Safeguard

Chapter Thirty-One

"Everyone but Luke," I mumbled with a small smile.

"I have to admit it, he doesn't half have some wits about him. Trust him to know what to say in a situation like that, though as you can imagine, your father wasn't anywhere near impressed."

"Didn't expect him to be," I rolled my eyes. "If he's got it in for him so bad then why does he keep Luke on?"

My mother shrugged, "He's the best agent we've got and a ticket to keeping you safe so your father doesn't really have a choice. On the subject of Luke. You would tell me if anything was going on wouldn't you Adelaide?"

"Going on?" I repeated, trying to determine what she was implying, though that was blatantly obvious.

"You know exactly what I mean Adelaide."

"There isn't anything going on," I told her.

"Give over," she ridiculed in response. "Well if there isn't then someone needs to get his act together."

"Mum, like I said, nothing is going on," I emphasised, leaning back slightly in my chair.

"Okay, okay," she said, holding her hands up in defence but her demeanour shifted and she soon grew quiet. "I just wanted to-"

"Wanted to what?"

"Nothing Adelaide, it isn't important right now."

"Mum? What aren't you telling me?"

"Look, I just wanted to warn you," she stumbled, somewhat wincing. "Well not necessarily warn you, I just want you to know that Luke isn't all sunshine and flowers. His job Adelaide, it requires him to be a certain type of person, one that may not be very clear to you at the moment. His environment, it's dangerous. He's dangerous for you to be around. And the last thing I want here is for you to take that the wrong way-"

"It's pretty hard to take that as a compliment," I remarked.

"Be careful Adelaide, that's all that I'm trying to say. I'm all for you two being close, he's a good kid and he understands what most of us don't. Luke's everything that anyone could want, he'd put anyone's life before his own, but at the same time he wouldn't think twice about taking one if they threatened something close to his heart."

"An angel with a shotgun," I concluded, more so to myself as my mother nodded.

"Do you want a tea-"

"Julie," my mother's question had been cut off by a childish, singsong voice sounding from the hallway. She tilted her head toward the door in time to see Luke enter, smiling innocently at the two of us.

He made his way over to me, stilling just before he reached my chair."Could I possibly borrow your daughter for the afternoon?"

My mother sent a discrete wink my way, "I suppose you can," she said, mimicking his tone.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The town," he replied. "I need to pick up some files from an office that your dad's got down there, so it'll give you a chance to get out of the house or whatever."

"That'd be lovely," my mother interjected, not giving me a choice.

Luke grinned at her, before averting his attention to me and taking a step backward. "I'll meet you out in ten, I need to quickly do the rounds first."

Frost taunted the landscape, an ivory dust scattering the inclines of grass. The sun was now at its peak in the sky, though this was shrouded by the low hanging clouds, suffocating the panorama with an unwanted, grey hue. Snow iced the channel of mountains visible to the right of me, the animals that once occupied the area now out of sight, leaving simply the remnants of vegetation to battle for survival against the winter months as they seeped upon us.

The road ahead of us was heavily prolonged, the meandering road never ceasing to stop in my eye range, yet I found myself grateful for just being with Luke, without him having to disappear off to another reminder of the turmoil we had been submitted under.

I cast a glance to the side, smiling uncontrollably as I noticed the mellow pink caressing the tip of his nose due to the icy air that was unavoidable despite the heater in the car. His eyes were fixated upon the road, but the slight uplift of his lips told me that he was aware I was watching him.

"What's playing with your mind Adelaide?" he said.

"My mum asked about us," I responded simply.

"She did?"

"Yeah, she wanted to know if anything was going on. I told her that there wasn't, but I can't help but feel like she knows. You don't think she saw us do you?"

Luke laughed quietly to himself, "Trust me Adelaide, you'd know about it if she had."

I shot him a puzzled glance, though he simply dismissed it by raising the palm of his hand. "I'm not trying to stop you from telling her, it's just, well it's more your father. He really isn't in the best place right now Adelaide and this certainly wouldn't help in any case."

"I know what you mean," I retorted with the roll of my eyes. "Considering that we're not even on speaking terms at the moment, I doubt that now is the right time for him to find out about this."

Luke mumbled in agreement, averting his attention back onto the road in front of him. My fingers played absentmindedly amongst one another as I watched the scene around us morph into a more urban-induced setting, with the vast areas of grassland being distorted by the distant view of industrial buildings.

"I know that you're holding back on something Adelaide," Luke said, rather suddenly after an extended period of silence.

"What?"

"I can read you like a book," he laughed lightly. "You do that whole I'm going to hope that you won't notice my sudden urge to avoid eye contact, or my furiously fidgeting hands." I went to object and tell him that I hadn't been keeping anything in, though it soon dawned on me that he knew myself better than I did. "I'd never try and force something out of you, but please just know that you can trust me."

I smiled thankfully, "I wasn't necessarily holding it back, well I didn't consciously think to do so, I just didn't want to..."

"Didn't want to what?" Luke asked, growing hesitant.

I sighed, speaking sheepishly, "Upset you."

Luke sent a comforting smile my way, "Adelaide, I'm a big guy, I can take it, I can promise you that."

A small laugh escaped my lips, grateful for Luke's brighter tone. "It was just my mother, after asking about the two of us, well as she phrased it, warned me about you."

"Warned you in what sense?"

"About the dangers of getting to close to you," I admitted, feeling guilty for labelling Luke as dangerous, despite the fact that I was far from the opinion of him being so. "With your job and everything going on, she's concerned that I'm going to get hurt."

Luke attempted to conceal what appeared to be a pained demeanour, his gaze refusing to leave the road in front of us. He sighed quietly, responding shortly after, "In all honesty, she has every right to be worried Adelaide," he admitted sorrowfully.

"It would be impossible to ever define this situation alone as dangerous, never mind the fact that we're actually together now. You being linked to me in that way makes this so much worse. But I was too selfish to admit that to you because I knew that voicing it would only add to the list of reasons for this not to work. The people that are after you Adelaide, they'll use this against us to get what they want, which is why I can understand what your mother is saying one hundred percent. But please know that I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you safe whether we're together or not."