Free Safe Passage by Loreth Anne White

leaving.
    “Thanks, Mrs. Tupper.”
    “Um, if it’s all right with you—” she cleared her throat “—may I have the keys? Jozsef said you had the other set. I have a new tenant moving in next week—”
    It dawned on Skye then. She’d lost her right to be here. It really was over. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She felt for the keys in her pocket. But she wasn’t ready to let them go yet. “Do you mind if I lock up and drop them off in the box downstairs. I, ah, lost an earring, somewhere on the living room carpet. I’d like to try to find it before I leave.”
    Hettie reached out, touched Skye’s arm. “It’s okay, dear. I understand. Take your time.”
    Skye waited for Hettie Tupper to close the door behind her. Then she ripped open the envelope. He’d typed it. On the computer. Impersonal.
My dear Skye,
I have no words to say what I need to say. But I can’t go through with it. I think it best I leave immediately. A clean cut will be easier on both of us. Please do not try to locate me or contact me. I wish you all of the best in life.
Jozsef.
    Bastard!
    He could have told her before the wedding. She crumpled the note tight in her fist, hurled it at the floor, clutched her arms tight into her waist, trying to hold in the emotion bubbling, roiling up from her core.
    She couldn’t.
    It surged in a confusing wave of hot angry pain up through her chest. She sunk into a heap to the middle of the living room floor. She clutched her knees and she let it all come out. Racking, aching sobs. She cried where no one could see her. Until she was dry. In the empty apartment of the man who’d abandoned her.
    Then she sat, spent, staring out drapeless windows. She told herself she’d be fine. She’d get over it. She’d gotten over way worse. She hadn’t really loved him. She never wanted to love anyone. She’d wanted Jozsef for other reasons. For a semblance of normality. For comfort. She had human needs, even though she’d been taught to shun them.
    Her whole childhood had been about denial, sacrifice for the Anubis cause. She’d been born into an Anubis camp, sequestered in the children’s compound, schooled daily in Anubis dogma. She’d been trained to fight, to think like a soldier. She’d been taught not to feel, to kill in cold blood. But she did feel.
    She had emotions she’d never managed to subdue in spite of all her years of training. That’s what had gotten her into trouble in the first place.
    That’s why she was here now.
    Skye stood, dusted herself off mentally. If she’d learned anything in that camp, she’d learned how to survive. Alone. In a foreign environment. She walked over to the window, stared blindly out across the ocean, trying to make sense of it all.
    Because it didn’t make sense.
    Why had Jozsef left so suddenly? Why had she felt so unsettled around him lately? Why were there men following her? Why were they waiting outside for her right now?
    A talon of panic gripped her heart.
    Malik had found her.
    Her past was coming to get her. She must have slipped, gotten too complacent. The claw of fear squeezed. Skye’s hand shot automatically to her belly. She hadn’t done that in more than ten years. But the pain…the fight with Malik when he’d discovered her trying to leave the camp pregnant with his child. She closed her eyes tight. She could almost feel the black heat of his fury again, the brutal beating he’d given her. She’d managed to escape, bleeding. She’d lost her baby. The pain…it was suddenly all so real, so raw again.
    She pressed her hand harder on her abdomen, felt once again that unfathomable, aching loss. She blinked back hot, bitter tears.
    An overwhelming sense of claustrophobia swamped over her. She didn’t understand how. Or why. But things were closing in on her. And she couldn’t afford to take chances. She smudged the tears angrily from her face. It was time for her to get out of Haven. Go somewhere, lay low, figure out what was happening. Plan her next