“That's nice.”
“Does Striker know where you are?”
A small shard of ice settles in my stomach. The same cold I felt the first time I saw this man across the street outside the diner. Viv's voice in my head.He gives me the creeps.
I keep my voice steady. “He'll know soon enough.”
“Want me to call him for you? Save him the worry.”
“No, sir. I appreciate it, but no.”
“Easy enough.”
“Please don't. I need some time.”
He looks at me too long, the big smile unmoving. Then he nods.
"Whatever you say, Bethany. I'm going to see if I can get that machine inside to work.”
He gets up and walks inside, as I sit very still on the bench.
Getting up and walking away from this place seems suspicious. What happens if I'm not on the bench when the sheriff comes back outside? Will he look for me?
I stay put. The bus has to come soon.
The sheriff comes out of the terminal five minutes later with a paper cup. He nods at me, then gets in his cruiser. He sits in the lot sipping his coffee with the engine running for the next eleven minutes.
Once the bus arrives, he tips his hat to me through the windshield as I pass him on the way to the door. The driver punches my ticket and I take a seat near the back. I’m the only passenger, apart from a woman nursing a baby near the front.
The bus pulls out of the lot and the cruiser pulls out behind it. It hangs back. Then it falls away, somewhere about a mile out of town. I keep my forehead against the window, staring at the dark trees going past.
Then the bus slows.
Brake lights ahead through the trees, with a black SUV stopped sideways across the highway. Two men in suits stand at the centerline waving the bus down with flashlights.
The driver cusses softly under his breath and downshifts. The bus comes to a stop.
The doors open.
Two of them come on. The lead suit holds up a paper to the driver and says something I can't hear. The driver jerks his head back down the aisle at me and the lead suit walks down the aisle and stops at my row.
“Ms. Crawford. There's a vehicle outside. We're taking you home.”
I stare at him, raising my voice. “This isn't…”
“Don't make a scene, girly, or I’ll bring that woman and her baby along with us. Maybe shoot the driver, for good measure.Do you want that?” He moves his jacket to show me the gun he’s carrying.
I get up.
He takes my elbow on the way down the aisle, his grip tight. We come down the bus steps and the door hisses shut behind me, and I get one look back through the windshield at the driver, who doesn't meet my eye.
The bus pulls away, too quickly.
The drive back is quiet. The lead suit is in front. The other one is back with me. I stare at my hands in my lap, not letting myself cry. We pull through the gates of the High Vale Lodge fifteen minutes later.
I let them lead me up to the bridal suite without speaking. The flowers on the side table are the same arrangement of white roses. The lead suit pushes me through the door and shuts it behind me.
The lock clicks from the outside. Rico Taylor walks in a few hours later.
