I pressed my lips together. “Isn’t that right?” he asked, and his face took on that dismissive expression.
“I certainly wouldn’t betray you, Icarus, Pan, and Troy.”
“But I assured everyone that they wouldn’t be caught…then you stupidly took off your blindfold.”
“You’re doing it again.”
“What?”
“Acting aloof. You’re trying to protect yourself.”
He sighed deeply.
Tears welled up in my eyes and I looked away. “And what does your assurance mean in plain language?”
“You have to remain with us. For a little longer than planned.”
Now I stared at him, at his face, which was completely open again. “How long?”
“Maybe a few months, maybe a year.” He didn’t sound mocking, angry, or harsh, more regretful and compassionate. But that was exactly what made everything worse at the moment.
I didn’t say anything. He had mentioned that he wanted to retreat to the bayous with me until the men had sorted out their affairs. I had expected something similar, but at the moment, it seemed unthinkable. I was freezing and exhausted. I was hungry and my jaw hurt like hell. I didn’t want to live a life on the run, who knew where they would hide me; maybe not in the bayous, but in some dirty basement that I was only allowed to leave at night.
At that moment, all I wanted was to go home. Away from these men and their truths.
Chapter 2
Hours passed during which, despite my tension, I kept dozing off while sitting. The situation was anything but relaxed. Icarus kept glancing in the rearview mirror to see if a police car was following us. Pan played with the gun he had brought with him, and then Nathan, Pan, and Troy discussed the stolen car that they would soon have to leave behind, and Nathan’s cell phone rang incessantly until he eventually turned it off. Isaac definitely wanted to know where we were.
Reality was increasingly sinking in. We had escaped Isaac and his men but I was still a hostage. Status: complicated—I could tell by the way they treated me.
When we changed cars, no one forcibly steered me by the arm from one car to the other, but Nathan, Pan, and Troy stayed close by. I couldn’t have run away. Since I was not allowed to use the public restroom, I had to hide in the bushes every now and then—with Nathan standing guard just close enough to be acceptable. Later, when they could only find a car without tinted windows to hotwire, I had to climb into the trunk for part of the journey. It stank of dog hair and excrement, and it was crampedand stuffy. I was afraid in the absolute dark but I didn’t say a word. When Nathan let me out later, I didn’t eat anything even though he had bought me fries and a cheeseburger with the money that had been in the car. The greasy stuff that I was never allowed to eat at Dad’s smelled incredibly tempting, but I just gave him a reproachful look. He didn’t seem particularly guilty about the trunk. He had made it clear to me that there was no alternative and they didn’t have time for arguments. I was torn between gratitude and hurt pride. And that was true for all of them except Sparta. He was quiet the entire time, so I didn’t know what to make of it. He had sounded honest when he had declared his innocence. The question was: if it wasn’t him, then who? Apollo perhaps? Or Taurus? Or, although I didn’t want to think it, maybe Ilias? I didn’t know the answer, but I would have to talk to Nathan about it soon. Right now, I was too angry with him and my mind was spinning. Everything had changed in a matter of hours. Icarus, Pan, Troy, and Sparta had become Ian, Kjertan, Noah, and Stanton. Sometimes they used their last names as boys sometimes did, but I couldn’t remember them all, only McCormack and Van Veenstra. Van Veenstra because it sounded so unusual. When I asked where they were taking me at a rest stop in a remote parking lot, Nathan smiled for the first time again.
“You’ll like it,” he stated easily, touching the swelling on my face gently. He seemed loving at that moment, but I turned away even though my heart was pounding with excitement and a million butterflies were fluttering in my stomach. He had said he wanted to be closer to me than was good for him, closer than was good for the plan. However, if he actually had to choose, he would still choose the people and the Coldville dead. His whole life connected them to him. Still, it hurt in a place that was foreign to me.
When Nathan released me from the trunk of car number four, it was pitch black. I could barely see anything, but it smelled of ponds, moors, and wet wood, but the smell from our clothes was no better. Disgusted, I sniffed the sleeve of my dried hoodie and wrinkled my nose. I stank of dog. Of a very old, soaked dog, and I was still miserably cold even though the air was warm.
Shifting from one foot to the other, I looked around and listened. An army of cicadas chirped against the dark croaking chorus of frogs. An owl hooted somewhere and there was a rustling sound—like the wind in the lush treetops of Rosewood Manor, but there was almost no wind. “Where are we?” We had been on the road for over twenty-four hours.
Nathan glanced around. “Louisiana.”
“Louisiana?” My heart leaped in surprise. “Where exactly? In the bayous?”
“We’re getting you to safety.”
“Me? More like you guys!”
Nathan ignored the comment and glanced at Pan. “We shouldn’t leave the car where it can be seen so easily. It’s best if we push the Nissan a little way into the undergrowth. Noah, Stan, move her a bit off to the side.”
Troy grabbed my arm and pulled me back a few steps. “Just step away from the Nissan.” I didn’t reply as I stiffened.
Restrained by him, I watched as Nathan released the handbrake, turned the steering wheel, and pushed the car along with Icarus and Pan.
There were in fact, dark trees towering next to us reaching up into a pitch-black sky. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness, the vague outlines of my surroundings began to take shape. We were off a gravel road in an overgrown meadow where the weeds were choking each other. There were forests to the right and left with a thick layer of moisture hanging over everything. The air was so saturated that I wondered why I hadonly just noticed it. It was as if I was drinking while breathing. I listened, and again, I heard rushing.
I awkwardly wriggled out of Troy’s grip. “Is there a river nearby?”
Nathan glanced over his shoulder at me. “Up ahead, just a hundred yards away. The Atchafalaya.” Branches cracked as they pushed the cart into the undergrowth. “In its native language it means long river.”
