Page 50 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
“How much?” I whispered, hands running up and down my arms.
Silas looked back to study my car, a tattooed hand roughing through his brown hair that glinted beneath the sun. “Eh, seven…maybe six considering I owe Theo a favor or two.”
Oh, the favors this man was owed. I could only imagine how he’d earned them.
The menace that rolled off him. The power he oozed that made me sure he was exactly what I thought he was.
Trouble.
And crap, that was a lot of money, but not close to what I’d paid for it. I couldn’t just scrap it and leave it behind.
Irritation throbbed, and my skin felt clammy even in the frosty cold.
“Okay,” I finally managed to say.
“Send the bill to me.” Theo punted it from out of nowhere.
That time, there was no stopping it, and my gaze flew toward the man who stood there like any of this was normal.
The doctor and the motel and the groceries that we’d woken up to.
And now he thought he was going to pay for the repairs on my car?
“Absolutely not.” I couldn’t help but spew it, the fraying of my nerves sparking into a panic.
I was careful with the money. Didn’t fritter it away.
Our lives were far less than extravagant.
But there was no way. No way I could let him do whatever in the world he thought he was doing.
“Not a biggie.” Another freaking shrug from his arrogant body.
“Oh, it is plenty a biggie.”
Okay, so fine, it was clear the man had money. I guess owning a cute, eclectic motel in a tourist town was lucrative.
Or maybe he was crooked.
Bad.
My insides convulsed with the thought, but I shoved it down where it belonged.
I was nothing to him and he was nothing to me.
It didn’t matter who he was or what he did.
Theo fully turned in my direction, eclipsing me in shadow as he took a step forward.
Towering.
Obliterating.
His voice dropped to something that sounded too close to a threat. “Told you that I wanted to take care of you while you’re here.”
“And I told you that I don’t need your help.”
A low chuckle coming from Silas cut into our stare down. “How about I let you two argue this out on your own time? Seems I have a new project to get started on and plenty of other duties to attend to.”
