Page 53 of Relentless Oath

What if Dario wasn’t actually the bad guy in all of this?

The silence between us stretched out as Dario drove. I was lost in my thoughts, worried about the baby, worried about myself, and wondering what was next.

Yawning, I let myself turn to look at him. He didn’t seem tired at all. His eyes were focused straight ahead. He had stopped glancing in the rearview mirror.

“Get some sleep,” he said, not looking at me. Could he feel my eyes on him?

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.” I had almost fallen asleep earlier, but then in my mind’s eye, I saw the driver with a hole in his head, and my eyes popped back open.

I’d never seen a dead body before. Jason’s death had been so clinical, and a hospice worker had informed me of my mother’s death.

I hadn’t wanted to see her body.

I suddenly felt so tired, as if I had run out of energy to be upset.

“I think you’re right. I’ll take that nap.”

It didn’t take long. As soon as my eyes closed, I was sound asleep.

What felt like seconds later, the feeling of the car slowing down and stopping woke me up. My eyes shot open.

“Where are we?”

“Somewhere safe,” he said shortly.

He climbed out of the car and I rubbed my eyes in a sleepy manner, waiting for him to open the door for me. As he did, I climbed out of the car and looked around.

We were near a marina. I didn’t understand.

“I own this marina. Well, the shell corporation that owns it.”

Of course.

“No one will think about looking for us here. I keep a few boats here to meet with clients from time to time.”

That made sense. He had shown me quite clearly during our time on the island that he liked sailing and enjoyed being out on the water.

We headed toward the docks. We passed a few yachts and kept walking until we came up to a much larger boat than the others.

He climbed aboard and then held his hand out to me. I took it, and he pulled me aboard.

It was a beautiful boat. I didn’t know boat terminology, I just knew there was a top part and a little stairway that led to the bottom part.

I didn’t need luxury. It could have been a pile of dirt, and I would have slept on it right now.

As soon as I saw the huge bed in the fancy bedroom, I crashed.

At one point in the night, I felt him crawl into bed next to me. He placed an arm around my waist and I cuddled up against him, not caring that I wanted to consider him my enemy.

He wasn’t. He’d taken care of me.

In the morning, the sun was peeking into the room. I woke up with him leaning on an elbow and looking down at me. His hand was in my hair.

“Good morning,” he said. His eyes were guarded, but he had a calmness about him that was reassuring.

I thought about how I had tried to shoot him last night.

When I had fired the gun, I had found myself unable to shoot to kill. I hadn’t known it was Dario. I figured I would just maim the person coming to get me.

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