Page 55 of One Wild Ride

“Yes, I haven’t told any guy I’ve been with as much as I’ve told you about my life. Even Morgana doesn’t know some of the things I told you, and I’ve known her since I was a freshman in college.”

“Then what’s the problem?” he asked and my heart ached as I watched the pain in his eyes.

“This is the problem.” I waved my hand around. “I have people here I care about. You don’t. My friends are my family and I love them. Before my roommate, Morgana, left for New York I stayed up with her as I helped her get over a broken heart.”

I got up and picked up the unicorn. It was worn and a little dirty, but I could tell it was loved.

“And my friend Evaleen. She doesn’t open up much but when she does, I want to be there for her. These are women who I’m not blood related to but it doesn’t make me love them any less. I can’t just run away from them. It would break my heart.”

I heard him sigh and we stayed there like that, in silence, as the sharp sting of reality tore at our happy dream.

“Maybe we don’t run away together,” Alex said.

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I said.”

“No, I know that. Hear me out. What if my mother thinks she won?” Alex said as he stood with a grin curling his lips.

“I don’t understand. I’m sure she will think she won. Wow, that woman’s control issues run deep.” I chuckled, shaking my head.

My breath caught as Alex stood and placed his hands on my arms.

“Yes, she has control issues. Bigger issues than you realize. But what I’m talking about is tricking her. Making her think she’s won.”

“But what would be the point of that? She did win, Alex. We aren’t running away together.”

Alex pulled away, taking the unicorn out of my hand and walking over to the window.

“This unicorn is the key.”

Oh God, he’s gone mental. At least we are in a hospital. It may be a children’s hospital, but they have medical staff that can help him.

“And what does the unicorn say to you, Alex?” I said in a very calm, unemotional voice as I crept backward toward the door.

“What? It doesn’t speak to me, Aria,” Alex said as he turned around. “Where are you going?”

“Nowhere.” My eyes widened from being caught.

“Anyway, it has been eating away at me that my mom seems to show up right when something is about to happen. When I planned to run away with you or when I decided to paint a mural.”

“Okay.” I was beginning to realize that maybe I decided too quickly that he was losing his mind.

I felt bad that I kept doing that with him. Like earlier when we left the Mimir building I kept thinking he was going to take me somewhere to kill me and now, that he was losing his mind. I seemed to jump to extreme conclusions with him.

Maybe I was just making an excuse to run away from him.

“When I started to take down the wallpaper for the mural, I found a small piece of black plastic near the ceiling. It blended into the pattern of the wallpaper. At first, I thought it belonged to something that was hanging before, like an old picture or shelving that had been removed. But the more I looked at it and now, with my mother always showing up at certain times, I believe she is bugging me. Spying on me.”

I gasped. Based on what I had witnessed from his mom I knew she was bad, but to spy on her son, in his bedroom, that was pure evil. Not to mention disgusting.

“Oh God. She’s crazy.” And I thought Alex was the crazy one. Now I really felt terrible.

“You have no idea,” Alex said as he shook his head.

“Then what should we do?”

I glanced around the room and wondered, how many places had she bugged? Did she spy on me too?

“That’s why I took you to that cheap motel. I paid cash for our room knowing she would never find me there. I didn’t want anyone to know where we were going. I wanted to talk you into running away despite what happened at Mimir. But the more I think about it, the more I think we should let my mom think she won.”

“Okay, I’m in. What’s the plan?”

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