18. Rufino
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Rufino
M y phone blares early in the morning and I sigh, rubbing my hands across my face to wipe the sleep away before I answer it. Who would call at this time?
I reach over and grab the phone, flicking it to answer the call.
“Hello.” I mumble, my voice rough and deep.
A quick glance at the screen tells me Masaccio is on the other side of this call. If I’d paid attention and looked before I answered I would have let it go to voicemail.
“Luca A’Vara launched an attack on one of our warehouse last night. He killed three of our security men. I’m done with this bullshit. This ends today, Red. I have spoken to Tuomo and Celso and we all agree - she is going back to her father.”
All remnants of sleep disappear in an instant as anger surges through me.
“No, she isn’t. I don’t care what her father does. I will not give her up.”
“This isn’t your choice anymore brother. We are already on our way to your place. She is coming with us. This was just a curtesy call. Nothing more.”
I drop the phone and throw the blankets off me.
“Verity, Verity wake up. Now. Hurry.”
She sits up with a fright, her eyes wide and confused.
“What’s going on? Is my father here?” she stammers in fear.
“No, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. But my brothers are coming to take you from me. I imagine they are on the way to my penthouse in the city, so we have less than an hour before they get there - realize their mistake and then come here.”
“An hour for what? What is going to happen when they get here?” She asks.
“We aren’t staying to find out. We’re leaving.”
“To go where ?”
“Please, just get up. Grab whatever you need. We don’t have time to discuss this now.”
I leave Verity in the bedroom as I bolt downstairs to pack the essentials. Weapons, Kevlar, and my emergency go-bag which contains a medical kit and survival gear. I hope I need none of these items, but I’d rather be prepared and have them than leave them behind.
I set the items at the front door and run back upstairs to shove a few pieces of clothing into a leather duffel bag.
Verity has thrown some clothes into a suitcase as well.
She looks dazed and panicked.
“Do you have any idea where we’ll go?” She asks.
“Yes, we can talk about it in the car. Are you almost ready?”
“Yes.” She sighs, “I just need to get dressed.” She is already pulling on a pair of jeans.
“I’ll pack the car. Meet me downstairs.” I grab her luggage and carry it with mine.
Fifteen minutes later we are on the road.
I don’t have a plan. I don’t know where we are going. I didn’t want to tell her that in the house because she already looked so stressed.
Right now she has her eyes glued to the side mirror, watching the road behind us.
I reach out and run my hand over her thigh. “I’m watching our back. You can relax.”
“I can’t relax. This is so crazy.” She snaps. “Where are we going, Red?”
I clench my jaw. I still don’t want to tell her I have no idea. But I can’t lie to her. What is the point of being together if I can’t be straight with her.
“Right now, the plan is to get as far away from the city as possible. Its better we don’t know where we’ll stop because if we don’t know - no one else can work it out either.”
I can feel her eyes on me while I focus on the road.
I steal a glance at her and she softens her expression.
“Ok.” She says, after a little while.
“Ok?” I’m surprised. I expected her to be furious because of my lack of planning.
“Yes. Ok.” She snaps.
Over the next hour she sits with her eyes on the road ahead. Tension fills the car.
I didn’t expect her father to react swiftly. I can’t believe he launched an attack on one of our warehouses. This really is all out war.
I need time to think.
I need to keep Verity safe until I figure it all out.
The back roads are dark, and keep me off the main highways I drive with no route in mind. Turning here and there and not following any logical pattern or direction.
Verity shifts in her seat and turns her body slightly towards me.
“What pushed your brothers to come after me? They were angry before - but what made them get to where they agreed that taking me from you by force was the better option?”
I take a deep breath before answering her.
“Your father attacked our business.” My fingers are gripping the steer wheel, my knuckles turning white.
She takes in a sharp, shaky breath.
“He attacked your family?” She gasps. “Was anyone hurt?”
“Three people died. My employees.”
Verity presses her lips together, fighting tears.
“It’s my fault.” She whispers, her voice weak and pained.
“No, absolutely not . This is your father’s fault. You didn’t hurt those people - he did. All you did was fall in love. There is nothing wrong with loving someone, Verity. Everyone deserves love.”
She turns her face away from me, looking out the window again and falling into silence once more.
I see a dirt road to the left and turn down it. The landscape is barren on either side of us. Long expanses of open grass lands, dried and empty, scattered with an occasional lone tree.
Crows caw in the sky above us, doing lazy circles as they hunt for food.
The air is crisp and dry out here and the sun is hot against my skin.
I have the window wide open, letting the grass scented breeze clear my thoughts. In the wind Verity’s hair whips around her face, free and wild. Just as she should be.
I hate seeing her like this. She withdraws and tucks herself away somewhere.
She closes up when she gets scared and she lashes out when she gets angry.
