Page 63 of Beneath the Midnight Sky
Who knows, maybe they’d hit it off and I’d have one more Carragan brother hooked on someone who deserved it.
Work was absolutely slammed tonight.Thankfully, we’d known about the rodeo coming into town again this time, and we had extra servers on staff as well as busboys and bartenders. According to Rowan, this was the last big show of the summer,so everyone who was anyone wanted to be here and a part of the action.
Thus, a busy bar night, while everyone arrived. Drinks were served, food was eaten, and by the end of my shift, my feet were killing me. All I could think about was going back to Rowan and sinking into a bubble bath with him. As I counted my tips and cashed out for the evening, I waved bye to Ivy, Lucas, and a few other servers. I walked out, got in Rowan's truck, and started it up. Pulling out my phone, I sent him a quick text letting him know I was on my way back to him and to pretty please have a bath ready for us.
He sent back a winky face along with some water droplets that I knew didn’t mean water in the way they were meant to be used. Giggling quietly to myself, I slid my phone into the cup holder and backed out of the parking spot.
The roads were dark and slightly damp this evening from earlier showers we’d had. Clouds covered up any light the moon and stars would normally provide deep in the mountains where Raven Creek sat. I’d just come out of the town's city limits and onto the small road that would take me toward The Carragan Ranch when a pair of high beams from a truck behind me lit up the entire cab.
“Good lord, really?” I muttered beneath my breath. I tried to slow down slightly, thinking maybe they wanted to drive around me. I was going the speed limit, but then again, sometimes that wasn’t fast enough for everyone. What did I know? I was just a city girl trying to drive a big ass truck on a dark as fuck country road. I was doing my best.
The truck must’ve been the same size as Rowan’s because the headlights sat where mine did. But they didn’t pass me. They just got closer to my back end.
“What the fuck, dude…” I whispered as unease sank into my gut. I knew I was overthinking this situation, but I reacheddown into the cupholder to grab my phone and dial Rowan. But as soon as I unlocked my phone, the truck behind me sped up and tapped my bumper. I jerked forward, and my phone slipped from my hand onto the floorboards.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Fine, asshole, I’ll move!” I hollered, obviously more to myself than the jackass behind me.
Hitting my turn signal, I slowed down and slowly maneuvered myself off the road. Glancing behind me, I realized that he wasn’t going around me, though…he was driving at me.
Before I could think of what to do, his truck hit the back of mine, and my head hit the steering wheel. The last thing I thought was that Rowan was going to be so pissed that his truck crashed into a ditch.
31
MY LIFE LINE
Rowan
Aspen: Start a bath for us? I’m on my way home and I want to relax with you!
Me: It would be my pleasure, little angel!
She’d laughedand reacted to my text, and I smiled, thinking about being wrapped around the back of her in a tub full of bubbles. I checked the app on my phone, so I’d be able to time it out perfectly. I didn’t want it to be cold when she got here, and I knew the roads were wet, so she’d be a little longer.
It wasn’t stalking her, really; it was preparing to make my girl happy while being smart and using the resources at my disposal.
She was on course to be here in about fifteen minutes, and I was about to get up and start the bath when I noticed her location dot slowing down. Sitting back on the couch, I watched it, trying to rationalize so I didn’t indeed seem like a stalker. She got stuck behind someone slow. There was an animal on the road. The roads were wetter than we anticipated.
All logical reasons. What I didn’t have a logical reason for was that her dot slowed down and wasn’t on the road anymore…
I dialed her number, but it went to voicemail, so I tried again. Same thing.
I quickly called Wyatt, putting the phone on speaker, so I could still watch her dot. He answered on the second ring, but I spoke before he could even mutter a hello.
“How accurate is this tracker? Is it like the phone ones that’s more like a radius, or is it like crystal fucking clear?” I asked.
“Crystal fucking clear. Only thing that could fuck with it is maybe a signal jammer, but even then, it’ll still give you a rough radius with that. Why? What’s wrong with stalker cowboy and his angel this evening?” Wyatt replied.
Under normal circumstances, that nickname would make me laugh. But I wasn’t laughing right now.
“She’s on her way home in my truck, and she just pulled off on the side of the road. Before you ask, I called twice. It’s going to voicemail.” I watched for another moment and realized her dot was moving slower back down the road, only to take off back toward town. “I think…I think she’s in someone else’s vehicle and she’s headed back toward town…” My voice trailed off, the confusion clear in it.
Why would she be going back to town? She left my truck on the side of the road? I didn’t?—
“Send me the location she pulled off at. I’ll grab Theo and go look and get the truck. You get Oliver and go after her location. Okay?” Wyatt said, interrupting my spiraling thoughts.
He thought it was her ex.
“You think…but we haven’t heard from him in weeks, Wyatt,” I replied, my anger starting to rise. But not at my brother, at myself. How the fuck could I be so damn stupid? I let her drive herself to work and back home, thinking nothing would happen.
