“Is it safe for us to go for a drive? Just a quick one, I just… A drive always helps make me feel better.”
Dragna clenches his jaw like he wants to immediately say no, but he calls one of the outside guards over asking if there’s been any movement picked up. The guard tells him no and when Dragna looks back at me, he brings a hand up to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear.
“Anything for you Willow. Come on, there’s a car in the garage that isn’t known to anyone, but it will be just a quick drive. I don’t want to put you in any further danger.”
I smile at him and he helps me to my feet then leads us to the garage.
“This is the car nobody knows about?” I ask in disbelief, because I don’t understand how the hell anyone would miss it or forget it if they saw it driving around.
It’s a huge black jeep with tinted windows, a tinted windscreen and it looks like it’s made completely out of armour. Dragna just shrugs at me as his lip quirks up at one side.
“I’m not taking any risks tonight with your safety. So we’re going out in this. No arguments.”
He helps me up and into the car and when I think he’s about to walk round to get in himself, he grabs the seatbelt and reaches across me, securing it in for me. I can’t help but smile despite the feelings inside of my head and heart.
Him and I need to have our own very long conversation when all of this is over because I don’t know if I can handle this being my life. I grew up in a normal family with normal friends and sure I’ve had bad things happen to me, but never on this scale.
This is what Dragna wanted to protect me from and while I do understand that, he still lived a double life, something Fred did too, even if it was in a completely different way, he was still lying to me and hiding something from me.
Dragna kisses the top of my head before he closes the door and walks over to one of the walls, grabbing the key. When he gets in and starts the jeep, the entire thing roars to life and he looks over at me before bringing his hand to rest on my thigh. He smiles softly at me before he drives out of the garage towards the electronic gates.
I already feel so much more at ease as we drive only a minute away from the house. ‘Sun is Rising - Harmless Night, Ren Ocean’ plays from the speakers softly as I lay my head back on the headrest and sink into the leather seat.
“Thank you for taking me away from the chaos.” I finally say and Dragna continues to focus on the road in front of us, his eyes scanning every street, every car.
“I’d do anything for you. You know that.”
The emotion in his voice makes me want to forget all the bad, all the lying and just forgive him, but I can’t just give in to the fact my heart wants to be with him. I need to hold on to the last shred of logical thinking I have left. Speaking of which, I never asked him how they found us. No doubt with all the connections he seems to have it wouldn’t have been hard. He even knew what hotel we were staying at, but I still have to ask. If I’m going to trust him I need him to answer every question I have.
I roll my head towards him and put my hand on top of his that’s still resting on my thigh.
“How did you know where we were tonight?”
He turns a corner still not taking his eyes off the road to look at me. His throat works as he swallows and he turns his hand over to hold mine and intertwine our fingers.
“I’m going to be completely honest with you. From here on out Willow, there’s no more secrets, no more lies or me keeping anything from you. But I need you to try and understand where I was coming from when I tell you everything.” His grip on my hand tightens as if he’s afraid I’m going to pull away when he tells me the truth.
I continue to stare at him, waiting for him to continue because I can’t find any words to say back to him or to tell him I’ll try and understand.
Finally, he turns to look at me as we stop at a red light and he looks down at my necklace. He lets go of my hand and brings his up to my neck, stroking the chain, then the little book charm.
“I had Nikolai put a tracker in your necklace. I should feel bad, but I don’t. It saved your life, it saved all your lives tonight and for that I’ll be selfish and say I don’t regret it.”
I don’t know whether I heard him correctly and I just stare at him in disbelief then shake my head and let out a humourless laugh.
“You did what?” I breathe out.
“I did what I thought was the right thing to do. I have turned into someone I never knew it was possible for me to be when it comes to you.”
He shakes his head while looking at me.
“You’re being stalked and we didn’t know who by and we couldn’t find any information on them. There was part of me that felt like an asshole doing it, but mostly it gave me peace ofmind that if anything happened to you, I’d be able to find you and I think tonight proved just that.”
I bring my hands up to my hair, running my fingers through the strands and gripping the top of my head trying to make sense of all of this.
“You didn’t know who was stalking me? Does that mean you do now?” The light has turned green but Dragna still hasn’t drove off, his entire focus being on me now.
“We saw the car outside the hotel, Finn got into it and drove off with whoever was driving while Tommy was upstairs in the hotel room with you. We don’t know who was driving or if it’s been the Irish this whole time or if they are working with someone else. But we’re closer to finding out now that we have their connection.”
