Chapter 12 #2
Escape. I have to escape. If I’m in a village, then that means I won’t be trapped behind these walls. I have to force a smile on my face. “I would love that.” I try not to sound too eager. “I’m hoping to get home soon, but if we can make a day out of it before I do, that would be great.”
Gio’s eyes harden when he turns to me, though his smile stays firmly in place. “Of course, darling Emmaline. Whatever you want.”
“Wonderful. Come, darling. I have the car waiting downstairs.” Felicity reaches out a hand, and I take it without hesitation. Right now, it’s the only lifeline I have.
“You’ll take Hector and Jack with you,” Gio replies. “They can follow you into town and keep watch. There’s been some trouble lately, and I want my girls to be safe.”
Felicity turns toward him. “Okay, darling. Whatever you think is best.” She kisses him again, then pauses near my chair. “You’re going to love this little boutique I favor. They have so many wonderful things, and the cutest clothes.”
She loops my arm through hers. “I don’t think I have any money. Unless Mattheus brought my purse—”
“Money is no object,” Gio calls after us. “Whatever you want is yours.”
All I have to do is sell my soul. Or, at least, that’s what it feels like.
Felicity and I walk in silence down another set of stairs.
The rest of the house is just as immaculate as the parts I’ve seen, though the second set of stairs opens toward a lower floor that’s surrounded by walls of windows.
A man carrying a gun stands near the front door.
As we approach, he offers a curt nod to Felicity, then pulls the door open.
“Thank you, Hector. You’re coming with us?”
“Yes,” he replies.
There’s a bright red convertible parked in front of the house, with a black Jeep just behind it.
“Fantastic.” She opens the door to the passenger side, then waits for me to climb in. As soon as I do, she shuts the door, and Hector follows her around to open the driver’s side door. “Thank you, honey,” she purrs.
I watch her as she grins at him.
Either she’s playing her part well, or she was acting last night.
Trouble is, until I know which one it is, how can I trust her?
“Right this way, darling,” Felicity ushers me down the street, a shopping bag in each hand. And that doesn’t even count the ones the guards Gio sent with us are lugging around a few paces behind us.
The woman has no shame when it comes to spending money.
I lost count two stores back, but I’m pretty sure we’re in the neighborhood of four thousand dollars already.
Aside from some jewelry, blown glass figurines, and a new pair of shoes for her, she’s outfitted me with three new dresses, a big sun hat, and a pair of heels that I would never even consider torturing my feet with.
But I have to admit—kidnapping aside—it’s been a fun outing with her. Felicity Karver is a force to be reckoned with, a bright spot on this island that has everyone turning their heads and smiling as they wave. Could be all the money she spends, but I think it’s more than that.
I think she cares. Which is a vast difference from the men I sense both Mattheus and Gio to be.
“Ooh! There it is! My favorite boutique on the entire planet.” Turning, she hands Hector the two bags in her hands. “I cannot wait to watch you try on everything in here, my darling! They have such cute stuff!”
“We’ll be right outside,” Hector says, gesturing toward a bench in front of the small boutique.
“You don’t want to come and watch the fashion show?”
Hector bares his teeth in a smile. “Not a chance. Though I’m sure she’ll look beautiful.” I may not know much about men, but I don’t miss the way his gaze rakes over me. Nor can I ignore how it makes my skin crawl.
“Okay, fine. Spoilsports. We’ll be out in a bit. Feel free to help yourself to some of that chocolate we grabbed at the dessert shop. My treat to you for protecting us.” With that, she heads into the boutique, not even bothering to cast them a backward glance.
“I really don’t need anything else,” I insist. I haven’t managed to find a single moment where I can slip away. Either she’s been with me, or both Hector and Jack have hovered like shadows.
Felicity heads straight for the counter, but before she speaks to the woman behind it, she casts a glance out the window.
Both Hector and Jack are standing outside, their gazes in the dessert bag.
“That should hold them a while.” She turns to the middle-aged woman with graying hair and tan skin that contrasts beautifully with the canary yellow sundress she’s wearing. “Did you get my message?”
“I did. The outfit you’ll want her to try on is hanging right by that rack.” She points toward a dressing room. “And you need to use that dressing room. It has the most space.”
“Thank you.”
“Anything for you.” The woman reaches over and cups Felicity’s hands.
“Okay, darling, we don’t have much time.
” Pulling away from the woman, Felicity ushers me toward a doorway that leads toward the back.
After grabbing an outfit that’s hanging by the door—a pair of burnt orange shorts and a black one-piece swimsuit—she turns to me.
“I want you to know that meeting you was the only joy I have in my life. While I would love to see you again, I know it’s not possible.
Not for your safety.” She leans in and presses a quick kiss to my cheek.
