Page 46 of Claimed by an Alien Warrior

She pressed her lips together and glared at the man. Of course she didn’tpreferinferior accommodations, she just couldn’taffordnice places. Three hundred bucks a night would wipe out everythingshe had if they needed to stay multiple nights.

Zoey smiled sweetly. “You know what? You can take that that three-hundred-dollar room and shove it up your ass.” She turned, keeping her back straight, and walked to the doors.

Snow and wind blasted her as she stepped outside, and she nearly slipped twice on her way back to the truck. If circumstances were different, she might’ve welcomed a good fall, just to have a reason to sue the stuck-up bastards in the hotel.

When she reached the truck, she yanked the door open, climbed in, and slammed it closed. Snow fell from her hair and shoulders to melt on the seat around her. She was freezing; her fingers were stiff and numb, and her clothing was soaked. Though her time outside had been limited to trips to and from hotel lobbies, the effects of the weather had cumulated into this misery.

“They have rooms, but they are asking too much for them,” Zoey said, stretching and bending her fingers to coax some feeling back into them.

Rendash frowned. He cranked up the heater before closing the vents on his side, increasing the airflow to her. The gesture was a small one, but it was so thoughtful and heartfelt that it eased away most of her annoyance.

“So what options are left to us?” he asked.

She gratefully held her hands up to the warm air. “I don’t know. This is a resort town. Everything is outrageously overpriced, and they’re only making it worse because of the storm. The interstate is getting shut down because it’s unsafe, and people have nowhere else to go right now.”

“Can we stay in the truck tonight?” he asked.

“We could. But we’d need to keep it idling all night so we don’t freeze, and if a cop decides we’re mucking up the scenery… The last thing we need is for me to have to lie to a cop about borrowing the truck from a relative or something like that.”

“Is there anywhere in the mountains?” Ren gestured beyond the hotel, where the dark form of a large hill was barely visible through the snow and gloom.

“There are probably a bunch of cabins up there. Vacation homes and places to rent. But if I can’t afford a couple nights in a hotel, Idefinitelycan’t afford to rent one of those places.”

“And if we can find one where no one is staying?”

Zoey tilted her head and arched a brow. “Ren, what are you thinking?”

“Sometimes, survival must be placed before honor.”

“What does that mean?”

“Stay here, Zoey.” He pressed the button to lower the passenger window, letting in a blast of cold air and stinging flakes. “I will scout the area and return as soon as I am able.”

“But it’s freezing out there!”

“I know. You will have to make it up to me when we find a warm place to shelter.” He reached out the window and opened the door using the outside handle before pulling himself out of the cab. His eyes met hers as he closed the window. “Be safe. I will return soon.”

He shut the door and vanished. She stared out the window, unsure if the faint disturbance she saw in the flow of snowflakes was a trick of the wind, a trick of her eyes, or Ren moving while cloaked.

You will have to make it up to me when we find a warm place to shelter.

Had he realized what his words implied? There was no way he could’ve known…

But what if he had?

Zoey shoved those thoughts away and locked the doors. Now was not the time to think of the way he’d held her, touched her, and looked at her.

She kept her hands in front of the heater as she scanned her surroundings. The glow from the hotel and the nearby light posts was swallowed up by the storm before it reached the boundaries of the parking lot, leaving the area beyond shrouded in darkness.

Time crawled. Zoey glanced at the clock often, counting the minutes since his departure. She turned on the radio to distract herself, but nothing held her interest — not even songs she normally sang along to could break her thoughts away from Rendash. Was he okay? Had he been spotted?

Would he come back?

If he didn’t, wouldn’t that be easier for her? She could continue to Des Moines, move into Melissa’s apartment, and start over like none of this had ever happened.

Except I abandoned my car in Utah, and a man is dead and I’m driving the dead man’s truck, and how am I going to explain any of that away when it catches up with me?

Zoey dropped her gaze to the instruments on the dashboard.

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