“So… where exactly are you going again?”
Lena’s voice burst through Mara’s car speakers, too loud, too sharp, too knowing.
Mara jumped in her seat. “Jeez, Lena, volume control.”
“Don’t deflect.” Lena let out a suspicious hum. “You’re driving somewhere that’s not work, not home, and definitely not the grocery store. So spill.”
Mara gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. The highway stretched ahead, lined with tall pines and dusky shadows, the late afternoon bleeding into early evening. Not the ideal time to be alone on an unfamiliar mountain road, but Calliope Wilder hadn’t exactly given her another option.
“I’m just… taking a short break,” Mara said.
“A break?” Lena repeated, flat. “You never take breaks. You schedule your lunch breaks like a military drill.”
“Well, today I’m
