“Run away?” I whispered.
My heart was racing so fast, I couldn’t understand what was wrong with me. Did I want to run away with him? Hell. No. But did I want him to kiss me… well, kind of. And that made me feel like the worst person in the world. I was married, I was pregnant, and I was on the verge of cheating on my amazingly attractive and slightly psychotic husband. What the hell was wrong with me? Why was I even entertaining these ideas!
“Hazel,” Duke prompted, drawing nearer to me. “I would do anything to keep you safe. Say the word and we’re gone.”
I blinked at him then snapped, “Are you crazy, I’m a pregnant married lady! What the hell are you thinking!?”
His expression suddenly fell and he echoed, “Pregnant?”
He took a few steps back and stared at me with an expression that I could only describe as borderline horror. It would seem that Nico or Casper had forgotten to fill Duke in about the happy news. As the information began to soak in, he staggered a few steps further back and said, “Holy shit, are you serious?”
I nodded my head. “Yes, I only found out a couple of days ago myself, so I’m still in shock but yes I’m pregnant.”
He swore out loud and abruptly turned and walked away from me. Heading towards the bushes where the second motorcycle was hidden, I could hear him muttering to himself, “Shit, shit, shit … that sneaky son of a bitch!” And as he walked away I also noticed something else; the heat I’d been feeling for him only a few minutes earlier had just magically disappeared. It was like there was a switch inside of me had turned itself off.
Confused I watched him push the bike on to the road and wondered what the hell was wrong with me?
“Look,” he began. “Let’s get you back to base and we can talk there. Casper might decide to return you home after learning about your condition.”
“What?” I replied.
“Look, Nico never told us about your condition!,” he snapped. “That sneaky bastard knew that we would have never taken if we had known you were pregnant.”
My eyes narrowed on him and I asked, “And what about the whole ‘your the love of my life’ spiel? You know, the whole ‘oh Hazel, you’ve broken my heart shit!”
He winced and sheepishly confessed, “I tell that to everyone, it’s how I get the ladies. I know it’s an asshole thing to do, but I just wanted to have some fun. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like you, but love is not really my thing. It’s why I like married women, they always want to go back to their husbands at the end of the day. You would have eventually wanted to go home to Caspar, and I would have been free to move on to the next adventure.”
I rolled my eyes at him in disgust and said, “You’re grade A sleaze ball.”
“Hey, if I had known that you were pregnant I would have never come on to you – nor would I have taken you away from Caspar,” he added.
“Oh, how very gallant of you, Duke! I’m very impressed,” I said sarcastically.
“Look, I’m done arguing with you, Hazel. We need to get going before Caspar discovers that you’re gone,” he said.
“I’m not going anywhere! I demand that you take me back to my husband,” I said folding my arms across my chest.
He shook his head, standing the bike in the middle of the dirt track and said, “Get on the bike, Hazel.”
I shook my head and took a few tentative steps backwards. Maybe I could outrun this asshole…
“Hazel, don’t even think about it,” he warned, reading my thoughts.
“You have to let me go,” I replied looking back at the fortress.
He left the bike and walked towards me and warned, “I don’t want to throw you over my shoulder and drag you through Port Cressida kicking and screaming, but I will if you don’t start complying.”
He began striding towards me and I started to back away. His hand reached out to grab me and a wave of panic hit me. I thrust my hands out in front of him and yelled, “I swear to God if you touch me, I will not do a damn thing to help Casper.”
He stopped in his tracks, and his arms dropped to his side. The cold hard expression on his face melted away and I saw actual fear in his eyes. Silence fell between us and I turned to face towards the fortress still shrouded in mist in the distance. Poor Caspar, he was going to go out of his mind when he found me gone, especially when he saw all the chaos and destruction Louis had left behind in the apartment. I needed to go back there, I needed to reassure him that I was okay…
“Hazel,” Duke said, interrupting my thoughts. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me, please forgive me. This is not who I want to be. I never used to be like this. After Casper got locked away I developed some destructive habits which I’ve never seemed to entirely get over. Please don’t punish Casper because you are angry at me. He needs your help, and we can’t do this without you. There is something very wrong happening here and we don’t know how to figure it out. Listen, I won’t make you come with me, so I’m going ask you too. So please, would you help us?”
I looked away from him and back towards the fortress then thought about Caspar. I wanted to go back there and see him, but there were so many things that were wrong about that place… and so many things he denied. He didn’t believe me about the poison, he didn’t believe me about the nurse, and I nearly died because of it. Whether I liked it or not, there was something undeniably wrong. The dead were rising, the spirits were restless, and someone kept trying to hurt me. If Caspar and I were to have any kind of future then all this craziness needed to be dealt with.
“Okay, I’ll help,” I said, “But I have conditions. Firstly, I’m not your prisoner, so don’t you dare treat me like one. Secondly, we do things my way. I’m the one who talks to the spirits, and I’m the one who has the leads. Thirdly, if you, Nico or Casper welch on this deal then I’m going to link in with Caspar and tell him that you all kidnapped me!”
It was an empty threat because I couldn’t open the door in my head to connect to Caspar … but Duke and the others didn’t know this.
I held out my hand and said, “Do we have a deal?”
Duke took my hand and replied, “We have a deal.”