Page 16 of Unspoken Promises

Silence is still his answer. But boy does it make me want the answer more. This moment with us? It’s like entering the most exhilarating game of chess. Will he make a move? Will I?

“Come on. Throw a girl a bone here.”

He furrows his eyebrows over those sexy black rims of his, but I’m not sure if he’s concentrating on the road or chewing on what to say.

He concedes, “Some things are better left in the past.”

He’s not wrong there. Even though I’m desperate to leave mine behind, I’ll surely lose time wondering why he wants to forget his, too.

“I agree with that.” I open the window again, farther thistime so his hair flops around, too, now. “But I still want to know.”

He cocks an eyebrow. “How about you give me your story and I’ll give you mine, Ava. What brings a girl to Echo Valley, in a hurry, with only a backpack?”

I flatten my lips and put the window back up. “It’s going to be hard to get to know each other, I guess.”

“Fortunately, we don’t need to in order to have a working relationship.”

And yet here he is, taking me to the grocery store.

“So you aren’t friends with any of your co-workers? I was kind of hoping there was a good company culture here at GhostEye.”

He puts the blinker on again. “Is that what a good company culture is? Having friends at work? I thought it was allowing people to fail forward and reach their true potential.”

“Well,” I lift an eyebrow and throw him a teasing smile, even though he can’t see it, “considering the job you gave me, and us not needing to know each other, it doesn’t seem like either are happening here.”

He narrows his eyes, but not at me. The road is all he cares about. How hard do I have to press to crack this nut?

I’m desperate for friends and I see my boss doesn’t want to be one. And moreover, that he doesn’t need any. He has a big family, unlike me. My friends will be my family, and when I find them, I’ll cherish them.

Enzo doesn’t seem like he trusts people enough to make friends easily. I have every reason to be the same, and yet, I believe the good people out there outweigh the bad. We just need to get the balance of power right.

I spy the tall sign of the grocery store ahead. It occurs tome once I get milk and perishables, we’ll need to head straight back to the ranch.

“Would you mind if we go to the coffee shop or bookstore first?” Can’t hurt to ask.

“I need to get back.”

“What are you doing tonight?”

“You ask a lot of questions.”

“Isn’t it a fundamental trait of any successful hacker? Why would you expect anything else?”

His stony expression cracks just a little; I swear the corner of his mouth quirks.

“I’m going to ride my horse tonight and like to do that before sundown.”

Enzo has been so buttoned up since meeting him. Does he wear chaps when he rides or is that just what cowboys need on long cattle drives? There are probably lots of cowboys over at the ranch at the back of the property. There is a pair of binoculars in the house, and from the second floor I was able to see the stables and pastures at the far end. No cowboys, though. Apart from Santi who sadly wasn’t wearing any chaps when I watched him through my scope.

We pull into the grocery store parking lot. It’s a small market with a very large name.Piggleton’s.

When we get out of the car, he rushes around to my side to open the door and, just as with my backpack, he shows his manners and makes searing eye contact. But even though his stare feels like he could look right through my mask, something about his presence makes me want to step closer instead of run away.

We walk from the warm humid night through a blast of cold air into the grocery store.

Enzo grabs a shopping cart. I take a basket.

“You can put everything in the cart,” he instructs me.

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