Page 56 of Double Edged Hearts
I release a sigh. “No… but thank you for saving me. Thank you for coming.” I haven’t said that yet.
“You know you’re welcome.” He reaches over and takes my hand, covering it with his. Warmth seeps into my skin, calming me.
“I can’t believe you were able to get me.” Only someone like him would have been able to save me from those people. They were Matvey’s guys. They spoke Russian.
“I do my best, doll.” He gives my hand a gentle squeeze.
“These people seem nice,” I say with a little smile.
Bernardo and Martha both seem like nice people. They seem to keep themselves separate, like they wouldn’t dabble in danger. The house is cozy and quaint, humble with the sparse décor and the wooden stairs leading upstairs. It feels like a sanctuary.
Alex grins back. “Yeah… they knew my father. They helped out a lot when he died and when Phillipe died too. They’ve always been in my life. I trust them. They moved out here because it was safer, away from our way of life. It was Bernardo who taught me how to take a bike apart and put it back together again a hundred times better.”
I smile at that and almost forget the craziness. “That’s really cool.”
“Yeah… you won’t like to hear either that he taught me how to do my first real stunt and gave me that taste for danger you’re always telling me off for.”
“It saved me today, so I can’t tell you off anymore,” I answer.
Seriousness returns to his eyes. “Baby… finish the water. We need to make a move as soon as possible. We’ve already been on the road for longer than I wanted.”
A chill races down my spine. “Do you think we were followed?”
“I don’t, or we’d know about it already, but I won’t rule anything out.”
I sigh and gaze into his eyes. “I should tell you what happened.”
“Yeah… but not here.” He glances at the kitchen door. Bernardo and Martha are inside the kitchen talking. They’re talking about the food, but I’m certain they must be curious about what’s going on with us. “We’ll talk later. I got a car. I want you to get some sleep when we get in, and we can worry about talking… later.”
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere safe.” He nods and stands. I get the feeling he doesn’t want to tell me. He never mentioned a location on the phone either to the person he was talking to.
Worry fills me. I know him. If he’s not saying much, it means he’s worried too . It means he’s scared too, and I’ve never known Alex to be scared of anything.
* * *
We get into a black Mustang, a real old muscle car that holds that edge of power as we drive away.
I fall asleep, and when I wake up, it’s pitch black outside.
Night has fallen, thick and heavy, and where we’re driving towards is dark too. There are no lights around, just the moonlight.
We’re surrounded by the forest, and there’s a deserted feel about the place.
I shuffle and straighten up, facing Alex.
He glances over at me and looks me over.
“We’re near now,” he says.
I’m about to ask where we are when I see a house come into view.
It’s a lake house, and the land surrounding it is vast.
Everything is so dark, and I can’t see all that much, but what I see is beautiful. The house is massive, and there’s a barn across from it.
I wonder who lives here as we pull up on the drive and get out of the car. It’s cold, much colder than where we’ve come from, and I start to shiver as the wind picks up and lifts my hair.
