She threw a dagger look back at him. "Let go of me."
He let go instantly. "I apologize. Alethia, please at least let me drive you home."
"No! You're just going to try and convince me you're not lying."
"I'm not—" He stopped and took a deep breath. "Okay. I won't try and convince you of anything. But Alethia, I can't let you leave on your own. We drove here in the dark. There's no way you know the way back to Ryder's Lodge, let alone to Prescott. I'm driving you home."
He was right.
Frustration and anger were building inside her, but she had to swallow them back down, because he was right.
But Ali Parker was used to swallowing her pride. Ali Parker was used to being with guys who didn't respect her, who lied to her and only cared about getting her into bed. She could endure one ride in a truck with one more lying man.
"Okay," she bit out. "But. No talking. No trying to convince me you're telling the truth. Or I get out of the truck and find my own way home, I don't care if it's doing fifty miles an hour."
"Alethia, just listen to me."
"Take it or leave it." She was pleased to hear the steel in her voice. Her tears had vanished somewhere.
Off to spend time with someone who still had some pride left, probably.
"All right," he said finally.
She didn't let him help her up into the truck, this time. She could climb up on her own, and she did, even in her stupid heels.
They sat in silence as he pulled out of his long driveway. Ali wanted to spend the whole drive staring out the opposite window, but she couldn't help looking at him.
Because you're an idiot, her brain helpfully supplied.
A muscle was jumping in his jaw, and his hands were clenching hard on the steering wheel. He looked like a coiled mass of tension.
Oh, are you upset? she thought. Has this situation been difficult for you?
What an asshole.
But she hadn't thought he was an asshole. These days, normally she could spot them. Even when they were pretending to be nice guys, there was always a hint of their real personality showing through. She hadn't been taken in like this in a long time.
In years.
Ali bit her tongue and turned her head to stare out the opposite window.
It reminded her of last night, watching the darkened forest sweep past them, illuminated for just a moment in the headlights, color washed away by the night. Now she could see it all in the daylight, and it was as gorgeous as she'd imagined, a wild and verdant and beautiful mountain forest.
The difference was, last night she'd been feeling excited and full of life, and today all of her color was washed away.
"Alethia, just listen to me," Grey tried.
She undid her seatbelt.
"Never mind. Please put that back on. These roads aren't safe."
She waited to see if he'd keep talking, but he didn't. She buckled her seatbelt again.
He stayed quiet. She watched the forest.
Why did everything always have to turn into a disaster?
***