Free Lucky in Love by Kristen Brockmeyer

worries, though, it's just a little detour. We'll be back on the road again in no time. How's her friend?" His tone was conversational, almost bored.
    "Good. Glad to hear it." He shot right again, this time at the exit before the one we'd previously gotten off on.
    "We're pulling in at the gas station now—there's the purse. Must've fallen out of the car when we stopped." He turned left on to the same deserted country road and in moments we were barreling down the pitch-black road, no sign of anything in either direction except for the occasional farm, lit briefly in the headlights.
    "No escort necessary, by the way. I think I can find your place in Vegas again." This time, when he pulled the phone away, I clearly heard the bellowing on the other end. He powered the phone off and tossed it in the back seat.
    "What the hell, Chance?" I demanded angrily. "Don't you think it's a bad idea to piss off the bad guy that's got my friend?"
    "Trust me. Dominick has to learn he can't call all the shots. If he keeps it up, the three of us don't have a chance in hell of leaving Vegas once we get there."
     
     
     
    Chapter 14
     
    I didn't realize I had dozed off until the car stopped, and when it did, my head snapped up. "What's going on?" I croaked, fumbling in the glove box for an Altoid. My mouth tasted like used kitty litter and I was almost positive I'd been drooling. I popped one in my mouth and leaned back in the seat before abruptly being crippled with a searing pain in my neck muscles, where they'd been overstretched from my uncomfortable sleeping position.
    "Settle down," Chance chuckled tiredly. "We're just pulling over for a bit to get some rest. You've only been out for about an hour and I'm still so groggy from that pill I can't see straight."
    Hearing an agonized whimper that escaped me, he reached over and put his hand over the back of my neck, massaging with his thumb. I almost groaned as the seized muscles released. I bit it back, though, because I didn't want to sound like a sex kitten, which I'm sure I would have because I felt like one, and his big, callused hand felt so good and warm I wanted to purr.
    Ducking away quickly, I opened the car door expecting to see a parking lot. I was thrown off to see that we were on the side of a dirt road. It was darker than the inside of a can of Spam. No Motel 6 lights, or anything else for that matter, were to be seen. Cornfield for as far as the headlights illuminated crawled almost all the way up to the dirt road at my feet. I shuddered.
    I'm an outdoorsy girl. Despite my feminine demeanor, I love to hike and camp and fish. However, I hate cornfields.
    Creepy things like murderous scarecrows and white-haired horror movie children hide in cornfields. Granted, it was only April, so this was still corn stubble and not nearly as creepy as it would be in mid-July, but it was still a cornfield. Punctuating my nervousness, yellow eyes gleamed low to the ground nearby in the glow of the taillights. I jumped back in the car and slammed the door.
    "This doesn't look like a motel. Or a rest stop. You've brought me out here to die, haven't you?"
    "Relax," Chance said, opening his own door. The dome light glinted off his dark hair and his face looked nearly as tired as his voice sounded. "Flat land like this, I can see anybody that might be out here, because for sure, no one is going to just happen to be driving by."
    "Aside from a homicidal clown or a serial killer looking for somewhere to bury bodies," I interjected sourly.
    He rolled his eyes. "In a hotel, we could get snuck up on. Provided you don't snore too loud, out here, gravel crunching under tires will wake me up. Plus, you should be happy. We're going to make good use of that trailer."
    My cheeks flushed and I quivered reflexively inside at his words. Except, Chance probably meant to sleep. And how the heck could I be thinking of sex when there were corn monsters out there waiting to eat me?
    "I'll just stay in here," I said.