Read Torch (Take It Off) for Free Online Page A

over my shoulder at her, but she was staring at Holt.
     
    I wondered if she was telling me to go for a ride in the truck… or with the man driving it.
     
    Holt held out his hand and gave me a look that dared me not to get up. Of course I had to take the challenge. I might be getting released from the hospital, but I was no wimp. I survived being tied up in a fire and tossed into a pool.
     
    Holt splayed his hands around my waist, once again murmuring about my slight size, and lifted me into the cab of the truck like I weighed nothing more than a bag of Skittles.
     
    Mmm. Skittles sounded good.
     
    “Let me help you with that,” he said, pulling the seatbelt around me and clipping it in place over my lap. Then he adjusted it across my chest before pulling back to look at my face.
     
    “You ready?”
     
    It was a simple question.
     
    Yet the weight behind it seemed to catch my breath and make me wary. I don’t know what kind of emotion came through my face, but he chuckled and shut the door to go around and get into the driver’s seat. When he pulled away from the curb, I spoke up.
     
    “You can just take me to the motel that’s down near the library.”
     
    The truck jerked to a halt and I went forward. Holt reached out casually and splayed his hand over my chest, keeping me from going forward any farther. Then he snatched his hand back and looked at me. “Motel?”
     
    My eyes widened at the hardness in his tone. “I appreciate you telling the doctor you would look out for me, but you didn’t really think I would stay with you, did you?”
     
    “I gave the doctor my word.”
     
    I gaped at him. Was he serious? He couldn’t possibly want me at his house any more than I wanted to be there. “I won’t tell him you took me to a motel.”
     
    “I’m not taking you to a motel,” he growled.
     
    “Yes. You are.”
     
    He completely ignored the fact that he was sitting in the center of the road and crossed his arms over his chest and regarded me with raised eyebrows. “How do you plan to pay for the room?”
     
    “I have a bank account,” I snapped, but then I realized my bankcards, checkbook, and driver’s license burned in the fire. “Oh.”
     
    He smirked.
     
    “Was my car damaged?”
     
    “I don’t think so.”
     
    I blew out a breath. “I have my library ID for work in my glove compartment. I can use that at the bank.” Thank God I kept it there. I also kept a twenty in there with it because once I left my wallet at home and starved the entire day because I had no money to buy lunch.
     
    “It’s after five,” he said, pointing at the clock on the dash. “Banks are closed.”
     
    I leaned my head back against the seat. It was starting to hurt. “Look. No offense. I am grateful to you for saving my life. For checking on me in the hospital and for bringing me these really cute flip-flops, but I don’t know you. I can’t just come to your house.”
     
    “You’re scared of me.” He said it like the words left a bad taste in his mouth.
     
    “No.” I protested. I really wasn’t. He made me feel… safe. But that was the problem. I wasn’t safe. Someone tried to kill me. I couldn’t just go home with some stranger because I didn’t want to be alone.
     
    “Someone tried to kill you.”
     
    “I know.” I held up my wrist.
     
    “I’m not taking you to a motel.”
     
    “It’s not your decision.”
     
    “I’m the one driving.”
     
    “You’re stupid!” I yelled.
     
    He laughed. A real laugh that started in his belly and burst out of his chest. I giggled. I just called him stupid like I was twelve.
     
    A car sitting behind the truck beeped their horn loudly, then sped out around us, the driver sticking his very unfriendly finger out the window and waiving it wildly around.
     
    “Well, I guess he told me,” Holt said and flashed his teeth.
     
    I giggled some more.
     
    He put the truck in drive and pulled away. His face turned serious. “Do you really