I hadn’t known who she was or what her family history was like, I would still have guessed she was running away from something.

---