One very tense car ride later, Roman sat in the passenger seat, watching the Louisiana country side drift by. Try as he might, Roman couldn't hide how awkward he felt about the entire situation. He knew he had been too rough on her at the airport. At the time he had told himself it was the only way, that she was just a means to an end. But after cooler heads had prevailed, he realized she was just trying to help. "Look about earlier…I…didn't mean to be…I'm just really worried about Dean." Roman brought his hand up, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "It means a lot that you're helping." Evangeline just shrugged, keeping her eyes on the road. It was obvious that he wasn't forgiven just yet. "So uh…how long till we get there?" She smacked her lips, indicating she wasn't feeling chatty, but she answered him all the same.
"Why don't you look it up? After all, you've got my phone. It's pretty obvious that both you and Dean have no problem going through it." The acid in her voice made him cringe. "I'm sure you can map it."
"Look about that, I'm sorry. I was worried…"
"And that gives you the right to go through my things? You realize I have sensitive information on that thing right? Information that you're not supposed to know." He cut her off, hoping to end this before she left him to die in a swamp.
"And I didn't read any of it." Except for how much everyone made. "I was just trying to find Dean."
"Right, because my personal photos were obviously going to lead you to Dean." Roman cringed again. Okay, maybe he had gone a little far on that one. "Did it ever occur to you that Dean left on his own? That he doesn't want to be found? Did you even think of that?" Of course he hadn't. He'd only considered the possibility of Bray had taking Dean. To him, the only logical reason was that Bray had forced Dean to go with him. He couldn't fathom the idea that Dean had left him for Bray, not after everything they had been through.
"God this whole damn thing is a mess." Roman couldn't agree more. "So help me I'm going to smack both of them when we get there."
Out of the corner of his eye, Roman saw Evangeline tiredly rub her eyes. She had probably been up just as long as he had, and he was sure the stress of him showing up unannounced hadn't helped her one bit.
"You're tired. I can drive for a while if you want." She shook her head, resting her hand back on the window sill of the car.
"You don't know how to get there."
"The address is in there." He gestured to her phone. "As you said I could just map it." Again she shook her head no.
"It won't come up. The address is a general location. It's really just a reference point for the compound. Only way to get to it is to either be shown how to find it or know how to find it." Roman furrowed his brow slightly. How would she know how to find it? "To answer your earlier question, the edge of the compound isn't that much further. But someone have to take us in. Since you wouldn't let me call at the airport, we may have to wait for one of them to wander up once we get there."
"Is an escort necessary?"
"It isn't necessary, but it's not exactly wise to walk around that place unescorted. It would be difficult to get back to Bray unseen." Roman didn't like the sound of that. He had been under the impression that the house was near the road. At least that's what he remembered from the videos. He had thought that all they needed to do was roll up, grab Dean and roll out. Apparently that wasn't the case. It worried him that there was no easy in and no easy out. That meant they were all at Bray's mercy once they were on the property.
"I thought it was just the one house. How big is this place?" Evangeline glanced over at him as she responded.
"Big. That house is just the start of it all."
"Bray knows we're…" She cut him off.
"Bray knows I'm coming. He doesn't know about you." He detected the irritation in her voice. Roman was starting to think it might have been a bad idea to refuse her request to call Bray earlier. It dawned on him that she had been sincere in her need to protect him, to protect both of them from Bray and his wrath. "I will need to call when get there. Hopefully it will be Luke that meets us." Roman raised an eyebrow to that. "I can explain what's going on to him and with any luck he'll smooth it out. If not then you may have to wait by the road." Roman's head snapped in her direction.
"What?" He began shaking his head. "Not uh. You go in, I go in. That's the deal."
Evangeline slammed on the breaks, bringing the car to a sudden stop. Roman had to quickly brace himself so he didn't go face first into the dash. The sheer force of the car coming to a stop unnerved him. That feeling only got worse when Evangeline easily turned away from the wheel, glaring at him with all her might. She looked ready to set him ablaze with just her eyes.
"Are you intentionally stupid or are you just playing at it?" Roman didn't know how to answer that. "I know you think you know what's going on here, but you don't. This isn't work. Bray isn't going to chasten himself for the sake of his job. He won't stop the boys or any other member of his family from doing extreme bodily harm to us, especially if any of them feel he's in danger. These people are dangerous Roman. Bray is dangerous." Roman furrowed his brow at that. How did she know whether they were dangerous or not? Same went for the size of the place or even how to find it from memory. She would have had to have been here before to know that, and as far as he knew, she hadn't. Then there was the whole Luke comment from before. Why would Harper do anything for her? Why had Bray even asked her to come? Something wasn't adding up. "Please just listen to me on this. If they tell you to stay, just stay. Bray is beyond eager to get rid of Dean. Same goes for everyone else there. Unless Dean refuses to go, we won't have any problem getting him out of there. Then y'all can go on your merry way." An awkward silence fell between them for a moment.
"How do you know so much about it?" He had caught her off guard with that one.
"What?"
"Bray. How do you know so much?" She let out an exasperated sigh, quickly offering a bullshit excuse.
"I'm Mark's assistant. It's my…."
"It's not your job to know the population size and disposition of the natives. It's not your job to lie for him. You've been covering for him ever since he left, why?" She turned back, not offering him answer. "How do you know he wants to get rid of Dean?" She answered him, her voice considerably calmer than it had been before.
"Because he told me when he asked me to come down here. He said that Dean was here and he wanted him gone."
"And you believed him?"
"Why would he lie? If Bray had a scheme to lure Dean here then why would he tell anyone, especially the company, where to find him? More importantly why would he want him gone?" Roman couldn't argue with that. "If Bray wanted to take Dean, then he wouldn't wait for Dean to go home. It's too far to go. He would either take him on the road, or he would have done it the night Bray left." Again Roman couldn't argue. "I know you think this is all a trap, but it's not. Bray didn't kidnap Dean. He's not holding him hostage. If anything, it's the other way around."
"How do I know that? You're obviously in on all of this. You've been lying for Bray for weeks, you lied to Carrano about where you were going and for all I know you're lying to me too."
"I also lied for Dean." That made Roman pause. "I'm not proud of lying. I hate to do it, but I didn't have any other choice. The company would be furious if they found out about Dean playing hookie. Bray asked me to cover for Dean because he didn't have any other choice. The last thing Bray wants is company officials or the police…"
"Or me." She paused, nodding slightly.
"Or you turning up unannounced. He thought he could get Dean out of the house before anyone was the wiser."
"But…"
"It didn't work out like he wanted. First Dean was sick, but now he's refusing to leave. "
"So is that where you come in?" Again she nodded.
"Basically."
"So Bray didn't invite you?" She hesitated, looking away for a moment before she continued.
"It's a long story." He went to interrupt her, but she never gave him the chance too. "One that I'm not inclined to tell right now. Let's just say it's complicated and leave it at that." He didn't want to drop it, but he also didn't want to sit here any longer than they had too. "Look, let's just get there and get this over with. Okay?" He threw up his hands, not wanting to argue with her.
"Fine." He hated to not have all the facts, especially since Evangeline was the wild card in all of this. But there was no other choice at this point. It wasn't like he was going to luck upon someone else who was willing to drop him at Bray's front door anytime soon; so for now, he just dropped it. If it got him to where he needed to be, then she could be mysterious till the cows came home. Dean was his priority and in his mind the sooner he got to Dean, the better.