Chapter Twenty-Five

The smile Lena had tricked out of Dane at lunch was a distant memory. Dane was back to being his stoic, angry self as he pulled over and flipped through the flyer he’d picked up at their last stop. If ignoring her were a sport, he would have a gold medal.

Every time she thought she might be breaking through the stone wall, she had the door slammed in her face again. She’d allowed him to drive, and still he couldn’t do more than grunt out a grudging thanks and go back to treating her like something stuck to his shoe.

Fine. She got it. She was trash. He hated her. But did he need to put so much energy into it? No matter how much he didn’t like it, they were in this together. They needed each other.

She was almost ready to ask him where they were going, and what the plan was, when he spoke first, making her jump in surprise.

“Can I see Kulakov’s credit card?” he asked.

“Why?” She’d been paying for everything so far.

“You’ll have to trust me.”

She laughed once, then pulled her brows together. “Wait. You’re serious?”

“Yeah.”

“You think I’m going to hand over the card so you can run off with it? I’d be stranded with no choice but to tell Viktor you got away. I get that you hate me, but at least have the balls to kill me yourself.”

She shook her head. She’d already trusted him enough for one day. She’d let him drive, and it hadn’t won her any points. This give-and-take couldn’t be one-sided.

“I’m not going to run off with the card. If you’ll remember, I need you to keep making those calls to Kulakov so he doesn’t kill my son.”

She swallowed and looked away. He’d hit her in the soft spot. She didn’t like being reminded his son was in danger and she was the only thing keeping Tobey safe.

With a quick exhale, she pulled the card from her back pocket and held it out. Whatever he was going to do, she just wanted all this to end. She was too exhausted to keep fighting on both fronts.

“Okay, I’ll trust you. Please don’t force me to do something I will regret for, what would undoubtedly be the very short, rest of my life.”

He simply snatched the card from her fingers and made a call to secure a hotel room with two queen-size beds. When he had completed the reservation, he handed the card back to her.

“That was it?” Her jaw dropped. “That was the big mystery? You called in advance to get our room?”

“Yep. Do you want to drive now?”

Something was wrong. She was certain he’d called a hotel in Nashville, but they were still heading east. She glanced at his profile as he sat in the passenger’s seat glaring out the window. What was he up to?

If she thought he’d actually tell her, she might have worked up the courage to ask him. A half hour later, he abruptly pointed to an exit and ordered her to take it.

She was almost past it, so she ripped the wheel to the right and took the ramp faster than she should have. He cursed and grabbed the dash. The tires squealed on the pavement, but they stayed upright and moving.

At the stoplight at the end of the ramp, he told her to turn left and directed her to a hotel at a different chain than where he’d secured the room.

“Stay here. I’ll be right back.” He jumped out of the vehicle without asking for Viktor’s card. So, why…

When he was almost to the entrance of the hotel, she gasped in awareness.

He was making it look like they were staying in Nashville when they were really hours away. If he planned to do the same thing the next night, they could be thousands of miles away from where Viktor would think they were.

She was impressed. It was a clever plan.

But what would happen to her when they got wherever they were going…?