Unsafe Haven by Char Chaffin Read Free Book Online Page A

careful not to spook her. “I told you, the truck is yours. I’ll have mine back later on today. Stevie’s covering the station and the citizens of Staamat can survive without me for a while. Where do you want to go?”
    Unsmiling, she eyed him. “I don’t like being railroaded, Denn.” He noticed one of her hands opened and closed into a fist. Nerves, tension. Poor girl, she probably had both. He tilted his head as he studied her. What made you so damned mistrustful, Kendall? Was it a man?
    He had an awful suspicion she’d escaped from an abusive relationship, though he had no proof whatsoever. He wanted to ask her but feared alarming her any further.
    Maybe someday she’d trust him enough to tell him her story. For now, he caught her hand and dropped the keys into her palm, then closed her fingers around them. “Turn left out of Puffin Circle to Singleton, then stay on Singleton for seven miles. Bear right at the entrance to the zinc mine, drive two more miles. You’ll end up in downtown New Mina. There’s a grocery store on Main. They’ll have whatever you need and they won’t bankrupt you. Balto General is two doors down from there and they sell everything from furniture to grass seed. What they don’t have in stock, they can order.” He stepped back, tipped his hat to her, and started toward the sidewalk.
    “Wait. What if I get lost?” Panic spiked her voice. She rushed off the porch and took the steps in one bound, landing on the sidewalk next to him.
    Denn struggled to keep the satisfied smile off his face as he turned to her. “Oh, you won’t get lost. Just watch out for moose.”
    “M-moose?”
    “Sure. They’re everywhere. Sometimes they stand in the middle of the road. Don’t worry, just honk the horn and they’ll eventually move. I wouldn’t roll down the windows, though.” He rubbed his chin in a thoughtful manner.
    “What happens if you roll down the windows?”
    “Oh, they’ll poke their noses in and sometimes they—well, that won’t happen to you.” He’d go straight to hell for messing with her head, but he couldn’t help himself.
    “Sometimes they what ?” Now she gripped his jacket sleeve with white-knuckled fingers.
    He couldn’t stay serious one more second and barked out a laugh. “I’m pulling your leg, Kendall. Honest. There are moose but they won’t come up to the car and usually they move pretty fast if they’re in the road. You don’t have anything to worry about.”
    She released his sleeve with a pent-up breath. “That was a mean thing to do, Chief Nulo.” But a smile curved her lips and her eyes had brightened.
    He had to fight the impulse to sweep her into his arms and cuddle her. Instead he merely replied, “Yes, it was. So, you want to drive or should I?”
    She dropped the keys into his hand. “You drive. I’ll look at the scenery.”
    From the window in the front parlor, Wendy Chang clutched the lace curtain in tense fingers as she watched Denn drive away. She’d thought he would come in as he usually did and chat with her before she started her morning housekeeping. She looked forward to having him to herself a few times a week, even though he never stayed more than fifteen or twenty minutes. It was better than nothing.
    Instead, he took off with her newest paying guest. Wendy tossed the curtain aside, scowling at the wrinkle she’d made in the delicate lace.
    She poured a second cup of coffee, then stood in the middle of the kitchen and sipped it as she pondered the changes she could already sense in her relationship with Denn. She’d been in love with him for years, ever since he returned home from Anchorage. Back then she’d been so confident she’d get him, so sure of herself and her ability to attract him. But from the beginning he’d treated her as a friend, nothing more.
    God, he was gorgeous. She’d never known another man who melted her into a puddle the way Denn could. Those glowing, dark-gold eyes. Those full, luscious lips.