“Remember, you put too many people there to end up cellmates,” Alex reminded his old friend. The danger of ending up there would be real if someone came near Hope unless they came on his property.
“That’s not the only thing holding me back.”
“You’re not your dad,” Alex tossed out.
“I mean that if I went to prison, I’d never get to be with Hope.”
“Oh shit. Well, I’ll talk to you both later.” He abruptly ended the call.
“What was that about? Your dad?”
“Um…”
“You know what? Never mind. I shouldn’t press. I’ve caused you enough problems without bringing up a sore subject.”
“It’s a painfully sore subject, but I don’t want to hold anything back from you. The short of the story is: my father had an affair, and he killed his mistress when he found out she was cheating, then drove drunk and crashed into a tree.”
“Wow, I know there’s a lot more there, but shit, that’s plenty. So that’s the reason for being a lawyer or the rancher?”
“I grew up on the ranch, but I hated the way people looked at us, so I changed professions even though I couldn’t give up the land. Now, I’ve decided to go back to my roots. There’s something peaceful about being your own boss.”
“You’re light years ahead of me. I’m excited to even have my own phone for the first time. There are so many experiences I’ve yet to have.”
“I’m going to make sure that you have as many of them as possible,” he remarked, bringing her hand to his mouth and kissing the back of it.
“Like teaching me to shoot?” They’d only gone out for thirty minutes, and she’d had enough after the first round, but she never mentioned it to him.
“I’m sorry that was cut short because of Alex’s visit, but we’ll go out again.”
She bit her lips and hesitated to respond. “What?” he asked, sensing she wanted to say more.
“Okay. Here it is.” She took a breath, then rushed the rest out. “I don’t want to. I don’t like a gun in my hand. It’s too powerful.”
“That’s fine, but then we’re going to have to work on your combat skills. I never want you to be unprotected. I’ll do my best to always be close by, but there will be times that it’s not possible.”
“You’re so wonderful to me, and I’ve done nothing to deserve it.”
“Even if…even if I didn’t want to bury my cock deep inside of you, I would have helped you out. You’ve been through hell, escaped, and saved yourself. That makes you fucking amazing.”
She shook her head, reached over, and turned up the radio to stop their conversation as well as hear the song that played while they drove. Gage smiled and let the subject drop for the time being.
“We’re almost there.”
Hope fidgeted, grabbing at the edge of her T-shirt and twirling it with her fingers and letting it go. Her heart raced, and her stomach did flips. She gasped when she felt Gage grab her hand.
“Relax. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. No one is going to take you from me, so let’s go have some fun, shop, and get something to eat.”
They entered Austin city limits, then he pulled into a large strip mall. Gage knew it would be too busy for her hunters to find her, plus they had several stores they needed, including a phone store. The first department store resulted in three outfits and two pairs of shoes. She shocked him when she pulled out her wallet and paid for the clothes in cash. Unwilling to bring it up in front of the store clerk, he waited until they exited the store.
“Where did you get all that money?”
“It’s money I saved up over the years. You’ve done everything for me. I don’t want you to pay for all of my clothes too.”
“Well, how about you save that money and let me take care of it?”
“I just… Well, it’s nice to do this for myself.”
“Fine, but when we buy your cell phone, I will be buying it. I don’t want your name on anything, so they can’t search for it.”