Chapter 3

I could still feelthe tingling in my right hand. It was like his soft skin was still caressing my roughened fingers.

My body still ached but not just with pain. There was a much stronger sensation washing over me as I thought about how close I'd come to tasting the young man as I'd fumbled with the seat belt. His body had been trembling as I'd drawn the belt across his chest and lap, but I instinctively knew it hadn't been because he was afraid of me. And the way his voice had rattled when he'd said that curse word under his breath—my addled brain wouldn't stop trying to convince me that it had meant something.

I just had no clue what.

I forced myself to focus on the road and soon lost track of time. The pain pills had finally taken the edge off and the rain had slowed to a light mist.

"Where are we?" the kid asked. Like me, he was focused on the road. He glanced at the scenery every now and then, but he mostly stared at the asphalt in front of us.

I realized I had no idea where we were. I had to look at the GPS screen.

"We're still in Vermont. Next town is Windsor," I responded.

"Can you drop me off at the bus station there?"

His question surprised me even though it probably shouldn't have.

"I doubt it's a big enough town to have a bus station. It might have local bus lines?—"

"How far to the next big city?" the kid interrupted. He sounded nothing like the young man who'd whispered the apology after the seat belt fiasco.

"Not sure," I lied. "Where are you planning on going?" I had a bad feeling about where this conversation was heading. The kid literally had nothing on him except my clothes. When I'd put his wet ones in the back of the SUV, I hadn't felt a wallet or even a cell phone.

The kid didn't answer me. Instead, he settled his eyes on the passing scenery. The sun was just breaking through the clouds. A faint rainbow was peeking through the dark sky, but I couldn't find any pleasure in it.

"Do you even have the money for a bus ticket?" I asked.

Still no response.

"Look, kid?—"

"I'm not a kid," the young man snapped as he jerked his head in my direction.

His hostility caught me off guard. If he had anything else to say, he kept it to himself.

"How old are you?" I asked after a long beat of silence.

I didn't think he was going to respond until he said, "I'm not sure."

"What—?" I began to ask but he cut me off.

"I'm not a kid," he bit out. "I may not know how to put on a fucking seat belt or tell you when my birthday is, but I know what a few minutes on my knees will get me."

The last part of his statement held little emotion, though his words still made my stomach churn. I had a million questions but managed to remind myself that the kid's problems had nothing to do with me. Yeah, the kid was important to Jace, but that didn't obligate me to do anything except let Jace know where I ended up dropping him off.

I didn't respond to the young man's words, and I was glad he didn't ask me again about where the next bus station would be. The idea of him falling prey to a pimp looking for his next source of income or some guy looking for a hard fuck or rough blow job made me sick. Despite his bruises, I could still see that his young-looking features held both masculine and feminine qualities, but my gut was telling me he wasn't a minor.

None of your business, Dalton.

The silent reminder had me thinking about my plans when I got home. Pills, booze, and best of all, the silence that only came from being alone.

The words did nothing to ease the anger and denial running through my veins. Visions of the gorgeous young man being used in some bathroom stall or dirty motel room made me want to rip the faceless men to pieces. Chances were the money he was planning to make for things like food or rent would ultimately go up his nose or in his arm instead.

"There," the kid said as he pointed to a sign on the side of the road that showed how many miles we were from different cities. "New York," he added. "Two hundred and fifty miles. Are we going past there?"

It was all I could do not to slam on the brakes and jerk the SUV onto the shoulder so I could shake some sense into the kid.

I didn't answer him. I could have easily lied and driven the backroads to avoid the bigger cities, but I was too pissed. I had no clue what the young man's past held, but damned if I was going to let his naivety get him into a situation where he ended up dead or worse—wishing for death.

No fucking way.

"Dalton," the kid said loudly. His frustration made me wonder if he'd been calling my name while I'd been lost in thought.

I spared him a glance.

He looked both pissed and scared. "Let me out of the car," he said firmly, though there was no missing the uneasiness in his voice.

