Page 68 of Small Town Beast

Saverin shook his head. “No way.”

“Excuse me?”

“We passed the exit and I’m hungry. Consider yourself kidnapped.”

“You don’t get to just take me off somewhere against my will because you’re fine and you have money.”

“Wrong,” he said.

Tanya shook her head. “Everything works when you have money. Everything goes your way. You never had to fight— ”

“Lucky me,” he said.

Her woman’s antennae picked up something in his tone. “You know, I don’t know anything about you,” she said, as if realizing it for the first time. “What you do, who you are…nothing. You never say a word about it.”

“I’m rich, like you said. Apparently ‘fine’.” He rubbed his jaw and asked, “Still?”

“Yeah,” she said. “You are sexy and I think you know it.”

He felt her fingers gently push his hair off his collar. She pulled back sharply. “What happened to your ear?”

“Gunshot.” It had happened the night they met.

She was silent for a while. “Can I ask you something?”

“Go on, honey.”

“What happened to your brother?”

The question came out of nowhere, taking his wind.Did I ever mention Sam?

“He’s dead,” Saverin summarized. “Got shot.”

“Accident?”

“Murder.”

“Was he young?”

“About your age.”

Tanya shifted in the seat and began playing with the strap on her bag. “I’m sorry for making assumptions.”

“It’s alright. I’m better off than most, it’s true. But ever since…ever since the night we met, I figured if I don’t use what I have to help people then there’s no point sticking around.”

“Sticking around Florin?”

No.

“Yeah,” he said.

They hit a sudden knot of traffic.

“It’s a wedding!” Tanya exclaimed, leaning out the window to look. He had a sudden vision of her head getting struck off by a passing car. He jerked her by the belt loops back into the truck and snarled, “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Hey! Ow! I saw the bride! She’s got like ten miles of that dress.”

“Well you don’t need to leap into traffic over it. Christ!”

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