Sterli

way into the trees. Rain hammered the

tched the road and held the wh

o earn that. He had spent it in ten seconds on a dress I would

e guilt

holding over him. What if it was a loan, or a line he'd just used u

. "Back there. Thank you. But

get

rned to him. "I only went for the mone

p pulses

a stream of numbers and letters running too fast to

r from the shop had been s

ps, then the screen went dark and the phone

rned cold enough that m

off the road onto a logging track tha

are we

ac

hrough the rain, took the hunting knife out of its

Scritch

etting ready for a roo

not steady. I had watched him spend a house's worth of money on me in front of peopl

n't car

collected every bill I had. Three hundred and twenty d

bills on the table beside

topped on

t's

even. "It's what I have. I know what it is next to three hundred thousand. Take i

sed hi

he stack of bi

that he plainly didn't want me to see. Not anger. No

h the money. H

way, and walked out the d