CHAPTER 10
LOLA
That smile, there was nothing else like it in the world. Such a rare beauty from such a strong, powerful man. God, he should smile more often. Accompanied with those words, when you think you’re falling apart, I’m going to be there holding you together, the man seriously captured my battered, bruised heart.
Drew’s words echoed through my mind over and over. They invoked a warmth and calm I never thought I’d find after Ben defiled me. For a year, I had lived in a cocoon of sorrow and hatred. I hated myself, I hated Ben, and my heart bled like a wound that would never heal. Even though I’d seen more death and violence in the last twenty-four hours than I had seen in my life, I had never felt so . . . safe. With Drew by my side, I felt as though nobody would ever touch me again. His determination and confidence sealed the wound in my heart. Instead of fear and cold, I felt a spark of hope.
I cast Drew a discreet, side-long glance and took in his rugged features, trying extra hard to ignore the blood. He reminded me of Superman. The corners of my lips quirked upwards imagining Drew in tights. He wasn’t a beautiful man, but his quiet strength and sturdy resolve made him beautiful to me. He was a diamond buried in rough stone, and he made me feel not only protected, but cherished. When he caught me staring, I quickly diverted my gaze like the chicken I was. When I finally found the courage to look back at him, his eyes were back on our surroundings.
I wondered what he saw when he looked at me. Was I simply a broken doll he needed to fix? Or did he see a woman? I couldn’t imagine he would see something he liked. I was, after all, damaged. Shaking my head, I glanced away, refusing to allow my insecurities to bury me in doubt.
Drew found us a tuk-tuk which bumped and rattled down the silent roads. I never thought Bangkok could be so quiet, but at almost four in the morning, life had finally dwindled to the occasional drunken lout and early morning vendors getting ready to start the day as soon as the sun crept over the horizon.
Drew’s arm lay across the back of the seat behind me, and his gun sat discreetly on his thigh. His touch didn’t repel me like a man’s touch would have done only a day prior. Knowing he would never hurt me, that his purpose was to protect me, made my body relax into his. When he had pulled me into a hug a short time ago, I’d almost jumped out of my skin until the gruff rumble of his voice had vibrated through his chest. It soothed me, and the comforting touch may have even healed a small part of the broken woman I am.
The asphalt was still wet from the heavy rain that had soaked the city during the night, though the promise of a humid day was quickly drying out the ground. The air felt thick and hot, and my eyes felt heavy. I had only managed two hours sleep, and my body still craved the rest it had been denied. The rough bumping of the tuk-tuk was actually doing a great job of lulling me to sleep.
When we shuddered over a pot hole before turning sharply onto a narrow road and coming to an abrupt stop, the heaviness in my limbs disappeared with a surge of adrenaline. My eyes barely grazed the car that blocked the road in front of us before I was dragged from the back of the vehicle. Our driver was yelling at the driver of the car while Drew pressed me against the brick wall. I peeked around his arm and saw two men step from the sleek, black sedan that barely fit on the narrow street. Unhurried, and apparently unbothered by the tuk-tuk driver’s cursing, they turned their gaze on Drew and me. My body became unnaturally still as I watched them both pull guns from their jackets and point them directly at us. Before a scream could leave my lips, the door I was leaning against gave way, and I tumbled through it with Drew falling on top of me.
Drew was quick to jump to his feet and dragged me to mine as I watched a stunned Thai woman stare at us in surprise. She held a full garbage bag, probably heading to the bins behind her apartment.
I remained frozen in shock, but Drew moved quickly. He dragged me through the small home, passing another resident who had become immobile, a spoon paused halfway to his mouth, as we rushed through his living room and out the front door.
We didn’t stop once we were outside. My flip-flops hit the pavement with a harsh slap as Drew’s heavy boots barely made a sound. We ran around a fallen garbage bin before turning down another street. The air in my lungs came in harsh, shallow gulps as Drew pulled me along. A taxi sat at a red light, and Drew pulled open the door and pushed me in, diving in behind me. Quick, sharp words in Thai were exchanged, and Drew stuffed a handful of money at the man before he stopped arguing and turned to face forward once more. He pressed his foot to the accelerator, and my body lurched as I scrambled to put on a seat belt.
Glancing at Drew, I noticed him watching the road behind us.
“Are they following us?” I whispered.
When he didn’t answer, I decided to look for myself, but Drew stopped me before I could turn and look out the back window.
“No, not yet. Keep an eye on the road ahead. If you notice anything suspicious, let me know. The sooner the better.”
“What do you classify as suspicious?” I wondered out loud.
“Anything blocking the road, for starters.”
Settling back into my seat, I kept my focus on the road ahead, squinting in the early morning light while I watched for any road blocks. The throbbing in my chest began to slow, and instead of my body being left with lingering heat from the run, I began to chill. My limbs shook viciously, and it started to get harder and harder to breathe.
Drew’s big hand found mine, and he gave it a gentle squeeze.
“We’re good, Mouse. In a few hours, we will be on a plane home.”
Home. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that yet, but there was nothing I could do to avoid the inevitable. It was clear that Ben wanted me dead and would go to any lengths to see it done. I needed all the protection I could get.
