Tall, green-leaved Quaking Aspens bordered the swiveled trodden path that led to a blade stable. Alex tried to push away the queasiness wreaking his stomach with every anxious swallow he took. He watched the long black hairs of Kerma's tail fly in the loamy air.
"I'm suspect zero." Alex sulked his head down sitting on a bale of hay; his arms lay gangly over his thighs. He forged down the cold, dark corridor in his mind shrouded with deranged screams, padded walls, around the clock supervision, and locked doors. "I'm a psycho all over again."
"No. You're not." Isabeth knelt in front of him; held up his fallen chin. "Where are you getting this from?"
"Chi and I went to The Cellar." He pulled his face out of her delicate grasp. "The clerk said I was the one that bought the wine."
"I'm not following." She rose to her feet with urgency. "How is that possible?"
"Apparently, I lost my card."
"You lost it." She untucked her hair from her ear. "When did you report it stolen?"
"I just find out I lost it?" He jumped up, pulled out his black leather wallet. His finger hovered over the three cards it had in it. His hand dropped like a rock. Three. Three cards. He only had—
"What's the problem?" Isabeth tucked her hair back behind her ear. Persia's neighing called her, "It's okay girl." She stroked the bridge of Persia's nose.
"Driver's License." He pulled out the Rhode Island issued card with the same goofy picture he took at fifteen with the black eye he accidental got from Paxton. "Harvard Student ID." He pulled out the pocket where is credit was housed.
"Empty." Isabeth's eyes widen.
"Someone stole my identity." Alex shoved the wallet back in his pocket and fell listless to the bale of hay. "I'm going to jail."
Isabeth's hands started to tremble. She quickly grabbed her waist when he looked up at her with dejected eyes. The same eyes she saw across the cafeteria table like all hope was lost; her heart began to break. The heart he helped put back together after John Fulton pulverized it with a jackhammer.
Isabeth caressed his creamy smooth ecru cheek radiating strength in her tenacious eyes. "You're Benjamin Alexander Lemen Jr. Son of Benjamin Alexander Lemen Sr. and Michelle Concord-Lemen." She recited like Peter Jennings during the five o'clock news. "Brother of Paxton, Chloe, Malachi, and Clover. You're a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Dawson Toliver Academy." She cupped a hand under her chin, "By the way extremely difficult to do." She sealed it with a wink. "And a Psychology major at Harvard. And not to mention you're the boyfriend of the very stunning Isabeth Ovien." She gleamed a contagious smile that infected him. "You're witty, forgiving, and caring; traits you've only show to me because you don't want to be vulnerable and risk getting hurt again." She took his clammy hands in hers. "I'm blessed to know you and I cherish it and no one can tell me any different. You are not anti-social, you are not without a conscious and you...will never be a psycho. As the days on this earth are numerous I will stand by your side, Alex, my forever and ever."
"Why two ever's?" He caressed her soft hand.
She wrapped her arms around his svelte body. "Cause one is never enough."
Alex delicately placed his hand on her neck and tenderly kissed her sensual lips, feeling her energy pulsate through every vein of his body like electricity. For those seconds, time stopped. He floated on every word she said feeling a high that floated him above the clouds away from his past; erasing his imperfect deeds to a place where he was just a guy and she was just a girl; madly in love with each other. Now, as the kiss was over he was back on earth and even though she was by his side he still felt the pressure of being a suspect. He could feel the chain being placed around his ankle. The chain that was tied to an anvil that was ten seconds from being thrown into the Atlantic.
"What are we going to do now?" He saw her clever mind work behind her distant eyes.
"Fiona had a private investigator." She came back to him, "Dalton and I are going to see him tomorrow."
"What about Agent Clayton?" He circled his arms around her waist. "He knows the wine was bought under my name."
Alex spoke his name and she kissed him once more still haunting with the image of Clayton yearning for her touch in the back of her mind. "Just report that your card was stolen."
"And?"
"Then play it cool," Isabeth told. He nodded in agreement. "Go to work. Act normal."
Alex's eyebrow ticked up, "Act normal."
"If we act guilty. We look guilty." She smiled at him. "And we're not guilty."
Is it a bad sign that Isabeth is thinking about Clayton when she's kissing Alex?
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