“Then don’t,” I replied.
He glanced at me.
“And yet you’re trying very hard to hurt me.”
“I’m holding you accountable.”
“For what?” His tone sharpened slightly. “A misunderstanding? Hope, when I threw that tray that day, I hadn’t meant to hurt you.”
Liar,I thought.
“You didn’t just hurt me, though. Did you?”
“Brittany is exaggerating what happened. I barely touched her.”
My hands curled into fists in my lap.
“You are a liar. And nothing you say is going to convince me to stop trying to get you reported for what you did.”
He pressed harder on the gas pedal, and my pulse spiked.
“Where are we going?” I demanded.
“Relax,” he nearly growled. “Just somewhere quieter.”
“You’re making a mistake,” I said, trying not to panic as the speedometer reached seventy. We were on a winding road that wound farther and farther up the mountainside.
“No,” he replied softly. “I’m correcting one.”
The car continued climbing.
The heater hummed. The windshield wipers brushed away flecks of snow that were falling harder now.
“How far are we going?” I asked.
“As far as we need to.”
My stomach dropped. Was he going to harm me? I had no idea how far Conrad would go to get something he wanted. I was unsure how unhinged he actually was.
I tested the door handle subtly, but it was still locked. Then I reached into my pocket to try to grab my phone. Maybe I could discreetly call someone and?—
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he warned. And my whole body froze.
I slowly pulled my hand back out of my pocket. I didn’t want to make him angry, because I was worried he’d do something reckless.
Thankfully, he had to slow down due to the blizzard; seventy dropped to forty.
There were lots of snow banks on the side of the road up here—thick, heavy drifts left behind by plows.
If I could angle us into one, maybe I could make a semi-controlled crash occur.
The airbags might go off. We both might get injured. But it might be my only chance to run.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said again, trying to keephim talking. “Whatever you’re thinking of doing, it won’t fix anything.”
He didn’t look at me. “I think,” he said evenly, “that once you understand the consequences of continuing, you’ll make a wiser decision.”
Cold slid through my veins. Consequences. So he was really going to do something that would land us on the front page of the news.
