Page 11 of Unconditional

six

Talon

Blondiewaspassedoutin the passenger seat with her feet tucked up on the dash.Of course, ignoring my barb about how dangerous that was, she’d promptly flipped me off, flung the seat back, and closed her eyes.I knew she’d been faking it for the first hour or so, but eventually the sound of soft snores filled the darkness of the car.

I glanced over at her, seeing the bruise I gave her spreading across her left cheek.Acid climbed my throat and I had to force my attention back to the road.I’dneverhit a woman before, and it did not sit right with me.Even if I knew that I had to in order to make her believe me.I needed her to think I was a bad enough guy that I’d be the type of person to let my uncle murder her parents.That didn’t mean striking her hadn’t made me feel physically sick to my stomach.

That had been an easy enough task—her parent’s security system was a joke.For all the money the Fishers had, you’d think they’d have put in a little more effort to protect their assets or, at the very least, the remaining children they had in the house.Nevertheless, it had been painfully simple to break through their firewalls and hack into the family’s security cameras.

I’d needed leverage to get her to give up her friend, and banked everything on her giving a shit about her absent parents.She didn’t need to know that Kyle actually had no part in it.He didn’t even know where I was—I’d left a message with Bri to say that I was following a lead on Milo and to leave me the fuck alone.

Headlights ahead bounced off the falling flakes of snow, nearly blinding me.“Motherfucker!”I cursed under my breath, flashing my brights at the asshole in the other lane.As I’d thought, they shut their high beams off until they passed, but I was already irritated.We’d gotten on the road within an hour of my surprise arrival at Blondie’s shitty apartment, and I’d been driving for four hours already, the midnight hour fast approaching.

My back was aching and my eyes strained from spending the majority of my day behind the wheel.The voice on the GPS was grating on my nerves too, which was a pretty telltale sign it was time to call it for the night.The clock was ticking with every minute that was spent doing anything but getting to Milo, but it wasn’t like I could ensure Leo’s safety if I crashed into a ditch from exhaustion.

Taking the next exit off the freeway, I found the nearest motel with a lit vacancy sign and pulled into the parking lot.Misely didn’t stir when I shut off the ignition, but I couldn't trust her as far as I could throw her.

“Wake up, Blondie.Pit stop.”

She didn’t move.

“Hey,” I said louder, but she just turned, sighing in her sleep.

I nudged her, trying fruitlessly again to get her to wake up.I huffed, exhaustion making my skin itch.Climbing out of the car, I stomped around the front, ripping open the passenger door.The frosty air whipped inside, sending her blonde hair flying around her face.The moment the chill registered, Misely gasped, her eyes popping wide open.

“Jesus fucking Christ!”She hissed, reaching forward without success to grab at the door and pull it shut again.

“Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty.We’re gonna stay here for the night.Let’s go check in.”

Her blue-gray eyes darted around me to take in the motel, a modest building without any hint of grandeur to speak of, before landing back on my face with a narrow glare.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

My lips twitched at the corners as I held back my smirk.“It’s not the Four Seasons, princess, but it’ll do.Let’sgo.”

She made no attempt to move, instead crossing her arms over her chest.“Absolutely not.I’m not staying in there with you.”

My patience was wearing thinner by the second, the crisp chill creeping beneath the fabric of my hoodie.I bit down the nasty retort that lay on the tip of my tongue, pulling a deep breath of frozen night air into my lungs.With about as much sugar in my tone as a bottle of syrup, I leveled her with a glare of my own.

“Listen, Blondie.You can either get your tight little ass out of that carright now, or I can throw you over my shoulder and haul you inside myself.Your choice, what’s it going to be?”

Indignation still etched into every line of her face, she spat, “You touch me again and I’ll scream.”

I held back the flinch that threatened to reveal itself; to reveal me.She was referring, of course, to the bruise that had angrily blossomed over her cheek.The way I’d hit her, touched her like I had a right to.Shame burned in my stomach, but I concealed it with a twisted smile.

“Please do.Give me a good reason to sic Kyle on something.Someone.”Pulling my phone from my pocket, I wiggled it in front of her.My meaning sunk in quickly, some of the fire in her eyes making room for worry, even as the rest of her expression remained unchanged.

With a very incensed huff, her feet swung from the car.When she stood her chest came within centimeters of my own.She leaned in close, her mouth set in an angry line.

“If there is anything I believe in, it’s karma.Everything you do, every move you make, every action you dole out to hurt people?It’s coming back for you, asshole.And when it does, I hope I’m close by so I can watch.”She shoulder-checked me, stomping around and down the sidewalk toward the motel office.

“How much shit did you pack?”I ground out, throwing thethirdbag of luggage down on the mattress at her insistence.Her glare seared through me from where she sat primly at the other edge of the bed, her wrist dangling from where it was handcuffed to the headboard.

“Well, if you’d had a brain somewhere in that massive cranium of yours, you would have grabbed the correct bag the first time I described it to you.”

My irritation had risen to astronomical levels in the short amount of time it had taken for us to get booked into a room and now.Misely had been adamant that she would not shut the fuck up to let me sleep until I went back out to the car for her ‘night bag.’ When I threatened to duct tape her mouth shut, she eyed me from top to bottom and called me on my bluff.

“You don’t have any duct tape, moron,” she’d said, crossing her arms and cocking out a hip.“Either you can go get my bag, or I can, but one way or another I’m taking a shower and following my skin care routine.Your choice.”She echoed my earlier threat with a challenging curve of her eyebrow.

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