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Ford sighs. “He’s…shy. He doesn’t really like letting other people into his life, which is understandable given our profession, but even I have my limits.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?” I ask, my curiosity knowing zero bounds.
“No, I don’t.” He sighs again, like not having a girlfriend actually makes him really sad. “No one can keep up with this life.”
“Even me?” The question comes out without me thinking about it. I know Liam wants to try, but who knows how this mission will turn out, or the next one, or where they’ll send him after this is over.
“I don’t know yet.” He looks over at me. “You’re different, that much is obvious.”
I don’t know how to reply so I sit in contemplative silence and eat my food, all the while wondering how Liam and I can make this work.
I don’t know how much time has passed when I wake. It’s dark outside, so it’s impossible to tell where we are. I look over at Ford and see he doesn’t look the least bit tired, but he’s probably been driving for a while now.
“Evening,” he says. “You were out for an hour or two.”
“I’m sorry. I’m a bad co-pilot.”
“That’s all right. You’ve been through a lot.”
We’re in the middle of nowhere, the sun is long gone, and the road that stretches in front of us is endless and dark. We must be hidden somewhere good, and I feel a mixture of relief and anguish thinking about how I’m going to be safe, finally. However, Liam is still out there, still in danger and trying to take down that bastard who thinks it’s okay to kidnap and hit women.
“Hey.” I get Ford’s attention, a curiosity about something that should have hit me long ago clawing into my thoughts. “How did they know where we were the first time?”
A sigh escapes the body next to me, and I can tell this is something Ford has been trying to sort through. “I don’t know, and it’s not something that’s taken lightly. The FBI is already working on tracking down how he found us.”
I nod, even though I know he isn’t looking at me. “They couldn’t have placed a tracker somewhere, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, when they took me, they couldn’t have, like…put something in me?” I don’t know why my brain goes to this place. Maybe it’s one too many action movies; maybe it’s the overactive imagination again.
Ford doesn’t answer, which makes me believe it could be a possibility. I know escaping that place wasn’t easy and it took a lot of Liam’s humanity to get me out, but how come Anton wasn’t there? To get his answers? To kill Liam himself? What happened that made it…not easy, but well, easier?
These thoughts plague me the rest of our drive, and thankfully it isn’t much longer before we pull up a long driveway to a craftsman farmhouse. It’s dark and old, but a clean space that looks to be well maintained, at least on the outside.
When we walk inside, Ford flips on a light, and we see dust covers every surface. It makes me cough, and I cover my nose when a sneeze threatens me as Ford says, “Uh, yeah, sorry. I guess this one hasn’t been in use in a while.”
I shake my head and wave him off, heading to an oversized chair in the living room and plopping down onto it.
“Hungry?”
“Yeah,” I answer, a yawn cutting me off, and I let my eyes fall shut for a brief time, not wanting to sleep but not able to stop my body from doing what it has to do. It’s not long before I’m passed out, and I only wake when the fire alarm blares and smoke fills the small house.
