I moved too slowly for even a small chance at a getaway, and Archer jogged out of the bar and caught up only a few steps down the sidewalk. He didn’t try to stop me but instead ambled alongside as I set my sights on Betsy’s house, my pain pills, and the couch. Hitchhiking to the cabin didn’t strike me as a good idea anymore. “I’m not going to change my mind.”
“I know,” he said, all easy and calm. He played the good cop to Giselle’s unreasonable cop, apparently. Archer shoved his hands in his pockets and ignored the few locals who peered at us and started whispering. “We have something in common, Ada.”
“And what’s that?” I held my side and stopped, tilting my head back as the world spun. The sun beat down on me and whitened out the world, and a new layer of cold sweats erupted.
“Do you need to sit down? You’re looking kind of pale.”
“Just need to pause for a minute, so you go ahead and talk while I work on breathing.”
Archer still eyed me closely, like he expected me to expire right in front of him. “As I was saying, we’ve got something in common. We both believe there are things out there that can’t be explained by science. At least, they can’t be explained yet.”
“Everything can be explained. Just a matter of testing the right hypotheses,” I said. My vision darkened around the edges and my back turned clammy and cold. Oh Lord. I would not pass out right there on the sidewalk in front of the bar like some day drinker. “Sufficiently advanced science looks like magic. If it looks like magic now, we don’t have the science for it yet but we will eventually.”
He bent his knees to peer at my face. “My car is just right here. I’ll drive you wherever you’re going, Ada. Maybe call an ambulance.”
“I’m not getting in a car with a stranger,” I said. My words slurred and I braced against his shoulder to keep from going down. I had grossly overestimated my own abilities. It wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last, but I still felt like an ass. “I’m not that crazy.”
A shadow of a smile crossed his face. “I’ll be a perfect gentleman, I promise. Or I can wait with you while the ambulance comes.”
He felt warm and solid under my hand. If Betsy found out I’d gone back to the hospital in an ambulance, I’d never escape her clutches. I took a deep breath and held it, hoping more oxygen would clear my thoughts and miraculously give me strength.
“Fine,” I said. I blinked long and slow. “I live a few miles from here. As long as you promise not to murder me.”
“I swear on my father’s grave,” he said. And punctuated it with a courtly bow, like he’d spent his formative years going to cotillion class like was still popular around Chilhowee.
Archer took my arm to help me down the street to where a souped-up SUV with tinted windows and out of state plates waited. It was newer than anything else on the street by at least five years. He even opened the door for me, helped me up, and waited for me to contort my cast and awkward brace in before he shut the door. He even tossed my crutches into the backseat, bless his heart. I stared out the windshield and sent a text message to Betsy telling her where I was going and who drove me while Archer walked around the car.
Just in case he didn’t care about his father’s grave and decided to kill me anyway. Hell, depending on how she was feeling, Betsy might do the dirty work for him.