Grifter|| A Love Story||

9

I sat on the edge of the motel bed rubbing my aching feet. "I really wish these cons didn't have to include heels," I whined. 

"We'll switch places next time," Bas quipped coming to sit beside me. 

"Please! I really need to see you squeeze into a dress." I chuckled, laying my head on his shoulder. His fingers rubbed the length of my arm, sending shivers through my body. 

"Do you ever think about life after this?" I whispered. His lips caressed my forehead and he hummed. 

"Big house, marriage, and babies?" He questioned, missing the longing smile crossing my lips. 

"You forgot the white picket fence," I teased. Poking his side with my finger, earning a laugh from him. 

"You want to get married?" He asked with sincerity. 

I thought about it for a split second. Going through all my daydreams I had about the future. 

"We've been on the run for three years," I said in a small voice. "I've always imagined walking down the aisle with you. Starting a real-life….." 

"The day we walk away from this life, I will walk you down the aisle so fast you'll be pregnant by our honeymoon." I snorted, slapping his shoulder. 

"You're so romantic!" I fake swooned, wrapping my arms around his neck. 

"You remember that baby, because, after five kids, I don't know if I'll be able to keep the romance alive!!!" He laughed as my face fell thirty stories. 

"I'm sorry, five!?" I squealed out, straddling his lap. "There's no way in hell I'm raising FIVE Sebastian juniors. You're delusional." I said kissing his cheek, as his arms wrapped around my body. 

"We can comprise," he whispered before capturing my lips against his. 

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

"I'm sorry, Grandma," I whispered, leaning my head back against the cool granite headstone. My eyes searching the stars sparkling above the family plot. Nestled in the middle of corn and bean fields, far from prying eyes, I felt momentarily safe.

"I have to this time, I have no choice," I whispered again, patting the grass beneath me. Praying to God she wouldn't reach out from the grave, pull me in, and smother me for even thinking about going back to him. There was no thinking it through, my life--- our life---was about to change in a big way. 

Tears streamed down my face, as I rubbed a hand over my stomach. Butterflies, among another little thing, brewed on the inside causing my nerves to go haywire.

Sirens blasted in the distance of the small town I had come from, probably racing to what I had done to my house. My poor grandparent's house they had left me years before, my childhood home, the only home I remembered. Went up in flames, but I had to do it. I had to destroy everything from my life. Plus-- Bastian had given me up to the feds unintentionally and I really couldn't blame him this time. I loved him too much to blame him anymore, for anything. 

"He's given me no choice and I….I love him. A lot. I always have. I need him. I hope you understand why you'll never see me again." I whispered into the winds again. Twirling the engagement ring he had given me 6 years before. Spinning it in my fingers before slipping it back on my finger for the first time since he had betrayed me, fitting as perfectly as it did before.

I swallowed the tingling lump in my throat, as my exit strategy waltz up the grassy field and through the fence of the small family graveyard. His hands were shoved deep into his jeans and his oddly colored Hawaiian shirt blew in the fall winds.