After a while, Drew relaxed and turned around to face forward once more. His eyes remained on the street around us, while his hand held mine. The car finally came to a rolling stop beside a quiet gas station, and Drew spoke again in the local language before checking the street and pulling me out of the car.
“Where are we going?”
I didn’t think Drew was going to answer, which surprised me; even though he was a man of few words and many grunting noises, he never ignored me.
“The men back there watched us climb into a taxi. We need to change things up a bit.”
“I don’t think I can run much longer,” I confessed. My limbs felt like wet noodles, and my legs were unsteady as Drew pulled me towards the gas station.
“We won’t be running.” He stopped alongside a scooter. After a quick glance around, he threw a leg over the bike and used the key sitting in the engine to start it. “Jump on, Mouse.”
I hesitated, because what he was suggesting was stealing. Regardless of the perilous situation we had found ourselves in, we couldn’t steal.
“We can’t just take someone’s bike,” I hissed.
Drew’s lip twitched, and I knew he was holding back one of those stunning smiles. Patting the small space behind him, he said, “It’s not stealing, it’s borrowing.”
At that moment, a man came running out of the gas station, arms waving and what was no doubt a barrage of very naughty Thai words spilling from his lips. A strange man running at us in such a threatening manner had my body jerk into action. I jumped onto the bike and wrapped my arms around Drew who wasted no time in pulling onto the road, leaving the furious Thai standing in a cloud of dust.
This was my first time on a scooter, and as nervous as I was, I took a moment to notice how incredibly good Drew’s body felt against mine. It was hard and warm, and his scent was clean and masculine. The bike turned sharply, and I clutched at his stomach a little tighter. Drew’s large hand enveloped mine.
“Just hang on, Mouse. I got you.”
Drew took a corner a little fast and the back tire slid out, but Drew was quick to right us. It was in that moment I decided I wasn’t a scooter girl. I much preferred the safety of metal surrounding me as we sped along open roads and leaned around tight corners.
We wound our way alongside a dirty river teeming with life at this time in the morning. The water was a dirty brown, and boats maneuvered their way around each other in a similar chaotic fashion as the cars and motorcycles that occupied the roads. The homes and businesses that butted up against the banks of the river were little more than run down shacks, their contents spilling out into the canals.
We followed the river until the town started to fall away behind us, and sprawling acres of mud and water revealed the sea salt fields. Men and women were already hard at work harvesting the salt, long poles with baskets tied to a rope at either end making them look like living, breathing scales. We were paid little attention as we rounded a narrow road alongside the fields, before the thick Thai vegetation swallowed us again.
I had managed to block out the whole being chased with men carrying guns and was holding on to Drew like a monkey. I had almost begun to enjoy the scenery, and the scary scooter beneath my numb rump, when Drew tensed under my arms and cursed. Glancing over my shoulder, I watched as two men on motorcycles rounded the corner. Their bikes looked much faster than our scooter, and when one of them raised a gun and pointed it at my exposed back, I knew they weren’t out for a scenic ride.
Drew encouraged our small scooter to accelerate, but the men behind us continued to get closer, and closer. When a gun fired, I screamed.
“Hold on,” Drew grunted as he turned the scooter off the dirt road and down a very narrow path that speared its way through thick foliage.
I could hear the loud rattling engines of the bikes gaining on us, so when Drew brought the bike to an abrupt halt, I was tempted to scream again.
With numb fascination, I watched as a completely calm Drew raised his gun, which was steady in his grip. The first bike rounded a bend in the path, narrowly avoiding a fallen tree stump. Drew fired. The rider went down, and his bike slid forward into the greenery while the driver remained motionless on the ground. We could hear the second rider pause not far behind him, so Drew took the opportunity to climb off the scooter, dragging me behind him.
We were running again, and my protesting limbs weren’t going to be able to support me much longer. We didn’t have to run far, though. The vegetation was thick, too thick for the bike following us to navigate. Drew pulled us to a stop, and his hand on my head encouraged me to drop to the ground.
“Get under the tree, Mouse.”
I glanced at a fallen tree which had to be at least two of me wide and so long it disappeared into the growth either side of us. Beneath the wide, fallen trunk was a small space big enough for me to crawl under and hide.
“What about you?” I whispered with a shaky voice as I got on my tummy and crawled into my hiding spot.
“I need to take care of the man still following us.”
My heart lurched, and I reached for his wrist, holding onto it with a tight grip as my nails dug into his flesh.
“Please be safe.”
“It’s okay, Mouse. This is something I’m good at. Let me take care of this, and then we can get to that jet and get the hell out of here.”
His words made sense, and yet my worry for the man wouldn’t allow my grip on his wrist to let up.
Drew’s eyes never left mine when he raised the fist that was clamped tight around his thick wrist. He pressed his lips to the back of my fingers and some of the panic receded, wonder and heat replacing the terrifying cold.
“I’ll be back. I promise you.”
The sincerity in his eyes, the determination and focus, was enough to pacify me. Reluctantly, I let go, and Drew gave me a gentle nudge to back further beneath the fallen tree. Then he was gone.