could turn red.
“Who was that?” I asked.
“Sorry, Princess,” he said, ignoring my question as he turned the car off the highway back toward downtown, away from Ditch City, which is what everyone called the area where the Walnut Street Shelter was located. “But I gotta make a stop.”
“What?” I shook my head. “No way. Drop me off first.”
He didn’t respond.
“Just let me off here then,” I said. “I’ll take the bus home.”
“I’m not leaving you in the middle of the city with no money so you can take a buss back to a homeless shelter.”
“How do you know I have no money?”
He looked at me and raised his eyebrows. “Please.”
“It’s none of your business,” I said as he pulled the car into the parking lot of Loose Cannons. “It’s none of your business what I’m doing or where I’m going.”
He drove around to the back of the club and turned the car off. “Olivia,” he said, and his voice was low and gravelly and serious. It was the first time he’d said my name, the first time he hadn’t called me Princess. I liked it. It gave me goose bumps on my arms and a shiver down my spine. “You are going to stay in this car. You are not going to talk to anyone. You are not going to move. You are going to sit here until I get back, and you are not going to ask any questions.”
“And then you’ll take me to the shelter?”
He hesitated. It was brief, but I saw it.
Hesitation.
He wasn’t going to take me to the shelter.
I reached out and went for the door handle, but he hit the automatic lock before I could open it. I unlocked it. He locked it. I unlocked it. He hit the child safety lock, which essentially locked me in the car.
“Wait here,” he said. “Do you understand?”
I shook my head. “I want to go home. Now unlock the door. Or I’ll call the police.”
“And tell them what?” he demanded. “That I was trying to give you a ride somewhere and you insisted on taking the bus?”
“No, that you locked me in this car against my will.”
“You are unbelieveable, you know that?” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“So I’ve been told.” It was a lie. I’d never been told I was unbelieveable.
“You’re also really cute when you’re trying to be tough.” His voice softened when he said this last part, almost into a flirty tone, and it threw me just enough that when he reached down near my feet and grabbed my purse, I was too slow to stop him.
“Hey!” I said. “That’s mine.”
“Yeah, well, possession is nine-tenths of the law.”
I undid my seatbelt and went to grab my bag, but he held it out of my reach. My body was pressed up against his, my breasts pushing against his broad chest as I pretty much threw myself onto him.
“Well, hey there,” Colt said, grinning at me lazily. “Nice to see you again, Princess.” He was so close I could smell the fresh scent of his laundry detergent, and I could feel his breath against my cheek. His lips were full and sexy, the stubble on his face reminding me how close we came to kissing.
My skin felt like it was on fire and my stomach did a somersault. It was no use. I wasn’t going to get my purse back, and to try would just make him feel like he was winning. I quickly moved back to my side of the car and, in an effort to keep from being so attracted to him, tried to remind myself how infuriating he was.
“Don’t move.” Colt got out of the car and walked into the club, through a back door marked “Employees Only.”
I sat there for a minute. It would be easy to jump out of the car, to head for the bus stop, hop on a bus, and go back to the shelter.
But my bus pass was in my purse. Along with my ID. Not that I needed my ID for the bus, but it was a pain in the ass to try to get your license replaced. Especially for a former foster kid, who had no birth certificate.
I searched around the car for something I could use to help me. But the glove compartment was locked, and the car was immaculately clean.
I couldn’t do anything but wait.
My heart was thrumming loudly in my chest, and my head felt kind of weird – all light and jittery. I