Page 49 of Master of Lies

She couldn’t wait to hear him squeal.

CHAPTER19

Freya

The route Jed was taking was impossible to follow. No rhyme or reason to it. He’d stopped the car as soon as they’d put some miles behind them, and insisted on doing some first-aid, cleaning and disinfecting the wound on my head and the scrapes on my hands. Stared into my eyes with anxious intensity to check for a concussion. Groped under my shirt to check out my shoulder, which wasn’t broken or torn or dislocated, thank God. Just sore.

But after that, he had embarked on the weirdest route I could have imagined. He went offroad, through the snow, then came back up onto another road. He doubled back, he drove up riverbanks and through orchards, he favored the roughest, most abandoned roads that he could find, or so it seemed to me. At one point, we sped alongside a big highway for a few miles, and I tried to figure out which one, just to orient myself. But we plunged onto anonymous back roads again, and I missed my chance.

We didn’t seem to be making any forward progress, but God forbid I question, comment, criticize, or offer suggestions. Whenever I tried it, he bit my head off.

I didn’t blame him. I’d messed him up royally—if he was telling the truth.

More confusion. More uncertainty. He’d saved me from a horrible fate, at great cost to himself. He’d traded his mission for my life. He had saved me from the parking lot guys, from the masked ghoul, from the sniper, from the cliff ledge. He’d tried to ensure my safety, even if he got killed. I didn’t know what to think about him now.

But if this masked guy really was Boer, as Jed insisted, what did that really prove? Only that he was Jed’s antagonist. They hated each other, fine. That in itself meant nothing. Maybe they’d been partners in crime, and they’d had a falling out. Maybe they were both greedy bad actors and one of them had screwed the other one out of some money. I just didn’t know, and I couldn’t trust my own instincts anymore.

They were hopelessly compromised by Jed’s sexual magnetism.

Not that he was vibing any of his hot, sexy energy at me now. On the contrary, he wouldn’t even look at me. Any attempts I made to speak to him were met with a ferocious glare. Which made them quickly peter off into nervous silence.

Some grinding hours into that drive, he pulled a plastic bag out of the center console and tossed it at me without meeting my eyes. “Eat something, if you’re hungry,” he muttered. “There are some water bottles in the backseat.”

The bag proved to be filled with protein bars, nut packets, and various other munchies. But the events of this morning had killed my appetite.

Jed stopped a few times at carefully chosen spots where I could have enough privacy to pee behind a tree, but not so much cover that he couldn’t see to guard me. Then he hustled me back into the Jeep, growling about me being the one who had put us on the run, so don’t whine. As if I were whining. I hadn’t said a goddamn word.

But I was at a loss. My plan to seduce him, stick with him, get him to trust me, and reveal clues about my brother…that was all predicated on a different situation. A different Jed Clearwater. He wasn’t that man. And I certainly wasn’t Sandee.

So now…what were we to each other? What could we possibly be? The situation as it stood right now did not look promising.

The sun was low before I tried again. “Jed,” I said. “I need to know the plan. You have to at least tell me—”

“I don’t need to tell you shit, Freya.”

I sighed. So it had to be like that. “That’s not useful, Jed,” I told him. “Could you just talk to me in a civil tone without pouting?”

“That’s what you think this is? Me, pouting?”

“Yes,” I said. “I know you’re angry. I messed up your plans. I’m more sorry than I can tell you about the phone, and tipping that guy off to where we were. I didn’t know what we were up against. But we have a couple of options here.”

“Yeah? Really. I’m all ears. Illuminate me, Sandee. I mean, Freya.”

I waited until my irritation at his snotty tone faded, choosing my words. “Option one, let me off at the nearest place walking distance from a town where I can buy a bus ticket, or rent a car. And you never have to see me again in your life.”

“Wow, that’s a real winner,” he said. “I can’t wait to hear option two.”

I spoke through gritted teeth. “Option two is, you tell me what the fuck you’re trying to do, and how you’re doing it. And maybe I can help.”

“Ah.” He let out a harsh laugh. “She wants to help. That’s sweet.”

“She does,” I said. “And she doesn’t appreciate your sarcastic tone. If you got over your tantrum, you might realize I have resources of my own to offer.”

“I assume you mean other than what’s between your legs.”

Ouch. Maybe I deserved that, but still. That dickhead. “Fuck you,” I said crisply.

“Oh, but you did. And I’ll never forget it.”

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