03

« If you want the car I’ll pull over and get out. I haven’t seen you yet, » she said as she drove, her eyes on the road. « You can have the car. »

« I need a car, but I also need a hostage. » He dropped the gun and held it in his lap. « And you have seen me. » he added, his voice suddenly sounding very tired.

« I’m your hostage ! You’re kidnapping me ? » she burst out before she could stop herself. « Hijacking me wasn’t enough you have to add kidnapping to the list ? » She fought the urge to turn and look at him. She still hadn’t seen his face or anything distinguishing about him. She didn’t want to see him and she prayed he would realize that he didn’t need or want her. As long as she didn’t look at him he might let her go.

« No questions, keep driving. »

She did as he demanded and stayed on the road. Now that some of her wits and faculties had returned she noticed that they were heading north. If they kept going in this direction they would head straight out of town. She wondered if that was what he wanted her to do and was about to ask when she remembered his no questions rule and kept quiet. He hadn’t told her to change course yet.

When he didn’t say anything for almost five minutes her curiosity got the better of her and she glanced over at him. She didn’t stare or even really look that closely, but she looked at him. When he didn’t react to her looking at him she stopped being so covert.

She sneaked a few more glances at him as he stared out of the windshield, contemplating something. The gun was still on his lap, but at least his finger wasn’t on the trigger.

He was younger than she’d assumed, late twenties if she had to guess, and nice looking. He was handsome yes, but he also looked like a nice guy. He looked like an everyman, and despite the fact that he’d just kidnapped her and he still held a gun in his hand, he just had this nice guy aura around him.

He was wearing jeans, a white shirt layered with a black button up shirt and a worn and comfortable looking black coat. His hair was dark brown and worn long and a little shaggy, but it didn’t look messy or unkempt. She thought that his eyes were blue, but she couldn’t be sure since he wasn’t looking at her. He was very handsome, there was no questioning that, but she noticed the dark circles under his eyes, the pallor of his skin and the tight and drawn expression on his face.

He didn’t look like some hardened criminal. He looked like a normal guy.

When she thought of a criminal she always thought of the typical generic police sketch, but this guy didn’t look like that at all. He looked like someone she’d see at a coffee shop, not a criminal.

« Where am I driving too ? » she asked, finally breaking the nearly deafening silence. They were coming to the county line and she couldn’t just sit there quietly anymore, not even with his no questions rule.

« What ? » he asked as he looked over at her, almost as though he’d forgotten that she was there.

Now that she could see his eyes she was startled to see that they were the most incredibly bright shade of indigo blue. She’d never seen eyes that color before, and for a moment she got lost in them.

« We’re almost at the county line, soon we’ll be in cattle country. » She shook her head and forced herself to stop looking into his amazing eyes. He was her kidnapper, not someone she’d met speed dating.

« Can you get to the highway from here ? » he asked as he looked around, almost as though he was trying to orientate himself.

« Which direction ? »

« What ? » He glanced over at her with a questioning look, he seemed really distracted by something.

« Which direction are we going, » she repeated. « Which highway ? »

« Northwest, we have to go northwest, » he said as he rubbed his eyes.

« Okay. » She turned off the street and headed towards the highway, it wasn’t too far off and she could get there pretty easily.

Her mind was reeling. She was being kidnapped and forced to drive her brother’s car by a half-crazed yet distracted man with a gun. She had no idea where they were going, how far it was or why they were going there. She couldn’t think right now, she could only drive and concentrate on not angering the man with the gun. To her that seemed like the most sensible and safest course of action.

It took less than twenty minutes for her to get them on the northern highway. As she did she realized that she was driving farther and farther away from her home, now at a much faster speed than before.

« Where am I going ? » she asked after another long stretch of silence.

« What ? » he asked as he looked over at her, he’d been staring out of the window again.

« Where am I going, where are we driving too ? »

« What does that matter ? »

« Unless you want to drive, or at least pay attention then you’ll have to tell me where we’re going so I can get us there. I can’t follow the signs if you don’t tell me where I’m driving to. You’ll have to watch them and tell me exactly when or where to go. »

« Midland, » he said finally.

« Midland ! That’s at least four hundred miles away, maybe more. » She just stared at him with wide eyes before turning back to look at the road. She was driving after all, it would probably be a good idea to look where she was going.

« That’s where I have to go. Can you get us there ? »

« I don’t know the way. I’ve never been there…. What is there ? »

As far as she knew Midland was a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. It was sparsely populated and, if she remembered correctly, it wasn’t so much a town as it was a collection of poor farms and hunting cabins. She couldn’t for the life of her think of a single reason to go to Midland.

« Nothing you have to worry about, » he snapped as he looked around the car distractedly. « Do you have GPS ? »

« No. »

« On your phone ? » he asked as he looked at her.

« Good luck finding a signal out here. » She snorted. « And I don’t have data on my phone. »

« Who doesn’t have data ? » He just stared at her.

« I don’t, » she shot back. « What about your phone ? »

« I don’t have one. »

« Who doesn’t have a phone ? »

« I don’t, not anymore at least. »

« Now what ? »