Lacey’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel as she realized what she had inadvertently gotten herself into. Dang it. She should have chosen Louisa and left Victor in the wilderness.
“There’s a tiny town nearby called Small Harbor. I have family there. I borrowed the handgun off them.” Hopefully, he’d interpret uncle or cousin or something once removed from her words.
As long as he didn’t get out of the car, it was still containable. Handing her competition her only weakness on a plate wasn’t an option.
At some point they had turned off the main road to Duluth and gone back roading in a way Victor was pretty sure wasn’t covered under the rental car terms.
The green fields all looked identical, so Victor had no clue what Lacey was navigating by. The sun? The occasional signpost?
It has been at least half an hour since they had seen another vehicle or person. The landscape held a sense of desertion that made a man wonder how many bodies there were within a mile radius that would never be found.
What he did know was that as they got closer to their destination—at least he could only hope they were getting closer—the lines around Lacey’s mouth and eyes tightened. Like a string being pulled taut.
Suddenly Lacey’s phone lit up by his feet and started dinging as a traffic jam of messages had finally gotten a green light. They had reception, which meant they had to be close to civilization.
“You want me to get that?”
Lacey shook her head, curls bouncing. “No, it’s fine.”
The phone kept going. Dinging every other second for at least a minute. “You sure? Sounds like your boyfriend’s been missing you.”
His statement sounded like the ridiculous fishing expedition that it was. She didn’t even deign to respond.
Indicating, she took a turn onto a real road. “We should be in there in about five minutes.”
“So who am I going to meet?”
“What?”
“Well,” he lifted a shoulder. “I thought that if you’re taking me home to meet the family, it might be a good idea to let me know who they are. You know, so I can charm them with my British accent and all.”
She didn’t even look at him. Tough audience. “You are not going to meet anyone. You’re going to stay in the car, and I’m going to run inside real quick.”
They drove past a sign welcoming them to Small Harbor. Within a few minutes, they were in a neighborhood that if it had ever seen better days, they were a long way back.
Broken up sidewalks, abandoned cars in front yards, skinny children with big eyes peering off porches looking like they hadn’t seen a bath in a week.
Lacey pulled into the driveway of a worn-down house with a broken fence, long grass, and grimy windows. A couple of large Amazon Prime boxes sat on the porch.
She killed the motor and stared at the front door for a few seconds.
“You okay?”
“Look.” She couldn’t hide the pleading in her voice or the way her fingers strangled the steering wheel. “I know you don’t owe me anything. Especially when it’s my fault we’ve been disqualified. But I would really appreciate it if you don’t say anything about this to anyone.”
Victor’s spine prickled. Whatever was going on here, it did not feel good. “O’Connor, look at me.”
She turned her head, but only the bare minimum.
“Are you okay? Is this place safe?” Despite four days in the wilderness together, he realized how little he knew about her. Anything could sit behind that front door.
“It’s fine. I promise.” Her body folded against the back of her seat, and she turned to face him. “The gun’s my dad’s and this is my parents’ home. They’re good people. It’s just … complicated.”
Her gaze broke from his, and she drew in a breath. Somehow he knew she had gifted him more about herself than anyone else in Langham had ever known. Victor steeled himself against the urge to cup her face in his hands and run his thumb over her lower lip. Instead, he settled for tucking one of her wayward curls behind her ear. His fingertips buzzing as they brushed her skin.
Her eyes widened, and he dropped his hand. “You’re good people too, O’Connor. And you have nothing to be ashamed of. All families are complicated.”
“I’ll just be a minute.” Leaning down, she popped the trunk and jumped out of the car like he had just made some kind of grand declaration.