I instantly remembered my days working at Dairy Queen, and the time I cut a cup with the blizzard-making machine, causing ice cream fly onto the pissed customers at the counter. The stress in the service industry can be overwhelming. The struggle is real.
“Hey, I’m Fern. These things happen in every job. It’ll be okay.”
“You both need to listen. I delivered pizza to the wrong house and busted in on a drug deal in process.” I swore I could feel the beating of his heart through the seat. “There were four guys, guns, and boxes of what I hoped was powdered sugar but fairly certain was cocaine once they started shooting at me! They tried to plow me down with their car. That’s why I’ve been hauling ass through the woods.”
A new kind of panic twisted in my tummy. Oh, Mother Hubbard, we were in a pickle.
Gabe started to drive. “We’ll get you to the police station in town.” A few seconds later, he groaned. “Shit.”
I whipped my head around to see the vehicle behind us barreling up toward the truck as Gabe punched the gas.
“It’s okay. Maybe they didn’t see you.” I looked at the guy in the backseat who’d quickly thrown a wrench into my magical night with the gorgeous man beside me. “Duck down.”
Gabe shook his head. “Son of a bitch, here we go.”
I watched the speedometer tick up and let out a yell as the car behind us rammed the back of the truck at the same time our visitor in the back seat burst into tears like a little bitch.
“We’re going to die! Mother fucker, I haven’t done anything with my life but deliver shitty pizza!”
My heart squished so hard I was dizzy when I heard gunshots. Suddenly the back window was blown out, and ice-cold air filled the space. Gabe grabbed my shoulder and pulled me down so I was laying on his lap as a few more pops rang through the air while the fella in the back seat let out a girly yelp.
“Shit. Hold on!” Gabe did a sharp left turn as my hands instinctively held onto his thigh. “We’re heading into a field covered in snow. They’re in a car and won’t be able to keep up with my truck for too long.”
As we continued four-wheeling through snow, literally fleeing a possible death, my mind latched on to the fact that my head had been pulled into Gabe’s lap. His member was like right there. Sure, maybe there’d been a guy or two who’d pulled my head into their lap, but none involved guns and the handsome Superman who was saving us. But my cheek was resting on the denim of his jeans, keeping my mind from circling the sewage Drain of Death so really a win/win situation.
“We lost ‘em.”
I looked up at the man above me at the same time his eyes dropped to mine. “This is a nice view.”
I was grateful for the darkness of the truck because I felt my cheeks burst into flames. I sat up to see us in the middle of nowhere with the bright moon above as we rolled up to a barn that appeared to be falling down with the door missing. The truck slid inside.
“I’m Jason Miller. Thanks for picking me up, by the way. Super glad to not be dead.”
Gabe let out a chuckle. “The night’s not over yet.”
My eyes traveled the inside of the barn where lumber and bales of hay rested against the walls. “Do you know who owns this?”
“Not a clue. But we’re miles from anywhere so we should be safe. Everybody okay?”
The light popped on above us, and I jumped when I felt a tissue touch my cheek, “Fern, you’re bleeding a little.”
“What?” I pulled down the visor to see a few shallow cuts on my cheek. I dabbed the tissue against my skin. “I’ll be fine.” I looked at him. “Isn’t it weird how our adrenaline turns off any pain for a bit?”
“Jason, are you okay back there?”
“I’m good.”
Gabe looked back and gasped. My eyes walked to the back seat to see a two-inch piece of glass sticking out of the side of Jason’s neck. I put on my nurse voice while I grabbed my little first aid kit from my purse. “Hey, Jason, I’m going to hop back there real quick. Why don’t you just not move, okay?” I crawled over the seat with my first aid kit in hand. “Gabe, would you mind coming back here for a second?”
He got out of the driver’s door and slid into the back on the other side of Jason.
“Jason, I see you have a little piece of glass here we’re going to get out real quick, okay?”
“Really?”
His hand headed toward his neck, and I grabbed it. “Tell you what, we’re going to have Gabe just hold your hands while I get this glass. Okay?” I eyed Gabe as Jason suddenly looked nervous.
“What’s going on here?”
