Page 41 of Hide My Heart
Amber nods, swallowing and then she wraps her arms around me and rests her head on my chest. “I don’t know what I’d do without you and your mom. You’re my best friend.”
She is sweet and soft, and smells good, even after showering with men’s body wash. I can’t say I didn’t notice her lush curves and the way her breasts have filled in when I peeled the frozen clothes off her. I can’t say I don’t remember rubbing heat back into her fingers, arms, feet, legs, and how I held her cold skin against my warm chest and belly. How I wrapped my legs around her ice-cold ones and cradled her blue face in the crook of my neck.
I can’t say I didn’t like being cuddled up with her.
The feelings are vivid. Me shivering under the down comforter with her, bringing her back until she, too, started shivering, and finally, when her smooth, silky skin was warm to the touch and arousal overheated me, I tucked her in and rolled myself into a sleeping bag on the couch.
She left town a rebellious girl, all elbows and knees with two tangled pigtails, and returned a real flesh-and-blood woman.
And I want her. All of her, and Beck.
One man stands in the way.
A hunter.
“We need to call the police and tip them off that Hunter is the convenience store shooter,” I say. “I can’t use Hunter’s phone. I have to use my own.”
“But it’ll lead the police right to me.” Amber pushes away from me and hugs herself. “I stole his truck. I—”
“Yes, but he kidnapped you. Did he try to rape you?”
“No, but he expected sex. I couldn’t stay around. I had to escape.”
“That’s all we tell the cops. The truth. He stalked you and me. We have the pictures on his phone. He stalked your family. He hunted you down, and he struck at the convenience store. He robbed it and grabbed you. The truck was the only way for you to get away, and he lost his balance and fell when he attacked you.”
She swallows hard and nods. “I guess you’re right. I didn’t want my family to think worse of me, but I am a disobedient daughter. I am worse than they think.”
“I’m betting they still love you.”
Although truth to tell, by the way the preacher preaches, all about sin and disobedience, the wrath of God and hell, I can see why Amber is afraid of them.
“No, they never loved me. They loved the concept of me,” Amber says, jutting her chin defiantly. “They’re all about women submitting and men ruling. Lucky for Mom and Dad they had all boys until I came along. Then it was preach, preach, preach, nag, nag, nag, all to keep me from turning into a fallen woman.”
I almost want to say she shouldn’t care since they predicted it, but I clamp my mouth shut. Amber needs my support, and honestly, I don’t think anything less of her. She made mistakes, and so did I. I was only lucky, none of my mistakes had the consequences hers had.
“What was their plan for you? To go to Bible college?”
“No, they think Bible college is corrupt—where girls go to meet men. I was supposed to serve at my dad’s church until a junior pastor decided I’d make him a fine wife. My father always has junior pastors and visiting preachers, evangelists, and missionaries.”
“Let me guess, they ask your dad for your hand.”
“They ask permission to court me from my father, and then my mother chaperones. It’s very old-fashioned. My brothers, being men, were allowed freedom to go out of town and travel around until they met their wives. Me? Stuck in the old homestead playing the piano, typing the bulletin, and minding the nursery.”
“I would have run away, too.” I sweep her lustrous brown hair from her pale face and kiss her forehead. “Go, call your grandmother and explain everything.”
“I can’t. My grandmother would tell my parents.”
I have to respect her wishes, even though it was a load off my shoulders to have my mom on my side. But then, Amber knows her family best.
“Okay, then we need to sic the police on Hunter, before he finds us. Mom won’t tell Darlene where we are, but there’s an entire town of people in Divine who know about Joe and his hideaway.”
“Right. And the internet,” Amber says. “Joe’s been renting it out with an online vacation rental agency.”
“I don’t much go on the internet,” I admit. “What does that mean?”
“Means there are pictures of all the rooms, the surrounding woods, the drive, the woodshed, and even the hot tub out on the deck.”
“So, if Hunter finds out we’re here…” My voice trails. “Only thing is, he can’t get up the road.”
