Page 5 of Luka

I grip the door handle and slyly pull, my eyes seeking out the lock.

“What are you doing?” Piper asks.

I pull up on the lock, prepared to jump out of the car if I have to, but Piper just presses the lock button to relatch it.

“I repeat,what are you doing?”

“I want you to let me out,” I say, my voice sounding weak and afraid.

“Why?”

Why?

I try one last time to rein in my panic, tell myself this is a product of rarely interacting with outsiders. That I should try not to make myself stand out, appear strange, or do anything that would result in her contacting the authorities.

But I fail.

“Because I don’t know where you’re taking me.” I don’t mean to raise my voice, but it’s what happens.

When Piper slows to pull the car over, my panic finally has a chance to calm long enough for shame to take its place. Shame that it’s been a day and a half, and this new world is already getting to me. I left the estate skipping with pent-up excitement, but I should’ve known that freedom comes with the cost of insecurity.

The sound of the locks disengaging prompts me to grasp the door handle, but Piper’s hand on my arm makes me pause.

“Hey, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to freak you out.”

Her voice sounds over the quick breaths that invade my ear, a source of calm within the stormy fear and shame. I pull the handle but then let it fall back into place, my hand still gripping the metal.

“I was on my way to meet my boyfriend when I picked you up. I just need to have a quick conversation with him, then we can get the supplies you need, and I’ll take you back to your truck… Iwantto help you.”

“Why?” I quietly ask.

She sighs. Seconds pass like maybe she doesn’t know the answer.

“When I drove past, I saw your boyfriend sitting like a fucking king in his truck while his girlfriend did the work of standing in the middle of the road to flag down a vehicle, and it just… It pissed me off.”

I stay silent but let go of the door handle.

Her words loosen the muscles in my shoulders, calm the rapid beat of my heart.

It’s just a misunderstanding. She thinks Mario is a bad guy. She doesn’t know I’m the one who insisted I flag down her car alone.

“Secretly, once we’re done here, I’m hoping you’ll let me talk you into coming back to my place where you can clean up and I can get you some real help. I know some people who have workthat might be fitting for someone in your position… But I’ll take you back to your boyfriend if that’s what you want. Let’s just drive, and you can think about it, okay?”

My hand curls around the back of my neck, collecting cold sweat that I wipe onto my dress before nodding. My cheeks flame from the awkwardness at having overreacted.

“Good,” Piper says. She puts the car in drive and pulls back onto the road. Neither of us say anything while we drive higher in elevation, shrubbery growing thicker the farther we go.

When Piper pulls off a main road onto a dirt path, she slows the car to a stop and crooks her thumb at the back seat. “Hop in the back and duck down. My boyfriend won’t like it if there’s anyone with me.”

I blink at her, my brows knitting slightly, but move to the back seat without complaint. She drives us farther down the road for another few minutes before pulling off the path and parking beside a cluster of boulders. We seem to be even more out in the middle of nowhere than when she picked me up, and if she was a man, I’d think for sure she was about to kill me. But maybe that’s exactly what she intends to do. Maybe I shouldn’t assume things.

“Just stay down,” she says, pulling off her sunglasses and plopping them into the cup holder where the ultrasound photos were.

“What happens if he sees me?”

She shrugs. “Probably nothing. I just don’t want him to be mad at me. Luka is a very private guy. If he knew anyone saw us together, he’d be pissed.”

“But isn’t he your boyfriend?”

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