Page 48 of Truck Stop Tempest

“Little late for divulgence, sweetheart.” I waited for a response, a pathetic apology, crocodile tears, hell, even a cringe or a lip quiver. Got nothin’.

“You’re a White Supremacist?”

“No. I told you. I left the church.”

“Jeremy Carver is your father?”

“Yes,” she answered, staring at the floor.

“You sure?”

“Yes. Why?”

“There isn’t a single lick of evidence stating that he’s related to you in any way.”

Her gaze lifted to mine, confused and wary. “I don’t understand.”

Liar.

“You don’t use his last name. Why?”

“My mother always said it was to protect us from my father’s enemies.”

Convenient.

“When you told me about your father’s church, why didn’t you mention it was The Christian Brotherhood of Faith?”

“That’s not exactly information I’m proud to share.” She reached down and picked at her toenail. “And I was afraid to tell you.”

As she should’ve been.

“Why did you come to work at The Stop?”

She shivered and tightened her arms around her shins. “I had to get away. From my father, the church, Erik. I begged my brother to help me. I’d thought it would be hard, that I would have to bribe him, but he’d told me I could stay at his trailer. He even promised to help get Erik off my back. All I had to do was get a job at The Stop and find out everything I could about the big blonde guy and the crazy pregnant chick who hung out there all the time.”

Aida and Tucker.

“Did he tell you why you were supposed to keep an eye on them?”

“I asked. He said it wasn’t my concern and that he’d let me know when the time was right.”

“Were you aware that he’d threatened to kill both Tucker and Aida?”

Tuuli blanched. “No.”

“Do you know why Jonas was arrested?”

Her eyes snapped to mine. “No.”

“You know nothing about the videos? The young girls?”

“Girls?” Her face crumpled, tears welling. “Oh, God. No.”

If she was bullshitting me, the girl was good. Her whole body trembled.

“You lived in that shithole with him for how long, and you want me to believe you didn’t have a clue what he was up to?” I closed my laptop and set it aside, giving her my full attention.

“He was never around. After a couple weeks, he stopped checking in with me. One day, he said he had business in Seattle and he’d be gone for a few days, but he never came back. I waited for a week. I thought maybe he forgot about our deal. I was going to look for another job, catch a bus out of town, maybe, but then that man attacked Aida. After that, I got a raise. A good raise, and I liked everyone at the diner so much, and you were there, and…”

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