But she’d be lying to herself if she said that was her only worry. If the Big Sky pack did come in full force and managed to get the drop on Drake, then he could also be killed in the fray.
The silence stretched over the line and Willa made her decision on a dime.
“You know what, I’m good. I shouldn’t have called. Thanks for being so gracious, Maggie. I really appreciate it. I-I’ve got to go.”
“Wait, are you certain? Because we can-”
“No. Calling was a mistake. It’s all good, I swear. Sorry to cut it short, but I do have to run. Bye, Maggie.” She drew the phone away from her ear and depressed the disconnect button.
"Everything all right, dear?"
"Yes," she forced a smile and nodded, handing back the phone to her new friend with an internal whimper. “I just realized as I was talking to my sister-in-law that I hadn’t checked the gas tank. I don’t want my brother to know I’m such a ditz. He’ll never let me forget it. There’s a gas station right across the street, so I’m going to run over and grab a gas can. Problem solved. But thanks so much for letting me use your phone.”
The woman took the cell with a smile and dropped it into her bag before bustling out the door.
Willa glanced in the mirror at her own stricken face and sucked in a shuddering breath.
It was going to be okay. She’d have other chances to get away that wouldn’t put lives at risk. Maybe when they took their trip into Bozeman. In the meantime, she’d be safe enough. Drake was a lot of things, but he wasn't cruel.
Now if she could just keep her hands off him until then, she'd be solid.
Chapter 4
Half a minute.
Thirty seconds more, and he would have no choice but to go in after her. Etienne had made no bones about his intentions. The quicker Drake got his wife back up the mountain, the better. She might not recognize the threat the Frenchman posed, but Drake was all too aware.
"Did you place our order yet? I’m starving," Willa said as she came rushing toward him from the restroom vestibule.
He released a breath and some of the tension left him. “No, not yet.”
He wasn't sure what she'd been up to in there, and he was glad she’d come back, but she looked guilty as hell. Luckily, as hard as she was fake smiling, she was also gritting her teeth. Whatever she'd tried to pull had clearly not gone her way. Besides, she hadn’t tried to jump out a window to escape him this time, and that was progress.
He set his focus back on the menu in front of him.
"It's supposed to start storming again and we want to make sure we get back up the mountain before the road floods out. I was thinking we could get some food to go, and we'll eat at home in front of the fire."
Willa's smile faded and her throat worked as she swallowed audibly. "Um, yeah. Sure, okay."
Again, his senses buzzed, a low warning bell. She was looking a little panicky again and a panicked Willa was a reckless one. So what had her all worked up?
Memories of the two of them in front of the fire rose up and singed him with their heat.
Right.
"Or we can eat in the den in front of the TV," he said casually, pinning his gaze to the plastic menu in his hand.
She let out a shaky sigh and sat down in the stool next to him. "That sounds good. I didn't even know you had a TV. Doesn't fit at all with the spooky-ass, Scooby Doo villain vibe of the rest of the place," she said.
She already sounded a little more at ease and he congratulated himself on that.
"You haven't seen most of the place. I assure you, aside from the medieval looking great room, it's everything a person could want in a home. Now that you seem to be feeling a little better, maybe I can give you the grand tour after dinner. We have an extensive library and there is an observatory with the best views in the state, if I do say so myself."
Jesus. He felt a little like a used car salesman who hadn't made his quota that month, and he wanted to bite his tongue.
It was ridiculous.
Having to sit here and pander to this woman in hopes of getting her to what? Like him? Want him? Agree to live in the lap of luxury, fly around the world on a moment's notice, and receive pleasure so intense, she couldn't even grasp the concept yet?
It irked him, to be sure. There were a thousand women that would've killed to be in her shoes. Any one of the human females he'd bedded in his younger days wouldn't have hesitated.
If only he wanted any of them.
He flipped the menu over and continued to stare at it with unseeing eyes, lost in thought. Yes, he'd had loads of lovers who wanted to tie him down before he’d gotten sick of it all together. Sick of being careful. Holding them like fine China. Bridling his dragon to the point that coming was barely a relief. Like the slightest turn of the valve, letting off the barest hint of pressure.