by Lynsay Sands
She followed, surprised when he led them back to the trailers. He released her hand, then said, "Wait here," and slipped inside.
Divine stared at the trailer for a moment before it suddenly occurred to her that this was her chance. She was alone. She could slip away and make her escape now, go somewhere and start her new life . . . alone. Again.
She let that thought settle in her head and didn't have to wonder why that wasn't at all appealing. She'd been having fun with Marcus. They hadn't talked much or had long, deep conversations, mostly they'd run from ride to ride, laughing like children and basically just having fun. They had cracked the occasional joke, or commented on things they saw. A mother shrieking at a weeping child for dropping his ice cream had angered them both. Children dropped things, accidents happened. The child was already upset by it and the mother standing there yelling at the little boy that he was stupid and clumsy and useless hadn't impressed either of them. Marcus slipping into the mother's head and giving her an attitude adjustment had made Divine smile. She knew it wouldn't last long, but the boy's smile as the mother had suddenly hugged him and told him she loved him, that accidents happened and he was a good boy and she would buy him a new ice cream . . . well, at least he'd have one good night at the carnival to remember when he grew up.
They'd both grinned when they'd spotted a couple of plump teenagers making out on the Ferris wheel as they passed. The pair had been pretty into it and it was Marcus who noticed that Carl let their car swing by without making them get out.
"Our Carl's an old romantic," Divine had told him with amusement when he'd commented. "He'll let them go around two or three times before ending their ride."
They'd smiled and laughed over several things since coming out for their play evening three hours ago, and Divine had enjoyed every moment of it. She had gathered memories she could pull out and look at over the years ahead, she told herself. But now playtime was over. She had to go.
Sighing, she turned away and started around the RV, intending to slip up the opposite side of it to reach the back lot rather than risk Marcus coming out and spotting her slipping away between the two vehicles. She was about to turn down the far side and head for the back lot when Marcus suddenly said, "You aren't trying to escape me, are you?"
Divine turned quickly to see him jogging toward her, a smile on his face that looked a little concerned and even forced. Managing a smile of her own, she shook her head. "I just thought I'd--" She glanced around for an excuse, and finished, "--try my hand at the balloon game while I waited."
Marcus glanced to the game a few stalls ahead and then took her hand. "We'll both try it before we go."
"Go?" Divine asked with a frown. "Go where?"
"You'll see," Marcus said, squeezing her hand. "It's a surprise."
Divine frowned over that as they arrived at the balloon game stall. Marcus gave the game agent tickets for darts and they both began tossing them at the balloons. She had always considered herself a good aim, and she was, but the balloons weren't fully blown up and the darts sometimes just bounced off them until she began to put more strength in the throw. Marcus didn't miss a single balloon with his darts, and he was fast. He was working on his third round of darts by the time she finished her first. She stood back and just watched then, waiting for him to tire. Divine didn't realize he was working toward a goal until he suddenly stopped and put his head together with the game agent who nodded, turned, and retrieved a little brown bear with a heart on its stomach and handed it over.
Marcus turned and offered it to her at once. "For you."
Divine stared at the offering and then slowly reached for it. She couldn't say how many times she'd witnessed this scene, or something like it on the midway; a male winning a prize for his girl. She'd always thought it was sweet and had felt a pang of envy. Now she had her own prize, won for her by Marcus.
"We'll find someone to sew 'Marcus and Basha' on it with the year," he announced with a crooked smile, and when she blushed, caught her hand and led her along the midway.
They were heading through the gates to the parking lot when Divine suddenly registered what he'd said. She came to an abrupt halt, sure she was as pale as a sheet. It certainly felt like all the blood had left her face.
"What?" Marcus asked with concern when he glanced around and saw her expression.
"Marcus and Basha?" she asked, trying not to panic.
He nodded. "Vincent, Jackie, Tiny, and Mirabeau can all read you, Divine. They can read both of us. But Mirabeau was the first one to pick up on your real name being Basha."
