“You’re still angry with me, aren’t you?” Lily surprised him by bringing it up.
He congratulated himself silently at not braking the car to a dead stop. “I’m not angry,” he said quietly. Not now that he understood her, anyway.
“Why? Because you feel sorry for me?”
There was the slightest hint of bitterness in her voice. He couldn’t see her face in the evening darkness.
“I’m not sure how I feel at the moment,” Brad said honestly. He checked the rearview mirror. “We’re being followed, by the way.”
Lily sat up a little straighter, fluffing her hair. “Probably Dilaver checking to make sure Amber and you are doing what you both said you were doing.”
They came to a stoplight and the car pulled next to Brad’s. Lily looked down, then turned away so they could only see the back of her head.
“What are they doing?” she asked, casually leaning over to flick something off his collar.
“Two men. Watching us.” He turned and gave her a smile. “Can I kiss you before we turn into my garage? It’ll make it seem like we have romance on our minds.”
“All right,” she whispered.
Brad leaned down and softly brushed her lips with his. To his surprise, she opened her mouth, inviting him to taste her. He slid his tongue into her mouth and she nudged closer, eagerly responding. It was more than he had expected and he didn’t want the kiss to end, taking his time to explore her softness. For his part, he wasn’t pretending.
A honk from behind jolted his consciousness and he released her lips. The light had turned green. He looked over Lily’s shoulder and caught the occupants from the other car looking at them, grinning. Another honk, more impatient this time, from the driver at the back. He turned and started the car moving again.
They didn’t say anything as he turned into his street. He checked the rearview mirror. They were still being followed. As he activated the garage door opener, he turned and pulled Lily into his arms. She came willingly and he briefly wondered whether she was still playing the part of Amber. Of course she had to be. But he no longer cared.
“I want them to see how much I want you,” he told her, and kissed her again.
The ride to the mountain pass was uneventful. No one paid attention to the old van used to transport the girls. Hawk had made sure they weren’t being followed as he followed Lily’s map. Just before they reached the border, he pulled over so Amber could get into the back.
This was perhaps the most important part of the passage. Dilaver controlled many of the border gangs and he was sure to have everyone on the lookout for them. Through the years, Amber and Lily had mapped out which were the safest routes in and out of Macedonia, “safe” being a relative term here, as all sorts of shady characters resided in the mountains. Lily had many contacts and she told them that there was a price on the Americans’ heads. Alive.
When they stopped at the roadblock, Hawk gazed directly into Dija’s eyes. In spite of all thisvezastuff among the locals, he much preferred to trust his own instincts. The other man had told Lily he would let Amber and him pass through because Hawk had spared his life in the firefight. He supposed that was the mercenary’s way of returning the favor. Fair enough.
Still, he didn’t put all his trust in the man’s word. Dija was, after all, a mercenary, someone who put a price on lives.
“What are you transporting at this hour?” Dija asked.
“Fruit.” Amber had assured Hawk that she would be ready back there if Dija decided to betray them. “Market day tomorrow.”
Dija turned to the man next to him. “I’ll look in the back. You stay here.”
Hawk didn’t turn his head as he listened to Dija’s footsteps leading to the back of the van. The sound of the back door opening. He smiled at the other man standing by his side of the vehicle. The back door slammed shut. Dija trotted back to the front, his weapon pointing down at the ground.
“Okay, you can go,” he said crisply.
Hawk met his eyes one last time. “Thank you,” he said.
“Not a problem,” Dija answered.
Hawk drove about ten kilometers before he found a good place to hide the van. He got out in the dark. He could hear Amber getting out of the vehicle from the back. They had to abandon it and go the rest of the way on foot. They didn’t have the paperwork to show to the authorities and the Serbian police were no better than Macedonian thugs, except that they had prisons in which to beat people.
“Well, that was easy enough,” he said, half joking. The country roads that connected Macedonia with Albania were sort of a no-man’s-land where two sides were at war. The KLA was determined to take control of as much land as possible and sporadic battles broke out without any provocation. “He didn’t give any hint of having seen you back there at all.”
“Dija moved some fruit around, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to look too closely,” Amber said.
“What are you looking at?”
Amber had pulled out something from her bag. “Another map. I want to get our bearings right.” She pointed to several spots on the map. “These are places to avoid. More gangs or checkpoints. We’ll have to move around them and try not to get caught in a battle. Oh well, at least we still have my handy bag of weapons.”
