Keeping my suspicions to myself, I followed my aunt as she ushered Lorenzo and me upstairs. I really wasn’t too concerned with the layout of the house. I would look around later but I knew I didn’t need to. Somehow, I knew the layout.
Confused, I needed a few minutes alone with Lorenzo.
Right now, he was the only one I trusted. I wanted to believe that my cousin and aunt were honest about keeping me safe but why not tell me that I’ve been here before? That I played in this house. That my parents had been here.
I was an intelligent capable woman. I could handle a great many things but deception from my own flesh and blood, that was something I wouldn’t tolerate.
“Here you two go,” My aunt said, waving us towards a room. “I’ll give you two some time to freshen up.” When I looked at her, I noticed her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. Why? What had changed from the airport to here? She was also acting differently. More reserved. Did I miss something? Some subtle cue?
The moment she left, Lorenzo shut the door and locked it. “Okay, there is something seriously off about this place.”
“You feel it too?”
“Oh yeah,” he said, moving about the room, looking under every piece of furniture, lifting lamps, looking behind paintings. He left nothing to chance. When he came back empty handed, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the large, attached bathroom. Turning on the shower, he started to take his clothes off.
“What are you doing?”
“Shower with me.”
“What?” I asked, looking at him as if he’d lost his damn mind. He wanted to shower, now? When he was totally naked, he stepped into the shower, turned to me and waited.
Why the fuck not?
Taking my clothes off, I stepped under the spray as Lorenzo’s arms came around me, holding me close. His head dipped to the crook of my neck and he lightly kissed it.
A shiver of desire washed over me.
Yet when he whispered, “The room is bugged.” I stiffened.
“Don’t say anything. Trust no one here, especially your aunt.”
And just like that another memory surfaced.
Penny was asleep next to me. Carefully moving, I snuck out of our small room, when I heard momma and daddy arguing. They never argued. Moving closer, I heard daddy say.
“We can’t stay here, Margaret.”
“And go where John? Where can we go?”
“I don’t know but we can’t stay here. I don’t want that woman around my girls. She is vicious. She only cares about Donnie.”
“If we leave, she will send people after us.”
“Then we leave everything behind. Just take the girls and go.”
“What will we do for money? Where will we live?”
“I’ve got some military friends I can call. Fuck Margaret, I don’t care if we live in a fucking car. Anything is better than subjecting Donnie to that woman. And don’t even get me started on how she treats Penny. Our girls deserve better.”
“We can’t leave Gideon. She is training him too….”
“I know Margaret but we can’t take him with us. She is his mother. If we take him, there will be no place on the planet we can hide.”
Mommy nodded, saying nothing more.
“I’ll get the girls. You go pack what we absolutely need. Nothing else.”
“Baby, did you hear me?” Lorenzo’s voice penetrated my mind.