ILL-FATED JOURNEY™

Chapter 44

I did as he ordered and stared at him in shock as we took off.

Catching my stare, he asked "What?"

"What do you mean 'what'?

"I mean - what are you looking at? Are you not proficient in the language by now?" He asked with

a puzzled frown.

"I am proficient enough to know my husband just ordered a woman's death!" I whispered. When

had this happened? The calling him my husband thing and now I wanted to keep his murdering

secrets! What the hell was happening to me?

"Not proficient enough, it seems." He replied dryly, focusing on his task. He put up a finger and

spoke to the tower, then switched off the headset and faced me. "What did I say, Azura?"

"Slava is going to die."

"Did I say who will kill her?" He asked, and I shook my head. "Yet you think it will be me." He

looked hurt by that thought for a few moments then shook his head. "Trust me, wife, her life 

won't be one you can lay at my door."

"Then why are we ...fleeing?" I asked without coming up with a better word for what we were 

doing.

"Because it can be laid at my door." He stated, and I was confused until he clarified "My

arguments with both her and Yuri will lead the police to me. I don't need them looking that

closely at you. Besides there another reason for this trip as well."

"What reason?"

"We need to visit my cousin, remember and with his ...name as it were, no one would dare ask

 any questions."

"So, we're literally hopping from the frying pan into the fryer."

"Well said, wife!" He praised with a smile and all I could think was – My God, I'm in love with a 

mad man!

******************

Azura must think him mental and maybe he was a bit. He was scheming like crazy to keep her

and his latest scheme was a risk all. He was tired of having Azura's past hanging over him. She

wasn't going to leave him, she had already proven that on the beach now all he needed was the

words. She may never voice them aloud, but her actions gave him hope, she would stand by him

when he needed her. Right now, it was all he could bank on.

Azura looked around the private airstrip in awe. Like his, it was in a no-fly zone but unlike his, it