Chapter 154: A small lie
"Stop it!" he ordered more roughly than he intended. "I didn’t an anything of the sort!"
Mia pursed her lips in confusion, "But I’m only trying to understand everything, you__"
"Damn it, I don’t want you to understand anything." He said through clenched teeth, then he stopped himself short to remind himself of the unfairness of taking his anger at himself out on her. It wasn’t her fault that he’d gotten in a ss, and he wanted as much as possible not to involve Liam nor she in this. Raking a hand through the side of his hair to calm himself, he said to her with as much patience as he could muster, "I’ll try to explain this as clearly and shortly as I can, and then I want the subject dropped, understood?" He demanded coolly.
But Mia didn’t respond and only gave him a look that made it plain she thought his attitude and his tone were unreasonable and objectionable, but she kept silent. Shoving her hands into her pants pockets, she leaned her shoulders against the bedroom wall, crossed her ankles, and watched him with unnerving absorption.
"When you get back ho," Neil began, "the military will grill you about everything I did while we were together. They’ll want to know how I escaped and where I’m headed next. They’ll keep questioning you until you’re exhausted, hoping you’ll rember sothing important to them, even if it didn’t seem significant to you at the ti. As long as you tell them the truth, you’ll be fine. But if you try to hide sothing or lie, they’ll catch you eventually, and it’ll go badly for you. They might even think you were helping
from the start.
"I need you to tell one small lie that won’t trip you up during questioning. But otherwise, I want you to be completely honest with them. You don’t know anything that could hurt
or anyone else involved in my escape. Let’s keep it that way," he said firmly. "Do you understand why I don’t want you asking more questions about this place?"
His expression softened when she nodded her head and asked, "What lie do you want
to tell them?"
"I need you to tell the military that you’re not sure about the exact location of this house. Say that I blindfolded you after you almost escaped at the rest stop, and I made you lie down in the back seat for most of the trip so you couldn’t try to escape again. It’s a believable story, and they’ll believe it. This will also counter that damned truck driver’s words, which is the only reason they might suspect you of helping
escape. I hate asking you to lie for , but it’s the best option."
"And if I refuse to lie for you?" She asked.
Neil’s entire face instantly beca hard and aloof. "That decision is yours to make," he said in a chillingly polite tone.
Up until that point, Mia hadn’t fully grasped the extent to which Neil had softened towards her since the previous day, until she witnessed his deanor change when he thought she would go against him. His playful attitude and affectionate gestures were not just a way to pass the ti, but a genuine display of emotion. This realization was so heartwarming to her that she almost missed what he was saying next,
"If you decide to give away the location of this residence to the military, please rember to ntion that I am the owner of this property and all the belongings inside. Failing to emphasize this fact could lead to unjust suspicions falling on the innocent person who provided those items, who, like you, had no part in aiding my initial escape plans."
He wasn’t trying to protect himself at all, Mia realized. He was trying desperately to protect whoever the man who’d helped him. Which ant they were close. They were, or had been, friends...
"Would you care to tell
which choice you intend to make?" he asked in that sa coolly detached voice that she hated so much. "Or would you prefer to think about it?"
As a child, Mia had vowed to her deceased mother never to tell lies, a promise she had upheld for many years. Now, gazing at the man she loved, she softly stated, "I plan to say that I was blindfolded. How could you expect
to choose otherwise?"
Relief washed over her as she noticed the aloofness and tension lt away from his expression. However, instead of offering her a tender remark, he fixed her with a heated glare and admitted, "You have the ability, Mia, as the only woman who has ever succeeded in making
feel like an emotional yo-yo at your rcy, swinging on a rope tied to your finger."
Mia bit down on her lower lip to stop her smile because it seed wonderfully important to be able to affect him in a way no other woman ever had. Even if he didn’t like the way she did it at all. "I’m... sorry," she apologized laly and dishonestly.
"The fuck you are," he retorted, but the edge was gone from his voice and there was a tinge of reluctant amusent in it. "You’re holding back a laugh and you tell
you are sorry? Unbelievable."
Holding back her giggle at his face, she lifted her forefinger and inspected it closely, turning it left to right as she said, "My finger looks like a pretty ordinary finger to ," she teased.
"There’s nothing ordinary about you, querida," he said with that sa combination of irritated amusent. "Heaven help whoever marries you because the poor bastard’s going to grow old and gray long before his ti!"
His obvious and unconcerned remark that she was going to end up with soone other than him, soone who he pitied, drowned away Mia’s surge of happiness and snapped her back to her senses. Of course, what did she expect from Neil Wayner? That he’d love and want to marry her after they’d had fun together? How delusional of her, he was obviously the kind who doesn’t believe in marriages and love...
Those thoughts brought a stabbing pain to her heart to the point she’d had to blink repeatedly not to shed tears of her loss. Vowing to keep things light from this mont on and never again to read more into his words and actions than there really was, she smiled, nodded, moved away from the wall, and said, "I think that last point you made gave you the score, you won this verbal battle again."
Despite her casual attitude, Neil had the uneasy feeling that he had sohow hurt her feelings. But he had no idea what he’d said to hurt her and only watched her turn away from him. Not knowing what to say, he turned and left to go and get ready in the other closet.
A few monts later, he walked out of the bedroom and joined her at the hall closet where she was putting on the snowsuit she had worn yesterday. "I had almost forgotten about this outfit," she explained. "It will protect what I’m wearing. I got the other snowsuit out of the closet for you," she added, nodding toward the larger snowsuit hanging on the door.
