Chapter Seventeen

We’ve been driving for nearly two hours now in complete silence. No radio, no nothing. We have crossed the Alabama state line and are headed west toward Mississippi. Trent said we have a long way to go. That could mean our destination is anywhere from Mississippi to California. I really don’t know. All I know right now is I have a crook in my neck, my legs are killing me, I have to pee, and I am starving, but I refuse to ask this man for a damn thing.

It’s obvious we were able to lose those two cops back at the gas station. I sure as hell feel sorry for them both right now as I know my brother has gone ballistic on them for losing me. My mind is churning with worry thinking about my dad, and Melody, and all of our friends. My father will come unglued at this news. My heart feels heavy and it suddenly feels too hot. I can hardly breathe, thinking of the pain my family is going through. Zack is a detective, for God’s sake. He’s going to think this is all his fault.

I close my eyes, imagining the look of sheer terror written across his face as he enters my house and sees everything all over the place. He loves me too much to try and pursue this case in a professional manner; it’s personal now, and I feel sorry for anyone who tries to get in his way.

I flinch when I suddenly feel Trent’s strong grip on my wrist.

              “Are you all right over there? Jesus Christ, what are you mumbling under your breath about?”

Did I say all of that out loud? I yank my wrist out of his grip and turn my head away from him. I will not talk unless I absolutely have to.

              “Don’t act like a bitch, my love. Like I said, we have a few days and nights together, so when I ask you a question, you’d better fucking answer me. Now what the hell are you carrying on about over there?”

Shifting my body in my seat, I scrutinize his every feature, every move he makes as he drives. Even though you really can’t tell them apart on the outside, there are so many differences between these two.

Oh, he did a mighty fine job disguising himself as Turner. For those few days until my brother discovered the truth, he had me fooled. Who knows how long I would have continued thinking Turner was cheating on me if my brother hadn’t followed up on his gut instinct about this fucker’s strange behavior?

That is what makes me feel guiltiest of all . . . that Zack sensed it and I didn’t. How could I have been so blind? I knew the minute he touched me there was something different about my ‘husband,’ but I was too caught up in my arousal to think about it, turned on by the roughness of the way he took me.

I’m mortified and disgusted that I let my libido overrule my common sense. Even though it would have been nearly impossible to prove without the physical evidence of the fingerprints my brother ran, I still feel as if I somehow should have known as soon as I met him at the airport that this man was not my husband.

Trent senses my gaze on him and turns to smirk at me. Self-righteous bastard.

“I don’t even have to ask if you like what you see when you look at me, Clove. I already know you do. I look just like him, don’t I? Or should I say, he looks just like me, since I am actually five minutes older.”

“Wipe that stupid grin off your face. You may look exactly like him, but you are nothing like him at all! You’re nothing more than a sick, fucked up animal. You take advantage of people, and you use people, and you hurt people for no good reason. You make me fucking sick.”

I pause to take a deep breath as this . . . this man gets under my skin.

“Ah, Clove. You are such a dramatic, uppity bitch with a mouth that I happen to like. If the circumstances were different I would be fucking that sassy ass mouth as much as I possibly could. As a matter of fact, I seem to recall you loving it when you took my cock in your mouth and I fucked your sweet pussy until you came all over me. Didn’t think I was sick and fucked up then, now did you?”

He looks at me out of the corner of his eye with a sly smile.

“You can sit there and pretend all you want, Clove, but you knew it was me doing all of those delicious things to your body and not my brother, and you loved it anyway. You and I both know it. You have my scent all over you, baby doll. I marked you, and that will be something you will never be able to forget.”

At that, he starts to laugh malevolently like the crazy motherfucker he is. I reach across and slap him as hard as I can. The truck swerves slightly but he gets it back under control at once. He growls and lunges for me with his free arm. I have nowhere to go when he grabs my arm and twists it until I scream in pain.

“You’re fucking crazy, woman! You must have a death wish or something you foolish slut.”

He twists even harder and I swear I hear something snap in my upper arm as my eyes well up in tears. I am speechless as he jerks me toward him and the seatbelt digs into my skin, causing it to burn across my chest.

              “Let me tell you something, Clove. You will die when I say you will die, and not one second before. Now just for that stupid as fuck move you just made, I am done making threats. You are going to pay dearly for that. It’s time you learn who is in control here, babe, and it sure as fuck ain’t you. I am done having you test my patience and even more done with you thinking you can hit me. No one hits me. And I mean ever.”

He shoves me away and my first instinct is to reach up and rub my arm. God it hurts, but I refuse to let the unwanted tears fall and for him to see both the physical and emotional pain he is inflicting on me. He is so much different from his brother in every way possible.

For one thing, no matter how mad Turner has ever gotten, he has never laid a finger on me and he never would. Turner would never call me names, either. Sure, we fight just like any other couple does, and our life is far from perfect, but it’s ours and I want it back.

The possibility that I never will, has me wanting to land on death’s doorstep as soon as I possibly can. I am not going to stop pushing Trent. I am going to push him until he snaps, and I know he will. I may be shortening my own life, but I don’t give a shit.

“You don’t scare me, you know?”

He raises an eyebrow at me.

              “You need me for something, something you couldn’t find at my house. You’re shit out of luck there, Trent. You can’t inflict any more pain on me than what you already have, so you can fuck off if you think I am going to help you get your hands on any of that money.”

He doesn’t say a word. Instead, he picks up the speed on the truck and pulls off onto the nearest exit. My heart starts to race. I am afraid that I have pushed him past his limit with my words. He comes to a stop, and after looking both ways, he turns right and then makes a quick left into a carpool parking area. There are several cars parked but I see no one around as he pulls into the rear of the lot and slams the truck into park.

His whole demeanor changes as he reaches over and snaps open the glove box. When I see the long, shiny blade of a knife, I start to shake. He pulls it out and flicks the glove box closed, and without speaking opens his door and walks around the back of the truck. I jump in my seat as I see him heading toward my door.

Fuck, what is he going to do? I can see the expressway from here but it’s too far away for anyone to see what is going on in the parking lot. Behind us stretches a deep patch of woods. Shit. Shit. Shit!

I try to stay calm as he swings open my door and then reaches across and unhooks my seat belt. He still hasn’t said a word, which scares me even more. He stands there for several drawn out moments breathing way too heavily for my liking.