She tried to tug her hand free of his, but he held her fast.
"I know Madge has your motorcycle and you planned to run away on it, but I can't allow that," he said quietly, and then caught her other hand as she swung it at him. When she then tried a front kick, he turned her abruptly and slammed her up against a van they stood beside. "I can't allow that because there isn't room for me on the motorcycle and I'm going with you."
"What?" Divine asked with disbelief, suddenly going still.
"You're my life mate, Basha--"
"Don't call me that," she interrupted sharply.
"All right," he said patiently, "Then you're my life mate, Divine," Marcus corrected solemnly and then added, "Where you go, I go. Your future is my future. Your fate my own." Releasing her hands, he cupped her face gently and whispered, "I'm running away with you. That's the surprise. I borrowed the SUV Tiny and Mirabeau came here in. They think I'm taking you to dinner, and I am, but then we're running away together. We can go to Italy. My family is powerful. They can protect you from Lucian if necessary. Or we can go somewhere else if you want. But you aren't going alone."
Divine stared at him wide-eyed for a moment. In all the scenarios she'd imagined with Marcus, not once had she dared imagine this one. For a moment it seemed like she held the brass ring in her hand, but then her conscience kicked in. She'd be sentencing him to life as a Gypsy, always moving, never still, no home. And she'd be sentencing him to a life without children too, because she would never bring another child into the life she'd been forced to lead. She couldn't do that to an innocent baby, and she couldn't do it to Marcus either. No one should have to live the life she did, always running and hiding, always looking over their shoulder, always scared.
Sighing, Divine lowered her head and shook it sadly. "That's sweet, Marcus. But I can't ask you to do that."
"You're not asking," Marcus said, taking her hand and drawing her away from the van to lead her through the parking lot before adding, "I'm telling you how it's going to be. I've waited twenty-five hundred years for a life mate, Divine. I'm not letting you slip away now."
"You don't know what you're saying," she said quietly. "You don't even know who I am."
"I just told you who you were not minutes ago, Basha Argeneau, remember," he said dryly, pausing beside an SUV. He opened the door for her to get in.
Divine stopped beside him though and faced him grimly. "I'm a rogue."
"You're thought to possibly be a rogue," Marcus corrected firmly. "I don't think you are. But," he added quickly when she started to speak, "if you are, you must have had a good reason for whatever you did, or you were confused, or . . . something," he finished weakly and then shook his head and said with more certainty, "Whatever it is, we'll deal with it."
"Marcus, I--"
"Lucian is expected here this evening," he interrupted, drawing her up short. "I'm not sure what time he'll get here, but I'd rather we were gone before he arrived. You can tell me everything you want to. I want to hear it, just not right here, right now. Okay? Please? Just get into the SUV. We'll go have dinner and you can tell me whatever you want."
Divine hesitated one more moment, but then got into the SUV. Lucian was an old bogeyman for her; avoiding him was kind of priority number one. She remained silent as Marcus walked around and got in the driver's seat, but once he'd started the engine and steered them out of the lot and onto the road, she said,
"This isn't a conversation we should have in a public place."
"Okay," Marcus said calmly. "Where?"
Divine hesitated briefly, considering their options. A hotel would work, but she wanted to be somewhere crowded and busy. It would help her slip away quickly and quietly. "How far are we from Vegas?"
"A little more than two hours I think," Marcus said quietly. "Did you want to go there?"
"Yes, please," Divine murmured, trying to make plans and contingency plans in her head. There was no way she was letting Marcus throw away his life to be with her, and the only way to stop that was by telling him everything. Once he knew the truth, he wouldn't want anything to do with her, she was sure. The problem was, he might then want to turn her behind in to Lucian to redeem himself. She needed a plan to avoid that. As depressing as the future seemed to her without Marcus in it, she wasn't suicidal quite yet.
"Vegas it is then," Marcus said, relaxing in his seat. "It'll be handy, actually. We can talk, sort things out, then visit one of those little chapels and get married while in town."
