Page 31 of A Love So Wrong
Cold anger and a little bit of fear, if she was being truly honest with herself, mingled together at the bottom of her stomach, but her pride would not let her back down. Gideon was so used to being the one in charge, she would show him that he couldn't control everything. She was no longer a child, and he needed to stop treating her like one.
"And what? Just what are you going to do?" she shot back.
"You pull that silent treatment crap with me, Jade, and I'll pull this truck over and tie you to that seat and for the next eight hours," he growled, and she could see his own anger rising to match hers in the way that his shoulders tensed and his grip tightened on the steering wheel. "You will have no choice but to endure my presence. No escaping to your bunk and pouting. And when it's time to go to bed, I will put you tied up like a hog at the fair into my bed so we can get nice and cozy, and after a while," Gideon paused and looked pointedly over to her, his amber-brown eyes darkening. "You'll talk, and better yet, you'll apologize," he vowed.
Liquid heat of embarrassment crawled up her neck, she was so shocked at his ludicrous threat she could barely form words. "And just how the hell is that going to work when we stop, huh? You'll have to let me out at stops." She wanted the words to sound authoritative, but instead, they sounded breathless and tight.
"We'll get one of those private bathrooms each time," he shrugged. "Yeah, it will be more expensive, but whose fault would that be, huh?"
By now, her heart was hammering. What was he even saying? Would he tie her up each day until she relented and force her to bathe with him? This was crazy. Surely, he was joking. But looking at his strong jawline and the taut lines of his profile, the twisting feeling in her gut told her he wasn't.
"Do you really think I will just let you drag me to and from the truck to the bathrooms without a fight, Gideon?" she made one more attempt to win this with a shred of her pride.
Pulling through the last of the traffic, Gideon maneuvered easily into the lane, the waving police officer directed them on to bypass the three-car wreck on the shoulder. Finally, they were able to pick up speed on the clear road.
"Have you ever fought me before, sweetheart?" he asked, his voice so dangerously soft it chilled her to the bone.
Not once growing up did she ever roughhouse with Gideon. Unlike other siblings she knew, or even Ebony and Gavin, who took out all of their pent-up anger at one another at their Taekwondo school, she and Gideon never once fought. He had always been sweet to her, always the protective big brother.
"No, you haven't," he answered for her. "And you would not win even if you tried."
Sinking back into her chair, she looked away from him and out her window at the line of trees beyond the road. Every now and then, there was a break in the trees, and she could see a long unpaved driveway leading to a small secluded house. It reminded her of their home that they left. Running an agitated hand through her ponytail lying on her shoulder, she slowly combed through the curls with her fingers.
"Why are you being this way?" she asked hesitantly.
"Because I'm tired of you weaponizing your silence against me, Jade," Gideon snapped as if he had been waiting on the edge of her silence the entire time waiting for her to speak. "I told you at the beginning of all this how it fucking kills me when you do that."
"But I wasn't talking aboutreallynot talking," she argued. "I was just mad at you for bringing up that horrible moment."
Heat crawled up her neck and onto her cheeks as she thought of having to pee in that stupid portable toilet. She could die just thinking about it.
"I'm sorry," he said after a while. "That traffic had me on edge. I don't understand how difficult it is just to drive in a straight line," he muttered, running a hand through his curly hair.
Feeling the tension in the cab ease a little, she gave him a pouty smile. "I don't want you to be angry and threaten to tie me up."
Gideon laughed and glanced at her. "Would you rather I be sweet and kind when I tie you up?"
Tired of him teasing, Jade thought for a moment before replying. "Yes."
Gideon's whole body seemed to seize as he turned and gave her a wide-eyed look of shock. Following his line of sight, the truck began to veer, and they both heard the loud warning grind of the tires hitting the rumble strip on the shoulder's edge.
Jade laughed as Gideon corrected the truck with a curse.
They were about seventy miles outside of Chicago in a little town called Belvidere when they stopped for gas. Tiny and a little ways off the interstate, the gas station was more like an afterthought. With only two diesel pumps sitting about twenty yards off from the tiny four pump station and convenience store, it was easy to see that they were a recent addition to capitalize off truckers low on fuel making their way to Rockford.
"Tell me you don’t have to use the bathroom?" Gideon asked warily as he leaned forward in his seat to look out at the lone convenience store sitting in the desolate darkness.
With only one flood-light sitting on a pole between the gas pumps, it tried its best to light up all of the parking lot, but sadly it failed. The deep shadows of the ghostly gas station lingered everywhere. It looked like something out of a horror movie.
"Yeah, umm no, I will wait until Rockford," she answered decidedly.
"Good idea, hell, I wouldn't get out if we didn't need the gas," he grumbled, putting his hand on the doorknob. Opening the door, he stepped down and looked back up at her with a rueful smile. "If I get snatched and drug off by the Children of the Corn, leave out the part where I screamed like a girl."
"Don’t say that!" she squealed, but the door was already closed shut.
Damn him. Sitting stiffly in her seat, she watched him as he jogged across the gravel parking lot to the dismal little store. Wind howled around the truck as she watched Gideon open the glass door covered in old cigarette and beer advertisements. Since their argument earlier, Gideon had let her pick which podcast to listen to, and like a fool, she had picked horror. She was regretting that decision now. Looking out her window, she tried to see what lay beyond the light of the gas station, but she could see nothing but a pitch black. Looking out Gideon's window, there wasn't much change, only the familiar white and yellow stripes of the road gleamed in the low light, and beyond that, nothing.
Relief pumped through her veins when she saw Gideon push through the convenience store door and walk back quickly through the cold whipping wind with his hands buried in his coat pockets. Lord, she was being dramatic. Ok Jade, no more listening to podcasts about floating heads and people who ate people's faces off. Hearing the gas cap of the truck being removed near the driver's side of the truck, Jade pulled out her phone. Seeing a text from Ebony, she typed back a reply. Vibrations from the gas pump being shoved into the truck echoed through the quiet rig as she sat in silence and scrolled through recipe videos. After a few moments of silence, Jade looked up from her phone. She could hear the gas still pumping into the rig. He had told her he was only going to get a few gallons, enough to make it to Rockford. Having no nearby competition, the prices were high out here in the middle of nowhere.
