Chapter Text
She really wasn’t dressed for this. She should have been at home sitting under her favorite blanket, enjoying a glass of wine and maybe a smutty novel before bed. She’d have the lights dimmed low, her scented candles lit, maybe a log or two giving off that satisfying pop as a cozy fire danced in her fireplace. She longed for her flannel pajamas, her fuzzy socks, the plushness of her pillows to sink into and let her eyes get droopy in the luxury of heat.
Instead, she trudged over the icy ground, shivering against the wind, trying her best to keep her balance as Rio plowed along without waiting for her. She cursed him silently under her breath, attempting to step into the unavoidable snow bank without getting a boot-full of icy water. She failed, feeling the slow seep of prickly water soaking rapidly into her socks, numbing her already frozen toes. Fantastic!
There was no parking by the building, and while their dash was hardly any treacherous trek, the howling wind and swirling snow made the mere yards to their motel door feel like miles. She clutched her purse and hunched her shoulders, bending her face down to avoid the slap of wind. She didn’t see the curb. And it didn’t even matter if the tears in her eyes were from pain as her knee hit the icy pavement, or if they were just pouring from the frigid air. She cursed, out loud this time – trying to gather her purse, trying to rise, pushing into the snow with frozen palms to gain some balance.
She felt a hand under her arm, yanking her up, helping her stand.
“You good?”
She lifted her eyes to his, staring daggers. At least he stopped to notice.
“Just peachy,” she grumbled, dusting the snow and dirt off her reddened hands, hoisting her bag over her shoulder, ignoring the sharp sting in her knee.
They started off again, this time his hand hovering just at her elbow. Not like she needed him to keep it there! But she was glad for his slowed pace. They walked the last few feet together, the relief of being under the overhang against the building, finally shielded from some of the wind.
Rio motioned with his eyes up to the second floor accessible by a flight of cement stairs with a metal railing. “You gonna make it?” He said it with a little smirk, his eyes dropping to her thin heels.
She wore her boots, but just the suede ones. She hadn’t been expecting to go snowshoeing. She shouldn’t even be here! What she should be doing right about now is slipping into a bath. Maybe with scented water, maybe with bubbles. Letting her wine-loose limbs relax into the warmth. Instead, she was freezing her toes off in suede boots in the middle of a blizzard, rolling her eyes at his smug smirking face.
It was his fault that they were even here. She barely stopped herself from grumbling as she clutched the freezing metal railing on her way up the stairs, her ankles tight to keep her balance in the stupid suede stilettos. She’d put them on that morning without having a clue she was committing to risking her very life to wear something cute. The weather was just fine when she woke up, when she got dressed in her blue jeans and oversized grey sweater. She hadn’t even bothered to check the forecast. What would have been the need? She had no plans to be away from home for any major length of time.
That is, until Rio decided she hadn’t done her job. She’d done a run – an exchange of “goods” for cash – and he didn’t like the way things went. The pickup came up light and he expected her to fix it. So he dragged her here, 90 miles out of the city, insisted she needed to straighten it all out. She ultimately didn’t even do that much. Just sighed and pulled the gun he gave her, aimed it until the nervous scrambling and string of excuses from her target turned into the missing money.
She’d scoffed at Rio back in his car, as she handed him back his Glock and envelope of cash. Because he could have easily done this himself.
“Did we really need to do all this?” She asked, shaking the snowflakes out of her hair. She sat back in her seat, looking away and out her window. The weather had really taken a turn, and she craned her neck to watch the clouds gathered over the disappearing sun.
“Next time don’t come up short,” he said.
She spun her head to him, meaning to argue. She really had been in the mood to fight. He’d wasted her entire day with this! But she clammed up as she watched him not pay any attention to her. He holstered the weapon and pulled out onto the road, starting his wipers to brush away the falling snow.
She watched his face change with the weather, growing ever-darker with the disappearing sun. They pulled onto the highway, both his hands gripped tight on the steering wheel as gusts of wind slammed hard against his car. His wipers were no match for the swirling sea of white, the falling snow cutting their visibility to almost nothing. He slowed, adjusting to the road conditions, trying to keep his distance from other drivers dumb enough to brave the roads.
Beth couldn’t help herself. “You’re full of great ideas.” She cut her eyes over to him, wanting to see her condescension land. “Was this all worth it? Is this how you wanted to spend the afternoon? Driving over an hour out of the way to.. what? Teach me a lesson?”
