We walked around the main floor as the sun started to rise. There wasn’t much light able to sneak in through the windows, but it was enough for us to get the layout of the unit. We had a couple options to escape if needed and those would also need to be where we watched for any sort of movement. I had one of the teenage boys sit in what looked like a laundry room near the back because there was a door there. We pulled the wash sink in front of the door to slow any intruders and Danita helped me give him instructions on what to do if he heard someone. We had a couple other boys sit near windows and keep an eye out for anything suspicious.
My mind whirled with what I thought Nate would do in our situation. I constantly heard his voice in my head like he was guiding me in what to do. Then I thought about Nate and how he was probably going totally crazy trying to figure out where we were and rescue us. He would be going mad. I didn’t trust the cell phone I was given because I knew the families had been under surveillance, but I needed to get some help.
Then a thought crossed my mind that I couldn’t tolerate at all. Nate’s vehicle had been caught in the rebel’s shooting much more than our vehicle had been caught. How did I even know if Nate was alive? If Rake could be killed by a single bullet, it was totally plausible that Nate and the men in his SUV could have been killed by the dozens of bullet’s that had been flying their way.
“What’s the matter?” Danita asked me.
I paused for a moment as I tried to decide if I should involve her in my thought process. She was a young girl, maybe fifteen or sixteen years of age, but I saw in her eyes that she had probably dealt with much more than most girls of her age had. I knew just by looking into her dark brown eyes that she had seen sadness.
“I don’t know what to do. We need to get to the airport, but it’s at least eight miles away. The rebels will be looking through all these houses for us. I’m not sure how long we can stay here.”
Danita shook her head in agreement and we both sat in the corner as we tried to think up a plan that might work for us. There weren’t many options, besides just running for the airport. But I knew there had to be a better way of making our escape without risking the women and teenagers’ lives. I was caught in thought as I tried to think about what Nate might do.
“You need sleep,” Danita said as she looked at me. “Sleep for one hour and the answer will come to you.”
I chuckled at how confident she was that I would come up with the answer to our problems by simply taking a nap. Although, I didn’t think it would be possible to actually sleep when we were in the middle of such turmoil, I did like the idea of closing my eyes and thinking about Nate and his men and how they might get out of the situations.
“I’ll rest my eyes for a moment, but you get me if anything is going on outside.”
“Yes,” Danita said as she squeezed next to me.
I was sandwiched between Danita and a corner post from the wall as I closed my eyes. Not to sleep, but only to think through our options and hopefully come up with a brilliant idea that would save us.
My eyes had only been closed for a moment when I felt Nate’s lips pressing against mine. I knew I was dreaming, but I didn’t care; his lips felt like a lifeline for me and I needed them desperately. I felt his lips move down my neck and gently wrap around my nipple as he pulled it tightly into his mouth. Oh, it felt so good. I loved the feeling of his lips on every part of my body.
The moment Nate that lifted me up out of the dark corner of Stephano’s home was the moment my entire life changed. Of course, I didn’t know it at the time, but our encounter had been the catalyst to so much more.
Nate was a tough guy, and he didn’t show his emotions readily, but even in my dreams I felt like I knew he cared for me. The way his eyes searched mine was a powerful statement about who he was and his intentions with me. At first, Nate barely looked me in the eyes and always seemed afraid that he might hurt me in some way. But as we started to work out and he started to teach me defense techniques and attack techniques, I saw a change in the way his eyes looked into mine.
As my confidence grew, so did Nate’s confidence in understanding that I could handle any mistakes that happened. As I dreamed about Nate’s naked lips playing with my body, I felt empowered by his feelings for me. He didn’t love lightly. For Nate to care about me like he did meant that he had put a lot of lot into it, and his emotions were overwhelming.
My body reacted to the touch of his on me. Sleep triggered an emotional and physical connection I had with Nate that I wasn’t willing to admit to when I was awake. I longed for him, my body urged him to do whatever would please me and then do it again, over and over again. I couldn’t get enough of his touch, and even in my dreams I wanted him to thrust into me again and again. I didn’t just want to feel pleasure one time, I wanted to feel it for the rest of my life.
That was a weird thought to think about spending the rest of my life with someone. I really hadn’t thought I would ever consider something like that again after everything that went down with Stephano. But the truth was I couldn’t imagine my life with anyone else but Nate. I couldn’t imagine sitting around in a stuffy apartment as my boyfriend went off to a job he hated. No, that wasn’t the life I wanted. Instead, I wanted to live a passionate and exciting life with Nate. I wanted to learn his business and come on assignments with him.
It occurred to me that all the thoughts and feelings I was having about Nate meant that I loved him. Love wasn’t
something that I came to lightly and wouldn’t have been the word I would have used if I had been fully awake. While awake, I used my defense mechanisms to keep me from admitting that I cared so much about Nate. I didn’t want to feel that vulnerable again and by saying I loved someone, it automatically meant that I was putting my power in their hands.
But love didn’t have to mean giving up your power; I was slowly learning that with Nate in my life. Because of Nate, I saw that love could actually mean you were gaining power and becoming even stronger because of your bond with the other person. I was stronger when I was around Nate and it wasn’t because his strength gave me power. No, my strength around him came because of his willingness to love my flaws.
Nate obviously knew most of my flaws because of our time together, and he still cared for me. Not many men could show that kind of affection for a woman even after she accused him of attacking her when she was disoriented, as I had done. Or if she had tried to strangle him during a training moment like I had done. Nope, I was convinced that there weren’t many men who would still want to be around me, and fewer yet who would look me in the eyes and have the feelings that I saw in Nate’s eyes.
Suddenly, my own heart felt very full with worry at the idea of Nate and the rebels. In my sleep-deprived state, I had gone right to thinking of all the wonderful times between Nate and I and I had avoided the negative thoughts that something could have happened to him. I wasn’t prepared to think about that at all. I had finally found the man I could spend my life with, there was no way I was letting him go.
“Miss…Miss…” I heard a voice say as I was pulled out of my sleepy state.
“Yes,” I said, instantly alert to my surroundings and the possible dangers that were all around us.
“There is a phone; across the street is a store. It will have a phone; is there someone you should call?” Danita said.
That was exactly what I needed. A phone that wasn’t being traced and wouldn’t have people listening in on it. We jumped up and looked out the window as the sun shone strong in the streets. The store across the street was still closed for the night, but probably not for too much longer. People would be arriving to work shortly, if the business was still open during the war, and I needed to get into that building and use their phone before they arrived.
“Any chance someone here knows how to break into buildings?” I joked as I looked at the group.
Most of the women just stared at me, but one of them raised her hand slowly. I looked shocked at her and then at Danita. How was it possible that a woman from this culture would know how to do something so sinister as breaking into a building?
“Translate for me and make sure she understands what I’m asking,” I said to Danita.