Page 19 of Hunted Temptation
I want more.
When he dips his chin slightly, resting his forehead against mine, he lets out a sigh as he closes his eyes. I do the same, wanting to pretend that I’m a normal girl with a normal, gorgeous man holding me. Not that I’m me, and he’s a murderer.
When Vaughn takes a step backward, his hand falling from my face, I hate the loss of his touch. “I’m going to make sure you’re safe. Right now, I’m tying up loose ends, then we leave town.”
I don’t bother asking him where we’re going. It doesn’t matter. He’ll just tell me not to worry, and I’ll worry anyway. So I might as well just worry and call it a night. Turning away from him, I stare out the window again.
All the same lights are still on.
He didn’t turn any new ones on. Everything seems to be exactly as it should in this little slice of fucked-up suburbia.
Nobody is the wiser that the chief of police is dead.
I start to ask him what happens when the town realizes I’m missing, but decide against it. He knows what he’s doing. At least I think he does… I hope he does.
Chapter Seven
VAUGHN
Once I have allthe video surveillance footage wiped clean for today, I do the same with any cameras they have here at the Airbnb, something that I tapped into the second I arrived.
Together, we leave the house, throwing our shit in my rented car, and drive away, heading straight for North Carolina. I’ll have to switch out cars a few times just to be safe, but otherwise, we’re good.
We don’t speak until we’re out of California and in the Nevada desert. “They’re going to come looking for me,” Elodie says, her voice calling out softly from the passenger seat. I wasn’t sure she was going to say anything. It’s been hours.
“The police?” I ask.
I’ve already thought of that. In fact, that was the first thing I thought of.Sheis the first thing I thought of. Wrong or not, she is always what has been at the forefront of my mind. Since the moment I laid eyes on her picture, that’s where she’s been.
“Yeah,” she whispers. “The police.”
A moment of silence passes between us before I clear my throat. “They won’t.”
More silence.
“Vaughn,” she calls out. “I think maybe I need more than that. Maybe I deserve more than that.”
She’s right. She does deserve more than that. I’m not going to give her much more, though. But I’ll give her something. Clearing my throat, I continue to move forward. Driving straight ahead.
My lips twitch into a smirk. Gripping the steering wheel, I slide my tongue across my bottom lip as I try to think of something that could possibly assuage her curiosity and yet won’t give away much of anything.
“I’m a professional,” I state. “Whoever does the investigation won’t find you or me.”
“And how am I going to move on with my life?” she asks.
She’s got a hell of a lot of questions. I grin as I think about that. I don’t mind that she has questions. I kind of like it. She may be young, but she’s definitely not stupid.
“I’ll make sure your last name changes along with any other identifying documents you need.”
She’s quiet for a moment. When she doesn’t say anything for a while, I think that maybe the conversation is over, but she speaks after a few dozen miles of silence. Inhaling a deep breath, I exhale slowly.
“And money?”
“You’ll have plenty.”
“Vaughn,” she whispers.
I let out a sigh, then chuckle. My tone and voice grow serious because what I’m going to tell her is very serious, and it involves the things he did to her. The things he made her do. I don’t know the details, and I don’t need them unless she wants to share them with me. I can guess them, and for me, that’s enough.