Divine blinked as those words hit her, and then simply closed her eyes. The man might know her name, but he hadn't accepted who she was. He'd be singing a different song once he knew the truth.
Nineteen
"Why the Luxor?" Marcus asked as he unlocked the door to their room and ushered her inside. "It's not exactly in the thick of things here."
"That's why," Divine said, sounding amused as she glanced around the room and then moved into the bathroom to look it over.
Marcus glanced around as well, and managed not to wrinkle his nose. The room was in need of refurbishing. The carpet was worn, the furniture too, and the wallpaper had to be a good thirty years old. If this was the state of the rooms, he wasn't sure he wanted to try the food.
"I picked it because it's near the end of the strip and less busy," Divine explained, coming out of the bathroom. "And it reminds me of my youth."
He arched an eyebrow at that. The Luxor was a huge pyramid with a one-hundred-and-ten-foot re-creation of the Great Sphinx of Giza. "You were in Egypt during your youth? Did your parents live in Egypt?"
Divine grinned at the question. "Youth is a relative term. I guess I was two hundred, maybe almost three hundred years old when I accompanied the Persians there."
Marcus arched his eyebrows. "The Persians conquered Egypt, didn't they?"
"But good," she agreed dryly.
"Hmmm." He watched her cross the room to a binder on the table and open it to glance through the contents. They'd grabbed a couple of donuts and coffees from a drive-through coffee shop to tide them over on the way here, but he was starved now. It looked like she was too.
"This room service menu . . ." Divine frowned and shook her head. "It might as well be in Greek. What are buffalo chicken wings? Are there buffalo chickens? I thought buffalo were wild ox or cows or something."
"So did I," Marcus said with a shrug. "We could always bypass the menu and order pizza delivered. Dante and Tomasso seem to really like that and order it delivered all the time."
"Would they deliver to a hotel room?" she asked with interest.
"Why not?" Marcus said and pulled out the cell phone Vincent had loaned him. He quickly looked up pizza delivery in Las Vegas. He found one close to the hotel, looked up the menu, and pursed his lips.
"Problem?" Divine asked, snapping her binder closed.
Marcus shook his head. "I'm just not sure what's good on pizza. The boys usually order something called a meat eater's or something and-- Oh good, they have a meat lover's pizza that should be similar . . . It has pepperoni, sausage, bacon, and meatballs," he read off, and glanced at her in question. "Is that okay with you?"
"Sounds fine," Divine said and stood up to head for the bathroom. "I'm going to take a quick bath while you order."
"Take your time," Marcus murmured, distracted by punching in the restaurant phone number from memory. "It usually takes a while for pizzas to arrive after ordering. Anywhere from half an hour to an hour in Canada."
"Okay."
He heard the door close, but his attention was on the ringing from his phone. It wasn't until he placed the order and ended the call that Marcus realized that Divine was taking a bath. He could hear the running water and supposed she was stripping and--
Realizing that he'd somehow moved across the room without intending to and that his hand was now on the doorknob, Marcus caught himself. She wanted a bath. If she'd wanted something else she wouldn't be shut up in the bathroom running water, she'd be stripping out here in front of him.
He couldn't blame her for wanting a bath, Marcus thought as he turned away from the door. While it had probably been in the nineties when they'd started their play evening at five, it had cooled off a little as the night had progressed, but had still been in the high eighties and humid as they'd rushed around from ride to ride. He was feeling a little in need of a bath himself and his clothes were grimy and sweaty, Marcus noted, wrinkling his nose as he raised an arm and sniffed himself.
He definitely needed a change of clothes, and Divine would no doubt appreciate fresh clothes when she got out of her bath too, Marcus thought, and headed for the door.
The plan was for him to just quickly nip out and pick up a couple of things, then hurry back. It didn't end up that way. Divine was the problem. Marcus wasn't sure on size or even what she'd like. It wasn't like Gypsy outfits were easy to find in hotel gift shops. Actually, while there were lots of T-shirts, jackets, etc. with the Luxor logo on them, there wasn't much in the way of bottoms. Not that he thought Divine would want to walk around with "Luxor" on her ass.
