Page 130 of South of Nowhere

As if he hadn’t heard a word. “You went a little crazy in the head. That’s all. Let’s get all this stuff packed up. We’ll take the spa off the table, why don’t we?”

He’d work on her weight himself back in Reno.

And for now, he’d reward her: “We can stop at Denny’s on the way.”

“John. Listen to you! I just want to be left alone.”

“Ah, you don’t really mean that. You’re just upset. Writer’s block, maybe.”

Her shoulders slumped, but her eyes blazed. “You’re troubled! There’s something wrong with you.”

Ooo. That wasn’t good. He bristled.

She continued, “Don’t you think that if I went to all this trouble, hiding from you? That’s a message!”

“A message,” he mocked. “Message…I think it’s a message that maybe you’re the one who isn’t quite right.”

“I’ve had it. No more.”

“There are ten million women in this world who’d give their eyeteeth to be loved the way I love you.” He moved closer. “You must be cold. Denny’s. Hot cocoa.” She’d ordered it once at another chain restaurant, where they had a Saturday lunch. She had seemed unhappy—among the first indications that she was confused about her love for him. She hardly said a word for the entire hour he’d made her sit at the booth. But he remembered she liked the cocoa.

He took a look over her things. There was a lot to carry. But he didn’t want to leave anything behind.

“You’re not going to hurt me again, are you? You’re always hurting me.”

He felt indignant. “That only happens for a reason. I don’t do it because I enjoy hurting you. But there are times…”

Times she disobeyed, times she looked at other men, times she didn’t reply “I love you too” fast enough.

“John, you’re a good-looking man. You have a fine job. Find somebody else.”

“I don’t want anybody else. We’ve been through this a million times. It’s you I love.”

“You don’t love me. I know you’ve been sleeping with Sophie in your accounting department.”

He laughed triumphantly. “See, youarejealous! Youdolove me. And Soph? That’s nothing. Physical gratification. It’s just what I saw you doing by yourself in the shower.”

She gasped.

He’d drilled a hole into the bathroom wall.

“All right, pack up. Let’s get out of here. We’ll hit that Denny’s. Cocoa and burgers. There’s one with a motel nearby I passed on the way here. We’ll have some food. You could use a shower.”

Then disaster struck.

“Fiona!” a man called from the tunnel entrance. “It’s me, Colter.”

A flashlight beam swept the floor.

Millwood turned to Fiona, making a fist with his right hand and touching a finger to his lips with his left.

She looked horrified but nodded.

Shaw continued, “John’s SUV’s parked on the highway. He’s somewhere near—”

As he stepped into the space, Millwood turned the flashlight of his phone on and shone it into Shaw’s face. The man blinked and froze. He quickly switched the flashlight to his left hand. And started to draw a gun.

But Millwood lunged forward and slammed into Shaw, who stumbled to the ground, dropping the pistol. Millwood grabbed it.

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