Page 45 of Dirty Gambit

“Don’t do this,” she pleaded, still struggling. “You don’t understand.”

“You can explain it all to me during the drive back home.” He slammed the backdoor shut and hauling her around the back towards the still open passenger side.

“Jaxon.” She ripped away just long enough to whirl around to face him. Her big, brown eyes pleaded with him. “You can’t take Jessie back there.”

“Where?” he demanded, his temper rising. “Back to the only home, she’s ever known? Back to the people who love her? Back to her safe bed? Sorry, sweetheart, but this road trip is over.”

She opened her mouth, but Jaxon shoved her into his abandoned seat and slammed the door shut. He jogged around the hood and ducked in behind the wheel. He sat a moment and squinted at the low rise of hills on their right and the vast nothing on the left.

“Where the hell are we?”

Lena didn’t answer, nor had he expected her to.

He put the car into drive and propelled them onward, gaze scanning for hints of human life. There wasn’t even a sign to indicate they were nearing anything.

What weird, uncharted bullshit is this?He wondered to himself.

“Where are we?” he demanded for what felt like the millionth time.

His question was met with a defiant tilt of her face towards the window.

Deciding he was on his own, he pushed onward, keeping one eye on the gas needle. It sat precariously between the E and the F but kept shuddering as if unsure which it favored more. Not that that stopped it from edging towards the E much faster than Jaxon liked.

“Are we even in Canada anymore?” he blurted after nearly an hour of silence.

His companion shifted in her seat but remained tight-lipped.

“You’re not making this easier on yourself,” he warned.

“You really like talking, don’t you?” she mumbled, still not looking at him.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” he reminded her sharply. “We may or may not be nearly out of gas and Jessie needs to be changed soon, so yes, I like talking.”

She snorted. “You’re notnearlyout of gas, rich boy. It’s a full tank.”

Jaxon glared at the questionable dial. “There’s no way.”

Lena tilted as far as she could over the middle console with her arms bound at her back to squint at the dashboard. “Full!” she exclaimed, shaking her head at him in disgust.

“In what world?” he cried. “That’s barely half.”

She scoffed. “Maybe you’re just too used to new, shiny cars that properly work.”

“Well, I expect any vehicle I have a baby in to work properly.”

She didn’t seem to have a response to that, and Jaxon claimed the win with a sharp rap of his knuckle on the flimsy bit of plastic. The needle never so much as flickered.

“It’s fine,” she told him shortly.

“Where’s the next gas stop?”

“Why are you asking me?”

The defiant huff in her tone left no doubt in his mind that she knew exactly where they were headed.

“Look, this mess you put us in, we can talk about it in great depths later,” he barked. “Right now, my only concern is getting Jessie out of that seat, fed and changed. Now, you can help me or let her suffer when we’re miles from nowhere, out of gas and stranded. What’s your pick?”

Her mouth pursed into a tight, flat line, but he knew he had her when she muttered a curse in Spanish and faced him.

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