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I sit up straight so I can look him in the eye--the man I’ve respected my whole life The man whose footsteps I’ve wanted to follow in since I was a little girl The ht me love and justice and honesty My sto terrible is about to happen "Oh, no Dad, pull over"

"What is it?"

"Dad just pull over the daon over to the side of the road, just in time for me to push open the door and part company with the contents of my stomach I throw up so hard my eyes cloud over with tears Dad places his hand in the center of my back and rubs up and down, just like he did when I was sick as a kid The action doesn’t make me feel any better It makes me feel even worse

I hear a car pull up behind us and the crunch of footsteps on the gravel at the side of the road, then a deep voice saying, "We can’t stay here She can throw up back at the field office"

I don’t know the s to, but I already hate him I swat the tears frouy I’ve ever seen His generic SUV is parked right behind us, the passenger door still yawning open Lowell’s at the wheel, staring at me with an i when she showed me the bodies of the many men she says Zeth killed I flip her off, and then I spit on the ground, ridding o fuck herself," I infors back into the car and then slam the door so violently the whole car rocks

"You don’t know the truth, sweetheart I think as soon as I explain everything, you’ll understand," Dad says softly

If he thinks that, then he has another thing co "I don’t care what the truth is now, Dad It’s too late Both you and Alexis have totally betrayed any trust thatI just…I just don’t wanna hear it"

A car horn blares behind us--Lowell bitching about our lack of ear and pulls back out onto the road We’re apparently headed to a field office Sohteously preached at about one anywhere with iven the choice, but it was either this or getting my ass arrested and my assets seized until I complied I haven’t touched my bank account in weeks It see it was simply there, provided to me by either Zeth orto want access to o back hoht of being able to step back inside the sanctuary I created for ht after hable

Besides, my father promised me he’d drop me off wherever I wanted after I’d heard him out, so this seemed like the best option at the ti turnoffs to Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood and the Paine Field Airport until we arrive in Everett I haven’t been here since I was a kid--a birthday party for either Alexis orchildren and the son into the parking lot behind a liquor store of all places He kills the engine and renition "Sloane, you have to know that I’ from you to deceive you, or your mother I--"

"How about you just shohat you so desperately need to show me and then you can take me back to the people who don’t lie to e that this is actually the truth Zeth has never asked forfro, if I’ve found myself in a situation where he has control over me, if a situation’s been bad, he hasn’t hurt me or betrayed me He’s been honest, and he’s kept me safe Zeth, a man I know to be a criminal, has treated me with more respect than my own father, a man of the church

Oh, the irony’s so bittersweet, I feel like I’ on it

"Just keep an open mind, okay, kiddo?" Dad tells me

Lowell and her subordinates have pulled up in their hulking great SUVs, and are already out of the vehicles, waiting not so patiently for us to get out, too I don’t answeran evil look at the wo zag up the side of the liquor store, wearing a grim smile "After you," she says The diamond tread on the steps of the staircase have almost worn clean away in the middle, a slick silver patch of steel in the center of the otherwise rustedlot as I clio any farther

We’ve reached the top of the stairs, and in front of reen chipped paint bars the way Lowell slips by me and punches a code into the keypad on the wall; the door shunks open, and an alarle-pitched ernnnn noise that reates The ones I’ve seen on TV, and hopefully not the one I will soon be calling ho to check behind her to see if I’ I wouldn’t have a choice even if I didn’t want to; iant who told us to hurry up on the side of the road before, and two other guys in immaculate suits Dad smiles sadly atsmells like Pop Tarts Burnt ones Someone’s obviously charred the hell out of their late breakfast