“I’m not going to hurt her. I’m going to keep her safe. You know her father’s enemies want her. Don’t you go tipping her off.”
I’m going to leave men here to ensure that he doesn’t, and also to monitor any new calls that come in. If Chloe changes her mind again, I want to know.
* * *
Chloe
Something is wrong. I can feel it. I’ve arranged to meet Miles in the motel lobby. It’s a tired old space with magazines from 1992, peeling wallpaper, and a smell that I can’t quite identify. This is the last place anyone from my old life would expect to find me, so it’s serving its purpose, but I’m ready to move on. My skin is itching from the sheets I slept in last night and I am uncomfortable all over.
He’s bringing me the supplies and documents I need to take things to the next stage. I’m already tired of staying here. I have been here two days and that is one day too long. I am keenly aware of being hunted. I want to move on, but I can’t before I see Miles. I need the supplies he has for me, and I need to see his face. I need to connect with the world I used to belong to, because this one is already seeping into me. I can feel decay setting in. Hopelessness. Where do I go from here? Do I skip from one shitty motel to another until I finally give in and show myself?
No.
I take a breath and steel myself. If the Order is going to come for me, they won’t find an easy victim. I’m going to protect myself. Miles can carry messages for me, filter some funds out of major accounts into smaller ones. My assets include thousands of businesses. Even the best forensic accountants in the world won’t be able to track a tiny multitude of payments being funneled into backup accounts.
I’m going to get stronger. My escape was the beginning. Now I have to follow through.
The glass doors leading in here are dirty. I’m trying to keep an eye on the street, watching for Miles, but all I can see are a series of blurs. Any one of them could be him. Any one of them could be anyone.
A bigger shadow moves across the door. A spike of panic hits me.
The shadow passes, but I’m spooked. I don’t know why. There’s no logical reason for it, but my body is screaming for me to get up and go. Now.
I follow the instinct and take the back exit to my car. I drive a few blocks away and sit, breathing heavily, fingers clutching the steering wheel. What the fuck did I just do? Miles isn’t going to know where I am. I’ve just left an old man wandering around in a dodgy area with thousands of dollars on him.
Before my guilt can make me turn back, my phone rings.
I stare at it.
Nobody has this number. I haven’t given it to anyone, and I’ve only made one call from this phone. A call home. So it has to be Miles on the other end of the line. Right? He’s probably wondering where I am. I’m being paranoid. I have to get myself together. I can’t run every time I feel a little bit scared for no reason whatsoever.
I try to push my nerves away. I’ve been so damn jumpy since my escape. It’s hard, being alone, looking over my shoulder constantly, knowing any one of many innocent mistakes could get me caught by one of the men I met that evening on Darko’s island.
I answer the call.
“Hello, Chloe,” Darko drawls down the line.
The hair on the back of my neck rises instantly as a powerful charge of emotion bolts through me. Oh, fuck. Oh, no. This can’t be happening. He can’t have found me already.
“How did you get this number? What did you do to Miles?”
“That’s not important. Come back to the lobby. If I have to come and get you myself, this is going to be worse for you—and it’s already going to be bad.”
I hang up on him. I can’t tolerate that dark masculine voice threatening me. With trembling fingers, I restart the car and I start driving. I don’t know where I’m going, just away. I have to get as far away from California as possible.
It’s hard to drive with tears in my eyes. Miles. Poor Miles. What the fuck did Darko do to him?
The phone rings again. I wind my window down and throw it out into highway traffic. That fucking thing is like a collar around my neck. He can probably follow me with it. Now he can follow the trail of shattered plastic and dust crushed beneath the tires of a dozen semi-trucks.
I drive up the coast. To my left, the Pacific gleams. It’s so open, so free. I feel as if I am at the edge of forever. My grief, desperation, pain, fear, it all comes surfacing again. Darko is on my tail. It only took him a single day to hunt me down. At that rate, he could be on me any minute.