The Best Victim (Kindle Serial) by Colleen Thompson Read Free Book Online Page B

not Durant, since the way she figured it, he deserved worse than a little stink. She put her window down a couple inches.
    Durant was quick to follow suit, creating a cold cross-breeze that did a lot for the air quality. “Do we need to pull over? Because I am not going to be a happy man if she loses it in my car.”
    “I think she’s okay.” Lauren waited a beat before laying her hand over her own stomach. “But I’m not so sure about me. I knew that greasy junk you picked out was a bad idea.”
    “It’s not like there were a lot of better choices. Besides, you’re the one who decided to feed most of your lunch to that overstuffed sausage.”
    “Poor Dumpling,” she said, feeling guilty for intentionally upsetting her dog’s digestive system. Though her own stomach felt fine, Lauren squirmed uncomfortably and tensed, groaning as she cupped her hands over her waist.
    Durant glanced at her, concern in his brown eyes. “We’re about ten minutes out from Char-Lee’s on 35—the one that advertises such great restrooms—and I’m sure they’ll have all kinds of stomach medication, too. Think you can hold out that long?”
    Having made this trip to visit Rachel, she would have put it at more like twenty minutes. Feigning a distressed look, she asked, “Do I have another choice?”
    He shrugged. “Maybe we’ll come up on another fast food place or a gas station. Or if it’s a dire emergency, there’s always the side of the—”
    At her look of horror, he shut up.
    “I’ll hold out,” she said. “But please don’t dawdle.”
    They were quiet as he kept on driving, Lauren bending her knees and bracing them against her door. She thought about adding another groan or two, as well, but decided to go for pained stoicism instead.
    Since she hadn’t tried to duck out of the Burger Palace, she was counting on having earned his trust well enough that he’d never suspect her plan to ditch him at the always-crowded travel plaza. As frightening as she found the thought of going to a stranger, perhaps one of the employees, and asking to use a phone to call Detective Jimenez, she was more worried about allowing Brent Durant to continue to control her—feeding her only the information that would allow him to manipulate her to his end…
    Including his shocking plan to transform her into the Troll King’s wet dream. She hugged herself and shivered, sickened at the thought of attempting to remake herself in Rachel’s image. And even more terrified to imagine herself in front of a battery of cameras.
    Yet as disturbing as the thought was, Durant had by now, at least, become something of a known quantity, a man grappling with a grief too huge for him to contain. She sneaked a look his way, seeing the creases in his forehead, the tight grip on the wheel, the hard set of his square jaw. Seeing absolute obsession, clothed in well-toned flesh. As noble as it might be, chasing down some mysterious tormentor he blamed for his wife’s death, she reminded herself his dark fixation was no less dangerous to both of them.
    And not one iota less insane.
    Still, somehow, the fear of walking into the crowded travel plaza and spilling her story before total strangers darted beneath her skin like tiny electric minnows. She told herself the fear was baseless, that she’d be far safer among so many witnesses, but the nearly pathological social anxiety she’d always grappled with only tightened its grip.
    Not for the first time, she wished she’d inherited a fraction of Rachel’s trust in her fellow humans. But the thought of where such trust had gotten her far sweeter sister made Lauren’s breath hitch and her eyes burn anew.
    “You’re looking pretty pale.” Brent sounded genuinely worried. “If this is something serious, maybe I should try to find a clinic.”
    “It’s fine,” she said. “Or it’ll be fine, anyway. As soon as I take something for my stomach.”
    “Getting there as fast as I can,” he assured her,