Page 38 of Dragon Charmed

She walked into the living room, grabbed the backpack, and placed the drawings inside before handing it to Ben to put in what he had collected. She reached for the drawing pad that Evelyn had shown them earlier, and it fell to the floor and opened to a picture. The drawing was a side view of Ben’s blue truck with Ben and Tessa in the front seat and Evelyn and Lily in the back. Above the truck was a crescent moon. Tessa walked over to the window and took in the night sky before goose bumps ran down her spine.

“What’s wrong?” Ben asked as he joined her.

She held out the pad, and he studied it before looking out the window. The sky held a crescent moon shining down on them.

Chapter 14

Ben wasn’t going to lie. He was a bit freaked out right now. He thought of himself as a pretty logical guy. At least he hoped he was, but considering the fact that he couldn’t remember anything about himself other than the past fifteen months or so, that was saying something.

While they were waiting for Evelyn and Lily to finish packing, he pulled his truck into the garage so that no one from the street would see them load their luggage or see Lily and Evelyn get into the truck. That had been Tessa’s idea, and honestly, he would listen to what she had to say in this situation. For now.

She knew something and wasn’t sharing, which made Ben suspicious. Hypocritical of him considering he’d been lying to her about who he was from the start. But when the opportunity fell in his lap to go along on this investigation, he couldn’t pass it up, especially with Tessa as his partner. The more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to know about her.

She finished cleaning up the rest of the kitchen, her movements quick and methodical. She seemed much calmer than he was. Or maybe she was hiding it really, really well.

A few minutes later Lily walked down the hall with an armful of storybooks, and Evelyn followed with two bags. Tessa held open the backpack, and Lily stuffed her books inside before zipping it closed. Ben reached for the bags.

Evelyn looked around the room. “I spoke with Pastor Richards. He’ll come over tomorrow and take the perishable food to his house. In the garage is a booster seat for Lily. She’s still too small to ride in the car without one.”

“Okay,” Tessa said. “I know this might sound a little paranoid, but I want you and Lily to scoot down in the seat until we’re out of town.”

Evelyn nodded as they headed out to the garage. Ben loaded their bags and then grabbed Lily’s seat. They climbed into the truck, and Ben drove slowly, not stopping until five miles or so out of town so they could get Lily’s booster seat set up correctly, and then they were quickly on their way.

“Are we heading back to Nashville?” Ben asked.

Tessa nodded. “Yes. We can take a break at the rest stop an hour from here, and I’ll make some phone calls.” She glanced back at Evelyn. “I know of a safe place to stay.”

“Okay,” Evelyn said.

But was it okay, really? Even though he had a bunch of questions, he didn’t want to badger Tessa right now with Evelyn and Lily in the car. They had to be scared, and the fact that they were trusting strangers based on a little girl’s drawings to keep them from harm was a heavy weight on Ben’s shoulders.

He looked in the rearview mirror at Lily staring out the window with big eyes. There was something about her. Something rumbled in his chest—a need to protect her?—the more time he spent with her. Could this little girl really see the future? Who was after her? And how did Mia and, by extension, he fit into all this?

It hadn’t escaped his attention earlier that Evelyn mentioned Mia had disappeared over a year ago after she brought Lily to her. Had Ben played a part in Mia’s disappearance? Was the money in the duffel a payoff for it? The thought of that made him want to retch. It had been around the same time as his injuries and amnesia. It was too much of a coincidence that he literally had a note that said, Find Mia White. Or maybe he was sent to find her after she disappeared. He could only hope that was the case. Otherwise the guilt of what he might have done would eat him alive.

Once they got back to Nashville, maybe he should just go back to Walter. He spent his life living off the grid; couldn’t Ben? Better that than face the truth of who he was. If the thought of what he might have done was making him sick, imagine what he would feel like if he found out he actually had done something to Mia. What if he had been hired to take Lily? And what would the woman next to him think of him if that was the case?

He gripped the steering wheel until his hands ached.

“I can drive for a while if you’re getting tired,” Tessa said.

He flinched at her words. He wasn’t sure how long his thoughts had been spinning out of control. He looked back and saw that both Evelyn and Lily had fallen asleep. “I’m fine,” he said quietly.

“We should be at the rest stop any minute. We can all get out and use the restroom and then stretch our legs.”

“You going to tell me where we’re headed?” Ben said.

“Yes. Once I tell them we’re coming.”

A little while later, Ben pulled off the highway into the rest stop. Tessa woke up Evelyn and Lily, and the three of them headed into the women’s restroom. Ben went to the men’s room and then returned outside by the door to wait for them.

An older man was lighting a cigarette and nodded to Ben. “Evening.”

“Evening.”

“Just heard on my truck radio that the highway is being shut down. An accident west of here.”

“I was heading west.”