“So we have to smooth over a few details.”
“You’re going to lie to your parents?”
“Not lie. Omit.” His hand sailed through his hair. “My sister always visits them for Thanksgiving and she tries to rope me into it every year without much luck, but this time when she called, I told her I’d be there and that I was bringing someone special.”
It was the truth, despite her inevitable suspicion. He’d told Carmen he would bring Kenna along for the holiday. Of course, he hadn’t realized then that the trip would serve as a convenient way to rid himself of the infuriating detective.
For a few days, anyway.
He studied her face as her expression morphed from disbelief to annoyance to confusion and back again.
“Basically, you sat me down to tell me that I’m going with you, rather than asking me like a rational human being, because they’re already operating under the assumption thatweare coming?”
Staring at her blankly, he said, “Yes.”
“Why is it so important to you that I meet them? It’s not as if we’re in a …” Her hesitation hurt and he was relieved she did not finish the thought.
“We’ve spent a great deal of time together, have we not? And I’ve made you aware of my feelings. Now, I’m under the impression that you and I cannot move forward in any meaningful way until some of this,” he performed a circular gesture, “hatred you have for me dissolves.”
And I’d like to evade the authorities on the off chance that they come after me in the boyfriend’s absence. Reynolds had a bloodthirsty look in his eyes.
The details really aren’t important, darling.
“I don’t hate you, it’s just—”
“Maybe not. At the very least, you’re wary of me. It’s like a toxicant in the air, polluting our potential. Come with me. Meet my family. I pray it’ll give you a new perspective.”
She gazed out the metal blind imprisoned window. It was perhaps the longest moment of Dayton’s life. On his knees, at her mercy.
“When do we leave?”
She wasn’t sure what had possessed her to surrender to Dayton’s ridiculous request but there was no denying the reality as she packed her bag the following week.
She had said yes.
It took everything within Kenna to keep her dark and dreadful thoughts at bay. Paranoia-drenched fears that were better off forgotten. But paranoia was a persistent beast, one which gnawed on its victim’s every nerve ending until they succumbed to whatever visions it had conjured.
Her nerves were raw. She accepted the visions. Her fears took the stage and she was the lone audience member.
Gripping a sweater in her hands, her mind whisked her away from her bedroom and into Dayton’s sports car. He drove fast, so fast that the familiar scenery of the tree lined road was difficult to distinguish through the passenger window. Even at breakneck speed, she knew they hadn’t left Branch Spring. Had they been heading for Eugene, they would’ve been on the interstate.
Miles and miles ago.
The car slowed, engine purring, as he pulled over into a bank of grass. Her heart hammered in her chest as he stared out the windshield before languidly fixing his gaze on her.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way, lamb.”
Kenna shut her eyes with such force, they stung, but the discomfort didn’t phase her as the horrific fantasy disbanded. It was something she’d feared at the beginning of the year that had carried little weight until Dayton had crushed his hand to her throat. His killing her.
As she filled her duffel bag, she grew more and more convinced that the trip was a thinly veiled cover to get her alone. She had too much damning information on him and she’d tried to make use out of some of it during her fruitless visit to the police station. And though Kenna had not yet nailed the scope of it, he was dangerous.
She understood that, when she climbed into his car the next morning, willing and alive, there was no guarantee she’d exit in the same condition.
Bile scaled her throat. She thought of her sisters.
So much time had passed since she’d heard any of their voices over the phone but she could easily imagine the sound of their broken cries over the news of her death.
How long before the news reached them in a house without television, with computers mandated as use for homework only, and radio stations too zeroed in on intrastate dealings to be concerned with whatever was going on in the rest of the country?