“We could go to my office.”

“They’ll check there. They’ll check everywhere. I even called Sarah. Zach told me you two still talked. I was worried they’d suspect her of helping you because she’s your . . .”

“Only friend,” Lynell finishes.

Daniel clears his throat. “Anyway, I told her to leave for a bit. She took a bit more convincing than Dee and Dad, but she’s gone. Went to visit her parents in Canada, I think.” Daniel trails off, glancing behind him through the back window before changing lanes. “Maybe a motel . . . but they’ll check everywhere,” he says, mostly to himself. “And we’d have to use cash. I don’t have much cash on me.”

Lynell gets her first good look at his face when he turns.

Stubble is already turning into a beard and his normally well-maintained hair is tangled and greasy. Deep bags are under his bleary eyes and his lips look chapped. She wonders how long it’s been since he got a decent night’s sleep. He must have been worried sick, awake all night, and fearing the worst since Zach took her from him six days ago.

“We could find somewhere to hide out. Like a cafe or homeless shelter,” Lynell suggests.

Daniel shakes his head. “I don’t want too many eyes on us. We need somewhere private where we can clean you up and you can rest.”

“We could break into someone’s garage.”

“What if someone sees us? I don’t want to risk the cops being called,” Daniel says, giving a frustrated groan.

And at that moment, she realizes the best option they have is one she never wanted to ever consider. But they need to get somewhere safe, if not for her sake, then for Daniel’s.

She takes a deep breath, counts to ten, and returns to those years she spent in the dark, teaching herself to compartmentalize and control the fear.

“There is one place we could go,” she says, so quietly that for a moment she thinks Daniel might not have heard her.

But then he glances at her and asks, “Where?”

“The one place they’ll never expect us to go. They’ll never bother to look at . . .” She looks at the two broken fingers as she talks, her stomach turning at the awkward angles.

“Where?” he asks, and his voice fills with so much hope that it gives her the strength to continue.

“Alan’s.”

The moment stretches on for so long Lynell thinks she passed out. But the throbbing pain in her hand and the way Daniel looks at her, worry etched in the new wrinkles on his face, tells her otherwise.

“Lynell—”

She can tell he’s about to object, so before she loses her nerve, she interrupts him. “Listen, it’s our best shot. They know what he is. What he did to me. They’ll never in a million years expect me to willingly return there. And if they believe you love me, they’d never expect you to ever take me there. And it’s not like Alan would have any idea where I might go, so I can’t imagine that they’d ever bother to even ask him about me. He lives a few miles outside the city limits. It’s a good idea, Danny. You know that.” She says it all quickly and takes a deep breath, relaxing against the seat when she’s done. The effort it took to say it all seems to squeeze her dry.