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No one could know where we were going. I wasn’t even allowed to take my phone. I sent one text before we left, with the agent watching me like a hawk the whole time.
I’m safe. Things just got complicated. I’m sorry.
I bit my lip, stealing a glance at Connor. He was staring out the window, my bags in his hands.
He looked grim. Furious. Determined.
Then he looked at me and nodded, his eyes softening immediately. Just like that, I felt safe. Or at least, safe-ish.
How crazy was that?
I curled up in the passenger seat as Connor drove me out of town. We drove in silence as we left the suburban streets and slid into the darkness of the countryside. The hills were getting steeper, the roads narrower. The headlights were fewer and farther in between.
For a moment, I realized that I was completely at his mercy. If he was a bad guy, this would be the end of the movie. Dump body in ditch, roll credits.
I grimaced. Maybe I watched a little too much reality TV. I especially loved those shows about people who had snapped and committed grisly murders.
Mostly scorned women. Those were the best. Sometimes you even cheered for them.
Well, sometimes.
Yeah, I loved all those true crime shows. Though after this, if I survived, I doubted I would enjoy them anymore.
“So, are you in school or anything?”
I snapped back to the present. I swallowed and shook my head.
“Next Fall. I was supposed to start then.”
College already felt like something that had been derailed. I was probably not going to be here in the Fall. Hopefully I would still be alive, but everything else felt like a longshot.
“College?”
I nodded and realized he couldn’t see me in the dark. Brilliant Cass.
“Yeah. I mean, I always wanted to become a veterinarian but I know that takes a really long time.”
“An M.D.? No shit?”
I shrugged.
“I really like animals. I’m not too squeamish either…”
I trailed off, realizing I was a lot more squeamish than I once thought. What I’d seen the other night had cleared that up right quick. I felt a little sick as my mind replayed the sound of that knife sliding through skin…
“That’s really cool. You got really high scores on your GED so it should be easy for you.”
I stared at him.
“How do you know that?”
He gave me a look and didn’t answer. I felt naked suddenly. He’d looked me up obviously. Not just to see if I had a criminal record.
That made me feel… weird.
I crossed my arms, determined not to let him see me squirm.
“What else did you find out?”
“Well, for starters, Casey Jones isn’t your real name.”
My mouth dropped open and went dry.
“And you watch a lot of really questionable television.”
I bit my lip, realizing how vulnerable I really was. He was right. Casey Jones was a fake name. It wasn’t legally mine. I didn’t even exist on paper.
It’s not like I’d done anything wrong when I’d run off. At least I hoped my old foster mom hadn’t accused me of anything illegal… not that I’d done anything but run off.
Either way I was of age now. It’s not like they could make me go back.
There was nothing to be afraid of.
I jumped as a hand landed on my shoulder.
“Hey relax, you aren’t under investigation.”
“Then why did you investigate me?”
He cleared his throat, his eyes on the road.
“I was curious. Occupational hazard.”
I looked out the window at the trees. I had no idea what to say about that. Why would he be curious about me?
I was a waitress in a biker bar. I was no one special. I was a teenage runaway who had managed to avoid selling her body to survive. And that was just dumb luck.
“We’re here.”
I rolled down the window as he turned off the main road. I heard rattling as he took a gravel road up through the trees. I didn’t see any lights or a house.
Yeah… this was a good place to dump a body.
I glanced at Connor but he didn’t look at me. And I didn’t get a serial killer vibe. And I highly doubted he worked for Dante.
And Dante hadn’t said he wanted to kill me yet. Not exactly. Not yet anyway. It was probably his idea of a romantic gesture to send me bloody roses.
Connor had a strange smile on his face when we finally pulled up to a log cabin ten minutes later. We were far from the main road, if you could call it that. We were pretty much far from anywhere.
I got out of the car and stared up at the welcoming front porch. It was a real log cabin. The sort mountain men lived in on TV.
My God, we really were in the middle of nowhere.
“What is this place?”
He looked at me and smiled the slightest bit.
