AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Once he’s gone, I stare into space, unsure what just happened. I suddenly feel off center as though everything I thought I knew has been tipped on its side. Sure, the money is dirty, blood money, but does that make the food it buys or the shelter it provides for the children any less substantial?
I hate that the answer is no.
Those children have no home and no family, so that money provides them with a small comfort most of us take for granted. Thanks to Alek, they can go to sleep with food in their bellies and have a safe place to lay their heads for the night.
Exhaling, I wonder why Saint failed to mention this in his notes. It shouldn’t make a difference, but it does. And I don’t know why that is.
Shaking my head to dispel such thoughts, I quickly slip into a pair of jeans and boots. I have on a light knitted sweater which seems appropriate for a meeting with a mother superior. Ensuring the journal is tucked away securely, I open the door and see Alek standing outside, scrolling through his phone.
He looks up and smiles.
All this smiling throws me for a loop.
“I thought I’d drive us today.”
“Really?” I ask incredulously. “You know how to do that? Drive, I mean.”
I’m not trying to be funny, so when Alek chuckles, I look at him like he’s grown a second head. We walk to the garage in silence, and only when the lights flicker on the flaming red Ferrari, deactivating the alarm, is the silence broken.
“I certainly do,” he says, referring to my comment as he opens the door for me. “Buckle up.”
The inside is sleek but also ostentatious. This car’s worth could feed a small starving nation.
“Don’t you like it?” Alek asks, getting into the driver’s side.
“It’s okay.”
“Okay?” He smirks, reaching for his seat belt. “Most wouldn’t refer to riding in a Ferrari as just okay.”
“I’m not most,” I counter with lightning-quick speed.
Alek nods, adjusting the mirrors before kick-starting this beast to life. “I’m beginning to see that.”
I don’t have a chance to reply because he tears out of the garage, the tires squealing to keep up. I squeak and ensure my seat belt is fastened because he wasn’t joking when he said to buckle up. He drives the road with ease, his steel blue eyes focused ahead.
“Where are your men? You never leave home without them,” I say, turning over my shoulder to see no cars are following us.
“On some occasions, I venture out alone.”
I scoff in response. “Up until a few days ago, you had a personal bodyguard. That’s not exactly venturing out alone material.” Now that the topic is breached, I ask, “Are you getting a new one?”
“New what?” he questions, his eyes never leaving the road.
“Bodyguard. Hitman. Whatever you want to call it.” I don’t know the right terminology.
Alek takes his time to answer. “Saint was one of a kind. It’ll be hard to replace someone like him.”
I keep a straight face, not wanting my emotion to show.
“If that’s the case, then why did you let him go?”
“Because it was time. He’s served me well. But I gave him my word.” There isn’t a lick of deceit in Alek’s words. He truly means them.
Regardless of their relationship, it’s evident they both respected the other. I remember Saint once told me that Alek was a man of his word. It’s all so primitive. And fucking weird.
“Do you miss Zoey?”
Alek turns his chin slowly to look at me. “No,” he replies flatly. “You can’t miss something you never had.”
