Alexander continued recalling the rest of our adventure, about us escaping and him running for days until we came across the first cabin, then how we had trekked the rest of the distance to the house.
They had put together the rest, I figured, because there weren’t questions after that.
We were safe now, I tried to convince myself again. He’d said so.
Closing my eyes, I exhaled and wondered, not for the first time, where we were going. It could be anywhere. The car was a rental; they had said that much when Alex had asked why they’d brought such a small car. We could be going to Chicago, or we could be going to New York. Maybe they were working on a fake passport.
Maybe one day….
“Gracie?”
I held my breath and looked at the pretty woman driving.
“Do you want us to take you somewhere?” the blonde asked carefully. I’d caught her looking at me a bunch of times. Not in a mean way, but more like when I saw someone wearing a shirt with a movie or a book I really liked. I couldn’t get a good idea on her age, but I was pretty sure she might have been in her early twenties. I’d been peeking at her right back too, but more to make sure she wasn’t going to pull over and throw me in the trunk when I was least expecting it.
Buttake me somewhere?
Before I could open my mouth, Alex answered for me. “She’s going back home with us.”
Leon’s head swiveled toward his maybe-brother, or maybe those superior genetics made him a cousin. At the same time, Selene’s facial expression went straight surprised in the rearview mirror.
He’d glossed over that little fact.
“She’s staying with me.”
“I thought you had said you weren’t…,” she started to say.
They knew he hadn’t wanted to meet me, huh? I gave her a weak smile. “I don’t have anywhere to go,” I tried to explain vaguely, not sure if I should bring up other stuff. I sure as hell didn’t wantto, but reality was reality. There was only so far you could run from it.
The blonde woman blinked. Her head turned to the right, to Leon who was already looking at her. Even in the darkness, I could tell his mouth was formed into the shape of an O.
They both burst out laughing.
Why was that so funny?
“Both of you can fuck off,” Alexander muttered, shaking his head as he shifted beside me.
“I’m not trying to take advantage of him or anything.” Sure, this whole thing was ridiculous. Who was I to live with him? A member of the Trinity?
But I wasn’t chump meat.
And neither was he.
“He asked me to stay with him since the cartel might figure out who he is and come after me,” I explained, trying not to get irritated at them for laughing. Maybe being rude ran in their family? “It was his idea.”
That instantly got both of them to sober up. It was Leon who said, “We’re not laughing at you. We’re laughing at Alex.” I met his eyes when he glanced over his shoulder.
I held my breath. Did his eyes just glow blue? And had he really told me to call him Alexander to be more formal with me? To keep a distance between us?
“It isn’t you,” he tried to assure me.
I wasn’t sure I believed him. I also wasn’t sure I’d just seen two bright blue globes where his eyeballs were. But if I hadn’t imagined it, did that mean…?
The woman sat up straight behind the wheel and smiled at me through the mirror. Shewasbeautiful. Something about her seemed so familiar too….
Huh. My stomach relaxed.
“Really,” she said sweetly, “we aren’t.”
