Nefertiti

“Come on, Emerald.” I lead her out of the stall and outside of the barn. “There you go. You’re such a good girl,” I tell her while rubbing her long nose.

I mount and we take off to my favorite spot. We slowly walk through the trees and across the trail. I think she’s enjoying my company as much as I enjoy hers. When we finally reach our destination, I dismount and lay on the grass. The pond is surrounded by grass, trees, and even some bushes. It’s just so pretty, and peaceful.

I lay there for about fifteen minutes just looking at the water. A rustling noise startles me and I immediately grab my gun and turn around. I point it in the direction I heard the noise. When I focus on the tree line I see a pair of mismatched eyes, and a shiny white smile. I relax a little when he steps out into the clearing.

“I’m not going to hurt you, remember?” he calls.

“Yeah, but I still don’t fully trust you,” I call back. I lower my gun as he walks closer to me.

“You’re the one that wanted me to come back, remember?”

My cheeks heat up. “Yep,” I awkwardly say.

“So, can I join you then?”

“Yeah, I guess.” I’m internally beating myself up for saying he could come back.

He walks over to Emerald who’s snacking on the grass.

“I never got to meet her the other day,” he says. “What’s her name?”

“Emerald.”

“Emerald,” he repeats. “That’s pretty.”

“I know.” I sit back down in the grass and he takes a seat next to me.

“Why did you want me to come back?” he asks.

I shrug. “I’m not sure. Maybe it was because I want to ambush you and keep you hostage, like you did to me.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” he exaggerates.

“Honestly though,” I start. “I’m not sure. I’m just curious about why you want to come back, and why you want to risk your life by being on my property.”

He shrugs this time. “I don’t know. I just think we have things in common that we don’t know about.”

“How would you know if we have things in common? You don’t even know me.”

“That’s why I’m here; to get to know you.”

“Zane, why would you want to get to know me? You sound insane saying that.” I lean back on my elbows and watch him look out at the pond.

“What do you want in life?”

“What do you mean?”

He hangs his head in between his knees, with his arms wrapped around his legs. Just like how he was sitting in my cell.

“I mean,” he lifts his head up. “Do you still want to do this when you’re older? Do you want to follow in your father’s footsteps, or do you want your own life where you don’t have to worry about every little thing?”

“Of course I would want this life,” I say immediately.

“But just think, Beatrix.” He turns around so he’s facing me. “Imagine yourself five years from now living in a beach house. You have a dog, and you play fetch with it on the sandy beach. Then during sunset you sit on the sand with your husband and watch the sunset disappear into the ocean.” His eyes are sparkling and his smile is so wide. He’s taken himself into another world. A fantasy world.

“Is that what you want?” I ask.

He looks at me and the light from his eyes fades.

“Yes, it is. I would love to have that but instead I’m stuck here living this horrible life.”

“It’s not that bad.” I sit up. “I know there’s intense training, and killing but it’s fun. This is what we were born to do and there’s no escaping it.”

“I know, but I wish I could.” He closes his eyes and tilts his head up to the sky. “I wish I could just run away and live the life I want.”

“You could run away,” I point out.

“No, I couldn’t. If I left, my dad would have a crap ton of men come looking for me—and they will find me, no doubt about that. After they find me they’ll take me back and my dad will make sure I never leave this hellhole again.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I just don’t know how you could stay here and do this.”

“I guess I just always knew I’d be doing this someday so I never even thought about leaving or doing anything else.”

“I was like that once too, but then I just got really curious. So I took a trip and drove all the way to Galveston to Sunny Beach. I watched all of the families play together and just have fun. After that, I’ve always wanted that. I want to go to Galveston, own a house close by the ocean, and enjoy time on the beach with my new family. I want to get married someday and have a couple kids, but I don’t want my kids to grow up how I grew up. Do you understand where I’m coming from?” He looks at me with those beautiful eyes and my heart skips a beat.

“Yeah, actually I do. I’ve never gone far for a trip by myself and I definitely haven’t thought about doing anything else. But now that you say that, it sounds fun and…peaceful.”

“Yeah, definitely peaceful.”

I lay down in the grass, fold my hands behind my head, and close my eyes. Soon I feel a body lay down next to me and I smile. My heart is beating so hard I feel like it’s going to burst out of my chest, and butterflies are swirling around my stomach like crazy.

I open my eyes and turn my head to look at him, but he’s already looking at me.

“What?” I ask.

“Nothing.” He smiles. “You’re just pretty.”

“Stop that.” I blush. “What are you doing?”

“What do you mean, ‘what am I doing?’” He laughs. “What are you doing?”

I laugh too. Just being around him makes me feel different and I’m scared of it, but also love the feeling.

“No, what are you doing here telling me all of these things? Don’t you hate me and my family?”

“Well, I do hate your family, but I don’t hate you.”

I smile. This boy is going to be the death of me.

Zane gets up and pulls out his phone.

“Here, take my number so that we can talk. We can just have different names in our contacts just in case people want to be snoopy.”

I get up and give him my phone so he can put his number in. He takes it and then he gets this mischievous look on his face.

“What are you doing?”

“Putting my code name in.”

“What is it?” I sound very unamused right now.

He hands me my phone back and I look at the name he typed in.

Bestie Boo.

“Absolutely not.” I laugh and delete the name.

“What? I think it’s so good.”

“No it’s not.”

I change the name to Loser. He puts my name in as Dummy.

“Well,” he says, getting up. “I’m going to head out. Thanks for talking with me Dummy.”

I smile. “Anytime Loser.”

I watch him walk away and when I can’t see him anymore I flop back down on the grass and smile so hard. No one has ever made me this happy and I don’t think Zane should be the person to make me this happy because he’s literally the son of my rival mafia.

Emerald comes walking over to me and shoves her nose in my face. When I start petting her she huffs and whines.

“What?”

She nudges me with her nose.

“You think it’s a bad idea that we are talking don’t you?”

She huffs again.

“Yeah, you and me both.”