"There's..." How to explain this?" "There's someone behind us," I said.
Oh, great job, Elise. Yes, there's someone behind us. While we're driving? How could that happen! People drove behind other people every day. That wasn't this, though. Oh no, not by any stretch.
Lucent came to the same assumption as I did, which was to say that we both probably thought I was crazy at the moment, but I knew I wasn't. He was nice enough not to say anything, but the look in his eyes gave me pause. More concern than worry, but still.
I took in a deep breath, trying to control my sudden rush of anxiety.
"Last night," I said. "I was followed. I think. I don't know for sure, but when I went to get my purse from your car, I heard someone following me in the parking garage at Landseer Tower. And then when I started walking faster, I think they kept following me. That's why I screamed when you found me, because I thought you were them and they... they were..."
"It's alright," Lucent said. "Take your time."
"They looked the same as the person we saw at Jessika and Asher's home," I said. "He wore a hooded sweatshirt, or something like it, I think. I was scared, Lucent. I remember what he looked like, though. I mean, I sort of do. I..."
"It's fine," he said. "I understand. We're leaving. If someone was following you, they won't be able to find you now. It might have been nothing, but it's better to be safe than sorry."
"No, it's... Lucent, it's the same person. I think it is. Behind us. They... how long have they been following us?"
Lucent blinked. This seemed like one of those strange moments where I'd caught him completely off guard. It didn't happen often, but it did happen sometimes, and...
"Are you sure?" he asked. "They've been behind us for awhile, but there aren't many exits on this stretch of road. It's generally a back route and quite isolated. Nothing but small towns for miles."
I turned around again, risking a glance. I wasn't exactly covert here, but I thought we both really needed to know what was going on at the moment.
I saw him, the same as I saw him the other day. His eyes, intent, staring forward. Not just on the road, no, but on us. On me, now. Our eyes locked and a faint grin spread across his face. Just like the previous night, I saw him nodding, nodding, nodding, his head bobbing up and down to the sound of some imperceptible music. Not altogether too strange at the moment, since he was in a car, but why had he done it the night before?
There were a million reasons why someone might be doing something like that, but the fact that this man and the other one were doing the exact same things, looking the exact same way, doing...
While I tried to puzzle through this, to figure out if it was just my imagination or if there really was something to this, the man reached behind him. Towards the headrest, or that's what it looked like, but then he grabbed something, pulled it up...
"Yes," I said, whispered, nearly choking on the words. "Lucent, that's him. I'm sure of it."
I turned around fast just as the man driving behind us started to grin wickedly at me. Before, when I saw him reaching back, he'd grabbed the hood of his sweatshirt and lifted it up and onto his head. A sign? Yes, possibly. Probably, even. I didn't know what he wanted to tell me, but none of it seemed good.
I'm following you. I'm watching you. You can't escape. You will never escape.
And what? Or... why? What did he want? Why was he here?
I wasn't alone now, though. It didn't matter what he wanted. Or why. Nothing. None of it. I was here and he was there, and I had Lucent and the thing they wanted. I had the portable hard drive in my purse, resting on the floor between my feet. I reached down and grabbed it, then clutched it tight in my lap. I wouldn't let anyone else have it. They couldn't. It was mine.
"Your seatbelt is buckled, of course?" Lucent asked me. His right hand moved from the steering wheel to the stick shift, where he pressed a button quickly with his thumb.
"Yes," I said. "Why?"
"I suppose you could say we're going to take the scenic route, Miss Tanner."
"Scenic route?" I asked. "Um... Lucent, I don't think it's time to..."
I wasn't sure what happened until after it happened. I still didn't know where we were. I wasn't sure how long I'd slept for. I didn't know a lot of things.
I just knew that I heard the screech of tires, an odd, sudden smell of something burning, and before I realized it we were no longer on a country highway but instead traveling down a narrow, dirt road. Behind us, blazing up and covering our trail, was a cloud of dust, like smoke.
