to me. I’ll tell you one last time. Give me the girl.”
Seeing that Marie wasn’t going to budge, Josh nodded at Gavin and lunged toward her while Gavin lassoed and rushed me into the SUV. She hissed at Josh as he came toward her, challenged him for a moment before forfeiting. As Gavin reversed to drive off, she fled to the woods nearby, Josh trailing after her.
“Are you hurt?” Gavin hit the gas.
“No, just a little shaky. What was that all about? How do you know her?”
“She’s Joel’s mother. She doesn’t know.…”
“Oh my God.” I shook my head in disbelief as we drove off, the guilt creeping up again.
“She’s one of Samira’s oldest servants,” he said, “she’s just trying to look out for Joel. She still thinks he’s with Arianna.”
“I thought Arianna was in Amaranth.”
“She was.”
“How can someone leave Amaranth? I thought once you’re in, you’re in.”
“It’s a long story. What matters right now is she’s out there, and she’ll keep coming back. We really need to get to Paris.” He checked the side and rearview mirrors. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get to you. Josh and I stepped out for a cigarette, and I didn’t sense anyone had been in the house until it was too late. He’s going to chase her down, it’s okay now.”
Sitting there quietly, I wondered if this was what our life was going to be like. I knew Gavin and I would have to run, but did I want to be a restless nomad, wandering from place to place, never having a place to call home? That was why I moved to Louisiana in the first place, after all. To settle down and start over.
As if he read my mind, Gavin pulled over and parked on the side of the road, and turned to look at me. One look was all I needed to be reminded of the uselessness of contemplating what-if scenarios. Everything I wanted was right here in this car.
“I need to know if this is what you really want Camille, because this is going to be our life for a while.”
“I know it is.”
“It might never be easy again—carefree and simple.”
I thought of my mother and father, of two abusive relationships, of my entire life before I met Gavin. “It never was.”
“I’ll do everything in my power to make this right, but it’s going to take time. So I need to know.”
“You’re asking me if I’m sure I want to run with you.”
“Yes.”
I took a breath, let it out slowly. “Well, I am getting a tad tired of being kidnapped and chased by monsters. It’s really starting to piss me off.”
It wasn’t a joke, and he knew it too. He looked away from me, stared at the homes nearby. I stared, too. Pondered their dependable simplicity.
“But I’ll run with you. Under one condition.”
“Name it.”
“Don’t ever leave me again. Ever.”
“Not unless you want me to.”
“And all of the circumstances aside, let’s start over. Let’s be together the way we would’ve before all this happened. I love you regardless of what you are, so promise me—even if you stay this way, you’ll never leave me.”
He smirked, turned the ignition off. “Technically, that’s more than one condition.”
“Promise.”
Earnest again, he tossed the loose duct tape in the back seat. “Do you really want to put yourself through this? Is loving me really enough to endure everything you have to just to be with me?”
Meeting his fiery gaze, I ran my fingers through his hair, kissed him gently before I attempted to set us both free. “It will always be enough.”
With the many uncertainties, of one thing I was sure. I could not escape love, the very thing that had kept me mobile since the day I realized I was capable of giving and receiving it.
EPILOGUE
The brisk fall day welcomed us as we landed at Charles De Gaulle. We caught a cab to Gavin’s sister’s apartment, and when we arrived, he led me to her door, held my hand with an affectionate and eager smile, a single suitcase in the other hand.
“You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.” He was nervous, I was too; she was the first real relative of his, maybe the only relative, I would meet.
The lock turned on the other side of the door and I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. When the door gently opened, it revealed a tall, romantic-looking girl with dark eyes and a Victorian face. Her long, curly blonde hair fell past her shoulders,