I didn’t have to explain Tobias’s address to another driver.
I didn’t have to wonder whether I was doing the wrong thing by bringing strangers through the gate.
I could just sit here, in the quiet, and let myself be taken somewhere I was apparently supposed to be.
That was dangerous, maybe.
How easy that felt.
I watched my reflection in the darkened window as the city thinned and the road opened ahead.
By the time the first glimpse of coastline appeared in the distance, my nerves had settled into something softer.
Not calm.
Not exactly.
But close enough that I could breathe around it.
The road followed the coast in long, clean curves, the ocean flashing between buildings at first, then between gaps in the scrubby trees as the city loosened its grip around us. I let myself zone out and watch the world go by, the water sparkling and bright every time it came into view.
That lasted maybe four minutes.
“So,” Ben said from the front, his voice carrying easily through the open divider, “since we’ll be doing this most mornings now, feel free to ask me anything you want to know.”
I glanced toward the rearview mirror.
“About the security stuff?”
“That too,” he said. “But I meant about Tobias.”
My stomach did a very strange, very unnecessary little flip.
“Oh.”
Ben’s eyes flicked to mine in the mirror, blue and bright with the kind of amusement that made me feel like he knew exactly what that one syllable meant.
“You don’t have to,” he added. “But most people have questions.”
“I don’t,” I said too quickly.
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Alright.”
Silence settled again, but it wasn’t the same kind of silence as before. This one had been offered something—a door left politely open.
I looked back out the window, trying not to think about Tobias, which was ridiculous because that was apparently becoming one of the least successful activities in my life.
I did have questions.
Too many, probably.
Most of them were not appropriate to ask his personal assistant.
Like, whether Tobias was always so intense, like it was a default setting of his. Whether he genuinely didn’t understand when something he said sounded unsettling, or whether he understood perfectly and simply didn’t care. Whether he spent that much attention on everyone, or if I had somehow become an exception.
That last one felt dangerous to wonder about.
So I chose something safer.
