Lies(11)

“Wait a minute,” I say, my brain on fire. “Are you actually saying you researched the average relationship, worked out how often we should be having sex, and then only occasionally bothered to give me an orgasm when it suited your purposes?”

“Not my purposes. Your purposes. I was trying to give you the relationship you wanted. Something safe. Normal.”

“Give me your gun.” I hold out my hand. “I’m going to shoot you.”

“Betty—”

“Give me your gun.”

“I’m not going to let you shoot me. Calm down.”

“I don’t want to calm down.” So. Much. Rage. “Not only was the relationship fake, but you deliberately gave me bad sex! You’re a monster.”

He gives me a side glance. “I was trying to keep things realistic, believable. I was trying to meet what I thought were your expectations.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, expect to be smothered if you ever try to sleep next to me again.” I straighten in the seat, staring out the windshield. “I can’t even…there’s a special level of hell for you, buddy.”

“I gave you what you wanted. You said that’s what you wanted.”

“What?” I felt like my head was about to explode. “When? When did I ever say to you that I would prefer the worst sex possible?”

“Not to me. To Jen. Before our first date. You said to her that you were sick of pining for Prince Charming. That something safe and good and comfortable would do.”

“You were tapping my phone? Listening to my private conversations?”

“I needed to know you weren’t going to be a security risk.”

There are no words. I just glare at him.

“I tried to be a good boyfriend to you. A good fiancé.”

“No, you didn’t. You did the least amount of work possible to keep me pacified. Big difference, Thom. Big. Huge.” I will not cry. I refuse to show weakness. At least I didn’t expect the truth to actually fix anything. Yay me for being less naive. “Thank God.”

“What?”

“Thank God I raised my expectations high enough to realize I deserve better.”

To this, he apparently again has nothing to say. Just as well.

“For so long, I thought it was me. That I wasn’t pretty enough or smart enough or…just enough for you in general.”

“Betty.” His mouth opens, then closes again. “That’s crazy.”

Heart sore, I shake my head. “Just drive.”




We drive north for hours. Thom is basically a machine. Like some killer robot sent from the future to fuck up my love life. Clearly the world would have been doomed if I orgasmed more than once a month, so the fate of humanity depended on this machine coming back and not getting the job done. Asshat.

His gaze is constantly moving between the road, the rearview mirror, me, and cars approaching on the driver’s side. Guess he’s watching to see if we’re being followed. Also he may be slightly concerned I’m going to throw myself out of the moving vehicle in an attempt to get away from him. And I would; I’m angry enough. But it probably wouldn’t end well for me personally. After being thrown about by yesterday’s explosion, I hurt enough without adding further injuries. So instead, I ignore him with all the pent-up rage I have in me and mostly nap.

We drive until refilling the tank necessitates a stop that afternoon somewhere in northern California. It’s a small, desolate, off-the-highway gas station. Junk food, come to me. I haven’t eaten in forever. We did stop about an hour back so I could pee behind a tree, since Thom’s gone well beyond cautious and is sliding straight into outright paranoid territory when it comes to his concerns about people seeing us. Along with keeping up the constant vigilance, he swapped out the SIM card in his cell, crushing the old beneath his boot heel. Apparently his cell also has a program to check for trackers so he’s sure the SUV is safe. And I know he’s packing all sorts of weaponry beneath his clothes.

“Thank God; I’m starving.” I move to open my car door, but before I can, Thom grabs my arm. “What?”

“Please stay in the car. I’ll get you whatever you want.”

“Why? There’s no one else here but you, me, and the woman behind the counter. I highly doubt she’s the least bit interested in us.”

“Because even a dump like this is going to have security cameras that can be hacked and used to find us.”

As much as I’d like to get out and stretch my legs, he’s making sense again. Dammit. So I slump back against the seat. “Fine. Get me one of everything.”

“Will do.”

Thom grabs a baseball cap out of the back of the car and puts it on before stepping out. Head down, he avoids giving anyone or any camera a clear visual of his face. He skulks, yet makes it seem normal somehow. Just a man going about his business, nothing to see here. Inside, he fills up a basket before heading up to the counter to pay the bored-looking middle-aged lady at the register. Even then, he moves with an easy everyday swagger, behaving in as uninteresting a fashion as possible. It’s quite the performance. The slouch in his back reducing his height and the slump of his shoulders declaring him another harmless slacker passing through.

No wonder he had me fooled for so long. This man is a veritable wolf in sheep’s clothing.