19
Carmine
My head is pounding and feet are aching as I run across jagged rocks and pinecones to get away from the cliffside villa I’d dragged Soren to in his wounded state. Everything between us had been so…peaceful. In a way that I wasn’t used to. The sex had felt like more than just fucking.
It sounds cheesy as hell, but I had been sleeping so good before Soren had woken me up telling me we needed to get the fuck out of there.
I would have much rather stayed in the villa than be hauling ass across the beachside into the woods to get away from whoever Eivor Fiorelli has sent after Soren now. I’m not the only one he wants dead now and because of that, my family isn’t the only one that is at risk to fall apart.
All because of one man’s desire for power.
“Where are we headed?” I ask Soren as we get further into the thick of it. Branches scrap my arms but it’s nothing compared to the way the stitches at the back of my skull pull with each movement of my head.
“I was hopin’ you’d have an idea,” he admits.
I growl under my breath. “You’re going to get me killed.”
“I thought we agreed to kill each other?” he replies breathlessly. We stop and both of us lean against a tree. When I look up at him, he’s fucking smirking at me.
I suck in as much as I can. The cold air burns my lungs.
“Sooner rather than later if you are not careful,” I grumble at him.
I hear shouting behind us. We don’t have long to idle.
“I think right now we have no choice but to keep moving forward, get them off our tails, and then decide where we are going,” I tell him before during forward ahead of him.
Soren is taller than me so he’s caught up with me within a second. “Better than nothing,” he agrees.
I’m not holding his hand anymore, as it’s harder to run that way. We weave through thicker areas and we get to a point where there’s somewhat of a trail.
“Looks like this might have been an old hunting trail,” I remark and motion to the ground. “We can go left or right.”
“My bets on left and hope they go right,” Soren says as he turns to the left and I follow after him.
We hike our way up the grass-infested dirt path. I ignore the rocks that dig into my heels and the cold that makes my skin burn. By the time we make it to the end of the path, my feet and fingers feet numb.
“Fuck,” Soren hisses. “There’s nothin’ here.”
I look around as he does. It’s all tall cypresses and broken branches that lay on the ground…but there’s something else.
Very light impressions in the mud leading right into the trees.
“This way.” I motion Soren over and push through the line of the trees to keep going. After about three more feet of prickly pines and sharp bits of debris, there’s another path. It gets wideras it goes along and then comes in from the left. I’m not sure where the original path starts, but I’ll take my chances that the guys Eivor hired won’t be coming this way.
There’s a sign that saysPRIVATE PROPERTYabout eight feet away, but no gate and no cameras that I can tell.
“You sure?” Soren says between breathes.
“No, but we need to hide for now.”
Just ahead of us is a cabin. There’s no smoke coming from the chimney, that further proves my theory that the place is empty.
“Let’s hope so,” Soren replies.
I take a look around the side of the place. No cameras. No real security measures. If either of us had our phones it’d be easier to check, but they’d been left behind. I curse but make my way to the front door and try to handle.
“You any good at picking locks?” I ask Soren. It’s not exactly my forte. At least, not without blowing the door off.