I returned my gaze to the road.

"Dalton—"

"Two hundred bucks," I cut in without looking at him.

"What?" my clearly confused passenger asked.

"Two hundred dollars for the whole night. My house. You on those knees of yours. Your mouth and that tight little ass all mine for twenty-four hours. When I want it, how I want it. I'll take you to the bus station after I'm finished with you." I barely recognized my own voice as I spouted the crude words. It was all bullshit. I had no intention of or desire to lay my hands on the young man.

Liar.

I ignored my inner voice and stared straight ahead. I needed the young man to believe I was just like the men who'd use him and throw him away like garbage. My gut knew that if I just gave him the money, he wouldn't take it.

When he didn't answer me, I forced myself to glance at him. I shifted my eyes between him and the road as he hung his head, seemingly mulling over his decision. I felt a hole open up inside me as the young man nodded his head.

Not with eagerness at the prospect of making two hundred bucks.

No, there was nothing but sadness as he whispered, "Okay," before returning his eyes to the passing scenery.

Sadness and something else… something that didn't fit. That didn't make sense.

It took me a minute to figure it out as I glanced back and forth between the young man and the road before me.

Disappointment.

He was disappointed.

But why?

I was giving him what he wanted.

Wasn't I?

No more words were spoken after that, but I couldn't stop myself from glancing at the young man every few minutes. His head kept drifting down then quickly up as he tried to fight off the sleep that was trying to steal over him. I subtly turned the volume of the car's stereo system up. It was already tuned to my phone and playing through an instrumental playlist that I'd put together when I'd needed to calm myself after one of my episodes.

I figured both of us could use the music at the moment.

Finally, the kid curled up in the seat as best he could, given the seat belt. He ended up facing me.

Not a good thing because I was already having trouble keeping my eyes off him as it was.

Despite being in dry clothes?—

Yourclothes.

I shoved away the reminder that his skin was touching the very fabric I wore when I was sleeping—well, the pants, anyway—and focused on the road. But when I saw him let out a violent shiver, I automatically reached for the button that controlled the heater for his seat. I used the screen in the dash to manipulate his seat until he was somewhere between lying completely flat and straight upright like he had been. The young man barely moved as I tried to make him more comfortable using all of the vehicle's luxurious add-ons that I'd paid a shitload of money on specifically for the sake of my own comfort.

I waited a good twenty minutes to make sure he was in a deep sleep before I reached for my phone and disconnected it from the car's Bluetooth connection so he wouldn't be able to hear the conversation I was about to have—at least not the other side of it. I tuned the satellite radio to a light classical station before dialing the phone. I knew I should pull over while I was making the call, but instinct told me any change in the car's movement would wake up my resting passenger.

I nearly smiled when Jace picked up before the first ring had even finished. "Hey, you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," I responded, ignoring the little itch in my stomach at the concern in his voice. I hated it when people pitied me, but I knew his worry wasn't because he knew what lasting physical damage my time in the army had left me with. No, he was worried about the whole me, and I couldn't really blame him considering the way I'd rushed out of the lodge so I wouldn't be forced to mingle with the funeral goers. "Listen, about that kid you guys had with you… the one with the weird eyes?"

"Have you seen him?" Jace asked, his voice carrying a hint of desperation. I knew a lot about Jace, but I'd only ever heard him mention the young man next to me once and that was shortly after he'd returned to the States with his infant niece. That wasn't the case with Caleb. Jace had told me about his soulmate many times when we'd been out on my boat and he'd had a little bit too much to drink. Jace might not have known anything about love and soulmates at the time, but he sure knew it now.

The sound of Jace putting me on speaker had me forcing thoughts of my best friend's love life out of my mind. I figured he wanted Caleb to hear our conversation.

"Yeah, he's with me," I responded.

"What?"

I nearly laughed at the shock in my friend's voice. Jace Christenson wasn't a guy who was used to surprises. He had a way of knowing things before others did.

"I picked him up when I saw him walking along the interstate," I answered.