In the end, Marcus asked the concierge for a suggestion of somewhere nearby to shop and then grabbed a taxi out in front of the hotel to the place the guy suggested. What followed was several panicked moments, maybe even half an hour, of picking up and discarding items until he just gathered a bunch of items together and rushed to the till. He had to be back in time to accept the pizza. Marcus wasn't sure Divine had any money on her, if she was even out of the tub to answer the door.
He was weighed down with half a dozen bags heavy with clothes when he got back to the Luxor. Marcus rushed to the elevators, conscious of the passing time and afraid he'd missed the pizza delivery. That worry in mind, he made a run for it when he saw that one of the elevators was on the ground floor, the doors just closing. Even so, he wouldn't have made it if the young guy inside, the only occupant, hadn't grabbed the door to stop it from closing.
"Thanks," Marcus murmured with relief as he slid inside.
"No problem," the young man said easily as Marcus glanced to the numbered buttons on the wall.
Finding the button for the floor the room he shared with Divine, Marcus noted it was already lit up and let out a little sigh as he leaned against the wall for the ride. He'd barely done so when the scents in the elevator drew his attention back to his companion. The kid who had held the door for him smiled and nodded when Marcus's gaze zeroed in on the wide flat insulated bag he carried on one raised hand like a waiter carrying a tray.
"Smells good, huh?" the fellow asked.
"Yeah," Marcus agreed and completely relaxed as he read the room number on the sales slip taped to the top of the six-pack of Coke in the guy's other hand. He hadn't missed the delivery. This was it. Marcus didn't say anything to the delivery boy, though, simply rode up with him, stepped out, and headed down the hall, aware that the boy was following.
"Figures," the kid said with a laugh when Marcus stopped to unlock his room door.
"Yeah," Marcus agreed. "I was afraid I wouldn't be back in time. Good thing you held the elevator door for me. Thanks again for that."
"My pleasure. Saved me a trip back and forth for nothing," he said with amusement, moving forward when Marcus gestured for him to follow. He didn't come all the way into the room, but stopped just inside, his body keeping the door open as he waited for Marcus to drop all his bags and pull out his wallet to pay him.
"Mmmm, that smells delicious," Divine said, smiling widely.
"Right," Marcus murmured, and gave his head a shake. Food first, he told himself firmly and carried the pizza and Coke to the small round table between two chairs. Setting them there, he then snatched up the ice bucket and headed for the door. "You go ahead and start eating. I'm going to grab us some ice."
Marcus didn't wait for a response, but hurried out. He'd spotted the ice room on his way up the hall and hurried there now to fill the bucket. When he got back, Divine had found little packaged coffee packets with a spoon, sugar, cream sweetener, and napkins in them. She'd opened a couple and taken out the napkins for them to use. She'd also collected the two glasses from the bathroom counter and set them out on either side of the pizza box on the table.
"Go ahead and start, I'm going to wash my hands," Marcus said, setting the bucket on the table and heading for the bathroom. The room was still a little steamy from her bath and smelled good from the shampoo and soap, he noted as he walked up to the sink. He turned the tap on, but one glance at himself and Marcus grimaced. He was filthy. He didn't know how, all they'd done was ride the rides and then drive for a couple hours, but he was coated with a fine dust of dirt, that had pathways through it from where sweat had run.
Turning the tap off, he spun to the shower and turned that on instead, and then quickly stripped. What followed was possibly the fastest shower ever. It couldn't have been more than five minutes later that he walked out of the room with a towel wrapped around his waist.
"There's another robe in the closet," Divine announced on seeing him, and Marcus stopped to find the item, and then drew it on over his towel.
"Feel better?" Divine asked as he joined her.
"Yeah. Sorry about that," Marcus said as he settled in his chair and noted that she'd put ice in both glasses and poured them both pop . . . and the pizza box was still closed. "You didn't have to wait."