Katie woke the next morning and blinked a few times before she realized she was in the bed alone. Stretching her hands over her head, she smiled to herself, remembering the night before. She’d never thought something like that was possible, let alone that it would feel so… so… awesome!
Looking around the room, she wondered where he was. Quickly getting up, she went to clean up in the bathroom. As she reached for the door handle, she heard him talking on the other side of the door. She leaned her head against the door, silently wishing for a glass to hold up against the wood so she could hear better.
“No, I told you, I didn’t speak to anyone. It’s like they were waiting for us. – Yeah, I know. – Okay, are you sure? – You know she’s not going to like – yeah – okay.”
She quickly jumped back in the bed when she heard him walking towards the door. Shutting her eyes quickly, she tried to slow her breathing.
The door opened and she wished she’d had the forethought to turn her head away from the bathroom.
“You’re not fooling me, you know.”
She sat up and smiled at him. “I don’t know what you mean.” Getting up quickly, she tried to walk around him to get into the bathroom.
He blocked her easily with his arm. “Katie, we have to maintain phone silence until we get to Rome to meet your dad and brother.”
She looked at him and noticed that he had shaved that morning. She wanted to run her hands over the smooth surface, but instead she asked, “Why?”
“Just a hunch,” he said and when she continued to stare at him, he took a deep breath, “Okay, I think they knew we were heading to the airport. They were waiting there, not at the bus station, not the train station. The airport. Doesn’t that seem a little odd?”
She thought about it, and now that he mentioned it, it was weird. “Well, maybe there were others waiting at the other places.”
“No, I don’t think so. I think someone told them where we were headed and how we were traveling to get there. I think they will be watching all the routes to Rome.”
“Well, then,” tossing up her hands she started pacing the floor, “what are we going to do? Not go?”
“No, we’re just going to have to take less traveled routes.”
“What did you have in mind?”
He walked to her and placed a light kiss on her forehead.
“We’d better be going.”
“Jason, I hate it when you leave me in the dark. I’m not going anywhere until I know exactly what it is you have planned.” She crossed her arms and glared at him.
Four hours later they were sitting on a bus driving south and Katie felt defeated. How did he have such power over her? She glared at him as he sat in the seat across from hers.
“I hate you, you know.”
“That’s nice,” he said, not looking up from the newspaper he was pretending to read. She knew he wasn’t really reading it because it was all in Greek.
“You can’t even read that.” She pushed it down until he was looking at her. “You promised me some answers. Since we’re stuck on this bus for over an hour, now is the perfect time for you to give me some.”
He leaned closer to her and she could smell his musky scent and wanted to lean into him, but held back and kept her arms crossed. She hoped that she had a determined look on her face, fooling him into giving her those answers.
“Fine,” he leaned back. “I was hired to track you down by your family. I’ve been following you since September. There, are you happy?” He lifted the paper again so she grabbed it, wadded it up, and tossed it on the floor.
“I know all that, the question I want answered is… Who?”
“Who, what?”
“We are not playing this game. Who hired you?”
“Does it really matter?”
“Yes! If it was her, I’m getting off this bus right now and you can kiss my…”
“Really?” Instead of looking shocked, he had the most devilish grin on his face. Then she realized what she had been about to say and what he had done to her last night, and her face turned beat red.
It took her almost a full minute for the heat in her body to dissipate.
“Jason, tell me who hired you.”
“No.”
“Then you’ve just confirmed that it was her.” She moved to stand up, and he grabbed her by the arm and pushed her into the seat next to his.
“Stop this, you’re not going anywhere. Why does it matter who’s been fronting my bills? What matters is, I’ve been following you to make sure you’re okay.”
“Fronting your bills? We both know why she hired you. Why she picked you for the job is a mystery to me, but this is just her way of keeping me under her wing. Her viscous, cheating, controlling wing. I don’t care what she has paid you, the fact that you have even been talking to her makes you a traitor in my book.” She was working herself into an emotional state. She was upset that she’d let it go this long. This time when she got up to move, he grabbed his bag and followed her. When she finally convinced the driver to stop, Jason followed her off the bus.
