In between bites, I questioned him and his decisions. “You heard me, right?”
“I heard you.”
“The typhoon is supposed to hit Da Nang directly.”
“You’ve mentioned that.”
I had serious reservations about driving into an Asian hurricane, but I also understood that we needed to find his friend, Tonko. Still, wouldn’t it be more prudent to wait out the storm? “But we’re going there? What about the hotel and my shower?”
“Change of plans.”
“You know I hate it when those words come out of your mouth.”
“Why?”
“Because it usually means something worse is coming my way. What are we doing on this street? Shouldn’t we be finding a bus or something?”
“Buses take too long, so we’re going to borrow a car.”
I should have felt moral outrage at his statement, but I remained unfazed. I would take a closer look at this reaction at another time, but for now, I focused on being practical. “Can you at least borrow a nice car? Something with a bit of luxury, maybe something with seat warmers?”
He looked at me with surprise. “You’re right. We need a car that has speed.”
“There’s a Mercedes across the street, and we just passed an Audi. If you’re looking for speed, that model is the faster of the two.”
“Show me the way.”
I felt pleased to be contributing on some small level. I led him to a new black Audi. “How do you plan on stealing this?”
He pulled a generic RF fob out of his bag and activated it. Suddenly the locks of the door clicked open.
“That’s disturbing.”
He looked down the street both ways before opening the door. “Get in.”
As I sank into the soft leather seats, it brought back memories of my old life from a week ago—a life that seemed a million years behind me. “Now what?”
“Now we have a thirteen-hour drive.”
I couldn’t keep the dismay from my voice. “You’re kidding.”
He checked his military watch. “It’s just after eleven. If we drive straight through, we should get there around midnight.”
“I don’t even know what day it is.”
He used the fob to start the car. “It’s Wednesday.”
He pulled the vehicle into the street.
The time difference was doing a number on my sense of time. “When do we have to be in Singapore?”
“Friday morning. Which means we have approximately forty-three hours.”
“And you thought it was a good idea to detour through a typhoon first?”
“You have a better idea?”
I remained silent. The reality was, I was shocked we had made it this far. It was a feat I never would have achieved on my own.
“If Drake wanted us to meet the ship, why didn’t he at least give us our passports?”
“He doesn’t want any record of us being here.”
“Why not?”
“Probably because he’s breaking multiple international laws.”
Again, my lack of outrage surprised me. I realized I would break any number of laws if it meant I might save my grandfather. “Do you mind if I sleep?”
He glanced over at me. “Why do you always ask me that?”
“Maybe you need help to stay awake.”
“I’m fine.”
I was filthy, exhausted, hungry and disoriented, but in that moment I felt safe. Safe enough to lean back, turn on the seat warmer and shut my eyes.
I woke up to the sensation of the car slowing down. I sat up and watched as Viktor navigated the car toward a petrol station.
“Where are we?”
He glanced over at me. “We’re about nine hours into our trip.”
“I can’t believe I slept that long.”
“We’re taking a short break here to refuel.”
I looked around. The open restaurants, covered only by thatched roofs, were illuminated in the dark of the night. People milled around and stood in line at one of the food counters.
“What time is it?”
“Around 8 p.m.”
“Can I buy some food?”
He pulled out some currency. “Whatever you buy yourself, buy me some too.”
“What do you like to eat?”
“Anything.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I’m not picky.”
I used the facilities first, taking advantage of the running water to freshen up. On the way back to the restaurant, I stopped at a coffee booth and bought us to two large Vietnamese coffees. Although there were four different restaurants with multiple seating areas, only one of the restaurants was serving food, and the lineup was long because two buses of people had pulled in after us.
I watched as Viktor came in from the front and scanned the area before locating me. Something jolted inside of me when we locked gazes and he started toward me. I tried to ignore that feeling, but I couldn’t tear my eyes off him. There was something about how masculine he was, how strong and confident, that gave me shivers every time he looked my way. He didn’t seem to notice my appraisal as he moved to stand beside me. I handed him a coffee.
He gave a short nod. “Thanks.”
“I can’t read the menu, but they seem to be serving pho, which is a noodle soup. They also have rice wraps and a few rice dishes.”
“I’ll take two wraps. Stay in line, I’ll be back.”
I watched him with curiosity as he disappeared into the convenience store at the back. As I stood in line, I listened to the news station that played overhead. Most of the news was in Vietnamese, but they had clips of a journalist reporting in Mandarin as he stood next to a windy coastline. “As you can see, this storm is promising to be a fierce one, with winds up to one hundred fifty miles per hour. If you haven’t left the city of Da Nang, there’s still time—but if you choose to ride out this monster, be sure to find someplace safe from debris, winds and torrential storm surges.”
I felt Viktor’s presence tower over me from behind. I glanced up at him as he watched the television with an impassive expression.
“They are predicting one-hundred-fifty-mile-per-hour winds.”
He didn’t even blink.
“And a storm surge,” I added.
He finally looked down at me. “Why did you learn Mandarin?”
“I lost a bet with my grandfather when I was thirteen years old. As a result, he got to choose my summer school program that year. I wanted to take drama, and he put me in six weeks of intensive Mandarin.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You learned to speak a language in six weeks?”
“No, that was just the start of my passion for learning languages. I ended up studying Mandarin for six more years.”
We ordered our food and then stood, waiting for it to be prepared.
“What was the bet?”
“We had an apple danish bake-off, and my grandma and the staff did a blind taste test.”
His lips twitched. “You sure it was a blind test?”
I paused, comprehending the truth of that question. “Do you think they tricked me so I would study Mandarin?”