Page 37 of The Last Good Man

My grin falls off, panic blooming in my chest.

“You’re not taking me home, are you?”

“I am. Just show me some trust.”

Our eyes meet.

“You said I wasn’t in danger with you.”

“And I meant it,” he saysseriously, suddenly looking brutally mature. “You’ll never be in danger with me. I’m a man of honor and always keep my word…with people that matter.”

That can mean pretty much anything.

I don’t even know where to begin dismantling his statement.

“What you did tonight wasn’t exactly honorable,” I argue.

“I said I was a man of honor as in‘I’m keeping my word.’The things I do are not always honorable. By your standards, anyway,” he takes a jab at me. “Besides, all is fair in love and war,” he adds, winking at me before taking a last drag off his cigarette and putting it out.

My eyes go to the cigarette stub.

He immediately catches the nuance in my gaze.

“Are you a smoker?” he asks.

I move my eyes away from him.

“I used to be, but I was never a heavy smoker. Even so, I needed to quit, and I did that a few months back. The Doctor suggested I carry a pack of cigarettes with me, so I never obsess over them.”

“The Doctor?” he asks, bringing his car to a stopin front ofanoisy diner.

I turn my gaze to him.

“The shrink… As you like to callher.”

He glances at the group of men in front of the place, a couple of them looking in our direction.

“The shrink. Yeah, yeah…” he says, his focus on those men.

He finally looks at me.

“Don’t get out of the car. All right?” he says in the tone my father used whenever he wanted me to stay put and behave.

I was five or six back then.

I’ve always associated that tone withhimprotecting and guiding me, and now it’s no different with this stranger.

Although this is silly.

And despite everything he says, this is dangerous.

“I’ll be right back…” he says, preoccupied. “There’s a gun in the glove compartment. Use it if you need to,” he adds, stress-free like we’re talking about breakfast.

And speaking of food.

His left boot meets the concrete when he turns to me.

“Do you want something to eat?”

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