I couldn’t argue with his logic. If I was going to trust him and give him a week, I needed to jump in with both feet. “All right, I’ll trust you for now. Against my better judgement. But, I reserve the right to revoke it at anypoint.”
“That’s good enough forme.”
We rode up into the mountains on his motorcycle then pulled down a long gravel driveway. An older woman was sitting on the front porch in a rocking chair, smoking acigarette.
“This is Crickett’s home. Her son is an Unacceptable, and he lives here too. She’s kind of like our queen’smother.”
The reference seemed odd to me, but nothing about this situation was normal. Instead of overthinking it like I wanted to, I just went with theflow.
Trent grabbed my hand as we started to make our way up the frontsteps.
“Crickett, this is the woman I was telling youabout.”
She immediately pulled me into a hug. “Sweetheart, you look soshaken.”
“Can we talk inside?” Trent motioned for the door and we both followed himin.
We all took seats around the kitchen table, where he handed us each abeer.
“All right, so what is actually going on here?” Her kind eyes searched mine as she waited for my response, but Trent spoke upfirst.
“Sloan, it’s all right to tell her. You can trust her more than you can even trust me. She came here to escape a dangerous life when she wasn’t much younger than youare.”
I cleared my throat and dove into the CliffsNotes version of what Ray did. When I was finished, Crickett put her hand onmine.
“Trent, good call bringing her here.” She shot him a kind smile before turning to me. “You can stay in Raine’s old room for the time being. I’ll get you a burner cell, and I want you to change out your SIM card once a week. Never keep a number longer than that. You can borrow Abel’s old truck until we figure out what we’re going to do with your car, and you can help Red at the garage with the paperwork and scheduling. That will keep you around us so we can make sure this fucktard doesn’t find youagain.”
“I don’t know what to say.” My head hung. It was all happening sofast.
Trent shifted a little to look directly at me. “You don’t have to say anything. Just let us help and protectyou.”
Crickett got up from the table. “Well kids, I’m opening the bar in the morning, so I’ll fill Ryder and Holt in on everything then. Trent, will you show Sloan to theroom?”
He got up and hugged Crickett. “Thanks for all ofthis.”
She patted his shoulder. “That’s what family does, son. See youtomorrow.”
Chapter 7
Trent
Sloan sat at the table,frozen. Her eyes were locked in a dead stare, her fingers were gripping the arms of her chair, her face was blank. I knew this was all pretty overwhelming, but if Crickett and I could do it, she couldtoo.
I put my hand on hers, making her eyes snap to mine. “Sorry,” she muttered, “I just can’t wrap my head around this. It’s all happening sofast.”
“We can’t drag our feet when it comes to your safety.” I knelt down in front of her, so we could look directly at one another. “I will be here every step of the way. I can at least promise you that small shred ofcomfort.”
Her hand landed on my cheek. “How am I ever going to thank you forthis?”
“You honestly don’t have to thank me, sweetheart.” I held out my hand for her. “Come on, love. You need to get some rest.” I could tell from the bags under her eyes that she hadn’t had a restful night’s sleep in far toolong.
She took my hand and I led her up to where she would be staying. We both sat on the bed, and I pulled her into myarms.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” she sheepishlyquestioned.
“Because sometimes we need rescuing even if we don’t know it. I’ll let you get some rest.” I started to pull away from her, but she stoppedme.
“Thank you again.” She kissed my lips, a fleeting touch. I wanted nothing more than to kiss her back with all the passion I longed to give to her, but I pulledaway.