Love's Inferno

Chapter 23 - The Wrong G-Wagon

Lou

My hope was that Dante would be led by his rage right to Luca's steps. They have their own history, one I'm still not aware of, but one that would never compare to ours. Luca is one of two people in this world who keep my secrets; you couldn't waterboard them out of him. No one would be able to pry them out of him and their shared animosity would ensure that Luca would never tell. He'd helped me, once before, during a time I refuse to think about. He helped me to run... all the way here. He'd helped me again when I needed space from Carrey. He'd know what receiving my phone meant. He'd know what to do - that much I was sure of. 

How to get my go bag without tripping the freak box? Not so much. 

On the tube, I'd thought it all through. I would have to leave London. I would have to go back home. I had never spent much time trying to hide and avoid what happened there, the person responsible for it all... but I was banking on the two years I had spent abroad. I was banking on their memories of me fading. I couldn't touch Cape Town again but Joburg? Well, that's as good a place to hide as anywhere. At least there, I was one among a million - a coloured girl in Joburg is nothing special. But to do all of this, enact my plan, I'd have to run not only from Dante, and the rest of their shining organization, I'd have to leave my new family. Uncle Sal, Aunty Francesa and Uncle Ernest. The thought made me nauseous as I walked out of the tube station, up the steps, ambling slowly along the street - knowing it's the last time I'll ever do this. I won't be able to come back. I won't be able to call Sal. I won't be able to help Ernest at night. I won't be able to learn recipes from Aunty Francesa... I'll be alone again, but maybe that's what I'm good at. I wouldn't know what to do with a husband, especially one as insane as Dante. 

I took a page from Paddy's notebook and decided to go around the back. I was never one for hopping fences, especially in broad daylight, but I know there's only one chink in the freak box's surveillance. The lower level window. I could also find Paddy's phone - send it to him from the airport and pray that he didn't turn out like his brothers. I looked at the fence in trepidation... it's high, like really high. I was lodging my hands into my pocket when I felt my kubaton. Pulling out my keychain, I sighed - thinking about how I'd need to throw it away before leaving when I noticed one sparkling key. I have a key to the back garden! Disaster averted, I unlocked the side gate slowly, walking through the drowsy garden I looked at Paddy's footsteps and followed them mindlessly - taking the little time I knew I had left to drag my feet. I crawled into a hedge when I saw it, a flashing screen - his battery was on 10%. When I looked up, I noticed another pair of footsteps. No one really comes out here... Looking up, I saw him. A mop of golden hair, dragging the bench towards the open window... Carrey. 

I was alone with Carrey in a place that wasn't surveilled. I needed to run...again. My choices were painful and undesirable on both counts. Either, I run around the front and potentially smack bang into Dante (or his people)... or I face Carrey. Around the front it is... Taking a deep breath I pocketed Paddy's phone and secured my kubaton in one hand, the knucklebusters in the other - working to detach the later from my keychain quietly... I thumbed my weapons and took a deep breath. I needed to be brave...really brave. 

Then, I was running... without looking behind me, in the direction of the gate. All I could hear was my heartbeat and footsteps drumming behind me. The gate is self-locking, he wouldn't have to scale the fence. I booked it at an incredible speed, for the second time today, and didn't stop when I heard the footsteps behind me. I needed to get inside the house. Carrey was faster than me and as I rounded the corner, still a painful distance from the front door, I spotted a blacked-out G-Wagon...the lesser of two evils. 

I ran for the now parked car without thinking...without doing the one thing I always do - checking the vehicle. 

Throwing open the door, I barreled inside - fighting with the seatbelt when it hit me... the smell. Dante smells like sin, a dream of sex and usually faintly of cigarettes. This car... smelt nothing like him. It was lilies and something else I didn't get a chance to think much about as I turned to apologise.