Page 70 of Happily Ever After

Flicka sighed and leaned toward the dashboard vents. “These feel good.”

“Are you all right? Frostbite?”

“My feet got a little numb. They’re warming up. What a night, though. I can’t believe we made it out. I can’t believeI’m free.”

Raphael didn’t contradict her.If someone caught up to them, they’d deal with it at the time.

Flicka said, “We could go to a German embassy. They always tell you to go to an embassy if you’re in trouble.”

“Do you have your passport with you?”

“Nope. I have absolutely nothing but the clothes on my back.”

“If Pierre issues warrants for our arrest, the German ambassador might have to comply and turn you over to the Frenchpolice.”

“So, an embassy is out. God, I wish we had a phone. I could call my father.”

Raphael’s lip curled. He’d heard Wulf’s stories and seen her father in action on several occasions. “Phillipp?”

“Yeah,thatfather of mine. Not any of the other ones.”

Raphael winced. “He reminds me of my father in a lot of ways.”

She adjusted the vents some more, closing her eyes in the warm air. “And that’snot good, right?”

“Worse than you know.”

“Jesus, Raphael.”

“Yeah,” he admitted.

“I think my father would help us escape from Pierre. He might be as acerbic as strong acid and he might have tried to sabotage every relationship that Wulfie and I ever had, but I don’t think he wants us enslaved or dead.”

“That’s quite a leap.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure, and he hated Pierre. He might help us justout of spite.”

“Spite is as good of a reason as any.”

“That’s what I’m hoping.”

“Hannoveris in northern Germany, and we’re on the Mediterranean coast of France. It’s at least twelve hours by car, maybe double that by train. If we stay on this road,” he gestured to the city street that was turning into a highway, the buildings and streetlights spreading farther apart, “it’ll be about fifteenhours. They will expect us to use the fastest route. If we go through Geneva, it might throw them off.”

She swiveled in her seat. “Are we going through Geneva?”

“Unless we turn around.”

“It’s only three hours by plane,” Flicka said. “I used to fly down to Monaco all the time during summers to hang out with Christine.”

“I remember,” Raphael said. “I came with you a few times as security.”

Flicka giggled and leaned closer to him, bumping her shoulder against his. “I still can’t believe we didn’t get caught.”

A grin pulled at his face despite the sour adrenaline in his veins. “Well, I was supposed to meet your every need.”

She laughed, an easy, happy sound. “You sure did.”

He reached over and held her hand while he drove through the night, out of the vibrant city of Nice and intothe French countryside. “It’s going to be a long car ride, and I’m already tired. Can you drive later?”