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I grabbed her hand and opened the door, trying not to make it obvious that I was listening first to see if the shit was already hitting the fan in the hallway. Nothing.
Confidently and keeping a somewhat normal pace, I led her down the stairs and out the hotel through a side entrance. So far, no inferno of sirens or blue lights in sight. Good!
We stopped in front of my undercover SUV. Mila frowned as we climbed in.
“Is this your private car?”
“Something like that.” My hands trembled as I turned the keys and backed out. The thought of Mila getting hurt was more than I could physically handle. But things were not quite over yet. We were close, so damn close to making it, but there was still a chance we could get blocked in by an army of cop cars, who had to be seconds away.
My whole body shook as I squinted at the parking lot around us. Just a few more seconds, and I would be back on the street, Mila safe in my car with me. Nothing else mattered. For a moment, I wondered if I should feel more guilt about what was going to happen to Andrei. But then, even though I agreed with Dorfmann that he was indeed taking out scum, I knew he was going about it the wrong way and endangering Mila. A killer killing monsters was still a killer—even if I agreed with him to some degree.
We pulled out of the parking lot, still no sirens in sight. Also, no Andrei shooting at me from his room, which was a plus.
It wasn’t until we reached the highway a few minutes later that I sighed and was able to take in the first deep breath in with felt like years. I glanced over at Mila, her kind, blue eyes on me as if she was looking at a rare exotic animal.
“God, you must think I’m crazy or something,” I said.
Mila just kept looking at me. “Not crazy. But you’re clearly in some sort of trouble?”
“I guess you could say that. But just so you know, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. You’re absolutely sa—”
“I’m not worried,” she said and placed her hand on mine. “Shit,” she said, suddenly pulling her hand away. “I forgot my cell in the hotel room. We have to go back and get it, or Andrei will tear the town apart looking for me. Literally.”
“We’ll call him from my phone. It’s still in Boston, but you can call him when we get there.”
She nodded, still a bit worried. “So what’s this cheap kidnap attempt all about?” Her eyes ran over my body. “It’s kinda hot.”
I smiled at her. God, it felt good to smile again, even if I knew the joy wouldn’t last. I knew my time with Mila was running out, but just driving with her made me feel like everything could be okay again. Her presence had this effect on me. Like the whole world could go down in flames, and it would be okay as long as she was by my side.
“I need to show you something in Boston. I know this all is a bit strange, but it’s very important to me. And it really couldn’t wait.”
“Well, in that case, let’s kill time back to Boston by telling me about your day. Did the animal kingdom gang up on officer Davis again?”
Good God, baby girl, you have no idea.
“Just the usual.” We passed a billboard with a New Hampshire Beach ad for Hampton. Which instantly reminded me of Croatia. Great topic changer!
“Did I ever tell you about my dream to go to Croatia?”
“Croatia?” she said, looking at me with wide eyes.
I nodded. “It’s like it’s calling me. I just have to go.”
Mila tapped her index finger against her lower lip. “Why Croatia?”
“What?”
Usually, people told me they wanted to go there too, that they’d never been but had heard it was beautiful—stuff like that. Nobody had ever asked mewhyCroatia. Which, thinking about it, was a legitimate question. Why Croatia? Why not the Bahamas? Or France? Or Africa?
“Nobody’s ever asked me that,” I said, pushing away an unwanted memory from my childhood.
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
I was quiet for a moment, then rested my left elbow on the driver’s door.
“My mother,” I said, staring out onto the highway. “She was always talking about it with such passion. As a kid, I thought it must’ve been the greatest place on the planet.” I smiled as the memory played in front of me. My mother frantically going through travel magazines, showing me pictures of endless white cliffs and towns frozen in time that looked as if medieval kings and queens still lived there.
“Maybe your mom was right,” Mila said, placing her hand on mine.
