The rest of the morning was awkward. The bathroom incident earlier in the day had made things a little sensual and tense between us. As we sat in the hotel lobby waiting for the complimentary breakfast, neither us of spoke, at least until we saw a familiar looking man walk through the entrance of the hotel.

“Leon, is that…” I begin, but his hand was already taking mine and he rushed me into the restroom down the hall.

“That’s him. We need to get out of here. Now!” he whispered seriously, the intense and fearful look in his eyes once again. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He pulled his gun from his duffel bag and placed it secretively into his side, tucked in neatly between his pants and his hip.

“What do we do? How do we get out of here with him in the lobby?”

“We are going to exit through this hallway and keep following it until we reach the back entrance. We’ll have to make a run for it to get to the car, if it is even there,” he replied, opening the door slightly and taking a peek through it’s tiny crevice. “We need to go now”.

We silently left the restroom. Elderly couples gave us dirty looks as we both left together. We walked, hand in hand, down the narrow hallways until we reached the back entrance. Once there, we bolted, running as fast as we could to the car. I was out of breath and I felt as though I was having a heart attack when we finally found the car and left the lot, the tires of the BMW screaming.

“We can’t go anywhere, he’s just going to find us again!” I exclaimed, a tear rolling down my cheek. He pulled the car over on the side of the highway and unbuckled his seatbelt. His perfect, blue eyes were staring directly into my own green eyes and he placed his hand on my shoulder.

“We are going to be fine. I’m going to take care of this. We are going to get far away from here and for quite some time before I can plan some sort of hit on him” he reassured me. “Please, don’t cry. I promise you that you will be fine. I will take care of us, du bist bei mir sicher”.

Sag das Wort und du weißt, ich werde

And with that, he pulled back onto the highway and followed the dimly lit road further north. We both sat in silence for the majority of the ride. Every now and then, I would catch him glancing over at me, confirming I was still there beside him. After what seemed like forever, we pulled into a small town. Five hours of driving north and into Denmark, we had reached Kerteminde, just outside an island. Leon planned to to cross the great bridge tomorrow and try to aim for Sweden in the next few days.

“Have you ever been to Denmark?” he asked me as he opened my passenger door.

“No, never. Before Germany, I had never been anywhere out of Kentucky,” I shrugged. I was taken away by the subtle beauty of this small town. There were many farms surrounding the city and the town was extremely small. The sea was visible at all but one angle, the angle that pointed into danger.

Leon and I booked a hotel room at a local inn, just outside the island of Kerteminde. The suite was much nicer than the one we had previously stayed in. It had been freshly renovated, and I was keeping my fingers crossed that it actually had proper heating at night.

We had dinner at a small, local restaurant that evening and discussed our situation. Leon and I agreed that we needed to try and communicate with the unit back in Cologne if we were to get any help. We planned to contact them early the next morning and make a run for it further north, giving away a hint so we could be found.

“And what happens if Evgeni gets the contact information and tracks us?” I asked, running my hands through my long, thick hair. “He could very easily do that,  especially now that he has my computer!”.

“No, we will call. He cannot track us through calls, or at least I do not think he will be able to,” he reassured me. “Besides, we will be long gone by the time he figures anything out. We need to get help and it may have to endanger us a little more”.

I couldn’t sleep.. I was absolutely terrified. I had never been scared for my life before, even when I joined the undercover unit. I had never had a sense of not knowing if I would make it out alive one day or another. I tossed and turned, despite the luxurious bed, while hot and cold flashes tormented me.

“Can’t sleep?” a voice came from across the room. I shot up in bed, terrified it was Evgeni. Leon shook his head from the pullout couch.

“Ich wette, ich könnte das beheben” he said quietly. If I had known better, I would have thought it had been purposely said so quietly. I sent him a grin, assuming it was something reassuring again since I really didn’t know that much German.

“I can’t seem to get comfortable. I keep getting hot and then I get cold. And then I worry. It’s a cycle,” I explained, turning the light on. He chuckled a little bit.

“Do you want to watch something?” he asked me, reaching to turn the TV on. I shook my head in response. I had no intention of continuing to stay awake, or keep him up for that matter when he had over six hours of driving the next morning.

“No, I’ll be fine. I just need to settle down. My mind is wandering,” I said quietly, turning the light off with a quick flick of the switch.

“Meine Gedanken wandern auch” he said, once again under his breath. I did not bother to try and figure out what he had said. Instead, I turned over and pulled the blankets over my shoulders and closed my eyes. I had barely closed my eyes a five minutes when I felt the right side of the bed dip and the blankets being pulled slightly farther away from me. I turned over and found Leon on his side, facing towards the door and away from me in my bed.

“Just relax and try to get some sleep. You have nothing to worry about” he said, and with that, I began to relax feeling his warmth beside me. My eyelids grew heavier and heavier until I finally dozed off.

Du hast mich und du weißt es

Next Chapter: Chapter Six