Page 43 of Fastlander Fealty

And that was the last of the questions.

Silver walked the rest of the way to the end of the drive, downloaded a rideshare app she hadn’t used since she’d escaped the Pride for those few intense, beautiful months, and then she waited twenty minutes for it to arrive, and traveled to her car at the river’s edge.

And then she did as Gunner demanded.

She left the territory.

Nothing had gone as planned.

Not a single, solitary thing.

She was different down to her bones, and Damon’s Mountains were to blame. Owen was to blame. Her stupid laugh in those joyous moments was to blame.

Now, she needed to figure out what kind of cage she could stand.

Chapter Nine

This was going to work. Right?

Silver ripped into the box that held the slightly used phone she’d bought second-hand. All she needed was the tracking app working on it. She already had an eye on a good target. A jacked-up, silver Toyota Tacoma sat in the bar parking lot with a sticker in the back window that read, “Laramie Drinking Club.” She’d just needed a local, and hopefully this guy would stick around the territory.

She turned on the phone and set it next to hers, and downloaded the tracking app on the new phone. She signed into it, and at the same time it connected, she deleted the app from her other phone.

God, let there not be a blip on Rook’s end.

When it was connected and she could see Rook’s icon on there, and hers in the parking lot of Barry’s Bar, she checked her surroundings quickly, and then pushed open her door and set the new phone between two gas cans that were strapped into the bed of the truck. When she was satisfied it wouldn’t blow out the back, Silver slunk to her car again, got in and pulled out immediately.

Please let that work.

She checked the rearview mirror, but whoever the owner of that truck was hadn’t seen her. He wasn’t running out of the bar or anything.

Now she could leave.

If she was lucky, she could get a few states away before Rook realized she’d duped him.

She didn’t know what she was doing, but she knew she couldn’t go back to somewhere she didn’t belong.

At a small town stop sign, she flipped the visor down and looked at her pale face in the mirror. She’d aways avoided looking at herself directly, but Owen had changed everything last night when he’d said her scar was okay. She brushed her fingertips against her lips, remembering how it felt to be kissed by a man who really liked her. Two days ago, her entire life had revolved around taking the sting away from her traitor mark. Now? She didn’t know how to feel, but she couldn’t go on hating herself. She just couldn’t live like that any longer.

Where could she go? New York? Amsterdam? Outer space?

Where could she run to that Rook would never be able to hunt her down?

It was a four-way stop, and she inhaled deep, flipped the visor back up and chose a number at random. Ten. She counted in a clockwise direction until she hit ten. Straight it was. She’d already pulled all her money out of the bank in cash.

She’d done this before, only this time she would escape better.

She would be very careful not to get attached to anyone, and she would move around more. No longer than one month at each place would be the plan.

Silver hit the gas. She hadn’t spent much time with Owen, but it had changed everything for her. She wanted to see herself the way he had seen her at times. Perhaps someday, if she was good at escaping for long enough, they would meet again. Perhaps if that ever happened, she would be a different kind of woman. Maybe she would understand loyalty to herself, and be worth a damn.

****

Owen was restless.

He stood and paced his singlewide trailer up on Fastlander Crew territory again. He’d damn-near worn a trail into the cheap laminate flooring. He went to the front window and looked out of it again, for no reason. What was he even looking for?

Her. The boar’s voice pissed him off.

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