Page 44 of A Life Imagined
“And if he doesn’t?”
Mathias moved to face him.“Then we turn around and go back.There is no second option.If he’s not there, he’s gone.We took it as far as we could.”
Rayan shook his head, unable to accept that as a viable outcome.Yet at the same time, he knew Mathias was right.This was their only chance.If they couldn’t find Farhan with the Bratva’s help, what chance did they have on their own?
Mathias sighed.“What happens after this?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not running around Europe for every migrant you get attached to.”
Rayan smarted.“Christ, Mathias.”
“He’s not the first person to find himself in this situation, and he won’t be the last.You can’t save everyone.”
“I owe it to the girls.”Isn’t it enough that they lost their mother?I can’t stand by and watch them lose their father too.“And we’re working to try and stop this kind of thing from happening, or at least better protect people from it.We want to build a residence facility to safeguard vulnerable families like Farhan’s.Someplace permanent.”
That is, if we still have any hope of getting it off the ground.
Mathias raised a skeptical eyebrow.“How do you plan on doing that?”
Rayan recalled the mayor’s pitying look and Laurent’s glum admission that the project was too ambitious.Mathias would only say the same thing.
“What about you?”Rayan deflected.
“What about me?”
“What’s next?Is this enough for you?The business, Calais…”Me?
“What are you talking about?”Mathias asked.
“You know what I’m talking about.This is a far cry from reporting to the head of the Fifth Family.”Rayan paused, his voice lowering.“You’re not exactly cut out for an ordinary life.”
Mathias snickered.“Is that what you’d call this?”
“You would tell me,” Rayan murmured, “if there was something else you wanted.”
He waited for the man’s denial, but instead Mathias seemed to be mulling over Rayan’s question.“There might be other opportunities I’m considering.”
Rayan frowned.“What kind of opportunities?”
Mathias was quiet for a moment, then he pulled away.“Enough, Rayan.”
Rayan felt it again—the same prickle of fear as when Mathias had dismissed his concerns about the import license.What else is he keeping from me?
Mathias shed the remainder of his clothes and turned down the covers on the bed.“I’m tired.”
Rayan decided now wasn’t the time to push.If they wanted to have any chance of tackling what awaited them the next day, they would need their rest.But as he lay in the dark, a sleeping Mathias pressed against his back, the roar of the nearby highway rattling the cheap motel windows, Rayan couldn’t help but think that, unlike him, Mathias was very good at lying.
As Rayan and Mathias drove up to the Bademeusel checkpoint the following morning, they were funneled into a steady stream of traffic headed for Poland.Germany had recently reintroduced checkpoints at several of their border crossings to combat the spike in illegal migration.The operation was efficiently run.Two guards flanked each barrier gate, and as a vehicle approached, one of them would step up to the driver’s-side window to inspect documentation.If everything checked out, the vehicle was waved through.If it didn’t, vehicles were directed to park in a separate lane and passengers ordered out for additional questioning.
Mathias took out his driver’s license as he inched the truck forward in the queue.When they reached the barrier gate, a heavyset guard in a forest-green uniform stepped forward.
“Deutsch?”
“Français,” Mathias replied.
“License, please,” he said, switching to English.