"Would you mind assisting me with something, Miss Tanner?" Lucent asked.
I tried to respond, but the car thumped heavily along the bumpy road, sending my teeth chattering. It took me a second of nodding, but finally I managed to say, "Yes."
"Please remove the GPS from the dashboard," Lucent said; I did what he asked. "Click through the menus so that it brings you to the destination screen. We're going to change it."
"Change our destination?" I asked.
Lucent just nodded at me, staying focused on the road. His hand moved along the shift stick, accelerating and decelerating us in a jumpy, awkward way. I didn't realize why at first, because I thought we sort of just wanted to go as fast as possible, right? But whatever Lucent was doing, it seemed to work. Behind us, continuous and blinding, the cloud of dirt kept us somewhat hidden. What with the bumpy road and the trees surrounding us on either side, it didn't seem like we could go much faster, either.
"This doesn't seem like very safe driving," I said, trying not to smile.
"We have airbags," Lucent said.
"Oh, right. Of course. How could I forget?"
He kept his eyes on the road, but scrunched up his nose and his brow, which I thought was basically to tell me that I could be quiet any time now.
"Can you change our destination yet?" he asked.
"I'm trying!" I said.
And I was. Sort of. It kept yelling at me. I mean, it was just a GPS, so it wasn't actually yelling at me, but it continuously wanted to remind me that attempting to use a GPS while driving was unsafe behavior. Yes, I know. I know! I tapped at it anyways, moving away from the warning screen, tap, tap, finally getting to where Lucent wanted me to be.
"Yes, alright," I said. "Where are we going?"
He gave me a funny look.
"What?" I asked. "Don't look at me like that."
He laughed and said, "Alright, put in this address." And he named some place I'd never heard of, with a single digit street number, and some street that sounded like it belonged in an old country Western movie.
I tapped it all in, finding everything with relative ease. There weren't a lot of options for this place, apparently. Once I confirmed our new destination, the GPS beeped happily at me and told me it was recalculating our route.
"It's all set," I said. "It's recalculating. Do you want me to tell you the directions or turn up the sound on it?" I asked.
It only took a second, but the recalculations were finished now.
"No," Lucent said. "Could you please unplug it now? From the cigarette lighter or directly from the device itself. Either way is fine, Miss Tanner."
"What?" I asked. I didn't know why I asked him this, though, because I just pulled the plug out of the cigarette lighter anyways.
Lucent maneuvered away from the shift stick with his right hand so he could hold the wheel and handle one of the buttons on the car door instead. Two seconds later, I found my window rolling down, with the fresh scent of the forest rushing inside, a faint dust from the dirt road following along with it.
"Now throw the GPS out the window," he said, shouting.
I stared at him like he was daft, because honestly at that very moment I thought Lucent was daft. "What?" I asked.
He shouted again. "Throw it out the window!"
After I'd unplugged the device, it started counting down at me, asking if I wanted to let it shut down or keep it running on battery power. I didn't have time to ask Lucen
t about that, though. He seemed rather adamant about me throwing it out the window. I tapped the button to tell it to stay powered on by battery, then threw the thing out the window. It smacked against a bush, then started falling to the ground. I turned to watch it, but we were already too far past.
Lucent rolled my window back up with the buttons on his door and the rush of deafening forest air stopped, replaced again by the quiet sound of classical orchestra music. I hadn't even realized it was playing before, and it was so quiet as to be easily missed, but now that it was the only sound I could hear, it seemed more than a bit odd. We drove like that, silent except for the sound of a few violins accompanying a piano, and later on some flutes.
After a minute or so, I said, "Did you want me to keep the power on? Or was I supposed to let it turn off like it usually does when you unplug it like that?"
"Please tell me you kept it running by battery," he said.