"Thank God," Jace muttered in relief. "Where are you? We'll come to you."

"Um, yeah, well…" I began, not exactly knowing how I was going to explain the situation to Jace. It wasn't like I picked up strangers and offered them money for sex—or in this case, pretended to pay for sex—all the time.

Or ever.

Fuck, I couldn't even remember the last guy I'd been with. I knew there'd been some guys after I'd enlisted but not many.

"What?" Jace asked, his voice shifting to something that was less relief and more suspicious.

"He only agreed to get in my car if I promised not to take him back to the lodge. I tried to find out why, but he won't talk to me. Just told me to take him to the nearest bus station. I asked him if he even had money for a bus ticket."

"What did he say?"

"Said it wasn't a problem. Said he'd be able to earn some," I returned. I reminded myself to keep my voice down despite the anger swelling inside my stomach.

"Don't take him there, Dalton. We'll come get him. We'll talk to him."

I hesitated because this was the part that was going to get a bit ugly. "I got him to agree to come home with me, Jace. Back to Elkton. He fell asleep a few minutes ago, so I wanted to call you to give you a heads-up."

"You're taking him home with you?"

"Well, I wasn't going to let him fucking do what he was gonna do to get money for a bus ticket," I snapped. I immediately looked at the young man to make sure my outburst hadn't woken him up. It wasn't often that I expressed anger in any kind of way. I'd learned a long time ago that expressing my feelings, good and bad, had never changed anything.

"What are you planning to do with him, Dalton?" Jace asked.

"No fucking clue," I said softly. "But the kid is messed up. Only way I could get him to agree to come with me was to promise I'd give him the money he would have earned at the bus station."

"I don't understand."

I pulled in a deep breath, but it did nothing to quell the vision of the kid on his knees in a dirty bathroom stall, his beautiful lips wrapped around a strange dick that was using him like he was no different than the toilet he was kneeling next to.

"He thinks I'm buying him for the night, Jace," I whispered harshly.

"Dalton—"

"Don't, Jace," I snapped. "You know I wouldn't?—"

"I know that. That wasn't what I was going to say."

I could hear the speaker being changed back so that it was just me and Jace. It meant whatever was coming wasn't good. Jace wasn't one to hold back when he talked to me about my current condition, despite how hard I tried to hide it from him. Thank God I'd managed to downplay it.

"Dalton, I know you're hurting right now… more than usual. Silver isn't your responsibility. Let me come get him."

"Silver? That's his name?" I asked softly. I fell silent and looked over at the young man in his passenger seat.

Silver.

Like his eyes.

I mentally wished for Silver to open his eyes at that moment just so I could confirm that they were really as stunning as I remembered them to be.

Returning to my conversation with Jace, I said, "He wouldn't say how he knew you guys."

"He saved Willa. We owe him everything," Jace told me.

Jace's words brought me back to the present. I'd already known that, though the reminder had me wanting to ask a million questions, but when I looked over at Silver for what had to be the hundredth time, I knew I didn't want Jace to be the one to provide those answers. I forced my eyes back to the road and allowed the momentary distraction from the physical pain to fade away.

Pain was good.

Pain reminded me of who I was now, not who I'd been. I steeled my voice and quickly said, "I'll call you when we get to my house, Jace," before hanging up the phone and turning it off.

I didn't allow myself to look at my passenger again. I'd keep my end of the deal and take him to my house and give him the money he needed to go wherever it was he wanted to go, but that was it. Tomorrow he wouldn't be my problem anymore. Jace would be pissed, but the bottom line was that if Silver had wanted to stay where he was safe and cared for with the choice of any future he wanted, he wouldn't have left that lodge with nothing but the clothes on his back.

Silver wanted to be left alone.

Something I knew all too well.

Twenty-four hours and we'd both get what we wanted.

Twenty-four hours.

It was nothing. No fucking problem at all.

I nodded to myself even as my inner voice called me out on my thoughts with one word.

Liar.