You don’t need to fill the silence. You don’t need to fill the silence. You’re almost to the manor. Just keep your mouth—
“So what brought you out so late at night?”
I stilled. “Excuse me?”
“What took you out of Lantana?” I felt his eyes on me. “There was a receipt in your car for a gas station in Charlesbrook. I’m assuming you were on your way back when you hit the deer.”
“When the deer hit me,” I corrected, then fell quiet again.
I could sense Davis waiting for me to say more.
“When it hit you,” he gave in. “So, do you have family out that way? Near Charlesbrook.”
“No.” I pointed the way we were headed. “The only family I have is that way.”
“So—”
I was really starting to hate that word.
“—if it wasn’t family you were out there to see, were you out on business? Or maybe seeing friends?”
“I don’t have many friends,” I said to the window. “It’s actually a sore subject. I cry just thinking of how lonely and isolated I’ve become,soI don’t like talking about it.”
“Oh, uh...” Davis stalled, his eyes lifting off me and returning to the road. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
If he was really determined to have a conversation with me, I’d make it as uncomfortable as possible.
I got my wish for a whole ten minutes, then I saw his jaw crack in the rearview mirror.
“So, business, then,” he concluded. “What do you do?”
“I’m a failing entrepreneur,” I dropped. “I could be good at it, but I’m a parakeet—hopping from one shiny thing to another—getting bored as soon as the one before loses its shine. I might be headed for bankruptcy actually. At some point the mountain of credit card debt gets too high to bail you out.”
“Oh... I see.”
Another awkward silence took us as far as the final turn to the manor.
I rested my head on the cool glass, eyes fluttering shut. It had been a long and horrible night. The only thing I wanted to do was sleep—
“So—”
My lids sprung open, peeling back as far as my lips. First, I would snarl. The next thing I’d do if this fucker didn’t shut up was bite.
“—if things are so bad, I’m guessing all those bags in your car were the result of some serious retail therapy.”
I froze. “Bags?”
He laughed. “Your trunk was overflowing with every single designer brand my girlfriend dreams of.” Davis raked me up and down. “Were the clothes, shoes, and jewels for... your mom?” he asked like he already knew the answer. “Pretty fancy for an ill and elderlywoman.”
Stiffly, I turned—meeting his searching eyes before they flicked back to the road. “Why would those things be for my sixty-eight-year-old mother? Why couldn’t they be for me?”
Davis merged onto the dirt road, rumbling down Coral Reef. “You’re dressed modestly for someone who—”
“And there it is,” I snapped. “You’ve finally arrived at your destination.”
“Excuse me?”
“Excuse you? You want to be excused? I thought I was the one who should be begging your finest pardons for not getting dressed up and put together before you found me bleeding on the side of the street?”