“I ain’t the one who didn’t check the bag.” He tried to sound stern but she could see the way his jaw flexed with his irritation.
And, good! Let him be irritated! Because it wasn’t like she purposely didn’t check the bag their contact gave her. It had been late and she was by herself meeting these street people in an alley. She had a gun, but the guy was there with reinforcements, outnumbering her three to one. She’d taken what he gave her and left as quickly as she could. Didn’t even see that she was light until she made it home, safe in her house behind her locked doors only Rio seemed to have no trouble breaching. It hadn’t been her fault!
“Well, great job, boss ,” she bit out. Why couldn’t he cut her a break just once!
“Elizabeth…” His low voice gritted out like sand, abrasive with his irritation. He swiveled his head to face her, his eyes leaving the road for just a second. A second too long.
“Watch out!”
She grabbed the dash as he slammed on the brakes. She felt the painful impact of his arm flung out across her chest, stopping her forward momentum as his SUV skidded on the slushy road. Both of his hands returned to his wheel and he yanked it sharply to the left, avoiding a collision with the stopped car ahead, but scraping along the temporary road dividers set up to merge traffic toward the right side of the highway. The likely culprit of the sudden slowdown had scraped up the entire left side of his SUV. Beth’s heart hammered in her chest. That was a close one. It could have been so much worse. They could have slammed into something more solid. They’d gotten lucky.
But Rio’s face didn’t match her feeling of relief. And his angry, “Fucking shit!” said under his breath was certainly not gratitude for having narrowly escaped from danger.
She bit back whatever she was about to say. This wasn’t the right time to provoke him. Her own heart slowed as she took in some calming breaths, hand to her chest. Her other fist unclenched, and she scratched over the imprints of the four half-moons left by her nails.
They inched their way back into the line of traffic, all cars merged to the right into a single lane. They weren’t even driving anymore. More like rolling along a few short inches every couple of seconds. She heard his piqued exhale through his nose and turned to him. He was intently staring through the windshield, as if there was anything of value for him to see. They were practically stopped. She eyed over his hands, still clutching at that wheel as if there was a need to steer. His fingers flexed once in a while – a tell of all his pent up irritation.
“Are you okay?” she offered in consolation.
“Mmhm,” he grumbled back, his eyes never leaving the road.
“I hope the damage isn’t too…” She stopped. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to remind him that the body of his car – that was worth more than all the cars she’s ever owned put together, that he clearly thought was some kind of status symbol of the intimidating persona he was so carefully cultivating – was likely damaged. And that she maybe was a little bit responsible for that.
His humorless laugh came from his throat. “Whatever it is, you’ll pay for it.”
“What, with my life?” she scoffed before she could think better of it. Hey, this wasn’t all her fault! If he hadn’t made her make this trip…
“Nah,” he turned to her, his dark eyes flashing from underneath his beanie in the dimming light. “With your cut.”
She knew better than to argue. She turned away and stared out her window at the flurry of snowflakes swirling outside. The sun had set and it was just the line of headlights reflecting off the wall of white. She reached up without thinking, to rub her sternum whose ache she suddenly noticed more acutely as the adrenaline wore off.
His voice came soft. “You good?”
She turned to him, surprised. His tone an unexpected olive branch. She met his eyes and watched him nod to her chest with his cast-down lashes. To her breasts in her sweater. The way he did it – it wasn’t unconcerned with her potential injury, but there was a clear undertone that she immediately zeroed in on. She couldn’t help it. And he knew she’d caught his meaning, the way his eyes lifted back to hers with just a touch of heat.
“I’m good,” she assured him, lacing her tone with just the right amount of cynicism so he knew she wasn’t flirting back. Not really.
“Mmhm,” he hummed again, but this time the sound was rich, his gaze dropping with purpose to her chest. The corner of his mouth lifted to betray his innuendo as he turned back to the windshield, no doubt catching her small repressed smile she tried to hide by turning away too.
But that moment didn’t last. The minutes stretched without end with little movement on the road ahead. On hour two, they’d driven fifteen miles – crawling along inch by painful inch – and she was tired and hungry and had to pee… and hated him again. She sat in her seat with her arms crossed and an aggravated foot tapping his floor, wondering if she should ask him to pull over at the exit. She could see it up ahead. Maybe another 20 minutes and they’ll be there… But she didn’t have to ask.
“We’re getting off,” he announced to her, his own impatience showing with his fingers tapping a light staccato on his phone as he scrolled his screen to pass the time.
