“Clara.”

Her back stiffened, her fingers curling in until her nails dug into her palms.  Why couldn’t he have stood by and let her lead this one?  Her future depended on it. Well, more accurately her sons did.

Everything depended on the devil’s trust for her to handle this, but he never would. Somehow she had to succeed. To save her son. To make sure he survived when she was sure she wouldn’t.

She didn’t need to.

It was too late for her. Far too many sins had been made thanks to her stupidity. Now was the time to try to make it right.

“Don’t make any stupid mistakes.”

His breath brushed her ear, lifting a tendril of hair that fluttered down to tickle her ear lobe.  The lump that had started to form in her throat was forced aside by her heavy swallow. “Don’t trust your own training?”

“No. It’s you I don’t trust.”

“Fitting. I don’t trust you. Since you taught me to be like this, I guess you shouldn’t trust me. But what can I do? Any move I make will end in my death.”

“Just do what you’re supposed to.”  His body bumped into hers as a long off whistle sounded alerting the crowded platform of the approaching train. It would be a through train, theirs wasn’t due for ten minutes. “I have much revenge to reap.”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Clara muttered under her breath.

“Here comes your husband. I’m watching. This is your only chance.”

The smile she plastered on was forced and as fake as the life she was wearing, but it would have to do. Knowing the devil was watching your every move made life so uneasy a genuine emotion like happiness was tough to come by.

“Here you go,Constance.”  Jake handed her the ticket for her luggage, “For safe keeping my dear.”

Somehow he kissed her on the cheek without grimacing.  She knew he was pretending she wasConstance. Denying the truth she’d spilled to him the day before. It wouldn’t last, but she could pretend for him. She had to with the glimmering set of chocolate brown eyes watching her every move.  “Thank you.”

Once the ticket had been slipped into her purse his arm looped with hers and he led her closer to the edge of the platform.  “Is he watching now, Clara?”

“Not now, Jake.” Clara used every bit of effort to keep her stance relaxed. If he moved even the slightest bit closer he’d hear everything. “There won’t be any safety until we are inGeorgia.”

“So then he is.  Which one is he?”  There was no way to stop him before he started to look.  Jake was no good at pretending, and soon it would be all over.

Panic struck her before she could stop it and she gripped his arm, “Stop. Do not look for him or we are both dead.”

“I think you underestimate the power of money, Clara.”

“She never underestimates the power of money,” the devil’s cool voice interrupted any reply she might have mustered.

This was it. The end.

As his cool eyes fixed on hers, the evil light held a hint of giddy joy. His frown dipped low, “And here I thought you deserved a second chance, Clara. My mistake.”

And then her fractured world shattered into a million pieces.  The scream of the through train’s whistle signaling the chaotic descent into a deeper hell than she’d already been through.

*~*~*~*~*