Darkfall Read Online Free Page B

pulled onto the right side of the road and gave up to the police. But he vowed he wouldn’t forget me.”
    He cursed again, long and virulently. When he finished, he released her hands. “Shit.”
    She managed a grin. “That’s good punctuation for it. And true.”
    “At least he’s in jail now.”
    “Maybe not.”
    “What?”
    “He got a two-year sentence.”
    Ian’s expression went from incredulous back to his famous glower. “You’re kidding? That’s all?”
    “Yes. He was supposed to be out in January. Right around the time the volcano went up.”
    He kept his gaze tangled with hers, as if he could draw some truth from her she didn’t even know existed. “He hasn’t tried to contact you?”
    “No. I’d moved to another apartment before Long Valley started percolating. So maybe that threw him off. In this day and age there’s plenty of ways he could have found me. I made sure I had my weapon nearby all the time.”
    “Like you do now.”
    “Yep.”
    “He probably didn’t make it out of California.”
    “God, how I want to believe that. I want to believe the volcano got him, but I don’t know. It’s the not knowing that bothers me the most.”
    Determination hardened his face. “I’m here now. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
    Pure heat washed through her, and deep within desire stirred. It was a primitive beast, an undeniable arousal. His protectiveness stirred needs inside her she couldn’t deny as much as she wished she could.
    Silence sheltered them for a few moments before he asked, “You left California in time to escape the volcano, but you went through a lot to get here.”
    Oh, yeah. She had. But did she want to tell him all she’d seen?
    “Tell me,” Ian said.
    His insistence was quiet, a request and not a demand. She slugged down more water and gathered her courage. She held the water bottle tight in both hands, almost using it as a barrier. Against what, she didn’t know.
    “Traffic jams out of San Diego were awful. The real mess happened on I-10. Everyone was jammed onto the freeway. I spent more than eight hours trying to get to Tucson when it should have taken about three…” She left it hanging there. “I had to stop wherever I could to go to the bathroom and just getting off the exits was a nightmare. Waiting in tremendous lines to go to the bathroom. They were running out of toilet paper…” She shrugged. “You can imagine.”
    He nodded. “Yeah.”
    “I got to Tucson and stopped there for the night. The hotels were almost full. I found a room at this one place they hadn’t cleaned yet at this hotel that was a real dive.” She squirmed on the bench as she recalled how nasty the place had been. “I slept on the bedspread in my clothes with my gun next to me.”
    He winced. “Don’t blame you.”
    “I went through several towns like that before I hit New Mexico. Hatch, New Mexico. I took as many back roads as I could, then started to realize that wasn’t any better or faster. Tons of people had the idea. It was almost gridlock. I was surprised how calm most people were. I guess once they escaped California they started to feel better. I was glad I had a good supply of food in my car. I had to hope people wouldn’t try and steal my car, and that’s why I started sleeping in the car with one eye open. After that I made it through Albuquerque.”
    “Did you have any other trouble while on the road?”
    “Most of it was regular misery. It took me so long because so many people were on the highways. I managed to charge my phone, but I couldn’t get a call out to Dad in all that time. It kept going to voice mail. At first I wondered if he was just ignoring me.”
    “He wouldn’t do that. I saw how he was while you were traveling.”
    She lifted one eyebrow. “Oh?”
    “He was sweating bullets. He could barely contain himself, and I’ve never seen him that worried. He kept busy like we all did. But he was thinking of you the whole time.”
    Ian’s