Rubi drew in a deep, slow breath. Held it a second. And jumped. “Missouri. ”
Twenty
“Who’s fucking idea was this?”
Rubi had the air-conditioning on, because the thickness of the Missouri air seemed to make breathing more difficult. And everything smelled…damp. She was exhausted. The nights without sleep, the stress, the long work hours—it was all catching up to her. Great timing, seeing as she was on a two-lane country road in the middle of Nowhere, Missouri, alone, with no one to tell her where to go but the mysterious female GPS voice. But that was her own fault—she’d sworn Lexi to secrecy. Rubi wasn’t ready to call Wes and tell him she was here. Wasn’t even ready to admit she was here. Right about halfway through the flight, she’d developed this thick knot of dread in her belly.
That was also about the time a little voice in her head said, Turn back.
What the hell do you think you’re doing?
This isn’t you.
You don’t belong here.
More and more trees flew by, lining the grassy roadside. Rubi had never seen so many trees in her life. In all her combined years. Once she’d turned off the main interstate, she’d seen nothing but trees and trees and more trees. Occasionally, a break in the trees revealed a field. Then another. Then back to the trees. And while her headlights hinted toward their changing fall colors, it was too dark to appreciate. There were as many trees here as there were people in Los Angeles. Occasionally, another car would pass in the other direction, but otherwise, no traffic. And the longer she drove, coming up on an hour now, the tighter her stomach pinched and the louder the voice grew.
“What the hell am I doing?” she muttered to herself, forehead resting in her hand.
“In five hundred feet,” the GPS voice said, scaring Rubi’s heart into her throat, “turn right. ”
A sliver of relief eased her belly. She turned at the next street and continued along the narrow, two-lane road. But she was now moving at a slight upward grade. The GPS took her through another half dozen series of turns and deeper into the trees.
“Your destination is one hundred feet on your right,” Ms. GPS said.
“What?” Rubi asked, as if she’d get an answer from the machine. There was nothing out here.
“You’ve arrived at your destination. ”
Rubi checked her mirrors and stopped on the deserted road. On her right, a gravel road extended through the trees and into nothing. “What the hell?”
She pressed her head to her hand, feeling so utterly ridiculous, her body temperature rose five degrees. At least no one could see her acting so moronically. If she turned around and headed back to the airport now, she could catch the next flight home, grab a cab to her house, and tell Lexi she’d changed her mind. Decided not to go after all. No one would be the wiser.
Rubi pulled onto the gravel drive to get off the road and stared down the lonely stretch with swamping disappointment and a wicked streak of failure. Christ, she didn’t even know why she was here anymore. She was so tired. Maybe she’d get a hotel back in St. Louis. Drink her dinner. And fall into bed.
On a groan of torment, she laid her head against the steering wheel and closed her eyes.
Three knocks on her window jerked her head up. Disoriented, terrorized, Rubi leaned away from the window, gripping the steering wheel with bloodless fingers. An old woman stared in at her, a perplexed look on her face.
Rubi’s heart was still skittering around her chest when the woman asked, “Are you all right, sweetheart?”
A dream? A hallucination? Had she fallen asleep?
“Honey?”
The woman’s concerned tone refocused Rubi. She darted glances through the windshield, the passenger’s window, the rearview mirror.
Trees. Missouri.
Damn.
She must have fallen asleep. But a glance at the dashboard clock said it couldn’t have been for long.
Rubi’s fingers shook when she pressed the window control and rolled the glass down halfway. The thick, cool air swept into the car, dragging every scent of vegetation and earth in as well.
“I’m okay,” Rubi said. “Sorry. I’m kind of…um…lost. ”
She was pretty for an old woman, her hair a silvery blonde, her eyes smoky blue, great bone structure…