No Love For The Villain - Chapter 17
Then, Eli added another remark, like throwing a stone at prey that wouldn’t come closer.
“Your son seems like he’d be good at raising another man’s child, but I guess the mother is on the stingy side.”
Sierra saw the frozen Mrs. Miles as if she were a mirror reflecting herself. She realized that’s how she must have appeared to Mrs. Miles—trembling as if stabbed in the heart by a casually thrown remark from the other party.
Eli turned Sierra around. Now unable to see Mrs. Miles, she was imprisoned in his embrace. Only the broad shoulders, the loosely tied tie, the straight neck and prominent Adam’s apple—things that belonged to him—were visible.
“Your god said to love your neighbor, but did he say not to love your neighbor’s offspring?” Eli let out a derisive laugh. In the space where Mrs. Miles’s voice had vanished, only the sound of suppressed, furious breathing remained. Even that sound was drowned out by the noise of a car door opening.
Eli opened the passenger door and seated Sierra inside. As he tucked her legs into the car, Sierra kept her eyes fixed on Eli.
Meeting her gaze as if responding to her following eyes, Eli looked back at her.
“Seatbelt.”
The car door closed.
Through the window, Sierra watched Eli head for the driver’s seat.
She had a chance to escape until he sat down in the driver’s seat.
Sierra felt like this opportunity was a test given to her. A test that offered a chance to escape and left the choice to her. Would she fasten the seatbelt as he commanded, or would she return to where she had been?
Sierra tried to fasten the seatbelt. But her mind was frantic, and her hands only fumbled around the seat.
The driver’s side door opened. Her heart sank with a thud. When Eli sat in the driver’s seat and looked at her, she felt he might let her go. That he might tell her to go back to Mrs. Miles, just as she wished.
Frantically, she opened her mouth.
“I don’t know how to fasten the seatbelt.”
She made an excuse, insisting it wasn’t that she didn’t want to follow his command.
Eli quietly stared at Sierra. She felt his gaze was just like when he had looked at the Twinkie. The scrutinizing stare continued, as if deciding what to do with her.
Sierra felt like she was a boring opponent, not even worth the effort of kidnapping. As she averted her gaze, she caught a glimpse of the corner of his mouth lifting.
Did he just smile?
Wanting to see what she had missed, she lifted her gaze and ended up meeting Eli’s eyes as he leaned toward the passenger seat. His approaching shoulder brushed against her arm. Startled, Sierra let out a single sound, “Ah,” and pressed her back tightly against the seat.
The mirage-like smile was gone, and Eli simply pulled the seatbelt and fastened it for her. *Click.* The belt locked. Sierra felt her chest constrict under the belt he had locked. The sound of the engine starting roared sharply.
The chance to escape was over.
Sierra looked out the window. As the man’s car picked up speed, the world began to move swiftly. A row of gaunt trees rushed past. Things she never imagined could run, rooted things, were running.
When the temperature difference inside and outside the car made the window fog white, she wiped it with her fingertips. She regretted that the visible scenery was narrowing.
As the two people’s body heat filled the car’s interior, the world Sierra could see became increasingly obscured. Soon, she could only see the world through the circular spot she had wiped with her fingertips, a gap no larger than her palm.
“Shall I open the window for you?”
A low voice resonated in the quiet car.
Sierra, who had been leaning her head close to the window, lifted her gaze. Her eyes met Eli’s in the rearview mirror.
“Even if it’s cold, is that okay?”
Sierra, looking at the eyes in the mirror, nodded. Then, his eyes curved loosely.
Quietly, like snow melting in the sunlight, so faintly it could be missed in an instant, Eli smiled.
Even after his smile seemed to melt entirely away in the sunlight, Sierra couldn’t stop looking at him.
Eli, holding the steering wheel with one hand, pressed something. The window began to slowly descend.
Sierra’s eyes widened. The winter wind pushed in through the open window crack.
Sierra’s golden hair fluttered and tangled in the wind. Her heart, awakened by the cold wind, began to pound.
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