Free Her Only Salvation by J.C. Valentine Page B

too. Now go pack your things. You’re not staying here another minute.”
    Again he used that tone that said any argument on her end would not be tolerated. Terri found herself rising slowly from the couch to do as she was told. Would she ever break this habit of following orders like some helpless child, she wondered as she pulled a duffle down from the shelf in her bedroom closet and started placing her life inside one piece at a time.
    Probably not, she thought sadly, because old habits were tough to break.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Eight
     
    “So, um, why can’t I stay at a hotel again?” Terri picked at an imaginary piece of lint on her pant leg while she waited for Luke to answer. She had assumed that “leaving” meant relocating, like, to a hotel. She hadn’t realized what he really meant was that she would be staying with him. Now, as they drove down dark and twisting roads trying to avoid the congested main streets, she wondered what she would have to do to get out of this mess. It was completely unprofessional.
    Luke passed her a look of exasperation. “Terri, you know why. If you go to a hotel it will be too easy for him to find you. Security isn’t something the Motel 6 is really concerned with, and besides, it’s a dump. You do not want to stay there.”
    The tone in his voice made Terri wonder if Luke had been there before. She certainly never had, and by the way he curled his lip up disdainfully, she supposed she shouldn’t want to either.
    “But still,” she pressed on. “I don’t think it’s really appropriate for me to be staying in my boss’s house, do you? It’s bad enough that you will have to drive me to work tomorrow since I had to leave my car behind, and once the girls get a load of that, they’re going to talk.” She turned worried eyes on him. “I don’t fit in as it is, Luke. This is going to make things so much worse.”
    Luke glanced her way several times before reaching out and placing a reassuring hand on her knee. “You let me handle everything. No worries.”
    She couldn’t see how that was possible, but his warm smile eased her somewhat and Terri relaxed back in the seat and turned her head to stare out the window. There was no point in arguing. Luke was determined to see things done his way. From what little she knew about him, she could tell that he was a very capable and trustworthy man, and if he said not to worry, she would try not to.
     
    ***
     
    Luke didn’t live in a house in some quaint little neighborhood with picket fences and immaculate lawns. Instead, he drove her clear into the country, the city lights fading into the distance until they were nothing but memory. Luke turned the car onto a path cut between dense copses of trees barely visible from the road, one that only a person well-acquainted with the landscape would ever recognize. 
    It was dark as pitch, making the dim glow from the dash controls seem almost glaring.
    And thank God for headlights. They cut a narrow path down the middle of a pitted, packed dirt road that had Terri gripping the sides of her seat so she wouldn’t hit her head on the roof.
    Terri had always wanted to be adventurous and, just once, take the scenic route through life, but now that she was on it, it didn’t seem nearly as glamorous. Just when she thought the ride would never end, the path broke open to reveal a modest house with a peaked roof and low hanging porch.
    “You live here?” Terri asked as she studied her surroundings.
    “I should hope so. Otherwise, someone is about to get a big surprise when we walk in the front door.” Terri flashed him a look of annoyance. “It was my grandfather’s,” he explained. “He died a few years ago, and rather than let it get sold off or torn down, I bought it. It’s a great house.”
    She could see that it was. Well-built, sturdy, perfectly aged to blend with its surroundings, she could imagine that it would be like a slice of paradise compared to city