LITMIR.BIZ

       ONE

      “Wait here.”

      Lizzy Miller watched from where she sat in the front passenger seat, stunned, as her Englisch hired driver, Bill Allister, shifted his car into Park in the empty lot before throwing the door open and jumping out of the vehicle, ignoring the rain that pelted him. The drops made wet smacking sounds as they hit his worn leather jacket. He left the car running as he moved toward the back door. She craned her neck to watch him, incredulous. She couldn’t believe that he was planning on leaving her here, alone. But clearly, that was exactly what he had in mind as he pulled the back door open. Grabbing a bag, he slammed the door and bolted around the side of the building, never glancing in her direction.

      Beyond irritated now, Lizzy waited. And waited. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard several times. Fifteen minutes went by. Then twenty. Why were they stopped here? There were no other cars around. The building in front of her was obviously abandoned. Half the roof was caved in, and the windows were broken. Graffiti covered the exterior walls. Grass and weeds grew up through cracks in the parking lot.

      Lizzy drummed her fingers on the hard plastic surface where the door met the window. Amish people did not operate motor vehicles, but instead hired Englisch people to drive them when their buggies were not practical. Therefore, she had made arrangements and hired a driver. Bill, however, was not the driver she had expected. She should have followed her instincts when he had shown up to take her to Ohio that morning. Lizzy had hired a woman named Sue to drive her. Sue was trustworthy, reliable and, most importantly, female. Lizzy didn’t trust most men. She’d had an experience several years ago that had left her shattered and insecure, and unable to tolerate the presence of strange men.

      For a while, she’d suffered panic attacks. Those had faded as time passed, but her mistrust of men had not.

      So when Sue had come down with food poisoning and had sent her brother, Bill, in her place that morning, Lizzy had almost canceled her plans. Not that Bill looked like a bad person. Quite the opposite. She remembered her impression when she had first seen him a few hours earlier. Nothing about him screamed untrustworthy. He was in his twenties, maybe twenty-five or -six, she would guess. Not a man one would take a second look at on the street. His hair was a little long; it just brushed his collar. It was that undefinable shade somewhere between black and brown, but not really either. He was wearing tinted glasses, so it was hard to guess at the true color of his eyes. Just an ordinary young man doing a favor for his sick sister.

      She still didn’t trust him.

      There were two things that convinced her to get into the car with him. First, he had a letter of apology from Sue, and she knew Sue would feel horrible if Lizzy had decided not to go due to her illness. And second, she had promised her cousin Addie that she would come and stay with her for the last month of her pregnancy and assist with the delivery. Promises had to be kept.

      Lizzy glanced at the clock on the dashboard again. Bill had been gone for thirty minutes. What was left of her patience vanished. She had hired a driver to take her to Ohio, not so that she could sit in a parking lot while rain hit the windshield of the car. She gritted her teeth. She had known when she had first seen him that she would not be happy with him as her driver. Sue had always been punctual, and she had always gotten Lizzy where she needed to go on time.

      She

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