Page 5 of Unbound

I’m so, so tired. I don’t even remember the last time I slept well.

Somehow, I feel completely secure with him. So secure, in fact, that my eyelids are drooping. Before I know it, my head is tilting to the side and resting against the window as I drift off to sleep.

I jerk awake, my body rigid and fear spiking in my veins when I hear the truck door opening.

“Hey. Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.” Sterling is looking at me with concerned brown eyes. “I was falling asleep, so I decided to stop for a hotel room. I guess they struck oil nearby, and everyone is booked.”

He climbs up into the truck and buckles his seat belt. “We’ll try the next one.”

I look at the dashboard to see that the clock reads three a.m. I’ve been dead asleep for five hours, but I’m still exhausted.

He drives a few miles down the highway to the next exit and takes it. When he parks the truck and starts to get out, I unbuckle and open my door.

When I walk around, he’s waiting for me, his expression cautious. He looks like he’s worried I’ll bolt at any minute.

“I need to pee,” I say.

He nods, seeming to relax a fraction. I almost smile when I realize he’s actually scared I’m going to run off, leaving him with the guilt about what might happen to me. He grabs a black duffel bag out of the back seat.

The Holiday Inn doors open automatically for us. The hotel clerk is playing on his phone, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration.

“Hey. We need two rooms on the same floor.”

The clerk ignores us for a few moments until his phone makes a few beeps and he sighs.

He looks up at us, eyes shifting from me to Sterling. “I got one left. Oil field guys are in town.”

Sterling groans, looking around the empty lobby. My heart rate spikes. I look up at him, seeing him nod at the clerk.

“All right, thanks.” He turns to leave.

“Do you have a bathroom?” I ask the clerk.

“Around the corner.” He sighs, glancing behind him.

Sterling walks with me, and I go in and pee. I stare at myself in the mirror. My green eyes are red-rimmed. I need more sleep.

When I walk back out, Sterling takes his turn in the bathroom. When he returns, I blink up at him, gnawing my lip.

“You ready?” he asks. His eyelids look heavy.

I study his face for a few moments, thinking about how I slept peacefully for five hours in the car.

If he was going to hurt me, he would’ve had plenty of time to do it.

“I don’t mind,” I finally say. “I can … we could sleep. Here, I mean.”

His eyebrows scrunch together. He crosses his arms, studying me. “I bet we can find something else if we keep going.”

“It’s three in the morning. You look tired.”

“You could drive,” he suggests.

Shit.

I don’t know how.

I lick my lips, exhaling. Telling him my parents never taught me how to drive feels even scarier than getting into his truck was—or telling him I’m pregnant.