AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I suppose it’s stupid to expect him to feel bad about looking through my wallet when he literally almost got me killed. Not to mention, he wouldn’t have had the chance to look through my things if I hadn’t crashed the car and gotten myself knocked out.ThatI can blame myself for.
“Okay, fine. Yes, my name is Holly. And who are you?” I ask, unable to keep up my mask of intimidation and indifference.
“My name is Saint. Yes, it’s my real name,” he replies, glancing over his shoulder at me before carrying on into the dark.
If I thought I felt cold before, I’m chilled to the bone now. I’ve run out of warmth for my extremities, and I’m starting to feel completely miserable. I don’t have the mental fortitude to get through this on sheer will alone. I’ve heard so many stories of people beating the odds against the elements, but I don’t have any desire to be one of them. I guess I’m an even bigger pussy than I thought I was.
“When can we stop? We can’t keep walking through the woods all night. We’ll just get more lost and have to cover more ground in the morning,” I say, desperately wishing that I could feel my toes.
“We need to keep going for just a bit longer. Vadik will be trailing us for a while, and I don’t want to make it easy for him if I can help it,” he replies, bracing himself against a tree to navigate a small slope. He’s much larger than me and very muscular, but he’s still able to move easily throughout the uneven terrain of the woods. I envy him for this, but I also find myself studying his movements just a little closer than necessary. I haven’t seen a man with a body like his for quite a long time. I forgot they existed.
“He’s coming after you, not me,” I remind him.
He chuckles a little, scraping along my nerves even further than he had been. “Do you honestly believe that a man like that would spare you knowing you were associated with me? This isn’t a movie. He won’t be conflicted about it at all. He’d shoot you right in the face and go home to a plate of spaghetti an hour later.”
“But I’m not associated with you. I just learned your name ten minutes ago. It just seems like extra work for him to get rid of my body,” I reply, hoping to god that I’m right.
He laughs again, this time sighing heavily before responding. “Again, do you think he’s going to take the time to ask you how you know me? You’re a pretty woman who was sitting in my car when I pulled away. That’s all he needs to know. And besides, he’ll leave you here for the wolves until your corpse is unrecognizable.”
My stomach turns at the mental visual, but my attention is quickly turned toward his other comment.
“You think I’m pretty?”
Instead of laughing again, he stops in his tracks. “Why are you asking me that?”
It’s too late for me to backtrack, and now I’m feeling stupid and self-conscious about my question. “I mean, you said it. I just wanted to confirm it.”
He stops for a moment until I’ve caught up with him. “Yes, I think you’re pretty. But don’t focus on that too much. I need all of your brainpower to go toward our survival for the night.”
I’m dying for a better answer to resolve my curiosity, but I know he’s right. Focusing on something as stupid as a physical attraction is a waste of time when we could be facing death from multiple angles.
It’s more difficult than I want it to be, though. It’s been so long since a man looked at me that I forgot how good it felt to be noticed. Of course, this situation is a bit different, and it isn’t like he noticed me in a crowd of tons of other people. I would have preferred something a little less daunting, maybe something that wouldn’t have created any immediate animosity between us. Finding each other in a coffee shop would have been fine.
But still, it’s something.
“So... what is it that you do, exactly? And don’t say ‘nothing’. I already saw your guns and brick of cocaine,” I say. I’ve gotten this far without him murdering me for tossing his drugs out the window, so I figure I can at least as questions about it now.
“Okay, first of all, it’s heroin. Second of all, I doubt you want to know or would even understand. You seem extremely corporate,” he replies with a certain rigidity that hadn’t been there before. I hate the slight disdain in his voice. I might not be a hardened criminal like him, but that doesn’t mean he has to talk down to me.
I scoff at him, resentful of his accuracy. “Yeah, I know I look really corporate, but being corporate is what got me into this mess. So let me escape into your world for a bit.”
He glances back at me again, this time with a softer, less rigid look in his eyes. Maybe all he needed was the confirmation that I wouldn’t judge him for what he does. He might be more in need of some empathy than I’m giving him credit for.
“Alright, fine. I’m the leader of one of the largest organized crime syndicates in five states. We operate mostly out of the east coast, but sometimes we come out here to hide some of our stock in case we get raided. The guy who was shooting at us is actually my longest-standing partner and distributor, but I think he’s going off the deep end.”
“Organized crime… So, you mean the mafia?” I ask with intrigue.
“Yeah, specifically Russian.Bratva.I’d die before I let you believe I was involved with the Italians,” he replies with annoyance.
“What’s wrong with the Italians?”
“They’re just pussies.”
I’m shocked at how easily he’s opening up to me about all of this. Getting a front-row seat into the dangers of the mafia isn’t something I ever thought I’d experience, but it’s fascinating for sure. I’m worried that he’s only telling me because he thinks we’re both going to die, but I’m going to hold on to the information, regardless.
Thinking about the stresses of my job, family, and Christmas plans seems so small and kind of silly in comparison to the danger that Saint faces regularly. I wonder what daily life is like for him. Is it always running around shooting people, or does he get moments to experience the banal existence of people like me?
We continue onward into the forest, and I’m beginning to feel a bit warmer from the inside. It’s not going to keep me from getting frostbite, but it might at least distract me from the cold as the wind blows up my dress. I can’t believe I was so close to just wearing pants today. I would be so much warmer than I am now.
