Mystery Life

21

"Eve, please let me go with you to help you get settled." Zander pleads as Eve climbs out of the car and grabbing her bag with one hand and her cane with the other.

"No, you'll just tell that bastard where I am. I want a clean break from this life. I'll miss  you and the others, but I no longer feel safe there. If I can't trust him, then I can't feel safe. He made a fool out of me and I won't tolerate that.

"He's the one that taught me that I have worth, that I deserve to be treated right. Then he humiliates me. I won't be like other mafia wives, I won't turn a blind eye to his cheating. I won't accept being treated like that. I don't deserve to be treated like that.

"Tell the men that I said goodbye.

"Also warn them, that if I find them following me I will take it as a  hostile action on their part. I'd hate to have to hurt them."

"You know that they could kill you for that right?" Zander asks appalled at her words.

Zander doesn't see her smile, "Yes, I am aware, I just want to make them aware as well."

"I'll tell them."

Zander watches as Eve makes her way to the desk. She doesn't want him to even know where the bus destination is so he stays back to watch over her.

He sees her boarding a bus but can't see the destination. To his frustration two other buses leave at the same time.

He makes his way to the counter, "Excuse me miss, what are the destinations of those buses?"

"The first one is heading to Anchorage, Alaska. The second one is heading to New York City and the last one is heading to Miami, Florida." The female replies in a bored voice not even bothering to look at the man before her.

"Thank  you miss. Have a good day." Zander didn't even notice that Eve had gotten back off the bus and made her way to another area in the bus station.

"The bus leaving for Seattle, Washington is now boarding." Eve gathers her things and finds someone to help her find her bus. She never looks back as she gets on the bus taking her to her new life. Far away from the east coast.

"Are you sure that she got on one of these buses?" Dave demands as they look at the footage of each bus stop.

"Positive," Zander says exasperated.

"Have you ever considered that Eve knew you'd be looking and slipped off the bus before it left?" Peter says, he'd only recently been released from bed rest but still isn't up for active duty so he's helping them go through the hours and hours of footage looking for Eve.

"What do you mean?" Dave demands sitting up and staring at the man on the couch.

"I mean she likely expected Zander to be watching for which bus she took and slipped out. She only had a carry on bag so she could easily do that."

Dave lets out a long list of blistering expletives. That is something that Eve would do. They pull up the footage of Eve getting on the bus and like Peter said she slipped off and went to the waiting area.

"Fuck!" Dave says sweeping everything off his desk. "We've wasted all this time. She could be anywhere now."

Peter notices a sign board and an announcement that the bus for Seattle was now boarding. Eve collects her things and heads for the door. She finds a worker who takes her to the proper bus and she boards it. He watches to make sure she doesn't get off before it leaves.

"Boss, she's headed to Seattle."

His words take a bit to penetrate the anger in Dave but when they do he immediately calms down. "Are you sure?"

"There was an announcement board caught on the camera. It places the location as Seattle and Eve gets up. She finds someone to take her to the bus and she gets on. She doesn't get off before it leaves. Of course she could get off anywhere the bus stops between here and there, but that's where the bus is heading." Peter wishes he didn't feel like he was betraying Eve by telling Dave all this, but he does.

"Zander you and Peter will be going to Seattle as soon as arrangements can be made. Don't contact her but see if you can find her and make sure that she is safe. People take advantage of females enough that they'll find a blind woman even more of a prey."

Zander snorts at that, "If they tried that they'd soon find themselves the prey. Eve can handle herself better than most females. If she didn't hate this life so bad she'd make on hell of a mafia leader."

Dave can't face them.

He's never missed someone so much in his life. Even when she was missing before, it hadn't felt like this. How is he going to deal with this?

He has never felt such pain in his chest as he did in that moment. What will he do if she finds someone to be with willingly? How will he handle that pain?

Now he understands a bit, what he did to her. The pain makes him gasp for breath.

"Boss?" Zander says and it sounds like he'd said it more than once.

"Sorry Zander, got lost in my thoughts."

"How long do you want us to stay there if we find her?" Zander has no intentions of leaving without finding her. 

"Just long enough to make sure that she's okay. I won't risk her killing you or Peter. She already hates me enough as it is."

"There's a flight to Seattle that leaves in four hours," Peter says after looking over the flight schedules.

"Book it for you and Zander."

"All they have left is first class," Peter cautions Dave.

Dave smirks, "Enjoy it. You and Zander will be on that flight."

"Yes, boss," Peter says without looking away from the screen and pushes the purchase button. "The tickets will be sent electronically to our phones."

"Good, go get packed." Both men get up from their respective seats and leave the room as rapidly as they can.

"If they find her, she'll likely find them. You may have signed their death warrants." Leo warns from where he's sitting.

"Perhaps, but I don't think so. Have a little faith in those two." Dave tries to project confidence but he too worries that he may have just sent his best friend and loyal man to death.