Page 127 of Beautiful Prey

If it had been anyone else, I wouldn’t believe it was possible. But with Emery, anything seemed possible. All I had to do…

“Say yes,” he said. He gripped my hands a little tighter, desperate for my answer. “Say, yes, Eve.”

That other future I had seen. The one where I was alone and Emery was locked away started to fade into nothingness. We didn’t have to go the way everyone wanted. This was our story, not theirs. He was mine.

If it meant sacrificing everything else…

I agreed without hesitation.

Emery looked up at me, wide-eyed. “Say it again.”

I squeezed his hand and repeated, “Yes.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

I kneeled on the floor of my cousin’s room, placing my clothes, toothbrush, and other items into the duffel bag. We were leaving at first light. As I was packing away what little I had, along with any remaining food, Emery finished readying the boat. I might have told him to wait a day, but I could see he was anxious. And, really, I was too. The house didn’t feel like home anymore anyway. It was just a place that held memories, nothing more.

It wasn’t the house that made me nervous to go. Taking a spontaneous trip like this with little planning was terrifying. But I trusted Emery to see us through to the end.

What little planning we did was more preparing for what we would do once we were gone. After I agreed, my brain—being the critical, overthinking bitch that it was—started to quietly panic as the realization of what we were going to do hit me and what that all entailed.

Emery said it would be somewhere warm, somewhere with clear skies and the ocean. I told him he had to give me a better idea. After a little looking around, we found an old, water-damaged book of maps in the attic and flipped to the region around the gulf between the southern US and South America. He tapped his finger on Merida in Yucatan.

“We’ll start at the coast there and work our way along the east bend,” he explained.

“So that means getting to the Gulf of Mexico. Which means…” I flipped through the maps till I found the waterways. “We're going to have to go around the state till we get to the Illinois River and take the Mississippi down.”

“Better than the alternative.” He traced his finger along Lake Erie and up the coast to Maine.

“How long?” I asked, nervously.

“A couple weeks. If we don’t make too many stops.”

I cursed.

Emery smirked at me. He left his mask off longer now, trying to become more accustomed to keeping it off. Since his mask was more recognizable now than his actual face, he knew he’d be too easy to spot if he kept it on when we sailed through the narrower, more populated areas.

And that was another thing. There would be canals we’d have to pass through. Which meant possible checks by patrols. Emery didn’t have a license and mine was expired. If I had access to the internet from my laptop, I could get it renewed online but that meant the risk of our location being compromised.

Then there was food. We didn’t have enough for a couple of weeks, let alone more. So, we’d have to make a stop somewhere.

If we made it out, there was the gulf to deal with. Would the boat even make it? Would the coast guard be waiting for us? What if we got caught in a storm? What if…

It was nerve-wracking as hell. And it almost pissed me off that Emery was so calm about all of it.

“We’ll figure it out as we go,” he said with a grin.

Dammit, we needed a week just to prepare. Instead, we were leaving in the span of a night.

After we’d figured out our heading, I went to start packing, keeping myself busy and occupied.

As I folded the rest of my clothes, I started to think about what came after instead. If we made it to Merida, we’d probably have to lay low and live in the boat for a while. Then when the time was right, I could start getting into my accounts. Dad didn’t leave me with nothing after all. I had a decent inheritance that was doubled since my brother wasn’t going to be able to grab his own. The email and eventual call to the family lawyer was going to be interesting to say the least. And when I felt we were truly safe, I’d contact my friends and Uncle Wes, let them know I was okay. I wouldn’t tell them I was with Emery, no way in hell. But I’d have to tell them I wasn’t coming back.

Once everything was taken care of, our dream might really come true.

After I stuffed the duffel bag full, I emptied the bathroom then used the cooler and a couple bags Emery had taken from my apartment to take out the food from the kitchen. I looked at the clock after and saw it was half past six in the morning. Less than a couple hours till sunrise. I saw Emery on the backyard camera, lugging a bag of tools to take on the boat. It had started to rain.

Almost done packing. There was just one more thing I needed. I climbed up the stairs two at a time, then veered left into the garage. My laptop lay on the workman's table. I took it back downstairs and plugged it in. As I set it down, the screen popped up. I did a double-take and felt my heart flip, then sink a little.

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