“Okay,” she sighed, relieved. “Maybe a gas station…”
But he didn’t let her finish. He shook his head, not listening. “We ain’t getting out of here tonight.”
“What do you mean?” her voice rose in alarm. “Where will we go?”
He shrugged and pointed toward the nondescript town off the highway. “Get a couple rooms. Wait it out.”
Her mouth dropped open in surprise. She couldn’t just get a room . She needed to get home. She had her kids to think about. She was a mother ! Plus, every credit card she had was maxed out. “You can’t be serious,” she laughed in disbelief.
He shrugged again, not watching her, still scrolling his phone. The weather app. She saw the swirl of angry reds and blues as his fingers swept over the screen.
“You’re welcome to find yourself another ride.”
“Another ride!?” She couldn’t believe his gal. “I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you!”
“Oh yeah,” he laughed out with dismissive sarcasm, “I was the one who came up short.” He touched his own chest in exaggerated condescension.
“You could have just taken the difference from my cut!” she almost shouted in exasperation.
“Yeah,” he conceded with a weighted shrug. “Could have.” He turned to meet her eyes. “And then that guy would know you’ll take a lowball and won’t do shit about it.”
He watched her, waiting for the weight of his words to sink in. She had to be the one to fix it. She had to be the one to bring out the gun. She had to show their contact that the next time that he met her in a dark alley, she wouldn’t be a target.
She sighed. “I make the mess, I clean it up?” It landed like a bitter old joke between them.
He clicked his tongue and smiled in approval. “Exactly.”
It took three quarters of an hour before they snail-paced their way behind an endless line of cars detoured off the highway. The lots of hotels nearby were swarmed. The weather made it impossible to travel and stranded motorists were scrambling to find safe lodgings for the night. Rio pulled into a lot of a motel. He cut in quickly, as cars gridlocked trying to decide which way to turn. He grabbed the last spot near the entrance, maneuvering expertly around the dawdling cars.
“It wasn’t our turn,” she started to point out to him. He’d just cut past at least three cars.
He didn’t even bother to argue, already opening his door. “You coming?”
She followed hastily behind, pushing against her door with force, fighting the wind. A chilly gust hit her right in the face and her breath caught. The sharp stab of the icy wind against her warm windpipe made tears spring to her eyes.
There was a line at least ten people deep, and three frazzled hosts were checking people into rooms as quickly as they could. Beth eyed up the bathroom in the lobby. She didn’t think she could wait, however long this all would take. She left him there to wait in line and hurried off. She only took a few minutes, but he was already at the desk when she got back.
“A king or two queens?” the hostess was in the middle of asking as Beth approached.
“No no,” Beth cut in, before Rio could even open his mouth. “Two rooms, please.”
The hostess smiled at her, tight lipped. “I’m sorry, ma’am. We’re expecting to be fully booked, seeing as there’s the blizzard. We have a one room per party policy during emergencies.”
Beth glanced at Rio, who didn’t intervene. “Well, we’re two parties.” She motioned between herself and Rio. Clearly two separate people.
The woman’s look was careful, but her fatigue showed through her polite tone. “But you’re checking in together…”
“Yes, but we’re two people,” Beth cut in.
“You’ll have to wait your turn then,” the hostess sighed. “We’ll finish here and then I’ll get your credit card to run a separate transaction.”
Beth looked to Rio, frustrated and in disbelief. This wasn’t happening. This was ridiculous. This was his fault!
“Two queens?” he offered.
She hated his stupid eyebrow, raised teasingly under his stupd beanie. She hated his stupid tone. They couldn’t share a room! She was sore and exhausted. Her sternum hurt from where his arm hit when he braced her. Her feet were cold. Her nose was red. And her head pounded with the stress of all of it.
She didn’t answer. Just hiked her purse strap more securely on her shoulder and marched toward the exit.
She waited for him by the car, refusing to go back inside despite the wind. It thankfully didn’t take him long, and her hand hovered at her door handle as he approached the car. But he didn’t pop the lock. Instead he opened the trunk and pulled a duffel from the back.
“What are you doing?” They couldn’t walk. The strip of rooms was long and these weren’t walking conditions.
“Lot’s full.” He nodded to the long line of cars all searching for a place to park.
Her heart sank, realizing he was right. They couldn’t move closer even if they tried.
“Let’s go.” He motioned with a tip of his head and started ahead, leaving her to rush behind him, teetering on her heels.
She really hated him.