This would be even easier because I didn’t care about Hunter. It would be nothing at all to hurt him and get away. So as we bounced in an uneasy rhythm along some unseen highway, I tried to gather some strength into my tired limbs, some awareness into my dark-dampened mind.

When he opened the back of the truck, I staggered out. It was so bright. So…much. Even the air on my skin felt overwhelming. Only a small amount of time kept away from it had weakened me. I scanned the treeline, looking for an escape route. His hand clamped onto my shoulder.

“Not so fast, sunshine. You stay with me.”

True to his word, he led me into the bushes. We stopped at a patch of grass, and I understood this was where I should do my business.

I raised my eyebrows at him in a tacit plea for privacy.

His face was implacable. No.

Miserable, humiliated, I squatted down and sent a warm stream of liquid into the earth. He handed me a wipe from his pocket. After cleaning myself, I clutched it awkwardly.

“You can leave it on the ground. Those are biodegradable.”

Oh great, an eco-conscious kidnapper. I tossed the wipe against the base of a tree and then realized his hand had left my shoulder at some point. We weren’t touching at all, and suddenly, the air between seemed like a question—will you run? I stood still, indecisive. I knew I wouldn’t get away like this. I could never run fast enough or fight him off. It was a question of obedience.

“You surprised me yesterday, being such a good girl,” he said, grabbing my wrist. “Don’t stop now.”

For a minute, I was distracted from his words. Yesterday? It seemed like only hours had passed. I was losing time here. That was somehow scarier than anything he had done to me. I had lost enough time trapped in my mother’s house. I couldn’t afford to give away any more. I hoped he wouldn’t drug me again. It occurred to me that he might not, if he thought I wouldn’t run. That was when I registered what he had said about being pleased with me. And he hadn’t led me to the back of the truck, but to the cab.

I stumbled out of the leaves-strewn ground, allowing myself to be tugged toward the road. Suddenly he stopped, and I ran right into his side. He yanked at my wrist, pulling me behind him.

Startled, I peeked around him to see a large cat with black and orange stripes.

A very large cat.

“Is that…?”

“A tiger. Yeah.”

Though the size was abnormal for a regular housecat, it was the eyes that were different. Both more beautiful and colder. Crueler. A predator who was considering her attack. On the one hand, it seemed silly to worry over an animal physically smaller than us. On the other hand, I felt her ferocity in her stare, her stance, and I had no doubt she could cause either one of us considerable damage if she wanted to attack.

She hadn’t moved a single paw since we’d arrived in her clearing. Only her whiskers twitched, gathering data from the wind.

I whispered. “Should we—”

“We’re just going to walk real slow around her. She won’t attack unless she feels threatened.”

“Right, but—”

“Just move. Nice and easy.”

We shuffled around her. In a shocking act of chivalry, Hunter was careful to always stay between the cat and my body.

When we’d made it to the other side, I quickened my step and snapped a twig. The cat’s ears flicked. She lowered her head.

“Easy,” he said sharply. Then softer, “Go easy. Nice and slow all the way back.”

We shuffled in a sort of dance back into the rest stop where the truck was parked, continuing to move slowly and keep facing the woods until we reached the cab.

He opened the passenger door, and instead of waiting for me to climb in the tall steps, practically threw me inside. He circled the truck and got in.

“Shit,” he said.

I swallowed. “She was gorgeous.”

“Yeah. Good thing I didn’t have to kill her.”

My face scrunched up. “Could you have? I mean, if she had attacked?”

“A tiger’s pretty vicious when they want to be, even a little undergrown thing like that one. But a gun is better.”

I gasped, eyeing him up and down. “Where?”

“My boot. Don’t leave home without it.”

“So wait. Why didn’t you get it out then? We could have died.”

“Nah, probably not. She’d have launched herself, I’d have blocked, and she’d have caught my arm. It would’ve got torn up pretty bad, but that’s it. She was too malnourished to do much. That’s why she’s so close to a rest stop. Must be near to starving to chance it.”

I tried to calm myself though inside I felt shivery, bordering on hysterical. “Okay. Here’s a question. Why was there a tiger in the woods? In Texas.”

“There’s more tigers in Texas than in India. The old travelling circuses let them loose when they disbanded, and since then they’ve maintained a steady population.” He reached back and rustled in some bags behind the seats. “Most people think they’re large cats. I’ve seen them before but never that close.”

He tossed big slabs of jerky packaged in shrink wrap onto my lap.

“Open those up.”

Without a word, I tugged at the little slit in the corner and pulled out the savory meat.

He drove up to where we’d reenter the freeway but rolled a little ways onto the grass. He hit the button and rolled down the window.

“Throw it out there. Far as you can.”

I stared at him for a minute, but he just waited. Sighing, I turned and tossed one of the pieces of meat onto the grass.

His exhalation was derisive. “That as far as you can get it?”

I scowled at him, then reached back and threw the next piece. It landed a few feet farther. I unlatched the seatbelt so I could turn my whole body. The rest of the pieces landed only a few feet from the treeline.

The meat rested there, small pockets of brown amid the grass.

I glanced back. “Will she find it?”

He chuckled. “Oh, she’ll find it. She’s just wishing we’d get the hell out of here.”

With that, he gunned the engine and we sped back onto the freeway. He used his radio to tell someone about the tiger and they messaged him back something about a wildlife rescue organization going out to set a trap.

Only as the minutes ticked away did the events fall in order for me. The way he’d protected me, yes. Even more interesting, the way he’d protected the tiger. He could have shot her and been done with her. Instead he’d risked his own life for hers, he’d fed her, he’d sent help for her.

And maybe most shocking of all: I was riding up front.

He glanced over, seeming to follow my train of thought. “Cat got your tongue?”

“Are you going to make me go back there?”

After a moment, he shook his head. “Good girls get to ride up front.”

The words were humiliating but stirred something inside me. I was beginning to recognize that tension as lust. Dirty, wrong, but undeniable. It was spacious in here. The seats were a soft black leather. Like the waitress had said, very comfortable.

I huddled against the door, staring straight ahead. My exhilaration from the encounter with the tiger morphed into excitement. I was in the truck! Inside the truck. I didn’t want to mess this up. And maybe I would have been excited even without the kidnapping. This was like an adventure. A slightly perverted adventure of questionable consent, but beggars like me couldn’t be choosers.

As the truck rumbled forward, I noticed the swaying of a necklace roped around the rearview mirror. No. I looked closer and realized it was a rosary. Pale cream beads and a silver cross. I wondered if it had belonged to someone he loved, like maybe his mother. It humanized him a little bit. There must have been someone he loved, before he had turned into this, a man who had to force women into staying with him.

We drove for several minutes in silence. I stared out the window, watching the farmland rush by. The sky was a brilliant green-blue like I imagined the sea would look, though I had never been. I blinked up at the clouds that seemed to hang above us, even as we sped eighty miles per hour down the highway, even as the clouds themselves must be floating along in a different direction.