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“Holy shit, are you in trouble with some kind of Greenland mafia? Because what the hell are they?”
Torben groans, then revs the engine, rolling forward and to the left. That way is a steep drop with no shoulder and not enough room to pass. Passing on the right won’t work either; it’s all boulders and trees, and again, no shoulder to speak of.
Torben squeezes the wheel, his jaw working.
I wait.
“No, not the mafia. Those are the palace’s top security guards. Dad sent the big boys across the world to bring me home.”
I peek over the side of the hill. We could lose them on foot, but I don’t know how surefooted my man is.
“How bad do you want to lose them?”
He turns to me, brows drawn together.
“If you can scramble over rocks and things, we can lose them in the woods and find our way back to town. Might have to make camp among the bears, though.”
He mutters something about Gravenland security being bred from a different cloth, from a long line of hunters and trackers, all wilderness trained.
“There’s no way we could lose them, not even in the dark,” he says.
“What’s our next move, Favored Prince?” I ask, refusing to freak out.
Torben reaches over and squeezes my hand. “How do you feel about leaving now?”
Now?
“You mean,” I say, swallowing, “saying goodbye here, and then you’ll arrange my trip when you get back?”
I can’t bear the thought of saying goodbye in front of these two behemoths in a panicked moment, but I don’t see any way of escaping this mess.
“No, Hailey. Come home with me now.”
I stare at him. “You mean, now-now?”
Is he serious?
Go home with him now?
I’d be leaving my job without notice. My crappy car. My family, my friends.
There’s too much to do, too much to arrange. And what about my friends? My girls’ night that I wanted to do for my 30th birthday. It’s asking too much.
“You should go,” I say softly, knowing my instincts were right that this is too good to be true. “I’ll be fine.”
The prince shakes his head no. “I don’t think you realize what’s about to happen,” Torben says. “If I leave with them and you stay here, your life as you know it won’t be the same. With the news that I’ve been found, everyone will know who you are, where you live and work. Tying up loose ends in secret is no longer an option. And I would hate myself if I left you here to deal with that alone. On top of dealing with your brother and his hard feelings about us.”
He’s right. I hate it, but he’s right.
I don’t want to leave my home like this.
But at the same time, I absolutely do. I’m getting the man of my dreams. My mama and grandparents will be taken care of. They won’t ever have to worry about the Cooper boys again—I could buy the entire holler, and they can kick rocks.
This is the adventure that I asked for.
This is it. This is my opportunity to see the world. To do and be something. If I want to return to school and study to be a teacher, I can do that. If I want to hunt crawdads in Gravenland for the hell of it — if they have those there — I could.
Torben will support my dreams, whatever they are.