I really didn't like his tone. I wasn't the crazy one here. And I told him that. "I'm not the crazy one here, Lucent. You're driving like a maniac and yelling at me to throw the GPS out the window. You know what? They're going to charge you for that at the rental place. How are we going to explain that?" I asked. Mimicking us doing exactly that, I added, "Yes, excuse me Mr. Car Rental Man, we lost the GPS. Lost it how, you ask? Well, we were driving like maniacs down a dirt path in the middle of nowhere and Lucent told me to throw it out the window! It's somewhere in the woods, I'm sure. It's a GPS, so maybe you can... track... it..."
I realized what was going on with those last few words. Lucent smirked, looking thoroughly amused, despite the fact that he was staring at dirt road and nothingness in front of us. For good measure, because he deserved it, I slapped his arm.
"Yes," I said. "I tapped the little button thing to make sure it stayed on."
"Good," he said. "I assume that's how they were tracking us. Either that, or they hacked into the destination satellite."
"How can someone even do that?" I asked. "It's not like it's a computer."
"Not the same as a laptop or a desktop computer, no, but it works similarly nonetheless. Transmissions can be intercepted. In all likelihood, they didn't know our destination, and I made sure to put in a false one before we started, but changing it to something else is safer. It's more likely they were tracking the GPS positioning, so they knew where we were and where we were going."
"Why'd you have me change the destination, then? Couldn't I have just thrown it out the window right from the start?"
"Yes. Probably. It'll look more genuine, though. If they find it, which I have no doubt they will, it'll appear like we were attempting to throw them off our trail by changing our destination before tossing the GPS. My hopes are that they'll believe the first destination is real, and it will give us a little more time."
"More time? Um..."
Because didn't we have plenty of time? I guess they might still be following behind us, but the cloud of dirt seemed to put a good stop to that. And by the looks of it, Lucent was about to bring us back onto a regular road any moment now. Trees and dirt gave way to air, fields, and actual concrete. Lucent did whatever manumatic transmission shift stick switch trip things to get us back up to heightened acceleration as soon as we hit real road again. There wasn't anyone behind us after that from what I could see, either, so...
"Hopefully they were tracking the GPS," he said. "It's the easier and more obvious target. The car itself will have some sort of tracking system in it, as well, though. That'll be safeguarded by the rental company and involve more time to hack into, but if they really want to follow us, then they'll do it, especially once they realize both GPS destinations are fake."
"Oh," I said. "But what about the destinations you put in?"
"What about them?" he asked, lifting one brow, confused.
"If they go there, won't that uh... I don't want anyone to get hurt because of us, Lucent."
"Everything will be fine. The addresses belong to abandoned farmhouses."
"So you're saying you keep a list of the addresses of abandoned places in your head?" I asked. "In case you need to make a quick getaway? That sounds a little strange, don't you think?"
He laughed. "There are many uses for addresses like that, Miss Tanner. I'm partial to offering them up to pesky telemarketers when they request an address."
"Honestly, I'd imagine you'd just hang up on them," I said. "Or threaten to sue them."
"You make me sound like a monster," he said. "Am I truly that frightening?"
"No," I said, huffy and annoyed. "You're not scary at all, Lucent. I'm not scared of you, even if you know the addresses to some abandoned farmhouses where you could stow dead bodies or something."
"I'd hardly want to stow dead bodies in a farmhouse, nor have I ever had dead bodies to stow in the first place."
"Can we go to one?" I asked. "I mean, not now, of course. But can we go to an abandoned place? It sounds interesting."
"Possibly in the future," he said, and with a wink, added, "If you're up for the risk."
"You can't scare me out of it. You're the one who wouldn't want to, I bet. Because it's unsafe and dirty and you'll make some excuse."
Yes, perhaps I was being ornery and belligerent right now, but... to be honest, I was more than a little excited. We'd just been on a car chase! Sort of. And I'd thrown a GPS out the window. It didn't exactly sound as exciting as it was when I put it like that, but, no, it was. I'd never seen Lucent act like that before. Yes, he was dominant in more ways than I could name, but something about this type of dominance was... it was different. Criminal? Lucent was bad. Very very bad.
I suddenly had a bad idea of my own.
"You've got to make it up to me for all of what you just did," I said.
