Saturday Snippet
Today’s theme is rain on me. Because when it rains…it pours. Thought I’d share a snippet from White Knight. Shea is having a very, very bad night. Lucky for her…there’s a white knight ready to rescue her!
Snippet
“Where’s the new waitress?”
“She was sick. I sent her home early.”
“Home?” Travis immediately felt a shard of panic.
“Yes. I know it’s not a familiar concept for you, but typically it has four walls, a roof, pictures of smiling people and food in the refrigerator.”
“Jack’s a lucky man,” he deadpanned.
“I know. I have work to do. Nighty-night.”
He hung up. Where the hell could Shea have gone? She clearly didn’t have a home to go to. He watched the monitors carefully, ticking off the twenty minutes after Bill’s departure, hoping she would emerge from the bathroom, that she’d found a way to hide herself.
When she didn’t appear, his anxiety took over. Glancing toward the window, he saw a flash of lightning pierce the sky followed by a loud boom of thunder. The rain had started as a drizzle but now a full-fledged storm was in effect.
Shea was out in that. And she was sick.
Grabbing his raincoat and an umbrella, he cursed himself for a fool, wondering where in the hell he’d begin his search. All he knew was he needed to find her. Needed to know she was safe.
Stepping out into the driving rain, he crossed the parking lot to the street. He looked both ways, studying the signs, hoping for a clue. Glancing directly across from him, he spotted the diner. And Shea sitting in a booth by the window.
He sighed in relief. That didn’t take long.
As he walked into the diner, he immediately noticed her damp clothing clinging to her shivering body. He suspected she’d been waiting in the rain, hoping for a chance to get back into the club before it closed. Her trembling hands were wrapped tightly around a coffee cup. She coughed and Travis frowned at the deep, congested sound.
He took a seat at the table next to her booth. “Lousy night.”
She looked up at his voice. Besides the waitress, they were the only two people in the place. Once she determined he was talking to her, she smiled slightly and nodded.
He gestured to her wet clothing. “Looks like you got caught in the storm.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Forgot my umbrella.”
The waitress interrupted. He ordered coffee. While the woman went to get his drink, he looked at Shea. “You had dinner yet?”
She shook her head, though he spotted the suspicion in her gaze. He suppressed a grimace. He must look like king of the losers, trying to pick her up in a diner. Screw it. By the end of this night, she was going to know exactly who he was. “I was about to order a sandwich. You want to join me? My treat.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t. We don’t even know each other.”
He could tell she was hungry. From what he’d observed, she lived on cereal bars and peanut butter sandwiches. She was painfully thin and he ached to change that.
“I’m Travis, the only other person in L.A. crazy enough to be out on a night like this.”
“I’m Shea.”
He picked up his menu and slid into the seat across from her. “Nice to meet you.” He handed her the menu. “And despite the fact I did just say I was crazy, I can assure you I’m harmless. Mostly.”
She took the menu from him but didn’t look at it. “I’m not really hungry, but thanks for the offer.”
Now that he was closer, he could see the dark circles under her eyes, made more prominent by her pale skin. She was definitely sick.
“If you don’t mind me asking, you don’t look like you feel well. Shouldn’t you be home rather than out on a rainy night?”
She closed her eyes and sighed sadly. “I’m, um, staying with a friend. I accidentally got locked out and I don’t have a key.”
Her comment wasn’t too far from the truth. “Staying with a friend? So you’re here on vacation?”
She shook her head. “No, I just moved here. I haven’t had a chance to find my own place yet.”
The waitress delivered his coffee and topped up Shea’s. “You two want anything to eat?”
Travis shook his head, revising his previous plan. She wasn’t well enough to eat. He intended to get her back to the club as soon as possible. First he needed to gain her trust. If he told her who he was too soon, she was likely to run off.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
“Vegas.”
He lifted his coffee cup and Shea raised her hand in warning.
“That coffee’s terrible,” she confided quietly.
He took a cautious sip. It was strong as shit and thick as paste. Just the way he liked it. Putting the cup back down, he grinned. “It’s okay. At least it’s hot.”
She crinkled his nose. Clearly she didn’t think that fact redeemed it.
“What brings you from Vegas to L.A.?”
“I needed a fresh start.”
It was an innocuous answer and fired a whole list of new questions in his mind. “Sounds dire. What happened in Vegas?”
She laughed softly. “Given the city’s motto, I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Has to stay there, right?” he joked.
She stifled a yawn. She was worn out. He watched her rub her eyes, battling to remain awake. He was overcome by the urge to bundle her up and drag her back to the club.
“Were you born in Vegas?”
She nodded. “Yep. I’m the embodiment of a bad Vegas cliché. Daughter of a stripper.”
“And your father?”
She raised her eyebrow. “Really? I need to answer that? I have no idea who my father is. Not sure my mother knows either.”
There was no anger in her response. In fact, he thought he saw a glimmer of humor there. “Wow, cliché in every sense of the word.”
“In so many ways, it’s not even funny.”
“I take it you didn’t follow in Mom’s footsteps?”
She grimaced. “Hell no. I’m never taking my clothes off for money.”
Travis cleared his throat uncomfortably, considering all the times he’d offered women cash to masturbate in front of him for his pleasure. Hell, he made his living from a club that enticed the audience with bare skin and fake sex.
“I waited tables in Vegas for a few years after high school. Started living with this guy I was dating. Life was okay for a while, I guess. One night I came home from work. My boyfriend had lost yet another job and was drunk off his ass. I lost my temper. He lost his and he hit me. After he passed out, I realized I was about a million miles from where I wanted to be.”
Travis clenched his fists, wishing her asshole boyfriend was around right now. “What did you do?”
“I cleaned out my bank account, threw a few things in a bag and bought the cheapest bus ticket out of town.”
“Los Angeles?”
She nodded. “There are worse places to end up.”
“When you say fresh start, you mean fresh start.”
She smiled, wincing slightly, but the effort seemed to cause her pain. She rubbed her temples wearily and he assumed she was suffering from a headache. “Yeah. It was probably impulsive and dumb, but I don’t regret it.”
“Even now? When you’re sitting in wet clothes in a diner in the middle of the night because you’re locked out of the club?”
She looked at him, her gaze suddenly suspicious. “What?”
He stood slowly. “Come on, Shea. I’m taking you home.”
Her face completed the transformation from shock to sheer panic in less than a second. “I told you. I’m locked out.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key ring. “And I have the key that will get you back into Scoundrels. Let’s go before you shake yourself out of that booth. Your chills are getting worse.”
“Who are you?”
White Knight is available at Ellora’s Cave, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony and All Romance Ebooks.
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