Free The Way Home (Chasing #3) by Linda Oaks

remembered. I was also thankful she couldn’t see my face. There was no way I could hide this grin. I didn’t want to like her. Hell, I didn’t want to care about her. I had a feeling I was in trouble with this one.
    She slammed the truck door hard; so hard, in fact, the glass rattled. She’d obviously rolled down a window. I could hear her talking on the phone. “No, everything is fine. I just had a scare this morning and wanted to reassure myself that Sierra was all right.” I heard her say.
    She looked my way as I walked past packing the tire and quickly turned her head continuing her conversation. A chuckle escaped my lips. The ice queen had definitely spoken loud and clear. I’d just been given the cold shoulder by her majesty, Miley Triton.
    Kneeling back down on to the ground, the blonde currently sitting in the passenger seat of my truck occupied my thoughts. I stared blankly at the tire waiting to be changed. When it rained… it fucking poured . I glanced down at my wristwatch and frowned. It wasn’t even twelve o’clock yet.
     

CHAPTER THREE
     
    WHEN I PARKED the truck in Miley’s driveway, I glanced over at her but she was staring straight ahead as if lost in thought. There was a lot of shit we had to figure out. This place was not what I was expecting. Miley had some explaining to do. I’d been patient long enough. During the drive here, she’d said next to nothing and now looking at her house, it was hard for me to believe the Triton’s would allow their daughter to live in such a dump. The place was small and old with peeling paint and a sagging front porch. One of the windows along the side of the house that faced the driveway had duct tape crisscrossing the glass. I assumed it had been shattered at one point in time, and, instead of replacing the window, the universal fix for all had been applied. Her landlord needed a good swift kick in his ass.
    After I’d changed the tire, we’d sat on the side of the road arguing for at least twenty minutes over where she and Sierra would be spending the night. Of course, she didn’t want to stay with me and had been contemplating calling that damn Cecil of all people when I yanked the phone from her hand. It was a dick move, but she’d left me with no choice.
    Why would she want to stay with Cecil instead of me? But the even bigger question was… why did it bother me so much? Fuck if I knew, but I’d ended up getting my way at least for tonight. Tomorrow was another story.
    When Miley had informed me — in no uncertain terms — that she was not leaving her car on the side of the road overnight, I decided to choose my battles wisely. I’d already won the war. This was only one, tiny concession so I’d agreed, shocking her speechless. I’d thought it would be damn near impossible to get her to shut up, but I’d managed the feat.
    When she’d climbed from my truck, she slammed the door once again. I’d gritted my teeth and took it all in stride even though I’d wanted to yell at her, “Don’t slam the fucking door!” My baby had suffered all kinds of abuse at her pretty hands. As she’d made her way around the front of truck, she’d flipped me the bird along with one of the sweetest smiles I’d ever seen, but it was me who had the last laugh when her car refused to start.
    During the drive to her house, I’d phoned the local sheriff asking for any info on Declan Ryder Blade. I also wanted to see if he could run the plate on his bike and pull any priors. There wasn’t even a question of there not being any, my gut told me, and I’d bet the list was a mile long. After letting the sheriff know I’d stop by in the morning to look over anything he found, I decided while I had him on the phone to ask for the number of a good tow service.
    He’d given me the number for a place called The Mod, and told me to ask for Jake or Devon. I’d decided to have the car towed to my house since I was a fairly good mechanic myself, and was pretty sure