Page 29 of Carte

I wanted him to growl at me. To scream. To demand from me to cancel the tour, instead of just postponing the dates. Unfortunately, some of the dates had to be canceled since we didn’t know how long my exile would last, and the silent man hadn’t offered any insight into it.

At my words, his frown only deepened, but I could swear I saw a glint of something in his cognac eyes before he turned and stalked out of the room. He came back two hours later, collected me from his men who assured him all our bags were in the vehicle.

Who even said the word vehicle?

Got, it was infuriating. I wanted to say something then, but he just grunted in response, took hold of my biceps, and pulled me from the room so I kept my mouth shut.

Those were the last words between us up until now.

I looked around and all I could see were… trees?

Where the hell were we?

It was unfortunate that I was spending so much time on the road, sleeping night after night on a tour bus, that the moment the wheels started spinning, it was like a sweet lullaby was sung in my ear. The fact that I hadn’t had much sleep in the last few days, and my emotional breakdown a few hours earlier only heightened the sting in my eyes, and I was fast asleep the moment we hit the highroad, and once I woke up, I stared mindlessly out of the window not paying any attention of where we were going.

I got out of the car, and inhaled. A fresh, crisp air filled with pine and a hint of the rain hit my nostrils, and my lungs burned as I inhaled deeply.

I hated to admit it, but the clean air felt like heaven.

“Where are we?” I asked looking around, trying to get my bearings, but all I could see were more trees. Everywhere I looked there they were. It was like he drove us into the middle of the forest and just stopped.

He came to stand behind me and put a jacket over my shoulders. It was only then I realized how cold it was and that I was shivering. “Somewhere safe.”

“Yeah, I’ll need a little more information,” I said.

He watched until I pulled the zip on my jacked closed. Turning he went to the car, opened the back and started pulling our bags out. “That’s the only information you’re gonna get.”

“You’re not gonna tell me where you brought me?” I gaped at him.

“The less you know, the safer it is. You can trust me.”

Was he serious?

I knew I could trust him. That was never even a question. From the moment I laid eyes on him, I had complete trust in the man.

With my safety, my body, and as it turned out, with my heart too.

The only problem was, he wasn’t interested in any of it except the fact of keeping me safe. Something he was hired to do.

Something that hurt like hell.

“I don’t know, Warden,” I turned in a circle, my head leaned back, my eyes on the bluish grey sky. “This feels awful like I’ve been kidnapped.”

“Trust me, if I wanted to kidnap you, I wouldn’t bring you here.” He grumbled.

I could hear him moving around, then the bleep of the locks on the car, but it was only when he came to me, and muttered, “Here” that I looked at him.

“What?” I asked, glancing between a bag he was holding my way and his cloudy face.

“We gotta hike from here. There’s no road that leads to the cabin, and I’m not going there and back twice because you’re too much of a diva to carry some of the bags.”

“Fuck you,” I spat, grabbed the bag, and my suitcase, and started walking.

“You’re going in the wrong direction,” he called after me.

I didn’t want to, didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, but I still turned and followed him deeper into the woods.

It should have felt like I was walking into danger. It should have felt terrifying. But as I was watching his legs eat the ground in front of him, his body turning this way and that with such ease, all I felt was heat spreading through me that had nothing at all with the physical exercise he was putting me through.