Chapter 2

A heavy tracked rescue tow truck crushed through the deep puddles and came roaring closer.

"You people up front, what are you doing! Get out of the way!"

The truck's arrival cut short the hikers' attempt to abandon me in an instant.

Clifford's face changed. He clenched his jaw hard.

He grabbed Brenda by the arm and jumped straight out of the SUV.

"Hurry! Get on that truck!"

He cursed under his breath and scrambled toward the rescue vehicle.

"Driver! Our car broke down, take us down to the supply lodge, quick!"

Brenda stuck close behind him, not daring to look back once.

By the time I reached the supply lodge, the lobby was packed with stranded travelers.

I shook the rain off myself and headed straight for the back courtyard where the luggage was stored.

The moment I lifted the heavy windproof door curtain, I saw Clifford crouched furtively in the corner.

He had a pair of folding scissors in his hand and was stabbing away like a madman at my hiking pack.

Inside it were my spare waterproof sleeping bag and my high-calorie rations.

"What do you think you're doing?"

My voice came out cold.

Clifford jolted so hard the scissors dropped straight to the floor.

He turned and saw it was me, and instead of looking guilty, he straightened his back.

"What am I doing? I'm serving justice, that's what!"

He stomped viciously on the pile of shredded sleeping-bag stuffing.

"A selfish, poisonous woman like you doesn't deserve any of this stuff!"

"Since you wanted to leave me and Brenda out there to drown, now you can find out for yourself what it's like to go cold and hungry!"

I looked at the mess all over the floor and let out a cold laugh.

"Did you forget every single thing in that pack was bought with my money?"

"So what!"

Clifford lifted his chin, righteous as ever.

"As my fiancée, your money is my money!"

"Me using my own money to help the weak and the poor—that's doing a good deed!"

His bandit logic was honestly something to behold.

Just then, a shrill wail broke out from the front room.

I turned and walked back into the lobby to find Brenda slumped on the floor by the stove in the middle of the lodge.

Her arm was scraped raw against the rough wall, streaked with lines of blood, and she looked like a complete wreck.

"Kind people, please, someone judge this for me!"

Brenda was sobbing her heart out, limping over to bow her head to the travelers around her.

"That woman, Cecilia Swanson, she's insane!"

"Not only did she lose her mind and hit people on the road, she wants to keep every last bit of the warm supplies for herself!"

The dozens of stranded travelers in the lodge set down their instant ramen cups and quickly crowded around.

"How did this girl get hurt so badly?"

"Who's got no shame at all—grabbing supplies in weather like this, that's as good as killing someone!"

Hearing everyone talk, Brenda cried harder.

"She even said she's rich and powerful, that even if she got us killed, we'd have died for nothing!"

The moment she said it, the crowd flared up.

A few hot-tempered guys knocked over the folding metal chairs.

"That's outrageous! Does she think there's no law anymore!"

"A killer like that should be reported to the police and hauled off right now!"