Page 5 of Endurance
Biting my lip, I do my best to hide my grin, annoyed that he still has that bloody charm about him. It’s not the standard charisma that most blokes spread on thick. It’s like a charming Pee-wee Herman…without the kiddie porn charges.
He suddenly takes a sharp breath in and says, “At the risk of bashing this very tender moment we’re having, we need to turn around and go back.”
“To where?”
“To where you picked me up.”
My eyes fly wide and I look over at him. He’s situated my cardigan over his package and his face is all scrunched up as if he thinks I’m going to punch him. Or perhaps it’s from the two goose eggs he has forming on his head, I can’t tell.
“You want to go back? To that madness?” I ask, my jaw slack with disbelief.
He lifts his shoulders. “The paparazzi won’t be there anymore and no one seems to be following us.”
“Why the hell do we have to go back? I swear to Christ, Tanner, if you tell me it’s for some bird, I’m going to send you through the windscreen this time.”
“It’s not for a girl, I promise. Will you please just do this for me, Ryan?”
I want to cringe at how he addresses me. Ever since he blew me off at Old George, he’s refused to call me Belle, or even Dr. Ryan like he so flirtatiously referred to me as when we first met. It’s maddening. He addresses me like he addresses a teammate.
He pierces me with wide, probing eyes, clearly desperate for my compliance. It’s a look I don’t think I’ve ever seen on him, so I can’t help but agree out of sheer curiosity. “This better be good,” I grumble and turn the car around to head back to the circus we just fled.
He directs me back down the streets we had just driven and eventually over to a red phone box near the corner.
“Pull right up to it. As close as you can.”
Frowning the entire time, I do as he asks. When I stop, he rolls the window down and whisper shouts, “Sedgwick.”
We’re met with silence, so he increases his volume. “Sedgwick!”
I hear a rustling coming from inside the box before a head pops up from the ground. It’s sheathed in a grey stocking cap, but I can only make out the face enough to see a beard. The red door swings open and an old man’s head emerges.
“Tanner?”
“Sedg, get in.”
“What?” I screech as I suss out that Tanner is offering up my car to a homeless man. “Tanner!”
Tanner turns to me with a pleading look of desperation. “Ryan, please. Just do this for me. Don’t ask questions. I’ll make it right with you one way or another. Anything you want. You have my word.”
“Tanner, this isn’t safe!” I look around his shoulder and see the man watching us with a curious expression on his face.
“I’ll keep you safe.” He reaches out and squeezes my forearm with his hand as an act of reassurance. It’s the most serious look I’ve ever seen on Tanner. It’s…disarming. And for some reason unbeknownst to me, I feel myself nodding.
Tanner turns back toward the window. “Sedgewick, hurry up and get in before they come back. Bring your stuff.”
“I’d never pass up a tootle in a Mercedes,” he says as he grabs his dirty canvas bag and stuffs some belongings into it. He tosses the bag over his shoulder and hustles over with a sneaky sort of walk, like he’s committing some sort of crime.
“I’ll…erm…open the boot,” I mumble, pressing the button on my hatchback. Of all the things I thought I’d be doing tonight, popping the boot on my over-fucking-priced car for a homeless man never made the list.
“Would you look at that. A hatchback!” Sedgwick says as he dumps his bag in and closes the boot. He folds himself in behind Tanner and his eyes go wide as he takes in the lush interior. “This is some ride you have here, miss.”
“Her name’s Dr. Ryan,” Tanner adds.
I’m momentarily shocked by Tanner’s label for me, but my thoughts are interrupted by Sedgwick. “Oh! A doctor. What kind?”
Tanner frowns at me as if he just realised he has no idea.
“I’m a surgeon,” I reply, turning around to look at Sedgwick.
