The Den by Jennifer Abrahams Read Free Book Online Page A

Highway and made a right.  They drove alongside a cruise ship just making its way back to port.  Skyla stared past Alex and watched the immense ship eclipse a tiny water taxi.  What a great day to start a journey .  She felt a sudden sadness for those who were returning home on the ship.
    The next thought brought an overwhelming sense of happiness.  Skyla felt exhilarated!  She felt as if she had total freedom for the first time.  She rolled down the window and breathed in the hot and sticky city air.  She felt it fill her lungs and even let out a little whoop.  Alex laughed as he looked over at her.  His eyes were so green right now that they looked like the color of the Hudson River behind him.  
    They made it out of the city in no time at all.  They left the Lincoln Tunnel in the rearview mirror and were waved at by the cranes and cargo that occupied Bayonne.  Planes roared out of Newark and left a trail of sound behind them.  Alex’s smile was a bit crooked as he shook his head slightly and gave her a sly glance.  Skyla wondered what was going through his head anyway.  She wished she had not forgotten how to read minds.  It had gradually stopped sometime after her eighteenth birthday.  What could he really think of her?  A strange girl in a cafe invites him to take an impromptu trip.   A girl willing to quit her job, pack all her belongings, and leave her apartment without any significant planning.  Come to think of it, what did she think of herself?  She would ponder the question … later.
    They sat silently for a while listening to Credence Clearwater Revival, their greatest hits or something.  Alex thought it was great traveling music.  Skyla had to agree.   Several times, Skyla spotted Alex sneaking looks at her.  When she peered over to catch him, he would always give that cute little grin and shake his head.  It was while Credence’s “Bad Moon Rising” was playing that Skyla remembered she didn’t know much about Alex and his childhood.  She would be meeting his twin sister, Lucy, and had no idea what to expect.  Alex said that Lucy didn’t really have much of a memory of places before New Orleans either.  No ties to his past were going to be revealed through her.  “Melted in the heat,” she recalled him saying.  Skyla suddenly became gloomy.  It swept over her quickly and completely.  She looked over at Alex.  He saw her out of the corner of his eye and smiled again.   He grasped the steering wheel and gave it a playful shift back and forth to the beat. 
    “Alex, how does Lucy feel about me coming on this road trip with you?  I mean, you haven’t seen her in six months, right?  So how did she feel when you told her that I would be coming along?”
    “Oh, she doesn’t know I am coming,” he said.
    “What?  Why didn’t you call her and tell her?” 
    “Well, because she doesn’t have a cell—I don’t think—and it didn’t seem necessary.  I guess I figured I would just show up and see how she is doing.”
    “She doesn’t have a cell?  How do you get in touch with her?”
    “I can get in touch with her if I need to speak with her, but this isn’t an emergency or anything.  Plus, it was all last-minute.”
    Skyla pondered that for a minute.  It hadn’t occurred to her until right this second—was it possible that Alex was a complete psycho?  Was it possible that he had kidnapped her and was going to sell her on the black market to a bunch of crazed, prostitute-starved businessmen?  Okay.  Not likely.
    Is it getting hot in here?   Great!  If the car turns twenty degrees hotter, he will surely leave me on the side of the road.  I would have to charge a train ticket on my credit card and my father would know that I went on this asinine trip with a complete stranger.  He would attack my judgment once again and insist that I move home to live with my mother.  Ugh!  Could I be having a meltdown right here in the Jeep Cherokee?
    Alex