She was crying again, but I didn’t care. What did tears mean to me now? The roadkill of emotional expression. I had cried so many myself, with no one there to listen minus the presence of a God I was furious with and a row of pictures displaying my new purpose.

“You’ve been raped, haven’t you?” I asked her, disregarding her pointless sobs.

“What?”

“When I first entered the house, you explained to me the importance of it…the importance of not being anonymous. I told you that I had never felt like that out on the street and you told me you had been raped. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you were telling the truth. And now that I know you were never a whore, I assume these weren’t strangers. You knew these guys?”

“One of them, yes.”

“Well then you know how it feels. You know what it’s like to trust someone and have him violate you in the cruelest way possible.”

“What’s your point?”

“I don’t have one.”

“You’re lying.”

“I learned from the best.”

“No one knew Aiden was going to rape you, ok? That wasn’t my little way of letting you know that it was going to happen. There were no context clues.”

“I see.”

“You can be paranoid about everything if you want, but it’s not going to help you, Spencer. I know you think everything was a lie. And yeah, a lot of it was. But not all of it.”

“Which parts weren’t?”

“I want this rope off…then I’ll tell you.”

“I enjoy the fact that you’re willing to negotiate. I find it amusing—which is nice out here on the open road where things tend to get a little boring. A little monotonous. But no, there are no compromises to be made here. You’re the hostage. You don’t get to bargain.”

“Fine, then I’m not talking anymore.”

It wasn’t easy, but I managed to pull out the Stiletto knife that was warming my pocket and have its sharp point at her neck in a matter of seconds. My left hand remained on the cold, leather wheel. My eyes on the dark road.

“Let’s try again,” I said, pressuring the point a bit. Enough to make her whine in pain.

“You’re not going to kill me…please say you’re not going to kill me. Not like this.”

“I don’t have to kill you. But there’s nothing in the handbook of how to take a hostage that says I have to deliver you in the shape in which you were taken. That’s something I don’t have to do. That being said, I suggest you speak.”

It took her several moments to compose herself. She tapped the floorboard nervously with her feet, despite the fact that her ankles were bound in an unnecessary amount of white rope.