AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, you also said something about escaping. Talk to me like a human being, please. What the hell is going on?”
Hope raised her head, her vision blurred by tears. “It’s complicated.”
Chapter Five: Miami, Florida
Married couples, as well as singles, cannot engage in open lewdness or lascivious behaviour. Two people cannot commit unusual acts together. It is illegal to have sexual relations with a porcupine. It is an offense to shower in the nude.
“Aaaand that’s another one. All out for fifty-four,” Xavier said to himself.
He knew it was to himself. Hope refused to acknowledge his little game—or him for that matter.
As the countryside whipped by, he resolved that some semblance of understanding would soon be his. He gripped the wheel tighter. He didn’t know if he was going to like the answers when they came, but he was determined to get them no matter what.
After the phone call, his companion had asked for some time to gather her thoughts. Xavier had demanded to know everything. Hope had negotiated a reprieve until the Florida border. He’d agreed, reluctantly.
Hope had pretended to sleep for most of the previous five hours, but occasionally Xavier snuck a look at her reflection in the window. Her eyes were slightly open, staring at the passing landscape. When he turned his head, her eyes would be closed.
To distract himself, he’d devised a game. Five points for every roadkill he spotted. Luckily the dead animals that litteredthe sides of Georgia highways provided ample opportunity to refine the game. More for a moose, less for a racoon. Did they even have moose here? Didn’t matter. Having passed the fifth dead possum that hour meant he was winning by a landslide.
He coughed to get her attention. “Hey, Hope, here we go. The border.”
The sign announced they were entering the Sunshine State and, he hoped, a new era of understanding.
His mysterious lover stirred and muttered, “Uhuh.” She sat up and stretched.
Xavier swallowed hard.
As the car drove over the painted line demarcating one state from another, she let out a slow breath. “What do you want to know, Xavier?”
“Are you married?” he blurted.
“Jesus. This again? Really? Why do you keep asking me that?”
“I might not be the sharpest bowling ball in the drawer, but… a dodgy alias, sharing nothing about your other life, all the costumes, wigs, glasses, everything. You’re either married or a spy.”
“You watch too many movies.” Her voice was a hoarse whisper.
If she was in trouble, he needed to know. “Talk to me.”
She barked out a cynical laugh. “You’ve got no idea. You don’t want to touch this with a ten-foot pole.”
This was like pulling teeth out of a chicken. “Try me.”
She cocked her head to the side. The silence stretched as far as the highway before them. When she spoke again, her voice was as dangerously controlled.
“All right. I’ve been over this conversation in my head a million times, and none of them have turned out okay. Just soyou know, I fully expect you to abandon me by the side of the road. At least try and make sure it’s near a bus station. All right?”
“Dramatic much?”
She folded her arms. “Oh, I’m sorry, weren’t you the one who freaked out because he was accused of kidnapping me?”
“Touché.” Xavier softened his voice. “Tell me everything.”
She gave him one last reluctant look, then out it came. In one non-stop outburst, she told him everything. His head spun so much he lost focus on the road a couple of times.
Her real name was Emily, Emily Green. She had always been the good girl. Youngest in the family, she had three older brothers. Her family were well off, apparently, which in his world probably meant loaded. It made sense. They wouldn’t have assumed she’d been kidnapped if her family was poor.
She mentioned that her parents had good reason to keep her and her siblings close, her in particular. The way it was phrased told Xavier there was far more to it than the dismissive way she told it. Before he could question it, she moved on.
