Page 28 of His Sweet Torment
Lisa studied her. “Pad, we cannot risk any hint of suspicion on Ingles’ part. This means…you can’t say goodbye to anyone.Anyone.If your mom, or any of your friends ask what your plans are for the weekend, you can make plans with them – except only you will know you won’t be keeping them. Pad…we’re going to be doing something that may upset you but it’s for your own safety, and for Enver’s, but it’s a little…well…distasteful.”
Padme searched Lisa’s eyes. “What?”
Lisa hesitated slightly. “Pad…in a morgue in a private funeral home just outside Seattle, there’s a body of a murdered young Indian American woman. This woman…she was stabbed then pushed in front of a train. What’s left of her… we have a contact in the coroner’s office, and we’re going to need some of your DNA.”
“Don’t say it.” Padme felt sick. “No.No,Lisa, I can’t do that to Severin, to Dale, to my friends. And what about the family of this poor girl?”
“She’s a Jane Doe, Pad.”
Padme stared at Lisa unhappily. “So, I would be ‘dead’?”
Lisa nodded. “But of course, that would mean…”
“I could never come back, never see my mom, my friends again.”
“But you and Enver would be safe.”
“You can’t guarantee that.”
“Nothing is one-hundred percent. Padme, I work for Enver and by extension, as his partner, for you as well. I promise you this…I will never, ever lie to you.”
Padme half-smiled. “So, if I asked you if you thought this was the right thing to do?”
“I would say yes. To keep you both safe and together for life.”
Padme sat thinking for a while, then drew a shaky breath in. “Okay. How does this work?”
Lisa gave her a smile. “You’ll know on Friday – I’m not risking any hint of this plan getting out. The moment you step into that bathroom, you will be under orders, okay? No arguing, no deviating from the plan. I’ll be with you some of the way - the last leg of your journey, you’ll be alone. We have all the travel documents you need.”
On Thursday night, Padme went to dinner with her mother. Severin knew something was going on, but Padme kept her word to Lisa and said nothing. “Just hormonal, Mom,” she told her with a half-smile when Severin asked for the hundredth time if she was okay.
Severin had prepared a rack of succulent, delicious lamb, but Padme found she had very little appetite. Severin studied her daughter with concern in her eyes. “Pad…do you know how much you mean to me? If I had given birth to you, I could not love you more than I do.”
Padme felt the tears coming. “Mom…”
“It breaks my heart to see you so…broken. I can’t bring Enver back to you, but I wish I could. I see how much you love him.”
Padme let the tears escape then, and let Severin hold her, let her think it was Enver she was crying over rather than the fact she would never see Severin again after tonight, that Severin would have to go through the pain of thinking Padme was dead.
Friday came, and Padme went to work as normal. She was dressed in a sweater and jeans and her sneakers, her usual uniform to anyone’s eye but carefully chosen by Lisa to match the decoys. Padme had gotten used to being ‘escorted’ to work by Frederick Ingles’s men, and Lisa had shown her how to spot them, keeping them in her peripheral vision while pretending to ignore their presence.Assholes.
Padme unclenched her jaw, rubbing her cheeks to ease the ache. She hadn’t slept last night, and now she was hollow-eyed and exhausted. Being with Enver seemed still so far away, and the thought of the possibility of many days traveling made her feel sick.
Beth frowned at her young friend when she saw her. “You don’t look so good, Pad. Are you sure you’re up to working today?”
Padme nodded, half-smiling. “I am, Beth, thanks. Just didn’t sleep too well, is all.”
Beth clearly wasn’t convinced. “Well, alright, but you need a break, you go right ahead, okay?”
“Will do.”
It was almost lunchtime when Padme felt the burner phone buzz in her pocket. She pulled it out to read the message.
Now.
She felt her adrenaline spike and looked around the store. It was empty, Beth at the register, reading.
“Beth? I might just run out for some coffee if that’s okay?”
