the road.
“I’ll let you know as soon as I can,” Olena replied, still not providing me with anything.
“Why is it so important for me to be in the dark?” I wondered aloud.
“If you do not know anything, you cannot tell anyone,” Olena explained simply.
“Well yeah,” I said with a shake of my head. “But I would never tell anyone anything that would get you hurt or in trouble. Not after all we have been through now.”
“I know,” Olena nodded, a smile lighting up her face for a minute. “You would never tell people on your own. But these guys mean business, Claire. They are not above making you talk. They would torture you until they were sure you told them everything you knew. And even though you would be alive at the end of it, it would not be something you would want to remember for the rest of your life.”
As her words sunk in I could feel a tremor in my hands. The danger I was in now was more about guns than it was secrets. I could only begin to imagine what kind of secrets Olena had that would cause these men to be after her. Opening the window a crack to get some fresh air in, I did my best to take deep breaths and stay calm.
“Pull over, I should drive for a little,” Olena ordered, clearly seeing how shaken I was after her latest revelations.
With the freeway clear around us I easily pulled to the side of the road and hopped out of the car. Trading places with Olena, I buckled myself in before we took off once again.
“Hey Claire?” Olena asked quietly a few minutes later.
“Yeah?” I asked, meeting her eyes in the rearview mirror.
“As soon as it is safe I will tell you everything,” she smiled. “I promise.”
Nodding my head I curled up on my seat and closed my eyes. As hard as it was to trust Olena right now, I knew that she was telling me the truth. Keeping secrets from me was keeping me safe. Well, at least safer than the alternative. As much as I wanted to know more about what I had gotten involved in, it was a consolation to know I was not alone. When this was all over, Steven and I were going to need to have a lot of normal time to make up for running for our lives and breaking into my parents’ house. And Olena and I had a lot of time apart to still make up. But for now, as we approached JFK airport, I knew it was going to have to be good enough. Being in the dark was better than not being alive, and until I could have both instead of one or the other, I was just going to have to go along for the ride.
“Amazing!” I announced as I exited the now steamy bathroom and flopped down onto the queen sized bed in our hotel room.
“My turn,” Steven grinned, heading to the bathroom to take his turn in the shower.
Flipping on the TV I could not help but enjoy myself. After traveling from Michigan to New York a warm shower, room service, and a comfy bed to lay on while watching MTV were exactly what I needed. We only had a little bit of time until Olena said she would return from getting everything set for our flight, so I was doing my best to take it in while I could.
After watching a few music videos while towel drying my hair I could feel my bandage on my arm tugging at the skin underneath. As the new Britney Spears video played on the screen I decided to take a closer look. Tugging at one edge of the bandages I began unwrapping it, a little worried about what I would find underneath. As the last
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