“Hey … wake up … we have to go,” Diego was up early the next day. He woke her up after hitting the shower, he was already halfway packing up their stuff.
Her eyes were heavy, the vodka was still thick in her system. “What? What time is it?”
“It’s nine sleepy head … you’ve been out since interstate 11 last night.”
She rubbed her eyes and rolled to her back, “You carried me to bed?”
“No … a magic elf came and carried you on it’s back.” He threw her clothes at her, “Come on get up and get ready.”
She scoffed, “What’s the hurry … coach?”
He rested his hands on his waist, shirtless and wet and only a towel covering up his lower part, “This is what it’s like to be on a run … since we still have a few days, I might as well train you on how to do it properly.”
He’d been thinking about it all night, little princess was not apt to what’s to come.
She stared at his bare chest for a bit too long, she had never seen another man’s body before. She wouldn’t dare to, not even at the gym. Armand would be sore about it and would taunt her the whole day, making her tell him how much she loved him and that she only had eyes for him.
“Where are we going?”
“That’s why you need a map … wherever you’ll be going, whatever country it is, you should know your territory … you should plan where you’ll be going a few days in advance, find the remotest place to stay possible, less people around the better … you won’t be meeting people that will ask a lot of questions.”
She sat up, she grimaced from the banging in her head. “Can I take a shower first?”
“That’s what I’m waking you up for … can you drive?”
“No.”
Diego’s eyes widened, the most obvious fact about her sometimes left him completely. She was a princess, there was always someone driving her around all through her life. “You need to learn how to drive … and fast … you can’t risk people knowing where you’re going all the time.”
Her eyes were glued to his perfectly carved abs as it twitched when he spoke.
“Travel light … don’t attract any attention to yourself … wear general unattractive clothes, buy second hand items if you can, don’t use the internet from your phone … change your phone regularly, if you don’t have the need to use it … don’t buy it, just use public phones.”
She was half listening, her mind wandered somewhere else.
“Are you listening to me?”
“Yes … coach!” she joked.
“This is not a joke, Ari, you need a crash course on how to do this in days … you’re not exactly prepped for this given the life you had.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
He raised his eyebrows, threw his hands up, “You need to learn how to wake up early in the morning no matter how much you had to drink the night before, stay alert all the time … you can’t be careless, never let your guard down … those kinds of things.”
His towel was tied in a loose knot. She was secretly hoping it would fall off because she didn’t realize he had such a great figure and it matched perfectly with his good looks.
He snapped his fingers, “Earth to Ari … are you there?”
“Yeah … okay … I need a cold shower … I think I’ll function better when you have your clothes on,” she surprised herself, “I mean after I put my clothes on.”
She pretended no one heard that slip of her tongue and went straight to shower. When she got out, she was wearing a plain white T-Shirt and a pair of jeans. Her nipples were pressed against the shirt. It was the most general outfit anyone could wear but it was useless, she was beautiful, it’s almost impossible to make her look plain.
“You mean this kind of outfit? Do I look general enough?” she turned 360 degrees.
He pursed his lips, cocked his head to one side, “You need to wear a bra.”
“You didn’t buy me any bra … remember?”
“Oh … right … well … we’ll buy some on the way then … it didn’t cross my mind at the time.” He remembered picking out half a dozen of underwear, he completely skipped the bra.
“You’re a bad kidnapper, you know that?” she laughed and tapped his back.
He noticed her loose mood, she was at ease, she wasn’t afraid of him anymore. It warmed his heart to know that she was getting comfortable with him. It nursed the connection he yearned for for so many years, it felt like he had found a friend in her, and vice versa.
They hit the road. He lectured her on how to survive like a walking and talking survival book. She was listening intently at first. After awhile, she turned on the radio and put on some music. She sang along with every song she liked and treated their getaway like a road trip.
“Why so serious?” she pouted to mock him.
She clearly didn’t take any of it seriously. He let out a long frustrated breath and kept driving.
She was actually enjoying the trip because she had never been that free before. He thought he let it slide for a while even though his mind was crammed with things that she needed to be aware of as a runaway.
After four hours of driving, she was bored. They passed by a carnival and she grabbed his arm to stop.
“No,” he said.
“Oh, why not? Let’s stop for a while and stretch our legs … we’ve been on the road 4 hours straight … I’m hungry.”
“We can find a drive-thru and eat in the car.”
She tilted her head and gave him a sweet look, “Please? It’s not like Armand’s guys will be there?”
He shook his head, “Never underestimate the pursuer … they could be anywhere, I told you, you have to be alert all the time, stopping at a place like this is letting your guard down.”
She tugged his arm, “Maybe you need to let your guard down once in a while, Diego, you seriously think Armand’s gunmen are here in the middle of nowhere at a traveling carnival?”
She had a point. Maybe not. He had never done anything like that before. He never had a girl begging him to take her to see a carnival and buy her cotton candy.
He looked at the rearview mirror, to his right and left, it was clear. No one had been following them since day one. They may not have found out about the two dead idiots he hid in the woods.
“Half an hour … no more,” he gave in.
“Yes!! I’ve never been to a carnival before … it’s gonna be the first.”
Her eyes sparkled, her face was beaming. It made him feel better about his decision. It made everything feel okay.