Leverage. Janie Crouch

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       Chapter Four

      You would think she’d just told him she had a nuclear device in her back pocket the way he was acting. Shelby watched from the booth as Dylan went over to pay Sally at the register for their meal.

      Shelby tried to think through their conversation to figure out what had happened, where it had gone wrong. Shelby certainly wouldn’t be surprised to figure out it was something she had said. It always tended to be something she’d said.

      But things had been going so well with Dylan tonight. Laughing and talking with him had been easy. Not full of those awkward pauses that tended to populate Shelby’s conversations. Especially ones with really hot guys.

      Not that she tended to have too many of those.

      Everything seemed to be going great, and then Shelby had watched as Dylan Branson just shut down right in front of her eyes. The light flirting, the laughing, the lack of awkward pauses they had enjoyed the whole evening—totally gone in a split second. The emotional temperature in the room had dropped twenty degrees in just a moment.

      Generally, Shelby was always looking for a way to get out of conversations, to find a way to return to her natural solo state. But with Dylan she hadn’t felt the need to withdraw. They both seemed to be enjoying the conversation. Enjoying each other. So, yeah, his abrupt termination of everything hurt. More than Shelby expected.

      Not that she’d been expecting Dylan to ask her to go steady or anything, but they’d been having a good time and then: pow! Right in the middle of a sentence he was suddenly finished with her.

      See, this was why Shelby avoided people whenever possible.

      And then when she told Dylan she had to go with him on the flight? She thought his eyes might bug out of his head.

      She hadn’t been sure how to respond. When it became clear Dylan wasn’t going to elaborate, Shelby had tried to explain. “I have to go. The codes are in my head.”

      “Well, then write them down or something.”

      Write them down?

      “Do you think Megan and I are idiots?” Shelby asked. “If I could just write them down, do you think I would be here with you right now?”

      Dylan had shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

      Shelby had struggled to keep her temper under control. How could this even be the same man she had been talking to so comfortably just ten minutes before? “Well, I wouldn’t. If I was able, I would have already used that newfangled thing called the internet to send the codes to Omega. I have to go.”

      Dylan shook his head. “How big can the codes be if they’re in your head?”

      Shelby had just sat back and glared at him. “Big.”

      At that, he stood up, took the bill the waitress had brought a few minutes before and gone over to pay. The restaurant looked to be closing up soon.

      Shelby didn’t want to explain to him about her photographic memory of anything having to do with numbers. Fifteen minutes ago she wouldn’t have minded talking about it, almost had mentioned it when they were discussing her job. But that was when she was talking to good Dylan rather than jerk-face Dylan, who had somehow taken his place. She really wasn’t interested in telling him much of anything now.

      Maybe Shelby should mention to Megan that schizophrenia might run in her husband’s family.

      When Dylan didn’t immediately return, Shelby looked over at him. Through the window she could see he had stepped outside. He was on the phone now, obviously not happy with whomever he was talking to. Shelby hoped it wasn’t Megan.

      Shelby also wished she knew what she had done to turn Dylan so hard and cold. Besides just existing and needing a ride. Which was why she was even here. Although that obviously hadn’t been explained to Dylan.

      Shelby finished her tea as she watched Dylan talking on the phone outside. Another storm had come up and lightning played through the night sky. Shelby didn’t think they could take off in all this anyway. Maybe she should drive or look into taking a commercial flight. She could live through being surrounded by all the people at an airport and on an airplane if she had to.

      Plus, how much worse could it be than being in an airplane with someone who seemed annoyed by her very existence?

      Shelby got up and headed toward the door. She would just go her separate way from Dylan Branson. And hope when she met Megan’s husband, Sawyer, that he didn’t have the same temperament as his brother.

      Shelby opened the door. Dylan’s back was to her as he spoke on the phone. “Yeah, I get it. She’s needed, too. All I’m saying is that this should’ve been made more clear to me, Burgamy.” Dylan turned around, looking at Shelby while listening to the other person on the phone. “Yes, crystal.”

      Dylan disconnected the call without saying anything further. Good to know he was gruff with everybody, not just Shelby. They stood for a moment, not saying anything. Lightning flashed around them again.

      “Look, I’m not sure what exactly happened here.” Shelby gestured toward the inside of the restaurant. “But obviously there was some sort of misunderstanding. You СКАЧАТЬ