He leaned slightly toward me, his breath washing over my face and causing my stomach to go queasy.
“You’re already making my life very difficult,” he murmured. “Let’s not escalate this.”
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Oh, I think you do.”
He started walking, his hold on my arm not budging.
“There’s a car right there,” he said calmly. “We’re going to sit inside and talk like reasonable adults.”
“I’m not getting in a car with you.” I tried again to shake his hold on me, but his grip was like iron.
His creepy smile didn’t falter.
“You can get in calmly,” he said softly, “or I can make this unpleasant. And I promise you, Hope, I will follow through.”
A cold ripple slid down my spine. I knew I was supposed to scream, to try to turn. So why wasn’t I? I felt frozen. The fear was becoming so intense that my mind wasn’t working.
He leaned closer, voice dropping to a menacing whisper.
“You can try to scream, but there’s no one out here to hear you.”
My breath started coming in and out in short gasps.
He was right.
I hated that he was right.
“I won’t drive far,” he continued. “We’re just going to talk. You owe me that much, don’t you? Considering what you’re trying to do.”
“I don’t owe you anything, Conrad.” I tried to sound firm, but I was struggling to find air.“You’re a monster.”
Numbness was spreading to every corner of my body now. My face, my hands, my chest, even my arms. It radiated through every part of me.
I was shutting down.
Something flashed in his eyes, and it was the same look that frequented my dreams right before he hurt me.
He opened the passenger door of his car.
“Get in.”
“I’m not?—”
His hand tightened, and he shoved me—hard.
I stumbled forward.
“I won’t ask again,” he growled.
A nauseating feeling twisted in my gut, and I felt more powerless than I ever had in my life.
He shoved me roughly again, and I reluctantly slid into the passenger seat.
CHAPTER 67
“Idon’t want to hurt you,” he said simply as we started driving down the road away from Main Street and toward the mountain.