“No! You don’t get to get off the bus now!” She tried to push him back on, but he just laughed at her until she turned and stormed off down the road.
Now she was still stuck with him, the biggest traitor imaginable, and they were in the middle of… looking around, Katie realized there was nothing but hills and grass. Nowhere, again! She could just make out the bus as it disappeared over a hill.
“Augh!” She tossed down her bag and rounded on him. “You! How could you do this? First, you embarrass me at the party, then at the coffee shop, then on national television. And now …” She poked him in the chest, but he didn’t even blink. She turned and started pacing; she was on a roll and didn’t want to stop. “Now you’re taking her money, sleeping with the enemy so-to-speak, doing her bidding, stabbing me in the back, selling me down the river, no… worse,” she pointed her finger in his face, “Judas…” she was almost running out of steam, so she turned and started pacing again.
“Are you almost done?” he asked with a tight smile.
“No!” she rounded on him again. The hurt showed on her face and she knew the moment he saw it. “Why her? Why not my brother or my fathers, either one of them?”
He walked forward and took her shoulders in his hands gently. “Katie, she was the only one who asked me. She was frantic those first weeks. She called me almost daily, asking if I knew anything about where you would have gone. Then a few months after your parents’ divorce was final, she asked me to follow your trail and she paid my way. She just wanted to know that you were okay.”
He pulled her close and just held on. “To be honest, I was just about to come after you myself if she hadn’t asked me. I would have done it for free, but she insisted on paying for the travel expenses. You really scared everyone, leaving the way you did, not taking a phone, not contacting anyone to let us know where you were or that you were okay.”
“I know, I just needed this time. I needed to experience life outside of being Katie Derby, daughter of two high-powered men. Being stuck between two major corporations on opposite sides of the globe with the media in your face does something to you.” How had he turned this around on her? He always had a way of diffusing the situation.
“I’m sorry, I can’t imagine it. I know how it felt seeing our friends betray our trust.”
She looked at him and realized he had lost everyone back home, too, that she wasn’t the only one who’d been put under the media microscope. She remembered some of the interviews by their friends. Everyone had highlighted their relationship, trying to make it something that it hadn’t been.
“Come on, we’d better start walking if we plan on getting anywhere.” He pulled back and smiled at her.
“I’m sorry.” She took her bag after he handed it to her. “I just couldn’t spend any more time on that bus. I’m sure there’s another bus stop around, and a little walking hasn’t hurt us so far.” She t
ried to smile away her frustration and the possibility of her feet hurting again that night. “Besides, it couldn’t be as bad as the other day.”
Less than an hour later the rain started and she felt totally hopeless.
“Don’t say anything.” She looked over at him as the heavy rain soaked them both.
So far there hadn’t been any towns. They’d passed a few quiet farm houses and had seen plenty of cows, sheep, and horses. There hadn’t even been other cars or vehicles on the road. They really were in the middle of nowhere.
He grabbed her hand and they sprinted to an old building that they had spotted in an open field. It was an old gray barn which looked like it had seen better days. It appeared that no one had used it in years.
Katie watched as Jason broke the old lock that kept the door closed. It was rusted all the way through and when he opened the small door, it almost came off its hinges. The place smelled like mold and dust, but it was dry and a little warmer. At least it was out of the cool wind that was now blowing across the fields.
Dropping her bag inside the door, she searched inside it for her flashlight, only to realize it had been stolen. A light filled the room and she turned to see Jason with his flashlight.
Searching the room, they found some bales of old hay and a large tractor that looked like it hadn’t been used since the early fifties.
“Well, at least we won’t sleep on flour bags tonight,” he said, walking over to the hay. He pulled out a pocket knife and cut the ropes that had been holding the hay together. Then he took his time making a large pallet out of the fresher hay from inside the bales. He took the large black blanket that had covered the back seat of the tractor, shook it off, then laid it over the hay. Once he was done, he moved his bag over and pulled out a small brown bag and a large bottle of water.
“Where did you get those?” She looked over at with excitement.