more than a friends-with-benefits relationship, he’d still saved her. She was away from Isaias. As soon as she could, she’d get Lizette and her daughters out of there. Laina too.
And she’d make Isaias pay. She’d make that bastard hurt for what he’d done to her.
***
They made it all the way to Redding that night before they were too tired to go on. Evan insisted she wait in the car while he checked into a casino resort outside of town, and she watched him walk off towards the lobby, a confused scowl on her face. Riel hunched down in her seat, staring out the window at the first stars glimmering on the horizon, and wondered why, if Evan was trying to save paying an extra-person charge, he’d chosen someplace that looked so expensive.
Riel was startled out of her daydreams about living in a house with Evan and a cat when Evan opened the door for her, smiling. She climbed out into the balmy air, a soft breeze curling around her body. It was so much warmer here than in Portland.
Evan walked around to the back of the car and started pulling suitcases out. “Can you get the third one?” he asked.
For a moment, Riel thought he had found a way to bring her clothes along. But as she wheeled the suitcase towards the hotel’s side entrance, she felt how heavy it was.
She arched her eyebrows at him. “I guess we’re bringing a present to Mishmash,” she said quietly.
His lips twitched into a dry smirk. “Maybe a little something, yeah.”
Riel smacked him lightly on the arm as he held the door open for her. “Evan! You didn’t think to mention that part to me?” She glanced around nervously. “And why didn’t you have it in the secret compartment?”
He rubbed the spot where she’d hit him, pursing his lips theatrically. “Jeez, Riel, you gotta watch you don’t beat me up, now that you’ve been working out.”
She stood, glaring at him, and his expression softened and became sheepish. He jerked his chin toward the open door. “We’ll discuss it in our room.”
“Fine.”
As they strode down the hall, his phone dinged in his back pocket, and he pulled it out, grinning as his eyes skimmed over the screen. “Robert says Isaias still hasn’t figured out you’re not coming back. He and Laina are fine, everything is cool.”
Riel let out a breath she hadn’t been aware she was holding. “Good.”
She followed him to the elevator in silence. She wasn’t really angry with him about the drugs, but the sudden realization that they were hauling contraband had hit her like a bad bout of flu. Cold sweat prickled the back of her neck and her stomach seemed to fill with rocks. Before she’d been busted, there had been a sort of excitement to running—pride that she was getting away with something illegal and dangerous. But prison had changed that. More than anything, she didn’t want to go back to that place. Riel swallowed hard and tried to grapple her fluttering heart back into a normal rhythm.
They took the elevator to the very top floor. Evan swiped the key card at the door to their room and held it open for her.
As she wheeled the suitcase in, she paused. This was no normal hotel room—it was a suite. It had a sitting room with a leather sofa and chairs. On the coffee table was a gigantic bouquet of roses and a gift basket full of what looked like chocolate, wine, and bubble bath. “Evan…”
He smiled tentatively. “I figured you could use something a little special after what you’ve been through, so I got a package deal. Comes with a nice dinner too.”
She dropped the suitcase and fell into his arms. He held her close, stroking her back with gentle hands. She looked up at him and had to blink back tears. “Evan, thank you.”
He grinned teasingly, wiping an escaped tear from her cheek. “Jeez, Riel, it’s just some flowers and junk.”
“You went through all that trouble to save me, and then you do something so nice.” She wanted to ask him why, but the words wouldn’t come.
His smile faded. He stroked her cheek with his thumb, brushing away another tear. “Worth it a million times over,” he said.
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, feeling his gorgeous lips against hers. How could she have ever taken them for granted? The last few days had been difficult. She’d thought he’d run off and abandoned her, that she’d never