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"Stop the car," she demanded this time, more firmly.
She saw the woman bite her lips but swerve to the edge of the almost empty road, and slowly hit the brakes. The sudden silence in the car, the quietness from the engine, the stillness as lines of trees stood on the edges of the road became eerie. Shaking off the shiver, Morana turned to the woman, giving her a light smile.
"Thank you," she spoke sincerely, "for taking care of me when I was vulnerable. I'll not forget this kindness."
Amara smiled slightly, removing her seat belt. "I know what it's like to be a woman alone on enemy grounds, and I wouldn't wish it on anybody. Don't thank me for it. Just do the same for me someday if I need it."
Morana nodded, a moment of understanding passing between the two. In another life, in another world, she could actually have been friends with Amara.
But she wasn't in another life or another world.
This was her reality.
And her reality was alone.
Which was why she got out from her side, standing in the pale moonlight as the chilly wind caressed her skin, checking her own balance on tottering heels. Apart from some lingering lazy inertia, everything seemed to be alright. She started walking towards the driver's side, just as the following vehicle braked a few feet behind them.
Morana nodded at Amara as the woman got out and turned to the other vehicle.
"Take care, Morana," she spoke, that soft voice of hers and the reason behind it making Morana's heart ached for her. "I hope we meet someday under better circumstances."
"So do I," Morana whispered as she watched the woman in the shining silver dress make her way towards the black SUV.
Without a glance at the tinted windows, Morana got inside her own car on the driver's side, buckling herself in and adjusting the rear-view mirror. She watched Amara get into the back of the vehicle, and saw it pull onto the road before it took a U-turn and drove away into the night.
So much for following her.
He'd been following for Amara.
Morana sat in the car, gripping the steering wheel without turning the key, just processing. She needed to process. To breathe. Alone.
So, someone had drugged her at the club, which was not really surprising because of who she was and where she'd been. She should have been more careful. She'd slipped and she could have died because of it. Except she hadn't. Tristan Caine had pushed her into the VIP area with the one woman who'd shown her kindness. And he must have known it. Morana hadn't, but he must have. And then he'd gone back to the bar, according to Amara, to deal with the bartender. And then when things had gotten heated, he'd picked her up and put her in her own car, and told Amara to drive her home.
Why?
Her fury had not faded, not even a little. Only her confusion had increased. He hated her, she had no doubt of that. She didn't know why, but he truly, deeply hated her.
He could've left her completely with the other woman. He'd called Dante and told him so. Yet, he hadn't. And she couldn't figure out why. People did those things out of kindness, and that was a word she'd never, not in a million years, associate with Tristan Caine, not where she was concerned. It wasn't the kindness of his heart.
'You assume I have a heart.'
Then why? What was the point of getting her out? Because she'd been in their territory? Because of the old we-don't-want-to-start-a-war song? Because of... She couldn't come up with any valid explanation at all. She'd not expected him to behave like a world-class jackass, at least not to that extremity, but he had and he'd left her alone, vulnerable, with a stranger to her even though he'd known her.
Why was she thinking like that?! She wasn't his responsibility! She wasn't anyone's responsibility but her own. She'd slipped up and by all means, she should be dead right now, now feeling this odd heaviness in her gut because that man owed her absolutely nothing.
But her curiosity, and something else, refused to rest, refused to let it go. She wanted a reason for his actions – something he would never give her (and shouldn't), and something she failed to de
cipher herself. And that was extremely frustrating. She was good at reading people and he was the one man she couldn't read. At all.
The sound of an approaching engine broke her out of her thoughts.
Her eyes drifted to the rearview mirror, to see a vehicle approaching.
A big vehicle, coming closer and closer.
An SUV.
Her heart stilled before it started to thrum. She watched with alert eyes as the vehicle pulled in behind her, a few feet between them, and the ignition switched off.
