Page 10 of Hellhound AU

“Holy fucking shitballs,” I yelled out, and that’s when my foot slipped from the brake to the gas. The car jumped forward, because for some idiotic reason I’d had it in drive instead of reverse.

I hit the brake, putting the car in park and opening my door. “For fuck’s sake, are you fucking insane?” I swear the car had actually hit Rowan, although he appeared fine.

“Me?” Rowan yelled out. He was leaning over the hood of the car, and he didn’t exactly look pleased. “AmIfucking insane? You ran me over!”

“You scared me! Don’t scare someone who’s using a weapon! And a vehicle is totally a weapon! That’s why it’s called vehicular manslaughter!” I insisted.

Rowan just growled, but then he came over, pulled open the passenger door, threw my backpack into the back seat, and climbed in. I stared at him, and he stared mutinously back at me.

“Okay,” I said, and this time I managed to put the car into reverse and turn the car around. When I was driving, I asked, “Where’s the gun?”

“No guns.”

“Where’smygun,” I asked again. I didn’t think I’d need it, especially with my strawberry milkshake along, but still.

“No. Guns.” Rowan said again. I turned to look at him.

What followed was a weird game of chicken. He looked back at the road, then at me, then back at the road. I stared at him, even though I was driving. He looked very nervous. I mean, yeah, it was totally not safe, but I was going like twenty miles per hour, for fuck’s sake, and there were no houses or pedestrians around.

Rowan finally burst out, “I don’t like guns!”

I turned back to look out the front windshield, but I glared back at him, because that was not enough explanation.

He sighed. “It hurts to get shot.”

“No shit,” I snorted. “That’s why you avoid getting shot.”

“Yeah, well, that isn’t always possible,” he mumbled.

Huh. Wasn’t my sexy ginger a bit of a mystery? I thought about asking him about getting shot, but one look at his very grumpy face had me changing my mind. He had to be some kind of hitman or fixer, though, so having him along sounded like a good idea.

Was I ignoring a few red flags? I mean, sure I was. Like the fact that the guy had been stalking my house and hiding in the woods, all while apparently naked.

“What happened to your clothes?” I asked. I wondered if this was gonna be like the whole not knowing there was a cabin or not having his cell phone thing.

“I, uh… I lost them.”

“Well, obviously. I mean,howdid you lose them?”

“Oh… Well…” Rowan mumbled something then, and I gave a loud “Hmmm?” in response, because I really wanted this story. Some mumbled answer wasn’t going to cut it.

Rowan sighed. “I got them dirty, so I took them off.”

“You took off your clothes. In the woods. Because they were dirty. In the woods.”

“Yup. I was hiking, and I fell in some mud, and then I took them off, and then I heard you yelling, because I must have somehow been near your house. I grabbed sweatpants from you because my clothes were dirty.” Rowan smiled when I looked over, pleased with his story.

I just gave a harumph in response. First of all, there was no way he accidentally was near my house, since there were no hiking trails and just dense underbrush around my yard. Second of all, it hadn’t rained in like a week, so there was no way that there was mud for him to fall in.

The man was probably the worst liar I’d ever met, so how he’d made it in this line of work was astonishing. It was obviously going to be my responsibility to take him under my wing and make sure he survived.

5

Author’s Note:

So, I’m reallynotallowed to use guns in this story. Not much at least. I had this whole idea for a gun scene, and I borrowed a gun from one of my boyfriend’s brothers to test it, because I totally want to be authentic. (Okay, I took it without asking, because no one would give me a gun.) It turns out that getting shot reallydoeshurt. A lot. It hurtsa lot.

Don’t worry, though, because it wasn’t my hand or anything, so I can still type. So here’s your chapter!