And it didn’t matter one bit that she was a girl. Or that he was bigger and probably stronger. She possessed the savage quickness of a feral thing. And she would never hesitate to wound or inflict pain. These things were every bit as obvious as her beauty. He had never felt so intimidated in his life and was terrified at the thought of doing anything else at all to anger her.

She set the tote bag on the floorboard.

The sun glinted off something shiny in her hands.

Rob frowned. “Handcuffs?”

She reached across him and grabbed his left wrist. She slapped one of the bracelets around it and snapped it shut. Then she snapped the other one around the steering wheel. Rob gaped at the sight of his cuffed hand.

He looked at her. “Is that really necessary?”

“I’ve found the judicious use of restraints an effective way to keep morons like you in line.”

“Seems a bit overkill to me. And I’m not a moron.”

“I don’t care what you think. So shut up and drive, idiot.”

Rob put the Galaxie in gear and tapped the gas pedal. The car rolled away from the pump.

“Stop.”

Rob stepped on the brake pedal and looked at her. She was staring at the strip-mall parking lot again. The Galaxie was stopped at the edge of the Kwik Mart’s lot. The street between the strip mall and the convenience store was temporarily clear of traffic.

He coughed. “Um…should I just drive over there?”

“No. Wait.”

They waited.

Several minutes passed.

A van pulled out of the strip mall’s parking lot and turned right onto the street.

The girl punched his shoulder. “Follow that fucking van.”

Rob stared after the van for a moment before obeying the command. The road between the strip mall and the Kwik Mart was a narrow two-lane deal. He’d gotten a good glimpse at the people inside the van as they’d pulled onto the street. It was filled with several young people roughly the same age as his abductor. They were all maybe three or four years his junior. College age. But they didn’t look like this girl at all. They looked…well…normal.