Reaching for it and starting to pull it on, Neil decided their conversation in the bedroom still needed so clarification for so reason. "Listen," he said sincerely, "I don’t want to argue or discuss my future plans with you. I’m trying not to worry about them myself and just enjoy having you here. These next few days with you are going to be the last ’normal’ days of my life. Even though we both know it’s a fantasy that will end soon, I want to cherish it – a perfect few days with you to rember. I don’t want to ruin it by thinking about the future. Do you understand what I an?"
Mia tried her best to hide the pain and sorrow his words evoked in her behind a warm smile and nodded. "Am I allowed to know how long we’re going to be here together then?"
"I...I haven’t decided that yet, but no more than a week or two." He inford.
Mia tried very hard not to think of how little ti that was and decided to do exactly as he asked, ’to drop the topic,’ but she voiced the question that had been disturbing her since she left the bedroom, "Before we can drop the entire discussion about the military and everything, there’s sothing I have to ask you. I an, clarify."
Neil watched a deep blush creep up her cheeks, and she hastily bent her head to hide it by concentrating fiercely on pushing her heavy hair into a blue winter cap.
"You said you wanted
to tell the military everything. You don’t honestly an you expect
to tell them that we...you...I...I..."
"You’ve given
all the pronouns," Neil teased, guessing exactly what she was getting at but because he wanted to hear her say the words out herself, he added, "could you toss
a verb to go with them?"
She pulled on her thick gloves, placed her hands on her slim hips, and gave him a look of disapproval. "Don’t try to act like you don’t know what I’m trying to say, Mr. Wayner."
Shrugging causally, he said, "I have no idea what you’re trying to say."
Mia shook her head in angry disbelief at his causal indifference to her question and turned toward the back door at the end of the short hall.
Regretting his reply, Neil caught up with her just as she stepped outdoors through the back door. The sky was a bright, blinding blue overhead, it was cold but not bitterly cold, and the world outside looked like a snow wonderland.
"I didn’t an to treat your last question with indifference," he explained, closing the door behind him, pulling on his gloves, and stepping carefully onto the slippery step at the entrance.
Mia turned and waited for him to walk the few distance between them but Neil lost his train of thought the mont his gaze landed on the sunlit view of her face. With all her hair tucked severely under her cap and no makeup on except lipgloss, she was a breathtaking marvel of clear snow-white skin and huge chocolate eyes frad with dark lashes and graceful brows.
"What were you saying just now?" She asked, noticing how he was staring at her like she’d grown another head.
"Ah, I was saying I didn’t an you should give out the information that we’ve been intimate; that’s no one’s business but our own. On the other hand," Neil added, recovering his full composure, "given the fact that I was convicted of murder, they might assu that I wouldn’t hesitate to threaten or force you into having sex with . I know how the military interrogates suspects, and if you deny that I forced you, they will press you to suggest that maybe you wanted
to fuck you, and so I did."
"Please don’t phrase it like that!" she exclaid, looking like an innocent, outraged virgin, which, Neil realized with an inner smile, she was.
"I’m just presenting how they are likely to perceive it," he explained with a slight smile. "They will approach the matter from various angles, seemingly unrelated, such as asking you to describe the house I used as a hideout, under the pretense of locating and investigating it for evidence. Then they will ask about the bedrooms and their decorations. It’s uncertain how they will approach you, but the mont you reveal too much knowledge—or emotion—regarding anything related to
personally, they will assu the worst and act upon it. When I brought you here, I never knew that they would have a valid reason to suspect that you might have beco an accomplice. This situation wouldn’t have turned like this if that troubleso truck driver hadn’t—"
He stopped abruptly and shook his head. "When you almost escaped at that rest stop, my only thought was to prevent you from getting away. I didn’t consider whether the truck driver had a clear view of us to recognize us later. Regardless, what’s done is done, and there’s no use in dwelling on what I can’t change. When the military questions you about that incident, just tell them exactly what happened. They’ll think you were brave. And you were."
Putting his hands on her arms for emphasis, he said, "Listen closely to
and then I want to drop the subject once and for all: When they are questioning you about our relationship here, if you do happen to slip in so way that reveals we were intimate, I want you to promise
one thing."
"What’s that?" Mia asked, desperate now to end the discussion before their mood was beyond repairing, because everything was starting to scare her.
"I want you to promise
that you will tell them that I raped you." He said.
Mia gaped at him, openmouthed, but before she could say anything, he continued to speak.
"I’ve already been convicted of murder," he emphasized, "believe , my reputation isn’t going to be tarnished one bit by the added charge of rape. But your reputation can be saved by it, and that’s all that matters. You understand, don’t you, Mi amor?" he said studying the extrely odd look she was giving him.
Her voice was soft and very, very sweet as she nod her head. "Yes, Neil," she said with uncharacteristic ekness. "I understand. I understand that you are completely out of ...your... stupid mind!" Her hands hit him squarely on the shoulders, catching him by surprise and sending him falling backward, landing on a gathered snow drifts.
"What the hell was that for?!" he demanded, as he struggled to get out of the deep hole he’d made in the drift.
"That," she told him smiling her most angelic smile, her hands on her hips, her legs braced slightly apart like a soldier ready for a fight, "was for daring to suggest that I would ever consider telling anyone that you raped !"
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