They walked outside, and she climbed into the passenger side of the car, only this time she felt a little more comfortable riding with him. It was almost as if him helping her with what had just happened had created a level of trust between them, that they were closer, and he was now more like a friend to her. He drove fast, like before but now she felt safe with him.
'Where are you going to go?' He asked her as he drove down her road.
'I don't know, maybe LA or San Diego , maybe Vegas, no not Vegas... Reno maybe. I'm just going to disappear and get lost so no one can find me. I've got some money to keep me going but I will easily get a job wherever I end up.' She said, feeling more confident than she thought she would. Suddenly he turned the car right when he should have turned left and she looked at him confused. 'Where are you going?'
'Yeah, you're not going to LA or Nevada. You're coming back with me.' He simply said , and a bolt of confusion and panic shot through her.
'Back where? I can't stay with you, they'll look for you and find me. No, I want to leave.' She stressed. She wasn't happy with him just taking over like this.
'Nothing is going to happen to you.' He was calm yet deadly serious as he spoke. 'But you are not leaving.'
'What? You can't do this, it's not your choice.' She pointed out to him. 'Please David, you don't understand, OK. I want to go, I have to go.' She tried to be as calm and rational as he seemed to be, so he would see that she meant what she was saying.
'Star, as long as you are with me, you don't need to worry about that, you don't need to worry about anything.' He responded and pressed his foot on the accelerator, the car picking up considerable speed. Her mind was spinning, she didn't know why he was doing this.
'And what happens when I'm not around you? I really want to get outta town, like I have to go.'
'You don't have much of a choice now, do you?' He said, and she began to feel almost like she'd been kidnapped. This was surreal. 'And you don't want to seem ungrateful after accepting my assistance now, do you?' He slid his eyes sideways and saw her large sleepy eyes gazing over at him in disbelief. She'd just had a taste of the real David, the one that gives with one hand and takes away with the other. No matter what she said to him, he wasn't letting her out of his sight.
'No,' she withdrew a little, 'I appreciate what you did for me.'
'Right then, so you are coming back with me. The end.' He finished the conversation and she was left sitting there, unsure of exactly how that had just happened. She quickly decided that she'd be polite and just go with him but the first chance she got, she'd jump in her car and bail south, and she'd make sure that no one would find her, not Ben or Carl or this crazy guy forcing her to go to his house. He sped past the Boardwalk and up towards Hudson's Bluff and she began to become intrigued as to where this guy lived, there were some stunning houses up along the coast, but she looked to her left and the man she was looking at definitely didn't look like the type that could afford to live in one of the houses she remembered seeing. He suddenly veered off the road to the head of the Bluff and slammed on the breaks, skidding the car to a halt making her shoot forward in her seat and making her hair fly over her shoulders and cover her face.
'Oh, my God!' She laughed. Her reaction wasn't what he expected, she sat there giggling and sweeping her hair off her face and he couldn't help but smile at her. The dust created by the tires blew away and she looked around out of the windows but her perfectly formed eye brows creased when she saw there were no houses anywhere. 'Where are we?' She asked, uncertainty entering her voice.
'Come on.' He said, opening the door and exiting out of the car.
'No wait, where are we?' She repeated but he just closed the door and she sat there watching him walk around the front of the car before he opened her door for her. She sat and stared at the gloved hand being offered to her and she thought of Dwayne doing the same thing for her earlier in the night. They were both such gentlemen, like they were from a different age with old school manners yet looked like an 80's rock band. Reality hit her and a chill went through her, she became acutely aware of her gut screaming for her not to go with him and she stalled. 'David, where are we?' She asked him seriously.
'My place.' He replied. 'Come inside.'
'Inside where?'
'Trust me.' He reached down and took her hand in his, feeling the slight tremble in her fingers. He began to press her with his compulsion, yet she still remained seated, looking up at him, so he gently pulled her out of the car and in doing so, he pulled her close to him, so he could close the door behind her. He had her mere inches away from his cold firm body and the intensity that had been between them back at the house was back and she felt like her legs were going to buckle beneath her. He looked down at her with such depth he could have been peering straight into her soul and she could barely breathe. 'Come with me.' He said in his low hypnotic tone and her feet began to follow him before her brain had even engaged. He led her over to the old wooden stairs but she stopped dead once he took the first stair. This was the sort of place that girls like her were murdered by guys like him and she felt like she was pushing her luck with him already.
'I don't want to go up there.' She said honestly when he turned to see why she'd stopped following him. 'David, I really just want to...' He leaned forward and stopped her talking by placing his lips upon hers and pulling her in a deep mind-numbing kiss, one which affected him just as much as it did her and, once their lips parted, her eyes opened and it was like she was seeing him for the first time. He was used to having this effect on girls, but what he wasn't used to was how kissing her had consolidated his thoughts and cleared his uncertainties about her and now he knew, she was the one Max would talk to him about, the one that he would want to keep, and David finally understood. He knew he would never allow her to leave him now.
'Come with me.' He said again only this time she obeyed him without question. She walked behind him with her hand in his, barely being able to see the creaking stairs beneath her feet, but she could certainly hear the waves smashing against the rocks forty feet below her and the sound was making her legs weak, weaker than they already were. They reached the rocks at the bottom and he effortlessly climbed the large rocky path towards the entrance , despite his boots and leather pants and her heart was beating so hard the thought her ribs were going to snap. Suddenly she could see a faint light in the darkness and hear music and the echo of laughter and it totally distracted her from her fear and apprehension about being where she was and being with who was doing what she was doing.
