Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
I can understand some Dutch, but not much. Something about me being half-naked, that’s for sure.
I firmly grab ahold of the door so she can’t close it. “Give me your car keys.”
“No, why the fuck would I?”
When I raise the gun, she yelps and puts her hand in the air. “Okay, okay, don’t shoot!”
She walks back slowly.
“Give me the keys. Now.”
She fishes behind the staircase in some kind of locker and throws it at me. I barely manage to catch it. “Take it. Take anything. I don’t care. Just don’t kill me, please.”
“Your phone,” I say, holding out my hand.
She sighs out loud and chucks it my way. “Fine. Take it and leave.”
“Clothes,” I bark.
“What?” she stammers.
“Your clothes!”
“Okay, okay,” she mutters, taking off her shoes and socks and throwing them my way. Next are her pink, fluffy sweater and jeans. The only thing she leaves on are her panties, but I won’t need those.
I look over my shoulder to make sure Aurora is still safe in the car.
“There, you have my clothes. Now get out,” the woman says. “Leave!”
I wasn’t planning on staying longer than needed anyway. I know she’ll call the police the second I leave the premise, but I don’t care. They’ll never find Aurora or me.
Where we’re going, no one even knows we’ll exist.
I walk toward our car and throw the woman’s clothes to Aurora. “Put these on.” Then I march to the woman’s car to unlock it.
“What’s going on? How did you get these?” Aurora asks as she puts on the pink sweater.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t wanna know,” I say, shoving the gun into the overhead bin of the new car. “Now c’mon.”
She quickly puts on her new jeans, socks, and shoes and hops out only to jump right back into the passenger’s seat of our new one.
“We can’t just take it,” she mutters as I turn on the engine.
“Yes, we can, and we will,” I growl, putting it in reverse and racing off.
The woman stares at us through her window with another phone next to her ear.
Aurora’s face goes white.
“Don’t worry about her,” I say. “She’ll never see us again.”
She suddenly turns to look at me. “We have to bring the car back.”
“What?” I frown. “No way. That’s too dangerous.”
“When we’re no longer being hunted,” she adds. “When everything is … safe.”
That last word sounded heavy.
Too heavy.
But I don’t know what safe is.
I’ve never felt it.
“Someday,” she says, a gentle smile forming. “We will.”
I don’t know if it’s possible, but if it makes her feel better to dream about it, I won’t stop her.
Still, there’s no time to think about this now. Lex’s men are still on our tail.
I swiftly make a U-turn with the car and drive onto the road. I try to blend in with the rest of the traffic without speeding too much.
When I look through the mirror, the blacked-out cars appear again.
“Oh God, they’re here,” she says, panicking. “But how? They don’t know we have this car.”
I grab her hand and squeeze it tight. “Focus on me.”
She nods, shivering in place.
“Hide,” I say, and she immediately slips off the seat to the floorboard again.
Sweat drops trickle down my forehead as the cars behind us speed up.
But they don’t know it’s us yet. They couldn’t possibly know.
But what if they look inside?
I swiftly reach into the bin and search for anything I can find. A thick piece of fabric, a scarf. Perfect.
I take my hands off the wheel for a second to quickly wrap it around my head and secure it tight. I look ridiculous, but it might camouflage me enough to hide my face while I drive.
The cars are approaching fast.
I make a turn to the right.
My muscles tighten as I anxiously wait to see.
But they don’t follow.
Instead, they drive off to the main road, swerving left and right, still looking for that one car that’s not there anymore.
Excitement flows through my veins.
“They didn’t see us?” she mutters.
I shake my head. “They’ll probably find the car soon.” A broad smile forms on my face. “But not before we’re long gone.”
And I hit the gas and race off.
When we’re finally somewhere safe, I park the car in a free parking lot and take some time to breathe. Aurora finally gets the courage to sit back on her seat again instead of hiding underneath the headboard.
“Are we … safe?” she asks.
“They’re not following us,” I reply.
“But safety is another thing,” she murmurs. “We’d need a house for that. Or at least somewhere to stay. And I’m definitely not going back to that hotel my father was staying at.”
She gasps in shock, grasping my arm. “My father! He’s still in there. What if they go after him?”
“Not your problem anymore,” I reply.
Her face darkens. “But …”
My hand instinctively rises to caress her cheek. I don’t like seeing her worry. Especially not about someone who doesn’t even care about her. “He can handle himself.”