Page 91 of The Vigilante's Lover
Supposedly for me.
As the car hurtles along the freeway, I keep telling myself this is why I’m headed Mia’s way. My car.
The town is in the middle of nowhere. Population 496. It’s themiddle of the night now and hardly anything but freight trucks are on the road.
The Aston Martin should be easy to spot.
The town is silent and still as a morgue. I cruise along the highway and pull up to the blinking red light. Mia sure chose a fitting location. She’s a country girl through and through.
Ahead is a convenience store, probably the only establishment in the whole town that’s open. I scan for my car, but the only vehicle in the crumbling parking lot is a battered Volvo.
Where is she?
I pass by a string of storefronts on what might once have been a bustling square. Just on the other side I see another building with the lights on. A diner. I glance at the clock on the dash. 2 a.m. Must be an all-nighter for truck drivers. Two big rigs are taking up a line of parking spots.
I roll past them and there it is, my sleek little silver Aston Martin. Klaus better not have put a scratch on it.
The diner has broad windows showing the interior. Difficult to defend. But a quick glance tells me Mia isn’t inside. You can see every booth and stool.
I pull up next to the car. Satisfaction courses through me just looking at it. She will be mine again.
It, I correct myself. The car.
Not the girl.
I walk up to it. The windows are fitted with false blackout screens that make it appear you can see inside even though you can’t. I tap on the glass, knowing I am breaking the security grid.
I can’t see the red alarm or hear the warning, but the door flies open and Mia shoots out of the car like an arrow.
She stares at it a minute like it’s possessed. She wears flannel pajamas and a pair of men’s shoes that are way too large for her. I have to squelch the urge to take her in my arms. She looks lost and frightened.
“Sorry,” I say.
She freezes, stands up straight, and touches her wild loose hair before she turns around.
Her face is calm now. “Jax,” she says. “You came.” Either she’s hiding her emotions or it’s no big thing to her that I showed up.
I’m not sure what sort of welcome I expected. Hysterics, I suppose. Throwing herself at me. She had been so insistent that I keep her before.
I stuff down any disappointment at her nonchalance. “You called.”
“The car is yelling at me,” she says.
This makes me laugh. “I set off the alarm.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders relax. “I thought I’d broken something.”
“What were you doing?”
She lifts her arm and shows me a Vigilante watch a lot like the one that was confiscated from me at the silo. “I was punching all the buttons.”
I take the watch off her wrist. “Do you always act this impulsively?”
Her eyes flick to the ground. “I had nothing to do while I waited for you, and no idea how long you’d be. You didn’t contact me.”
“You had the car in stealth. You couldn’t receive transmissions.”
“Oh.”
