"That's not your choice to make!"
"Someone has to make it. You're too angry to think clearly."
I laugh. It’s a wild, unhinged sound. "I'm too angry? You just destroyed any chance of me ever trusting you again, and I'm the one not thinking clearly?"
"Yes." He glances at me, and something in his expression makes my stomach drop. Not anger. Not cruelty. Something worse.
Certainty.
He believes he's right. Believes that kidnapping me is somehow justified, somehow reasonable.
"Phoenix." I force myself to breathe. To think. "Listen to me. I understand that you're upset. I understand that things didn't go the way you planned tonight. But this, whatever this is, it’s not the answer. You have to see that."
"What I see is the woman I want walking away from me." His hands tighten on the wheel. "And I'm not going to let that happen."
"You can't force someone to stay with you!"
"I'm not forcing you to stay. I'm forcing you to listen."
"Same thing!"
"It's not."
I slam my palm against the dashboard. "God, do you hear yourself? Do you have any idea how insane you sound?"
"I sound like a man who knows what he wants."
"You sound like a psychopath!"
Something flickers across his face. Pain, maybe. Or anger. It's gone before I can identify it.
"Call me whatever you want," he says quietly. "It won't change anything."
The road keeps climbing. The trees press closer. The last glow of city lights disappears behind a ridge, and suddenly we're surrounded by nothing but darkness and the twin beams of the headlights cutting through the night.
I think about grabbing the wheel and forcing him off the road. But we're going too fast, the curves too sharp. I'd kill us both.
I think about waiting until he stops, then running. But running where? We're in the middle of nowhere. I'm wearing a silk dress and heels. I'd freeze before I found help.
I should scream but no one would hear me.
The trap has closed around me, and I didn't even see it coming.
"How long?" I ask, my voice hollow.
"How longwhat?"
"How long have you been planning this? The cabin. Was it always the backup plan? If the girlfriend act didn't work out, you'd just... take me?"
His jaw tightens. "I didn't plan this."
"Bullshit."
"I didn't." He looks at me, and for a moment I see something crack in his composure. "I never wanted you to find out. I thought we'd have the dinner, it would go well, and you'd never have to know that it started as?—"
"As what? A business arrangement?"
He doesn't answer.
