"You're quiet," Silas said, gazing at me, his green eyes still vibrant under the dull light overhead.
"Trying to absorb everything," I replied with a sigh.
He looked away when I dropped my head to my knees and hugged them, my cheek cold against my rough jeans. From the kitchen, noises came easily, interrupting the silence between us. With my head slanted like that, I inspected the blood on Silas's temple. My abrupt movement startled him. Kneeling, I splayed both hands on his shoulders.
"What are you doing?" He tried to look up but my palm was on his forehead, pushing him down so that I could observe the wound. It was still fresh, hair around it sticky with parched blood. I pressed a gentle finger to it.
"Does it hurt?"
"My head throbs." His answer surprised me. Normally, he would skip saying the truth to not get me worried.
"Shocking." I went back to where I was sitting. Confusion etched on his face. "Wasn't expecting your honesty?"
"When have I not been honest with you?" Silas eyed me carefully.
"When were you going to tell me about the drive?" I smiled, my tone almost casual as if my question was if he wanted sugar in his tea or not. I, myself, couldn't fathom this quietness. "And what is on the drive?"
"Confidential information." He tilted his face to a side, a reserved poise slipping in while he tactfully tried to find words to shut me down.
"I think I figured that part out." I looked down at the suede toecap of my boots, my hands rubbing on my exposed ankles subconsciously. "Information about what? I want to know that."
"Confidential... stuff," Silas said hesitantly and I couldn't believe that after all these he was still trying to keep this a secret. It didn't mean that he was protecting me. It meant he was keeping me inadequate when I could be helpful.
"Silas." I let out a sigh and turned to face him. "Those men were shooting at you for the drive. I don't think to keep the information from me would do any good for us now."
"Dawn-"
I interjected, "Why are they trying to kill you?"
There was silence. A sound of sirens blaring in the distance could be heard, joining the occasional kitchen chatters.
"You're still not going to tell me." I maintained eye contact.
"You know that it's dangerous-"
I recoiled, "How much more dangerous can it be than this? We're on a run, Silas." A pause. "I assume all of these: putting you in jail just before we were about to leave the country, planting drugs in your mill, all of these are connected to the drive."
Suddenly, I knew that my theory was hundred percent correct. It was just the way his eyes gleamed that made me realize.
"Well..." He shrugged. "You're close."
"Close?" I rose both my eyebrows.
He sighed in defeat. "Alright. You're thinking right. The drive has evidence of some pretty bad stuff that had happened throughout the years. The people in that, they know I'm looking into them."
"And they don't want you to. Did you threaten them anyhow?"
"I did, yes. For exchange of a secure life, void of any sort of politics." At my expression, he added, "I know. That was my only leverage. They used my own bait against me."
"Give up the information or serve time," I whispered, my eyes straining on his bleeding knuckles. I stared but felt no energy to mention them.
"Yes," he agreed with me.
"Who are they?" I whipped my head suddenly back to him, knowing my eyes were about to well up anytime.
"Megan," he responded, lowering his gaze.
That didn't surprise me. "And Adrian?"
"No!" His immediate response was what surprised me. He looked straight at me, open and highly sensitive. "My brother... he's a lot of things, Dawn. But not that. He's done a lot of taunting but whatever Megan did, he had no say in those."
"But I thought-"
"You assumed."
I rephrased, "I thought that you were being honest with me."
Something else flickered in the green of his eyes, an alien emotion. "I was. I am. I just didn't want you to know the exact same things I was in trouble for."
"You have to tell me now." My voice came out strangled and yet high-pitched. I stared, not blinking, lowering my voice to an extent. "Those men out there, Silas, they won't think twice before putting a bullet between your eyes. I want to know whatever reason they have."
He said nothing until I had looked away in despair.
"Megan Bateman is an alias. Her real name is Linda-"
"Linda Cuthbert. I know. But I thought that was an alias."
"I thought so too until I realized that she was turning a con into real life. But how do you know that?" He asked, his emerald eyes testing me.
I bit the insides of my cheek and let out a small puff of air. "Well, I might have pulled intel on her while you were busy planning how to break out of that prison."
I clearly remembered him passing a note saying 'look into M'. But I decided not to mention that.
Silas looked skeptical and sort of hurt. "You didn't tell me."
I didn't really want to taunt him but I couldn't help myself. "I didn't tell you a lot of things like the way you didn't."
My words seemed to strike a nerve or two. Silas closed his eyes slowly and lowered his head, breathing steadily and then finally muttered," You have no idea what Megan is capable of."
His eyes were on me now. "We were not her first victims. You know she has a way of reading people, know where to push the buttons, know things about you that your mother doesn't even know."
"Yes, I know," I agreed with him. Each time she had faced me, she had made me want to wrap my fingers around her slender white neck. "She has a tendency to get under your nerves."
Silas nodded and continued, "Her targets were aleays the wealthy and the spoiled."
"You weren't spoiled."
"I was an exception." A bitter smile curved his lips. "So was my brother. She set down roots so deeply that she couldn't get out with all the money she had siphoned off some off-shore accounts our father had. It wasn't only about money then. She got into something else. She and her acquaintances were developing some sort of drugs similar to narcotics. When I told you I was on cocaine when my father died, I lied. I wasn't the only person though. Adrian had done a lot of things because of the drugs."
