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cause you anymore pain.”
    “How are you going to cause me pain?”
    It wasn’t like they were going to start dating or anything. Make any promises and then, when he redeployed, she could play around on him. This, if there were a this, was going to be the usual one-off fuck. He was so busy telling himself there was no way she could ever hurt him, that he nearly missed her quiet voice.
    “Turn here.”

Chapter Five
    H e stopped in the middle of the road and looked left at the twisted gravel turnoff that bumped up and around a rolling hill. Even the turn looked evil. Everything inside him rebelled. His stomach cramped and his skin felt way too tight and cold and painful to stretch over his bones. But his face was expressionless.
    “You’re shitting me.”
    She glanced back quickly at the sleeping kid. Parker. He gripped the steering wheel hard, truck idling like a powerful beast ready to escape to the open road.
    “You live here.”
    “Yes, temporarily.”
    “He’s been dead almost three months.”
    “Yes.”
    “How long?”
    “A little less than a year and a half. Since I came to Marietta.”
    “With Parker.”
    “Yes.”
    She’d come to this place with a kid about the same age he’d been. He sucked in a deep breath, thinking about her here alone with Meizner and her kid. Miles from town. Miles from other neighbors.
    “Colt.” She touched his shoulder, but he shook it off.
    He’d never thought of that, another kid being subjected to abuse. The rages that came out of nowhere. Colt had kept his head down and survived. Never shown his fear or his bruises. He’d never thought his silence, his running, would have endangered another child. And then something else occurred to him that knocked the sexual interest right out of him.
    “Were you and my uncle…” Disgust curdled the words in his throat.
    “No.” She sat straight up and jammed her fisted hands between her delectable thighs, her mouth pinched, eyes sparking. “Nothing like that.”
    And he could breathe again.
    “He was sick.”
    “And you took care of him.”
    Something in his voice set her off because she pushed opened the truck door with surprising strength and quickness. She ripped off his jacket, threw it at him and slammed the door shut. By the time she was pulling on the back passenger side door, he was eating up the ground around the truck.
    “Open the door.”
    She jerked on it again, and glared at him.
    Colt caught her arms. “Calm down,” he said softly. “You’ll wake him up.”
    “Fine. He needs to get up. Thanks for the ride. I’ll take it from here.”
    “It’s two miles to the house.”
    “Yeah, so? I can walk.”
    “This is stupid. Get in the truck.”
    “You think I took advantage of him don’t you?” She challenged. “That I used him. That I didn’t pay my way.”
    God, he was so dumb with women. Good at one thing with them. Everything else, disaster.
    “No.” He struggled to find the words that would explain. “I think you were better than he deserved in the end.” His words were choppy with frustration.
    She stood beside the truck, breathing heavily, but looking as if the fight were slowly leaking out of her. She held out her hand to keep him away, as if that would stop him if he were intent on doing what? Jesus, had his uncle hurt her or Parker? He couldn’t imagine her standing by and letting that happen, but he hadn’t fought back until he’d been a teenager.
    “Get in the truck, Talon. I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
    It’s better that way .
    The road had never seemed so long or curvy. The truck bounced over the ruts, and it seemed like every curve jostled her body closer to his despite the large cab and the seatbelt. He could smell the scent of her shampoo, something tropical like jasmine and coconut. True to his word he didn’t say another word and, at first, that was soothing, but then it was grating because so many words pulsed and snarled between them.
    “You have poker face down to a high