“You have to remain hidden until after November 1st, okay? By then, everything will be okay.”
“I don’t understand. What’s happening?”
“Go in there and put this on.” She shoves it into my hands. “Then knock on the side door three times, okay? Three times. Remember that.” She smiles, tears shimmering in her eyes. “There hasn’t been a day of your life where I haven’t loved you, my darling daughter.”
Tears burn in my eyes now too. “Come in with me.”
Felicity smiles at me. “I wish I could. But I have to make sure they can’t follow you.
” She glances over her shoulder again. “Go. There’s no more time.
That chocolate will only last so long, and then they’ll get bored.
If you hear me say pineapple, then you know time is up, okay?
” She all but shoves me into the room. It’s small, consisting of a single chair and one of those full-length mirrors that always seems to add ten pounds.
To the left of the mirror is a door. Knock three times.
Pineapple?
I do as she said and quickly change, then slide my feet back into the simple tennis shoes she bought me at the last store we were in.
“How is it going in there, darling?” she asks.
“Good. I just finished getting dressed.”
The bell dings, signaling another customer entering the building.
“Oh, good! I fear that shawl might look like a pineapple on you, but I just had to see. You boys are just in time,” she adds.
Pineapple. I eye the door. “It looks—okay. I’m just adjusting; then I’ll come out.”
“Sounds great. I can’t wait to see.”
Quickly, I rush over toward the door and raise my fist. Won’t they hear, though? I clear my throat and knock once. Twice. Before I get to the third knock, the door opens and someone yanks me through, then closes it quietly again.
I start to scream, but a strong hand clamps over my mouth, and I’m yanked against a hard chest.
“It’s me,” a familiar voice whispers. “Quiet though, okay?”
I nod. Can it be? My eyes fill with tears again, and I breathe in deeply, recognizing the citrus-and-mint body wash he’s used for as long as I can remember.
Slowly, his hand moves down from my mouth, trailing over my cheek and shoulder before dropping. It’s pitch-black in here until a sliver of light appears from a crack in a doorway leading outside.
It’s then that I see him.
Dylan.
My heart leaps with joy as hope spreads through me like wildfire. He’s here—and that means I’m okay.
“We have to move fast.” He takes my hand and pulls me out onto the street. Instead of his normal tactical gear for missions, he’s wearing a pair of board shorts and a white T-shirt. A baseball cap is pulled low over his face.
We begin walking, and he reaches into his pocket to withdraw a pair of dark sunglasses. “Put these on.”
I do.
“And this.” He pulls a rolled-up floppy hat from his back pocket and offers it to me. “Scoop your hair up and hide it beneath.”
Once again, I do as he says while he guides me toward the beach.
“Shouldn’t we be running?” I ask frantically.
“Don’t look behind you,” he says sharply. “Running is what they’ll be looking for. In order for the diversion to work, we need to hide in plain sight.”
“What div—” Before I can even finish speaking, a shrill scream rips through the afternoon. I start to whirl toward the shop, my thoughts on Felicity. What if they discovered she helped me? What if—
“Stay focused,” he says as he slings an arm around my shoulders. It’s casual. Something he did countless times back when we were dating. But the shiver it sends through my body is entirely new.
It’s the most contact we’ve had since he came home.
“We have to go back for her.”
“We can’t.”
“Dylan, she’s my mother.”
“I know. But that’s not the plan she came up with, okay?”
Please, Lord, let her be okay. Please don’t let me lose her too. Her face swims into view, the tears in her eyes. She was saying goodbye—but for how long?
Dylan tugs me toward the water.
“I-I can’t swim, Dylan.” I begin to panic, the one incident at a lake when I was fourteen and nearly drowned pushing the fear of everything else aside.
“Emma,” he says softly, coming around to face me. “I won’t let you go, okay?” His hazel gaze pins me, and in those gorgeous eyes I know so well, I see the promise of his protection.
Lord, please be with us.
Instead of responding verbally, I kick my shoes off, and Dylan strips out of his T-shirt, abandoning it on the ground. I suck in a breath at the sight of the scars marring his muscled chest. I know what they did to him, but to see it—
Focus, Emma. Running for your life here.
I start to remove the hat, but he stills me with a hand on my arm. “Leave it on until we’re in the water, okay?”
Unable to draw breath when my fear is at war with my desire to be close to him, I simply nod.
Dylan takes my hand and leads me into the water. He smiles at me, and the sight of it steals my breath yet again. For a moment, he’s the happy teen I knew all those years ago. A young man excited to go off and serve his country.
The darkness in his eyes has ebbed, and for that same moment, I forget why we’re out here, wading into the surf. Behind me, there’s commotion, running and yelling, but in front of me is the man I’ve loved all my life.
A man who risked his life to come for me.