"But she can't always control him with drugs," I protested. I could say anything to prove Adrian as the bad guy. Yet, the first few days with the Dale brothers flashed through my mind. I had been Adrian's then and truth to be told, I liked him a lot more back then. But, I knew he was conning me. He had to.
"No, she can't," Silas agreed. "But she can control him with whatever he had done or said under the influence of the serum. She blackmailed her patients after that. They would spill secrets and sometimes, she would just make them believe things that never happened. Adrian thought... I killed our father."
Remorse was slipping in his glossy eyes and suddenly I realized he was about to say something I wouldn't like.
"I was the one who told you he wasn't good for you only because I thought Megan wouldn't want her boytoy to be serious about some other girl."
"Serious?" I knitted my eyebrows, my breathe catching in my throat.
"He genuinely liked you."
My head seemed to sway slightly as I tried to absorb the information. Nothing made sense anymore. Silas was still going on, "That was when I walked in. He chased you to Maui because he was going to ask you out."
"He did," I spoke abruptly, not even perceiving. "He asked me out and you came. He had to leave for New York. You..." I turned my head slowly towards him, not believing that everything wasn't a coincidence after all. "...stole me from him."
"Yes. Because he did the same with Megan."
"So you never wanted me back then?" My voice was strangely calm, my eyes fixed on his.
"I did," he muttered after a short while. "That's why I was hurt when I thought he hired you to..."
"Seduce you?" I interrupted with a glare. "That kiss on the beach, did that mean anything to you?"
His eyes on me didn't falter, his jaw straight. For a split second, I thought perhaps we were going to stay like this forever and then finally he responded, "It was like... feeling something after a long time. I wouldn't say there weren't other women. But like I had said once, you showed me... heaven."
I looked away then and stared at my nails, poking my knee with a thumbnail.
I didn't know what to believe now. I knew he loved me. God knew he did. But what he did to Adrian wasn't right. All those days, he watched me working for him, knowing that be could have been in Silas's place in my life. He might be a bad person but in Maui, he was just a man wanting to care for someone. I remembered looking at the moon with him on the catamaran. He could've kissed me then and there. I could be his. But he was patient. I remembered how nervous he had been when he asked me out for lunch. It upset me. He deserved better than me and Megan.
After a few hours of silence and contemplation, Jayne came back with the bag we had packed, the car key and food.
"How did you guys end up here?" I thought you were supposed to flee the country?" She sat from across us in the large kitchen, on the counter.
"We were taken," I said casually and Silas threw me a look. Of course, it was a bad idea to tell her this now. But right now, I couldn't stand dishonesty. "We got out safely." Just a few inches away from being shot to dead.
"Your hands are bleeding," Jayne pointed out and took Silas's hands in hers. The bleeding had gradually stopped but the wounds were still visible.
"Wait," she said and disappeared behind the metal doubledoor. She came back fast and dressed the wound. I would've done it when I had noticed it first. But I was too involved in being egoistic. I wasn't wrong either.
Silas had no right to do something just out of jealousy and for revenge. I admitted our relationship started unexpectedly and Adrian had done things as well. He had made sure I wasn't considered working in any other publishing company when I had first thought of resignation from his company. It was over-the-top but now as I thought through, I knew that he was just hurt. He had returned to New York from Maui, leaving Silas and me alone and Silas had taken the opportunity. I'd be pissed if I was in Adrian's place.
"Dawn?"
"Hmm."
Silas was looking at me, concerned. Jayne, however, was nowhere to be seen.
"What happened? What were you thinking?"
"How long are we going to stay here?" I got on my feet to stretch my legs.
"We leave when it's dark," he said and proceeded to remain silent for the rest of our time here.
We left when it was finally dark. The Dodge was parked before the cafe parking lot, the number plate on it changed just the way we had requested.
"Where do we go now?" I asked once we settled inside the claustrophobic space, the interior light hitting my eyes.
"I'm not sure," Silas said, his bandaged hands hovering over the steering wheel.
"We can't go to the airport. What if they involved the Interpol or the locals? You saw those wanted posters, right?" I frowned at him.
"I have the drive on me. They wouldn't involve the government knowing that."
That was true. Without delay, an idea flipped in my head.
"How much money do we have?" I blinked at Silas. He looked extremely pale and I found myself wanting to touch him, to warm him up.
"Enough." Silas clicked his teeth together absentmindedly, looking behind to see if we had company. We didn't.
"Enough to buy two tickets to Paris?" I asked when he faced me once again.
"I think so," he nodded as if thinking, then confirmed, "Yes. What's your angle?"
"Just trust me on this," I said, watching him start the engine. As he drove, Amalfi seemed like a town drifting away. The smell of salt, heavy and distasteful, came off the ocean. The road was clear just like yesterday night. Cars passed us and we passed them, leaving a load of memories behind us. Silas was cautious, always observing who was in front of us and who was behind.
I had my eyes darting inside our duffel bag while I sorted through the divinely-forged passports. After some rumination, I chose for us to stay who we were now.
"You know that we can't use that alias. They are burnt." Silas stole a glance at me.
"You said you trust me." I rolled my eyes, holding the passports and inspecting them.
"We will be traced." He was exasperated now. "We can't go to Paris under those name."
"We aren't," I smiled at him knowing that my husband was going to adore this idea.
"What?" A frown emerged on his face.
I only smiled, "We aren't going to Paris. They are."
_________
Anyone remembers the title? :D
What do you think about all those secret-spilling?
Hope you enjoyed.