“Why? Why her?”
“Because you love her,” he replied easily. “And because he does. That makes her leverage.”
My vision tunnelled. “You leave her alone. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“That’s what I figured.”
I slid fully into the seat on instinct alone. The door shut with a soft, terrible finality. The lock clicked down thesecond it closed.
“I swear to God,” I said hoarsely. “If you’re lying about this.”
He slid the phone into the console and gestured with his chin. “Drive.”
I stared at him. “You’re out of your mind.”
“Probably, but you’re the one who’s going to take us wherever I tell you.”
My hands fumbled the keys. They shook so badly I dropped them once before I managed to start the engine.
“Don’t look for him,” Colin said. “Don’t call anyone. If I see a screen light up, I send a message, and it won’t be a picture.”
My chest constricted. “You’re sick.”
“You already told me that,” he replied. “Turn left.”
I obeyed.
Town slid past like a familiar dream turning wrong. The café. The corner store. The stretch of road that led toward the river bend and then further out into nothing. I didn’t speed. I didn’t stall. I drove like my body belonged to someone else.
My phone vibrated in the cup holder.
My sob broke loose as I saw Wyatt’s name.
“Don’t,” Colin said softly.
I didn’t touch it.
“You’re being smart. This is the part where you stop pretending you’re in control.”
The river disappeared behind us. Fields took over. Then scrub. Then gravel.
My thoughts kept skidding back to the same image. Maddy on the porch. Sun in her hair. A moment of normal I’d never see again the same way.
“You were at his house.”
“Briefly.”
“You followed a kid.”
“I followed yourweakness.”
Rage flared hot through the terror. “You don’t even see what you are, do you?”
He shrugged. “I see what you made me.”
That landed cold and empty.
The road narrowed. The sky felt larger. Trees thinned. The sense of being watched replaced itself with the certainty of being alone.