I need to figure out a way to reach her, to make her understand I won’t let anything happen to her.
Fifteen miles up the road I pull into a run down truck stop. There is a small coffee shop attached to it. Thick white chunks of old paint peel from the walls and wide cracks pattern the crumbling bricks beneath it.
“Let’s get some food. Then we can drive a little more and find a place to stop for the day.” I pull her door open and she climbs out, refusing to take my hand.
Sighing, I walk beside her. When I push the sand blasted glass door open a small bells chimes noisy above us and the old man behind the counter near the entrance looks up at us as though we’ve fallen from the sky.
“Are you lost?” he asks, scrunching his sun aged face in confusion.
“Not lost, just out on an adventure.” I smile.
“If you’re looking for adventure, you ain’t gonna find it out here. There’s nothing out here but truck stops and old motels.”
I chuckle. “I guess it depends on what kind of adventure someone is looking for then.”
He laughs too. A dry crackling sound that reminds me of my grandfather. He was a chain smoker.
“And you pretty thing. You also on an adventure?” he looks at Verity. She takes a step closer to me.
“Oh, don’t mind me. I’m harmless.” He laughs. “Ask my wife. I can’t even run after ya or nothing.”
He comes out from behind the counter, pushing the wheels of his wheelchair.
“Honey bee, we got visitors.” He shouts into the back.
“Coming.” A singsong voice replies to him.
“My wife is the best cook I’ve ever met. That’s why our marriage lasted as long as it has.” He grins.
His wife, a plump woman wearing a square shaped floral dress, comes walking towards us. “Is he giving you trouble?” she asks Verity with a warm smile on her face.
“No, not at all.” Verity grins.
“You folks lost?”
“I already asked em that.”
“Well?” She shrugs.
“Not lost, just hungry.” I glance at Verity. She nods.
“In that case you are in the right place.” Her husband’s smile is so wide, and I can see pride in his eyes. “What’s on the menu today, honey bee?”
“I’ve got a fresh load of cranberry bread just came out the oven. Still hot. And blueberry muffins and if you want something more substantial, I have lamb pot roast.”
“Wow. It all sounds amazing.” Verity says. She barely ate last night so I imagine she’s starving.
We place an order for a bowl of pot roast and two thick slices of cranberry bread with apricot and strawberry jam.
Sitting at the table near the back of the coffee shop Verity is staring through the dusty window out onto the landscape.
“I’ve never been to a place like this.” She comments.
I reach out and take her hand.
“Are you ok?” I ask.
She bites her lip. “This isn’t really an adventure. Not the kind I would choose to go on.”
“I know, little vixen. It’s not the type of adventure I want to take you on either. We just need to get away for a while until I can figure things out.”
She sighs loudly.
“How long will that take? A day? A week? A month?”
“I don’t know.”
She nods. Looking out the window again.
The old woman comes towards us carrying a tray of food.
She places it on our table. The pot roast smells incredible and my stomach growls with excitement.
“That’s real butter.” She says, placing a bowl on the table next to the bread.
“Thank you.” Verity smiles. “It looks amazing.”
“There’s more. Just shout and I’ll come running.”
We both find the food surprisingly good. Verity jokes a little, but I can sense how uptight she is.
She’s right.
This isn’t an adventure. Our entire relationship has gone from being an adventure, a wild unknown, to become a stress.
As dramatic as it sounds we are on the run for our lives.
Her father has proven he is crazy enough to go to war to get her back and now I have to decide how to retaliate in order to force him to back down.
What terrifies me is just how far I will go to keep her.
I meant it when I said I would burn the world down for her.
As long as she and I stand together in the ashes afterward, it will be worth it.
After our lunch I purchased a few things from the kiosk. Snacks, cola, and a few bottles of water. Verity chooses a magazine and adds it to the pile on the counter.
When we walk back to the car Verity takes my hand and relief washes through me.
When we reach the car, I open the door for her but stop her from climbing in, instead I turn her to face me.
“I’ll always be at your side, little vixen. I need you to know that. To believe it. I will never leave you.” I say, staring into her bright blue eyes.
She reaches her hand up and traces her fingers over my jaw.
“I believe you, my Viking. I want to be with you forever too.”
“Then we can be.” I lean down and kiss her, relieved that she isn’t pushing me away.
The tension in the car dissipated as they hit the road again. She has her hand on my leg and my fingers and intertwined through hers.
As long as she doesn’t give up on me everything will turn out ok.
In fact, I won’t let her give up on me. So everything will be ok.
An hour from the truck stop we find a motel.
I book us a room and unload our luggage from the car.
“We can stay here for a night or two. If we don’t like it, we can drive farther on. The old man said there were a lot of places to choose from along this road.”
“It’s clean.” She says, looking around the room. “Do you think we’ll be safe here though?”
“No one will think to look for us here.”