Chapter Fifty Six

Cyn.

We had been driving all night. I was asleep most of that drive.

I could tell we were getting closer to the oasis when the sparse scrub brush that lined the road began to grow taller, the color deepening, giving way to a line of cypress trees that reached to the faded blue sky.

“You were right,” I said softly, my eyes trained on the horizon, on the flat topped rocks that looked as though they had been set right on top of the red sand, “it is beautiful out here.” I had doubts about coming here, but mostly it was because I was afraid of being with him alone. Not after what happened between us.

“And dangerous.” he chimed in.

“Life is dangerous, though, isn’t it, Paul?”

I noticed his knuckles whiten as he gripped the steering wheel of the off-road vehicle more tightly.

“It can be.” he said, his knuckles still holding on tight.

“You know that more than most people, don’t you?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“Because you are always telling me how much life experience can take from you. I