Page 19 of Rescuing Erin

“Sorry the room is shit,” Colin said as soon as we’d stepped inside the dingy room. “Not exactly what you’re used to.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I snapped.

I was exhausted and starving. We’d driven over eight hours, finally stopping in El Paso for the night.

“Whoa there, sunshine.” Colin locked the top latch on the cheap door. I had serious doubts the safety device would actually prevent someone from getting in the room. “I didn’t mean anything negative. Simply stating the obvious. When was the last time the first daughter was in a thirty dollar a night motel room?”

“Sorry I’m grouchy. Today sucked.”

Colin tossed the backpacks on the bed and stopped in front of me, placing both of his hands on my shoulders. “Yeah, it did, and you’ve been great all day. I’m sorry the night has to end with a shit bed and fast food. In a few days, we’ll be in California. I promise you a nice bubble bath and a home cooked meal.”

I still hadn’t set the drive-thru bags down, and the smell of greasy hamburgers and fries drifted through the stale air of the room, making my stomach growl.

“Let’s get you fed.” Colin looked around the room before scrunching his nose. “Picnic on the bed?”

“Anywhere. I’m hungry.”

He moved the packs onto the floor, took the bags out of my hands, and let me climb on the bed. With my back against the headboard, and in a very unladylike move, I tore off the wrapper of my cheeseburger and started without him. It wasn’t until I’d eaten half my food that I really look around the shitty motel room.

“There’s only one bed.”

“Uh-huh,” Colin mumbled around a bite.

“Do you think the guys from earlier will find us again?”

I’d had a lot of time to think about my brush with death and I was scared shitless. I was doing my best not to show Colin how freaked out I was, but inside I wanted to curl into a ball and hide behind him. I’d never been involved in a high-speed chase and while I was aware Colin wouldn’t consider the ten-minute ordeal necessarily “high-speed,” I did.

“No, Erin, they won’t. I made sure we weren’t being followed.”

“They ran into us—”

“They did. Are you sore? How’s your neck?”

He’d asked me about my neck and back no less than ten times during our drive. Every time he pulled off the road so I could use the restroom, he made me stretch and roll it, even though I’d told him repeatedly I was fine. Each time before we’d settled back in the car for the next leg of our trip, he’d kneaded and rubbed my shoulders and the back of my neck for a few minutes. He’d also done his best to keep my mind occupied while we were driving. He’d told me stories about growing up, the sports he played, and his high school shenanigans. I hadn’t missed how he’d left out most of his military service and he’d only told me about the “bullshit” assignments he worked at Z Corps. Those were the cases where he followed cheating spouses or they assisted local law enforcement on investigations.

“It’s okay.”

We fell silent, and I shoved another handful of fries into my month.

Suddenly everything hit me.

Everything. All at once. The crash, the chase, the shooting. My apartment being bugged. Someone taking creepy pictures of me. My mom and dad. What a shitty friend I’d been to Olivia. Everything.

“Come here, sunshine.” The container of fries was removed from my hand, Colin twisted, placing them on the nightstand, then hefted me up, and scooted down the bed, setting me mostly on top of him. With both of his strong arms wrapped around me, I did something I hadn’t done in a very long time. I cried. Not a polite sniffle like a well-mannered, proper woman would. No, not me. The tears rolled, and the snot bubbled.

His strength never wavered, not in the time I took to cleanse my soul of all the fear that had bottled up. And not when I wiped my face on his tear-soaked shirt. He just held me.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

“Nothing to be sorry for.”

“I thought I was okay.”

“You were in shock. Most people go their whole lives and never experience what you did today.”

“I’m really scared.”

His arms tightened, and I desperately wanted to melt into him. “Nothing’s going to happen to you. I promise, Erin, I will stand between you and anyone who dares to come after you.”