Page 69 of Unmasked

His words caused goosebumps to break out over her arms. She knew Knox would never let anything happen to her, but it worried her that Fletcher seemed to sense the same thing. All she cared about at this point, though, was making sure no one got hurt. Especially not Knox. “Please. I’ll go with you. I’ll⁠—”

“You’ll do whatever I say,” he ground out, the pistol waving in her face.

She sucked in a breath and flinched a little. “Okay, okay. I will, I promise. Just tell me what to do.”

He still hadn’t told her where they were going, but she had a sinking feeling she already knew even before he gestured to the road coming up on their left.

“Turn.”

Her stomach twisted as she navigated the car onto the bumpy road that led to Knox’s house. She strove for reason. “As soon as they realize I’m gone, they’ll alert the authorities. They’ll⁠—”

“We’ll be long gone before that… Emily.”

Surprise rendered her speechless, and she turned to look at him for a second. “What?”

“Like it?” He sat back in his seat with a little smile. “That’s what your new passport says. From here on out, we are Emily and Kirk Tilson.”

He was insane. There was no way this would work. “Fletcher⁠—”

“Kirk,” he abruptly cut her off. “May as well get used to it now.”

Her head spun. She had to figure out how to get out of this. It made her sick to think of what he was planning. He knew Knox would come for her. He would draw Knox out, kill him, then kidnap her and take her God knew where. She wouldn’t let that happen.

Fletcher was completely out of his mind. He claimed he couldn’t live without her, yet it didn’t seem to dawn on him that she could have been seriously injured when her car crashed. She could have been killed, and then⁠—

Her entire body stilled as something suddenly occurred to her. She didn’t want to believe it, but… “You poisoned my father.”

A grimace passed over his face. “Sorry about that. I genuinely liked him. But when he took your side… I didn’t have a choice.”

“He’s my father,” she snapped. “Of course he took my side.”

She knew getting angry wouldn’t help the situation, but he’d blown past the line of reason long ago.

“It was supposed to be me!” Fletcher yelled. “All that hard work, and the coward rolled over just when things were starting to fall into place.”

So, he’d been blackmailing her father the whole time. The pictures, everything. “Why?”

“I wanted you back, and he wanted you to come back, too. We both knew it was best for you. You just needed a little nudge.” He shrugged. “I thought the photographs would do it. You called me, and I was amazed that it had worked so quickly. He was supposed to keep pushing you my way until you came back. Instead, you ran to him.”

His voice turned petulant, cold. “I’ll never let him have you.”

Anger and upset warred inside her in equal measure, but she didn’t have time to dissect her feelings right now. She needed to figure out how to alert Knox of what was about to happen so he didn’t walk into a trap.

“Slow down.”

She automatically let off the accelerator and allowed the car to coast. In the entire time they’d been driving on this road, they hadn’t passed another vehicle. Not that she could have flagged anyone down for help. Fletcher obviously had zero compunction getting rid of anyone who interfered with his plans.

They came along a wooded stretch of road, and Fletcher gestured. “Pull in here and park behind the brush.”

She maneuvered the car over the bumpy terrain, then put it in park and cut the engine, wondering if she could make a break for it. Knox’s house was only half a mile up the road on the right; her parents’ was through the woods at a diagonal. She’d have to cut in front of Fletcher to get to either place, but she knew these woods well. If she could just evade him long enough to get a head start…

He seemed to read her thoughts. “Don’t do anything stupid. Climb out on my side.”

She unbuckled and crawled across the seats. “Easy now,” he said, the pistol trained on her. “Let’s go.”

He kept her in front of him, the gun pressing into her lower back as he urged her toward Knox’s house. As they walked through the woods, an idea occurred to her, and she slowly began to cut to her right.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.