"What do you mean?" he asked. "What did I just do?"
"Um... the screeching tires and the dust cloud speeding down some dirt path out in the middle of nowhere? That was more than a little insane, Lucent. I don't know if you realized that, but I did, and I thought you should know that I felt very unsafe."
This gave him pause. He became more serious and stern. Not that it was necessary, because we were driving very safely right now, but...
"I apologize," he said. "I fully understand why something like what occurred would give you cause for concern. I thought it was in both of our best interests to ascertain our safety and lose the person following us, and I acted accordingly."
"That's fine," I said, nonchalant.
"If it's fine, why did you request I make it up to you?" he asked.
"Can I be like what we did last night?" I asked. "Mistress Elise?"
He blinked and looked towards me for a fraction of a second, offering me an odd look. "I suppose?"
"And you'll do anything I say, right?"
"Anything? That's somewhat of a stretch, Miss Tanner."
"Mistress Elise!" I reminded him.
Lucent rolled his eyes. "Yes, of course. Mistress Elise."
"I'm going to punish you, Lucent. You've been a bad boy."
"Have I?" he asked, coy.
"Yes, and since you drove so unsafely without asking me, I want to do it again and you have to agree."
"You're going to punish me for driving unsafely by forcing me to, once again, drive unsafely?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. "Also don't forget to call me Mistress Elise."
"Of course. Mistress Elise, please tell me what you have in mind."
"I want to give you a blowjob," I said. "Maybe not right now, though. Or maybe? Hm... I'm not sure yet."
"I have no idea what this has to do with driving..." he said, but his words trailed off. And then he added, "No."
"You can't say no! You already agreed!"
"I didn't agree," he said, muffed. "I was favoring you momentarily to help you calm your nerves."
"You're going to let me give you a blowjob while you're driving sometime or I'm not going to love you anymore," I said.
"That's rather childish, don
't you think?" he asked.
"Yes, and I don't care."
We were at a standstill. Quiet piano music played between us. Lucent remained focused on the road ahead of us. I kept my arms crossed over my chest, glancing out the window and refusing to look at him.
"This is ridiculous," Lucent said, finally, after a few minutes of silent argument passed between us. I was about to argue with him more until he added, "Fine. Not now, though. It's unsafe. Will that suffice? A raincheck?"
"No, that will not suffice," I said, turning fast to glare at him.
"Why not?" he asked. "We can't do it now. Our situation has become quite a bit more urgent, Miss Tanner. I'm going to get us to where I planned on bringing us, but we need to remove ourselves from this vehicle as promptly as possible to avoid needless conflict between us and our pursuers."
"That's not what I meant," I said. "I want you to enjoy it. You made it sound like a chore."
"Well, I can assure you it'll hardly be a chore. I honestly look forward to any excuse to have your delightful lips wrapped tightly around my cock, Miss Tanner."
"Do you really?" I asked. "Can you say that again, but maybe a little more seductive?"
"I do," he said with a grin. "And yes, of course," he added, clearing his throat.
Slow, commanding, he said, "Miss Tanner, I adore your lips. I love kissing them. I love the taste of you. I love watching you lean down, tentative and with rapt anticipation, watching you open your mouth slightly at the sight of my hardened erection. I love the soft feel of your kiss at the head of my cock as you gently ease yourself forward, and the slick, delirious feeling of your tongue as you lick at the underside of my shaft. I especially adore the lipstick stains you leave on my cock as you slide more and more of me into your mouth. When I can feel myself deep inside you, pressed against the back of your throat, I am always in absolute and unadulterated heaven. You are pure pleasure personified, Elise."
"Oh," I said. I didn't know what else to say besides that. Oh.
"Good?" he asked.
"Are you sure that we can't do that right now? I mean, I know maybe it's not the best idea, but I kind of want to now."
He laughed. "Unfortunately it's not the best of ideas."
His Absolute Proposal: An Illicit Billionaire Love Story (Elise, #3) Page 11