Page 114 of Nowhere Good

He didn’t know what to think. This was making him insane.

“Can you come down?” she asked. “I thought… maybe we could go for a drive and talk…”

Good idea. Because even though he could see her, he still sensed something was wrong.

He went outside and locked up anyway, hurrying down the stairs to meet her by his car in the otherwise vacant parking lot, bathed by the flickering motel sign. It was rare for him to feel the outside air on his arms; he was wearing a black T-shirt, but hadn’t bothered to throw on a hoodie. Claire had already seen his track marks anyway. He glanced around the parking lot, past the field on the other side of the road, for any sign she was being watched. There was no one, at least no one he could see.

Claire opened her mouth to speak, but the moment he was close enough to see her, he hugged her. The relief was almost crippling. “I was so worried about you,” he breathed out.

It was nothing like the last time they’d hugged—she didn’t hold him back or bury her nose into his neck, she didn’t press her skin to his like she wanted to get as close to him as possible. She was rigid, a doll in his arms.

Her eyes were teary as he let go. Although it’d only been a few days, she looked thinner in the face, her cheeks sallow. Maybe he was imagining that.

“I’m okay,” she peeped, but her voice sounded hoarse. She refused to look at him, hiding her face in shame. Frustration slipped through his relief.

“So it’s true? You were fine this whole time? It was actually you who sent me that text?”

“Of course it was me… I just got back today… then people told me you had been looking for me… but I told you not to…”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“It hurt too much. I… couldn’t stand to hear your voice.”

“I was terrified. I thought something horrible happened to you. Why are you messing with me?”

Her gaze zapped to his. Her pupils were dilated in the yellowing wall light from the motel. “Please don’t be mad at me.”

“I’m not mad, I’m trying to understand. I thought we had a perfect night together. You told me all those things about your dad, then you disappeared. What was I supposed to think?” Emotional, he took a step toward her, but resisted reaching out to grab her hands. She felt more like a stranger now than she ever had. “Claire, I wanted to be with you. You have to know that.”

“Dillon and I are engaged… I can’t do that anymore.”

“You don’t even like Dillon. What about all that stuff about your mom? About your dad torturing you?”

She swallowed. Averted her eyes. “I made it up.”

“You made it up.”

She trembled like a leaf. He’d dealt with some shit before, but this took the cake.

“Yeah, I don’t buy this.” He stepped closer to her to check her pulse. “What’d they do to you? Your pupils are huge. Are you on something?”

“No, nothing!” She jumped back before he could touch her. “Seriously, it’s not like that. I wasted your time, and I’m sorry, truly, I am. But—but my life has always felt so tiny. I wanted it to be more exciting than it was, then you came to town and… I wanted to be interesting. That’s why I made up that stuff about the cage. And about my parents too. And everything about the drugs. None of it is true.”

He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t want to.

But for days now, his gut had been fighting him on every piece of evidence that Claire was actually fine. He’d told himself he wouldn’t believe she was safe until he saw her himself, and here she was, shaken-up, maybe drunk or something, but alive and seemingly uninjured.

Maybe he had no choice but to believe it now.

“Okay.” He ripped his eyes from her so he wouldn’t tear up, because it did hurt that much. “Why are you here now?”

“I wanted to go for a drive with you one last time. I thought I could show you this spot I used to like; it’s got a great view of the stars.”

“A drive,” he stated flatly. “Why would I wanna do that?”

“I have more to explain. The truth this time, I promise. And…” She fidgeted with her hands. If she had her rope bracelets on, they were hiding beneath the sleeves of her hoodie, so she didn’t touch them like she usually would. “And not everything was a lie. I did… like you.”

He stared at her. She stared back, pleading. Maybe she looked scared. He couldn’t tell anymore. Maybe at this point, speculating anything about Claire Dyer was a waste of time.