Cooper by Nhys Glover Read Free Book Online Page A

driving these roads, he expected, so he couldn't hang around for long. He just hoped Amy could get out safely. Though he wasn't sure, he sensed that she'd probably be sneaking out, if she came at all.
    Not more than a few endless minute after he pulled up and turned off his lights, he saw a slim figure making its way through the now slightly opened gates. Then that figure picked its way along the footpath until it reached the passenger door of his van. Coop turned on the interior light so she could see him, and then unlocked the door for her. She clambered in to the passenger seat.
    For a moment, when the door closed, they sat in darkness and silence. When she spoke, he noticed that her voice was still as croaky as it had been on the phone.
    "You can't stay here. The rentacops will be doing their rounds any time now."
    He started the engine and felt a gust of hot air circulate. He should have turned on music. Anything to fill the uncomfortable silence. What was he doing playing Romeo and Juliet with the daughter of a member of the Guild? This wasn't simply a family feud that separated her people from his; this was one enemy species against another.
    He drove slowly down the street and then turned right, heading out of the expensive Hillsborough Heights subdivision towards the city. For the life of him, he couldn't think where to take her. An all-night diner? A motel? It wasn't safe to just sit in the van and talk. He threw it over to her.
    "Any thoughts where we should go?"
    "There's one of those cheap highway motels not far from here. We could go there. Maybe they'll have a ground floor room. It'll be private and reasonably safe, I think."
    "You want to go to a motel with me?" His voice rose a little at the end of the question.
    Did he have to sound like a total virginal wanker?
    Amy shrugged, continuing to stare out her window. She hadn't really looked at him since she got in the van.
    "I'm not suggesting sex, if that's what you're worried about."
    "Why would I be worried, if you were?" he challenged her, sensing that this was another one of her personal put-downs.
    "Never mind. Just tell me you won't leave me there if our talk doesn't go well."
    "Amy, you don't know me, so I'll reassure you. The last thing I'd ever do is put an innocent girl in danger, most especially not you." He couldn't keep the offence from his voice.
    What was wrong with him? If his cat was activating after all this time, wasn't he putting this vulnerable young girl in danger by just being with her? She was Guild and his cat innately hated Guild, or so his brothers had told him. It was the same as a cat hissing and spitting at a dog, even before it knows from experience that a dog is a danger to it. And his moods were volatile right now and growing more so.
    "Maybe this is a bad idea. I'm not myself at the moment. I…"
    "Cooper, you wanted me to meet you, so I'm here. Just go to the motel, okay. I can't do this in the dark when I can't see your face properly. I thought I could, but I can't."
    "Can't do what?" he asked suspiciously.
    Jumping him wasn't an option with someone as insecure as Amy. So what did she want to do? Tell him not to call her again? That sounded right. Hadn't she been trying to tell him that on the phone, and he'd stubbornly refused to listen? That had been so out of character for him.
    "Just drive, please." Her anxiety hung in the air like smog, clogging his lungs, and making the feral force inside him rage.
    He focused on the empty road ahead. This far from the city, there wasn't much traffic late at night. Once on El Camino Real heading south it didn't take long to find the motel, luckily with the vacancy sign still lit up.
    Pulling up outside the office, he contemplated the next challenge. But before he could reach for the button to activate the lift, Amy had jumped out without a word, and gone inside to book a room. Moments later, she was back and pointing the way to the very back of the horseshoe-shaped complex. Parking was