Page 115 of Creep
I shivered and pulled the blanket over my shoulder, still thinking about a kiss that never came.
32
LIA
Leo openedthe door of a black SUV for me. I shot him a small smile I didn’t exactly feel and climbed into the passenger seat of the car.
I let out a small, tired yawn as Leo came around to the driver’s side.
He glanced over at me sideways. “Didn’t sleep well?”
“Not really,” I answered, putting on my seatbelt, and looked out the side window. I didn’t explain any further. It wasn’t like I could tell him I missed my stalker.
He made a slight sound that didn’t tell me what he was thinking or feeling before starting the car and pulling away from the safe house.
“Where are we going?” I asked. Leo had come by this morning and told me to pack my bags, that I was no longer staying at the house.
“To another place. One that’s not associated with my business. This… man, I don’t know how he did it, but he found the locations of my safe houses. I don’t know if he has the locations of them all, but he’s picking them off one by one, searching through them for you, and when he can't find you in it, he starts to burn the entire thing down to ash.”
I blinked. I knew Mael was burning down anything associated with Leo, but to say he already had access to some of the locations of Leo’s safe houses—information that only a few knew about and was heavily guarded, considering it was where Leo put people who hired him to hide them away—said more about Mael’s abilities than anything else.
How could I not know just how capable he was?
“So are we leaving New York?” I asked, my heart speeding up at the thought. I couldn’t leave New York. My life was here.
“No, we’re going up to a cabin that belongs to a… friend of mine. No one can tie this person to me, so his place is the perfect place to hide you.”
“For how long?” I asked, my voice nothing more than a mere whisper.
Not for the first time, I questioned whether or not I had done the right thing by coming to Leo about this… by running away from Mael.
Mael was the bad guy in my story… the villain… wasn’t he?
Why the hell was I questioning it now?
“For as long as it takes,” Leo answered me. I’d almost forgotten what we had been talking about.
I didn’t respond.
We made the rest of the drive, mostly in silence. Leo had stopped by a fast food place for a quick breakfast, but that was the only stop he made.
My mind seemed to be playing on a loop.
I didn’t know what to think. Or do.
Was I really letting Leo bring me to a remote place? A place no one knew about, where no one would be able to find me, to hide me there?
I was still debating that when Leo pulled up to a decent-sized cabin located in the middle of nowhere.
A strange feeling of foreboding took over me as I looked up at the house. I wanted to tell Leo I didn’t want to stay here, but the words would not come.
How could I say it, though? After all the trouble he went through to hide me from Mael, even going as far as calling in a favor with his friend for this cabin. This was what I wanted, wasn’t it?
I no longer knew.
I flinched when Leo opened the car door. “Come on. Let’s get you settled in.”
He was out of the car before I could respond, leaving me to bathe in the silence of the surrounding air.
