Chapter 8: Dumb Decisions
1154 Words
Evangeline
Dreadful terror tightened my insides at Dane's words. And while I sat there, trembling, filled with questions about how anyone could possibly want me dead, Dane drove calmly, appearing completely unaffected by the fiasco from earlier.
“Why would someone want me dead?” I turned to regard Dane, whose eyes remained on the road, while I somehow still felt studied. Scrutinized.
“Why would anyone want you dead?” Dane returned the question. And I sat back in my seat, blinking rapidly as I mentally glided through a list of people that I had offended in the past.
“As far as I can tell, I do not have any enemies. I do not step on toes. And I don't go poking my nose in businesses that do not concern me.”
“But you and your gold-digger mom arranged to meet a billionaire in hopes of trading your wombs for his money, didn't you?”
“What?” I snapped as I turned to stare at Dane, whose dark eyes displayed the unbridled hatred he harbored towards Mother and me.
Strong arms remained on the steering wheel, knuckles turning white as they gripped harder than they should have.
I allowed my eyes to run over the bulging muscles of his exposed tanned flesh, and looked quickly away, allowing my eyes to scan the buildings and trees we blurred past.
“If you hate my mother and me this much, why are you trying to keep me alive?”
“What good would it do me if I ended up in a slump somewhere?”
“I need to know why you're helping me, Dane.” I pressed, refusing to allow his callous words get to me. People like Dane did not just help others because they wanted to. While I appreciated that my life was no longer in imminent danger, I needed to understand Dane's true motive.
“Gavin's death has already become a national headline. I see no point in giving the media more to talk about.”
Dane's voice was tinged low, tone casual, as if we were talking about the weather or someone we'd never met and not the man who'd raised him into the person he'd become.
“I don't think the media will notice my sudden non-existence.” I muttered more to myself than to Dane.
It was mother Gavin had married, it was their pictures the media had splashed across newspapers and magazines. I was simply the daughter of the woman who had married the wealthiest billionaire in Florida.
The only thing the media did not know was that I had f****d the billionaire who married my mother hours before his death.
But this was a truth Dane was privy to. This was information Dane could use against me. Yet, here he was, saving me from being deliberately wrecked and taking me where only he knew.
Maybe Dane had decided to save my life because dying by car wreckage was a messy death.
Maybe Dane needed something cleaner. Something that wouldn't be tied back to him, nor the Calder.
The sudden realization struck me with brutal force, causing me to double over as I clutched my stomach and fought the urge to puke.
“I don't do messy in my car, Evangeline.” Dane's voice filled the car. Hard, with no trace of care or concern in it.
“Then pull over before I hurl all over your perfect floorboard.”
Dane pulled over, and I pushed his car door open and made an entire show of dry heaving over and over again. And while I continued to do this, I allowed my eyes to scan the almost deserted area.
If I took off right now, I could escape into the woods without being found. But if Dane decided to give a chase, I'd definitely be caught.
I needed to make my escape in an area with more people.
I settled back into my seat and shut the car door. Wordlessly, Dane began to drive again.
“So, are you now going to tell me where you're taking me?” I asked, after several minutes of suffocating silence.
“You'll find out when we get there.”
Dane's reply irked me more than it had the right to.
“So, you're basically kidnapping?”
“If that's what you've chosen to call keeping you alive.”
“While I remain thankful that you had saved me from being mangled by that SUV, need I remind you that I have a mother who's still at the hospital struggling with recovery?”
“Are we talking about the same woman you abandoned at the hospital because you were more worried about getting rid of the growing life in your stomach?”
Dane's icy cold words stung, and they stung hard.
“You do not have the right to judge what I decide to do with the seed your own father planted in my stomach!”
Dane let out a low derisive chuckle and glanced at me with an expression that was akin to pity. And somehow, I hated that look more than the contemptuous one he often threw my way.
“Anyone who hears you right now would think he forced his way inside you.”
Dane's words shut me up very quickly. The truth of that statement became shrapnel, lodging itself against my skin, its presence a painful, inescapable truth.
I shut my eyes and squeezed them hard, fighting the urge to bang my head against the headrest of Dane's car until my skull split open.
Dane's words felt like a large mirror held up to my twisted self. When did I slowly become like mother?
Was this why Dane was taking me away? Because he planned to exploit me as a result of my heinous act?
“Stop the car, I need to puke.”
“I do not have all day, Evangeline.”
“Looks like you're ready to witness something messy.” I smirked.
My words caused him to park. I flung the car door open, but instead of doubling over, I sprang out and made a beeline for the coffee shop a few blocks away.
I expected Dane to give a chase, to hear his harsh breathing behind as he tried to apprehend me. Instead, Dane remained in his car watching me.
As I pulled the coffee shop door open, I turned to look back at the place where Dane had parked and I found it empty.
Good riddance.
I stepped into the coffee shop, and looked around for a good spot to sit, yet somehow, my eyes zeroed in on the man in a suit and dark sunglasses.
Even though I couldn't see his eyes, I could tell that he was watching me.
And as a shiver stole up my spine, I wondered whether I'd just walked into my own funeral.
- Writer
