Adam's Pulse

Part 5

Chapter 5

Adam leaned back in the driver’s seat as Ally sat next to him.  She squirmed in her seat, glancing into the rearview mirror as if the cabin would come into view at any moment.  He smiled at her, but didn’t turn in her direction.  She could feel what he did, and he could feel her emotions.  So, he knew she was overcome with worry.  He knew that she was contemplating what would happen if she jumped out of the car at that exact moment.

“We’ve been on the road for twenty minutes,” she mumbled under her breath while glancing behind her once more.  “How long is this going to take?”

“Another twenty,” Adam answered with a laugh.  “If you can’t take a couple of minutes away from them, how are you going to deal with doing this every other day?”

She let out a small noise.  “I don’t know.  It’s only for five hours.  That’s not that bad, right?”

“Seven hours if you include the ride there are back.”  Another noise escaped her mouth as panic came off her in waves.  “Hey,” he said in a calming voice, “at least you don’t have to worry about living on campus.”  He paused for a moment, glancing at her quickly before turning his eyes back onto the road.  “How did you get out of that?”

Turning in her seat, she faced him completely.  “I have three children at home, and am emancipated.  I have no legal guardian, no husband, nothing.  Who is going to take care of my children all the time if I’m required to live on campus?”

“They bought that?” He asked with a snort.  “Those children never have less than two sets of eyes on them at all times.  How’d you get me out of it?”

“You’re over the age of twenty-one,” Ally said her voice a little too nonchalant, “and you own this lovely cabin in the woods not far from campus.”

As a stop sign came into view, Adam eased on the breaks.  “I don’t own the cabin, Ally.  What did you do?  You messed with their minds, didn’t you?”

Turning to face away from him, she shrugged.  “Maybe a little bit, but you do own the cabin.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked, turning towards her completely.  With the car at a stop, and his foot securely on the brake, they weren’t going anywhere until she answered his question.

She looked down, staring at her hands.  “You know Sebastian asked me to marry him.”

“Yeah,” he said slowly, wondering where she was going with this.

“Can’t you drive while I talk?” she asked while glancing up at him.  “We’re going to be late.”

“Ally.”

“Fine,” she snapped.  “I put the cabin in your name, because I want you to have it.”  Adam opened his mouth to interrupt her, but she shook her head at him.  “Just listen for a minute.  That cabin, it has bad memories in it.  You might not view it as I do, but that was where Blake died.  That was where Marcus brought me to be safe, when no one could be safe with him knowing where it was.  I just want my own place.  Somewhere that nobody knows where it is.  Sure, my guards will, and even those that I’ve come to truly trust will.”

“Then how is that an unknown place?”

She narrowed her eyes at him.  “It will be more unknown than the cabin.”

“How far away are you going to move?” he asked, feeling the slightest bit of panic.  He didn’t want Ally leaving them, didn’t want her to go.

“Drive,” she said with a small laugh, “and I’ll tell you.”  He let off the brake, but motioned for her to continue.  “It will be in running distance.  The main thing is that I’m going to have more security provisions.  With my children, and how frightened some are of them, I can’t be too careful.  I know that I could just add it onto the cabin, but I want to start over.  Plus, there aren’t enough rooms in the cabin for each of my children to have their own rooms.”