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“Did you get?—?”
“I have everything in the trunk, sakharok,” she promised. “I would never leave anything behind.”
The reality—that Nataliya had everything she and Elias loved packed in a big duffle in the car and kept it with her at all times—was depressing. As a SEAL, that kind of life wasn’t foreign to me by any means, but I couldn’t imagine being eight years old and living that way.
“Okay, Mama.” He reached down and grabbed his bookbag. Reaching into the depths, he pulled out a book. “I’m going to read a little,” he said and let himself be absorbed by the pages.
Nataliya watched him for a moment longer before she turned her attention to me. “Where are we going?”
“I could take over driving—” I suggested again, but her look stopped my words in their tracks. Yeah, she wasn’t going to budge on this. I didn’t love the idea of her at the wheel, but I could understand it. There wasn’t much in this situation that was under her control. If this was what she needed to be able to hold it together, I could live with that…more or less.
After all, she wasn’t the only one with control issues. Once a team leader, always a team leader. Needing to take charge was baked in at this point. It wasn’t an instinct I could turn off.
“We’ll go to Dallas first,” I told her. “I have a friend who’s good with encryptions and things like that. Before I found you, I had him trying to decode the message I showed you.”
Her mouth quirked up in the corner. “Did he have any luck?”
“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t have tracked you down.”
She chuckled, but her fingers gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white. Her eyes flicked to the rearview. “Promise me you were serious about protecting us, Adrian,” she said in a low voice meant to keep Elias from overhearing. “Because if my son suffers?—”
“I promise,” I cut her off. “I won’t let anything happen to either of you.”
“I really hope that’s true,” she said softly, but there was an edge in her voice. An implied threat.
Silence filled the car like water, making that implied danger all the more palpable…until Elias let out a sigh behind me. “Mama, don’t be dramatic,” he said without looking up from his book.
I chuckled; I couldn’t help it. “Better listen to him—sounds like he’s a smart kid,” I said.
FOUR
NATALIYA
Adrian was trying to be patient, but I could tell he was coming to the end of his rope. “Do we have to stop again?” he asked as I found a wider stretch of shoulder to pull over.
He had no idea what it was like to travel with a child with a muscular disorder. “Elias needs to stretch,” I said.
“Well, what’s stopping him? He’s the only one in the backseat—can’t he do his stretches while we drive?”
I shook my head. “He’d have to take off his seat belt to get in some of the positions. It wouldn’t be safe. Not in a moving car.”
“And he can’t wait until we get a little further along? We’ve already stopped twice.”
Elias winced as he wiggled in his seat. “I can wait a little longer, Mama,” he offered, but I could hear the pain in his voice. Loorer’s Disease caused agonizing cramps in the muscles, particularly in the limbs, and Elias couldn’t stay in cramped places for long. Long car rides could be particularly bad for him if he wasn’t given the opportunity to stretch every so often.
“No, sakharok,” I said. “We’ll stop for a few minutes. You need to move around.”
Adrian didn’t say anything else as I found a safe place to park, but I could tell he was antsy. I ignored it and unbuckled my belt before climbing out and going around to let Elias out. When he held out his hand for me to help him, I knew he was really hurting.
He stepped out of the car, and a whimper rose in his throat. “How bad?” I asked. “Give me a number.”
Elias’s breath panted out. “Six,” he said.
Shit. “Do you want a pill?” Rarely, Elias would take a pain pill. Neither of us liked it when that happened: Elias because he didn’t like how groggy he got, and me because it meant his symptoms were getting worse.So far, it had just been temporary flare-ups…but I knew the day would come when his condition would start a downward spiral, and I wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing to stop it.
Elias shook his head. “No, I’ll be fine. I just need to move around.”
I leaned against the car as he walked around in grass off the shoulder. Adrian rolled down his window. “We need to get going,” he said.
