Page 35 of Inked Athena

I put my fists on my hips. “I am this close to pushing you overboard.”

He turns his face up to the sky and laughs. “You have no idea how good it is to see your fight come back.”

Things can’t be so dire if he’s in this good of a mood, right?

“Where are we going?” I ask for the billionth time.

He doesn’t answer. Just gives the men below some unspoken command before he turns back to me. “Say goodbye toThe Sofia. It’s time to leave.”

“Translation: sit down, shut up, and don’t ask any questions.”

I take one look back at the yacht. I really will miss it. For a few weeks, at least, it felt something like home.

He shakes his head and sidles closer to me. I fight him for only a second before his arms wrap around my shoulders. He brushes a kiss against the top of my head. “Translation: take a deep breath and trust me. I’m trying to keep you and our baby safe.”

As the transport boat carries us away from the yacht, I feel every dip and ripple on the water. I pull my knees to my chest and think about Grams and Hope. I think about Rufus and Ruby.

Most of all, I wonder if and when I’ll ever be able to stop running.

13

SAMUIL

We’ve been driving on the same bumpy, one-lane road for half an hour with nothing more than Highland cows and Nova’s simmering rage to keep us company.

She hasn’t spoken directly to me since we left the yacht. Smart girl—talking would mean acknowledging that I exist, and right now, she’s determined to prove I don’t.

Even when Myles swerves into the passing lane without warning, sending her tumbling toward my lap, she rights herself without a glance in my direction.

A camper van blasts past us, nearly taking off our side mirror.

“Fucking tourists,” I mutter.

“We’re tourists, too.” Nova’s voice drips with disdain. “Wherever the hell we are, I know it’s not Chicago.”

Again, Myles catches my eyes in the rearview mirror.

Again, I ignore him.

I planned to tell Nova where we were headed once we were on the plane, but she spent the entire flight either throwing up in the toilet or trying to steal a burner phone from Vlad. He caught her elbow-deep in his suitcase and discreetly sent her back to her seat, but I got a text less than a minute later informing me of the “incident.”

Nothing happens with her that I don’t know about.

Except, of course, in that stubborn head of hers.

Who was she going to call? I told her to trust me. I told her I was taking care of her. That should’ve been enough.

Clearly, it wasn’t, and mistrust breeds mistrust, or some shit like that, which is why I chose to keep her in the dark about our final destination. That and she really fucking pissed me off.

Myles is enjoying the tension a little too much. I continue to ignore him even as he starts to whistle “All Star” by Smash Mouth for the third time in as many minutes. Let him enjoy the tension. I’m too busy wondering how Nova will react when she sees where we’re headed.

I may have bought the castle during a low point, with visions of living happily off the grid and as far as humanly possible from Katerina, but those dreams are nothing but ash now. They crumbled to dust on the yacht and burnt to a crisp on the plane.

I need to be connected to the world because, whether Nova wants to acknowledge it or not, the world is coming for me. I need to be prepared.

That’s tough to do in the middle of fucking nowhere.

“Enough with the goddamn whistling!” I bark.

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