Page 46 of Trapped: Between Sky And Wind

“You don’t understand what that ultimately means.”

“I don’t care.” A tear runs down my face.

Bren reaches out and catches it. “Lou, this is crazy…” He looks down the road as if he expects to see flashing lights.

“Don’t leave me behind!” I feel small and helpless, like when I entered his RV and knew something was wrong. Powerless in the face of his unwillingness to compromise when he truly wants to accomplish something.

We eye each other again. Abruptly, he steps toward me and kisses me deeply and so hard that it hurts and my knees threaten to buckle, but he holds me. I fall, sink, or fly as a tremor runs through my body, and even though my heart is crying out for that kiss, I wriggle out of his arms and take a step back.

“Is that a yes or a no?”

He sighs and finally nods, a shock wave of relief washing over me.

“A tentative okay under protest,” he says now, though I don’t know if he’s giving in because he doesn’t have time to argue or because he honestly means it. “Let’s pack the most important things first and continue on foot!”

Something about those words shakes me awake. Police sirens echo in my mind, and I see myself and Bren surrounded by a heavily armed SWAT unit. Oh, God!

“So, Faro is out?” I ask, secretly hoping he disagrees, but he shakes his head.

“We’re headlines across Canada and the United States. A story that the tabloids will greedily pounce on. The best thing we can do is try to get to Europe.”

Europe. The word pulls the rug out from under my feet, sounding strange and terrifying. But at least he says we. I’d follow him to the ends of the earth before ever leaving him.

Bren sits in the driver’s seat. “We’ll look for a lonely forest road and pack everything up there. Then we’ll see.”

Then we’ll see? Whether I can come with him—or how to proceed? I would like to scream but I stay silent. The situation is tense enough. I’m sure Linda called the police right away. By some stupid coincidence, she must have recognized Bren, but she didn’t recognize me at all. Why did I tell her where we were going? Naturally, Faro is out since she definitely heard that.

Bren doesn’t want to go further north because it’s too risky, so he makes a U-turn and heads back toward Vancouver. Always on alert, he glances every ten seconds into the rearview mirror as if expecting blue lights behind us at any moment. Eventually, he stops at a remote pull-off hidden by trees.

“This will have to do. Let’s hurry!”

We hastily stuff our things into two monstrous backpacks. “Only the essentials,” Bren reminds me, unpacking a couple of my blouses and stashing more food for Grey. Yet based on the fact that we’re packing my belongings as well, I assume he is taking me with him. My head is pounding and foggy. Bren hands me painkillers to help me walk on my sprained ankle and stows the bottle in my backpack.

It feels like time has stopped, leaving me in a vacuum. I stand beside myself, watching as Bren stows crackers and pills that can be used to disinfect water. I think he explains everything to me, but hardly anything penetrates the vacuum bubble.

At some point, he nods to me. “Okay, that’s it. Let’s go!”

It’s another shock. This must be how death row inmates feel awaiting their executioners on execution day. You know the time is coming yet you deny it. And when it arrives, everything falls apart. I’m not on death row, of course, but the last time I look at the outside of the RV, the letters T-r-a-v-e-l A-m-e-r-i-c-a blur before my eyes. The dream of a normal life with Bren shattered so quickly it couldn’t even unfold. Ethan trampled on it like a bud on the ground.

Grey comes over and licks my fingers. My dear little wolf, who always knows exactly when I’m feeling bad. I gently stroke his fur and scratch his ears.

“It feels strange,” Bren says next to me.

“Aren’t you afraid of leaving behind evidence?” I ask. “There’s stuff in here that can incriminate you. The metal plates on the walls…what about the narcotics?”

“You don’t seriously think they’re still in here?” Bren raises an eyebrow, smiles, and takes my hand in his. His fingers are warm and strong and I can hold on to them, which I need at the moment. Not being able to leave him doesn’t mean not being afraid. And the thought of being hunted almost drives me crazy. But the idea of him sending me away like in Hudson’s Hope is even worse.

“The evidence in the RV hardly matters,” he says now. “I think Ethan took your letters to the police as evidence and made Jayden report everything you confided in him.” One by one, he turns off our cell phones.

“Jay would never betray me.”

“He can’t lie in his testimony. At least, he shouldn’t. Maybe he was afraid of his own courage.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Funny, I’m not mad at Jay at all. Ethan might have repeatedly intimidated him until he buckled. Or promised that if he betrayed me, he would be welcomed back into the family. That would be Ethan’s style! Right now, however, I’m too horrified by the circumstances to feel the anger I had before.

I mechanically take my switched-off cell phone from Bren and put it back in my shorts pocket. I understand why he turned off the cell phones, otherwise, they could track us. He probably knows a lot more tricks to avoid the police, after all, he had enough time to practice last year.

We stand in front of the RV for a brief moment and then set off. Hand in hand, in silence.

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