Page 63 of Traitor

I let my head fall back against the headrest and allow my eyes to shut for a moment. “Thank you, Alice. I really appreciate it.”

“Don’t think anything of it,” she says.

Ford, please be there.

We hit a huge bump and my stomach jolts. My eyes shoot open and I realize she’d taken the fork that leads away from the lodge. “Alice, you’re going the wrong way. The right fork goes to the lodge.”

She doesn’t answer, and I sit straight up in my seat and for a second, I’m back in the basement, stuck in a confined space with the man who killed my parents…except this time there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

“Alice? Did you hear me? You’re going the wrong way.” I try to modulate my response, but it comes out shaky.

She turns off onto a side road—in the opposite direction of the lodge. My legs flex in anticipation to run, but there’s nowhere to go. Breath heaves out of me like I’ve finished a marathon.

“Alice?”

“Stop talking,” she bites out. “Christ, you’ve got the biggest mouth this side of the Mason-Dixon. I thought keeping you close—where I could keep an eye on you—would be smart, but Lord if you aren’t a pest.”

My mouth goes dry and my mind goes blank. “What are you saying?”

She snorts. “You know for someone who thinks they know everything, you’re as dumb as a rock. Jim didn’t kill Lola, you idiot. I did.”

I don’t have a moment to fight back because as soon as I look over, she strikes out and my head explodes with darkness.