Where Winter Finds You (Black Dagger Brotherhood #18)- J.R Ward Page 0,26

napkin. It was a wad of cash, folded in half. Picking the bundle up, she fanned out the hundred-dollar bills. Ten of them.

Her head whipped up, and she looked around. Then she jogged across the empty dining room to the front entrance. Pulling things open, she went down the stairs of the ante-hall and through the outer door. The fury of the storm tore at her body with ice-cold claws, and she had to catch her balance by throwing out a hand to one of the awning’s supports.

There was no hope of finding them. The couple was long gone.

Returning to the warmth and the quiet of the restaurant, she looked down at the cash in her hand. If you added up how much the couple had eaten, a thousand dollars was probably pretty close to what the bill had been, if you included tax and a tip of about 25 or 30 percent.

The couple had been comp’d and they had given her what they would have spent anyway.

A Christmas miracle from perfect strangers.

With this cash? She could make the security deposit on her own.

This was a gift the likes of which that couple couldn’t possibly comprehend, and tears of gratitude entered her eyes, threatening to spill over.

It was a while before she could backtrack and reenter the restaurant.

* * *

Emile’s car had four-wheel drive. It was also pretty close to the beater category, but the Subaru Outback seemed to back up its maker’s assertions that an odometer with a hundred thousand miles on it was not only dog-approved, it was no big deal.

Therese passed the time looking out her window and staring at the businesses they were passing. It had been a while since she’d been in any kind of vehicle, and she had forgotten how much she enjoyed just sitting back and watching whatever was at the side of the road. Gareth had liked to go for drives, and she had been her brother’s regular companion.

Although… the last time she had been in a car had been with Trez. His BMW. After he had briefly lost consciousness and had to be taken to get checked out.

On mutual agreement, they had abandoned that mission, and she had never asked him whether he was okay. She had just assumed so—

And he had kissed her, then.

“Are you warm enough?”

Startled by the voice next to her, she glanced at Emile. “Oh, yes, thank you.”

“Here are the controls.” He pointed to the… well, controls. “In case you want to change anything.”

“Thank you.”

Determined to stop thinking about that Shadow, she tried to find something to say. Funny how when you changed the environment, you changed the vibe. She had never had a hard time talking to Emile when they were at work. Now, outside of the restaurant and alone with him, things were awkward.

“The snow is stopping,” she said as she leaned in to the windshield. “It’s about time.”

“Yes, it is.”

Great, they were covering the weather. Next up—sports? Yeah, that was the last thing she wanted to talk about. During NCAA basketball season, she and Gareth had always been glued to the TV, watching the Spartans play. Never doubt the Izzo, they had always said.

She hadn’t turned even one game on since she’d left.

“So,” Emile said, “what kind of music do you—”

The sound of his cell phone ringing spared her from making that kind of small talk. Although as he reached into his coat and took out his phone, she figured she might as well get an answer ready.

“Liza—” He stopped as he got cut off. “Wait, I can’t hear you over the noise. What?”

Therese looked over. The sound of the woman’s voice was squawking out of the phone, all kinds of syllables racing into one another, to the point that even Therese’s vampire hearing couldn’t decipher the rush.

“Okay, okay…” Emile held up his hand as if the woman could see him. “Slow down. I’m not—no, I just left work. I’m giving—” He hesitated and looked at Therese.

Yeah, there was only one response to that. She shook her head.

“I’m giving Therese a ride home,” he muttered.

Three, two… one. Boom!

Both the volume and speed of the words tripled and Therese put her head in her hands. Meanwhile, Emile was battling against a much stronger current than he could ever keep from drowning in.

“But that was in the middle of my shift, Liza. You decided to leave on your own, and I need the…”

When there was finally a pause on the other end, Emile jumped in with,