Curiosity is the lust of the mind. ~Thomas Hobbes
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Alea had five successive nightmares before she jerked awake. The nightmares had all revolved around her unexpected rendezvous with the person from last night. Alea remembered that she urgently needed to talk to Archer. She sat up abruptly and a splitting headache announced it's presence.  Alea was sure that there was a rebel group inside her head detonating thousands of bombs in her brain. She was never drinking again. Alea was now on a purely water diet. Nothing else. Chocolate milk was an exception though.

Alea started noticed things in phases. The most obvious was that she was not in her own bed. The soft and comfy king sized bed on which she was lying didn't compare to the single bed in her apartment that looked like something straight out of a military camp. The tantalizing lavender smell of the sheets spoke volumes of the owner's hygiene. The hot pink walls that encased the room struck Alea as strongly feminine and the elegant white closet that dominated one corner of the room looked custom made. It made her feel ashamed of her furniture that came from garage sales. What scared Alea most were the big curious blue eyes that were staring at her.

"Who are you?" The owner of the big curious blue eyes asked. His dark brows were creased in a frown. Alea guessed that he was around six years. His jet black hair which mirrored her own fell liberally onto his chubby face. Alea tried to sit up so that she could figure out how to speak and the rebel group inside her head held a mini-protest.

Alea settled for using her phone. She typed, "I am Alea Finn." She showed him her screen and hoped to God that he could read.

"Good m-morning Alea Finn. I am Ryan." He held out his hand in greeting and Alea shook it reluctantly. She had heard of six year old children who were trained terrorists and she didn't even know where she was.

"Where am I?" Alea typed into her phone and showed the boy her screen. He frowned as he read what she had typed and then he gave her a weird look as though she was stupid.

"You are at my father's house." Ryan replied. Alea hefted herself to a sitting position ignoring the rumbling taunts of the rebel group who had now spread to her stomach making her feel nauseous.

"Are you not able to speak?" Ryan asked. Curiosity clearly etched onto his face.

Alea gulped and shook her head. Tears stung her eyes and she closed them to stem what would have been a heavy downpour. Alea felt a weight resting on her thighs and opened her eyes to find Ryan straddling her.

"How does it feel?" Ryan asked. Alea was going to cry soon if he didn't stop asking such questions. Talk about adding fuel to the fire.

Ryan's stubby hands came around Alea's neck and the dam broke. For the first time in a long while, Alea felt the pang of loss that came with losing a child. There was no one to hug her like this when she was sad. Alea was on her own. She had been clinically dead for twenty minutes and her baby had not made it. Now she could never have children of her own because her uterus was messed. Even if she miraculously managed to get pregnant, her body would not be able to handle it and she would most probably die.

"I am sorry." Ryan said as he broke away from her awkwardly. "It's just that-that you look a lot like my mother." Ryan's bottom lip jutted out in an award winning pout.

Alea ignored the fact that her fingers were trembling spasmodically when she typed, "What was her name?"

"Evelyn Dakota. She d-died two years ago. A bad man hit her with a b-baseball bat and b-burnt her body." Ryan's lower lip was quivering and his eyes had turned suspiciously glassy. Alea felt sorry for the boy. He had been exposed to the dangerous side of the world so early in life. He was clearly still grieving. Alea touched Ryan's check with a trembling hand and he flinched at the contact. Something passed over his face and he became angry almost instantly. He pushed away from her.

"Don't touch me. You are not my mother and you will never be." Ryan yelled. The words stung Alea in ways that she couldn't explain.

Just like a switch being flipped, the anger vanished from his face and nonchalance took it's place. "My dad brought you these." Ryan said pointing to a small heap of clothes at the foot of the bed and he dashed out of the room leaving Alea speechless.

Alea resisted the urge to google Evelyn Dakota and picked the clothes from the heap and went out into the hall in search of a bathroom. She found it on the second try. Alea stood under the hot spray of the shower and scrubbed the filth of last night off her skin until it felt raw. Then she scrubbed it some more because she still felt dirty. She picked a towel from the heap and dried off.

She tiptoed to her room like a thief in the night and contemplated refusing the clothes. She didn't want to owe anybody anything. Alea finally put on the clothes when she looked at her discarded cat suit and figured that she would look like a prostitute if she went out dressed like that.

Curiosity got the better of Alea and she finally gave in to the urge to Google Evelyn Dakota. She clicked website after website of the case that had garnered a lot of media attention. It was just as Ryan had described. A bad man had ambushed Evelyn in her own home and hit her with a baseball bat then burnt her body and dumped her body in Dr. Emilia Gardiner's home.

Alea froze. Dr. Emilia Gardiner was her speech pathologist. She saw one particular article that showed a picture of Emilia and her brother, Archer in a rather compromising situation. They were kissing like long lost lovers. Alea grinned devilishly. Her speech pathologist was a good woman. Unlike Rosalia, she actually deserved to be with her brother. Dozens of thoughts struck Alea. Where was Evelyn's husband when all this was happening? Why didn't he feature in any of these articles?

Alea decided that she would write a note and leave the house without anyone knowing. It was easier that way. She wouldn't have to explain why she couldn't speak. She would leave some money too as compensation for the clothes. When she was done writing, she crammed her cat suit from yesterday in her purse and she was on her way.

Alea had made her way to the garden. The modern style wood paneled gate was finally coming into view when a husky deep voice that sent shivers down her spine stopped her in her tracks.

"Glad to see that you are in good spirits, Miss Alea Finn." Alea gulped and turned. It was her first dance partner from yesterday. He looked even more beautiful than yesterday. He sat at an elegant glass table holding a newspaper in one hand and a cup in his other hand. Who still read newspapers in this day and age? That aside, his rich and shiny blonde hair was combed back. His sinfully crystalline blue eyes were burning holes into her body. Today he sported a blue polo T-shirt that was doing great justice to his chiseled body. His pink lips– Alea stopped herself before she orgasmed from this man's garden.

"Gabriel Hidalgo." The man said as he stood up and offered his hand. Alea shook his hand and tried very much to veil the fact that her legs were shaking infront of him.

"I know about your condition, Miss Alea and must I add that it was very irresponsible of you to be in a bar alone at such a late hour. I contacted your mother and–"

Now Alea's knees buckled but for completely different reasons. Why the fuck had he called her mother? She wasn't a child for him to be treating her like one. She needed to get out of here and very quickly but her legs were not functioning.

"Alea?" Gabriel was tapping her earnestly on the face and she felt a queer sense of deja vu.

Alea scrambled to her feet and pushed Gabriel's hands off of her. Now Alea was running. She wasn't ready to see her family yet. This was one of the reasons she had escaped from the hospital five years ago. The other reason being that she was being used as leverage against her brother. Her mother had used her to blackmail her brother and she couldn't take that anymore. Alea ignored the way her name rolled off Gabriel's lips as he called after her.

Alea had pushed open the gate when she caught a movement from the corner of her eye. Alea abandoned all plans of fleeing and dashed towards Gabriel who now stood with his back to her, completely oblivious to the sniper that was being trained at him.

Alea speared Gabriel to the floor in a flourish of movements that would make even Roman Reigns jealous. Blasts of gun fire rained down denting the concrete and creating holes in the well trimmed lawn.

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Fun fact: Remember Evelyn Dakota from my first book? Well this is her son Ryan now. He is now living with his father, Gabriel. There is more to this story and you will find out more as you read on.

Next update is next Friday.