Rock Me Deeper (Licks of Leather #5) - Jenna Jacob Page 0,30
tinkle.” She grinned and released my hand.
Do it. Ask, for fuck’s sake!
“Do you think… I mean, I-I hate to trouble you, but do you think I could catch a ride with you and Herb?”
“Well, of course, honey. It’s no trouble, but…don’t you have a car?”
I shook my head. “It’s parked in the barn at my place.”
“Well…how did you get here?”
“I-I’ve spent the last three days on a bus.”
“Oh, you poor thing,” Betty tsked. “You wait right here. As soon as I tinkle, Herb and I will drive you home.”
The rush of relief slamming through me nearly made my knees buckle. “Thank you, Betty. Thank you so much.”
“No need to thank me,” she said with a wave of her hand. Pausing in the doorway of the stall, she arched her brows. “You can tell us all about what happened to you and how you got all those nasty bruises in that big, scary city.”
Shit.
While Betty tinkled, I racked my brain to come up with a plausible story. I couldn’t tell her, or anyone, that Syd had helped me escape. He might be a rock god to the rest of the world, but his reputation as a no-good, dirty hoodlum still thrived in Diamond City. Thankfully, he’d been gone so long, no one in town recognized Syd Wilson.
They would if they ever saw me with him.
And I certainly couldn’t mention Zattman. When Mia finally took the bastard down, it’d be the hottest story in the world. I hadn’t spent the last fifteen-plus years trying to redeem my reputation to blow it by being associated with the crazy prick.
Some customers would shower me with sympathy, which I didn’t want. Others would whisper I’d earned a well-deserved lesson from Karma. I didn’t want that, either.
Ten minutes later, I was sitting in the backseat of Herb and Betty’s antique Delta 88, cruising toward home. I made sure to keep the bandages on my wrists covered and prayed the story I was weaving from thin air wasn’t chock full of holes.
“While Monica was out on the dance floor, I made my way through the crowded bar, to hit the ladies’ room. After I took care of business, I opened the door to go back to our table when this mountain of a man stepped from the shadows. He covered my mouth with his fat hand and grabbed me around the waist.”
“Oh, dear,” Betty gasped. “Did he say anything?”
“No. He just pulled me up against his big body and dragged me out a back door. I tried to fight him. I was kicking and screaming, but of course, with his hand over my mouth, no one heard me.”
Herb eyed me in the rearview mirror. “You said the bar was crowded. Why didn’t anyone try to stop him?”
Great. The old fart is already suspicious. I should have given more thought to this stupid story.
Swallowing down the ball of guilt in my throat, I shook my head. “The main bar area was packed, but the hallway to the restrooms was totally deserted.”
“Let the girl tell her story, Herb,” Betty chided before glancing back at me with an eager nod. “Go on, honey.”
“After he dragged me outside, he hauled me down a long, dark alley. Then he shoved me up against this brick wall and ripped my purse off my shoulder. I tried to grab it back, but he just laughed at me. I begged him not to take my purse. I even told him that I’d give him all my money if he’d just leave me my purse. I didn’t want to lose my phone. My boarding pass for my flight home was on it.”
That part wasn’t a lie. It was probably good to sprinkle in at least one truth.
While Betty hung on my every word, I branded each one to memory. No doubt, I’d be quizzed and questioned in the days to come. I knew the second the old couple dropped me off, Betty would be chomping at the bit to get home so she could call her cronies in the Ladies Auxiliary, who’d phone their friends, and so on and so on. By morning, the whole town would know all the details of my ordeal.
The gossip grapevine of a small town put the internet to shame.
“Oh, Caris. He didn’t try to…?” Betty covered her mouth with a liver-spotted hand.
“Molest me? No. Thank goodness. He told me he was taking my money, anyway. Then he hit me so hard, right here”—I pointed to the angry bruise on my