Adam’s typically perfectly styled hair was in haphazard disarray, and his button-down shirt was rumpled. “Finally.”
He spoke as if I were late to a date we’d planned. I couldn’t find words to respond as my heart hammered harder against my ribs.
Adam snapped his fingers. “Are you awake?”
“You mean have the drugs you stabbed me with worn off?” It was dumb to talk back to him, I knew as much, but I couldn’t stop myself. Maybe it was the past few weeks with Nash or my time with Grae, Wren, and Aspen. They’d reminded me of who I was: someone who didn’t let people walk all over her. Not anymore.
Adam waved me off as if it were nothing. “We were in a hurry, and I didn’t want you to make a scene.”
I gaped at him.Is he for real?
He tapped on his phone and turned the screen around to face me. “How else can we get out of here?”
I blinked back at him, confused.
Adam gripped the phone harder, shaking it in my face. “How. Do. We. Get. Out. Of. Here?”
“Out of where?”
He let a stream of curses fly. “I should’ve known better than to choose a moron for a wife.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from snapping back.
“Whoever the hell you were on the phone with called the damned police. They’ve got checkpoints on the two main roads in and out of Cedar Ridge. Tell me a back way.”
A tiny bit of relief swept through me. Of course, Grae had gotten the police involved. And Lawson and Nash wouldn’t take any chances. Not with me.
“There are only two roads in and out of Cedar Ridge.” I tried to keep my voice calm as my gaze swept around us. I didn’t recognize exactly where we were, but I knew we hadn’t made it past the town limits. It looked like a forest service access road, but there were a million around here, and I had no idea which one this was. Even if I could get away and break the zip ties, I wouldn’t have the first idea which direction to head in.
Adam cursed again, this time punctuating it with a swift kick to the tire. “You just had to live in the middle of goddamned nowhere, didn’t you? I won’t let these moron hick pigs get the best of me.”
He moved so fast I barely had time to register it before he’d grabbed me by the shirt and hauled me out of the SUV. “You will tell me a way out of here.”
He shook me with each word, spittle flying and hitting my cheeks. “Answer me!”
Blood roared in my ears. “There’s no other way.” The words were barely audible. I hated how soft they were, how my voice quavered.
Adam slammed me against the SUV. My head snapped back, colliding with the window. The world around me tunneled, and my legs trembled.
“Don’t you pass out on me,” he snapped.
“My head,” I croaked. “It’s still hurt.”
He knew about my injuries because there was no doubt in my mind that he’d been the one to inflict them outside Dockside.
Adam’s hold on me instantly gentled. “Shit, baby. I’m sorry. I’m just stressed.”
My stomach twisted, nausea sweeping through me at the familiar personality shift. He could be the one who inflicted the pain, but he also wanted to be the one to soothe it.
“Did they check you for a concussion?” he probed.
I blinked back at him. I’d play up the weakness if it would help me. If I could get his keys somehow, I could make it out of here, press the roadside assistance button, and ask for help. I cast my eyes downward. “Yes, the doctor said I had a concussion.”
Adam let out a growl. “No one hurts you.”
My gaze snapped to him, confusion swirling there. “It was you.”
He lashed out, pinning me to the car, his hand at my throat. “You think I lurk in the dark and attack women?”
