The Penthouse Suite, The Silverwire Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada....
Day giving way to night caught the slumbering couple by surprise as Duko found himself once more awakening to being inside a semi darkened room and the softness of his slumbering wife beside him as she curled her body into his for warmth and for comfort as the night passed in relative silence. She seemed tense as she slept whimpering just so with the exception of calling out his name as fear crept into her tone. Duko responded to her fears via kissing her lips and shoulder to assure her that all had been well but it was to little or no avail. Whatever nightmare she'd been having had a good deal of a hold on her. Rae's emerald eyes suddenly burst open and she pulled her husband close to her as tears steamed down her cheeks as they had before she'd gone to bed. Passing out via exhaustion and the mental anguish of something possibly happening to the one person in the world whom had actually cared about her.
"Rae." said Duko softly as he held her in his arms. "It's alright."
Rae nodded kissing his lips and nuzzling her head against his muscular chest. She loved the feel of his arms around her and the tension in his muscles when he used his strength to hold her. He'd been something of a gift for her ever since they met and the terror of what nearly happened to her nearly melted away until she saw him surrounded by those thugs in the hallway.
Duko explained to her that it was simply a misunderstanding and that once it was straightened out there would be no more issues between himself and the goons she saw.
Rae wasn't so sure.
Growing up with Ed Earl she saw a good deal of shady things and the last thing she wanted was for them to follow her into her new life. Duko sense her apprehension and got out of bed, he walked over toward the yellow duffle bag and picked it up tossing it onto the bed as she stared at him before he quickly unzipped it and allowed her to see the multiple bills stashed within. Rae had not been shocked to see them as he knew she wouldn't, but he moved closer to her kneeling beside her as she sat up on her side of the bed.
"I would never do anything that could jeopardize your life." he explained meeting her gaze. "What happened was indeed a misunderstanding as I wasn't too fond of the deceased and the people he worked for are old fashioned never ones for getting with the times, they couldn't come to terms with what happened to him because of whatever animal attack they highlighted on the news."
Rae recalled the news and the animal attack it had been the reason they elected to stay in for the night. She sighed running her fingers through Duko's messy unkempt hair and kissed him on the forehead.
"This money is for our future." he said. "We can go anywhere, do anything...live anywhere we want."
Rae could see the appeal in what he was thinking. She'd been longing to settle somewhere far far away from the likes of Trenton County and halfway around the country seemed like a pretty good way to go.
Sensing that they'd at last been on the same page. Duko zipped up the yellow duffle bag and put it back on the side of the room where he'd gotten it and climbed back into bed beside Rae whom elected to lie back down as he wrapped his arms around her. She seemed more at peace after his explanation this time around and once more nuzzled her head against his chest as they both just rested together in silence.
Rae had never felt this close to anyone in her life and it was oddly terrifying due to how severe her emotions seemed to be when it came to her new husband. Duko had been in a similar position as he found himself more concerned with what the sixteen year old had wanted out of life than himself. The intensity of the pull between them was something akin to magnetic and the overall passion wasn't anything either one of them had ever experienced separately before.
Duko had been drifting through life ever since he'd been sixteen himself and without a home to call his own he simply let time pass him by even when he spent all that time in Iraq amid nothing but sand and suffering. He could still feel the almost unwavering heat of the sun and the stench of the dirt never left his senses. There was always blood and death around every corner, men cowering behind buildings in towns sending women and children to their deaths all in the name of a cause no one gave a real shit about on either side of the battlefield.
He was searching for a means of repressing it all via sex with strangers or topping off each glass until he got to the bottom of the bottle but nothing seemed to help. The increased effects of his untreated affliction seemed to get worse by the day, but there was little he could do about it, let alone remember when he came to covered in blood and given to panic attacks. He hadn't even thought of returning home to Colorado in years despite his father extending the invitation after their heart to heart when he'd been passing through.
He supposed he never thought about going back because he didn't feel he had a reason to, he and Charlie had said all they needed to say at the bar and it would have only been just another series of awkward years and contention between the two of them. As a boy, Duko loved Charlie more than anything in the world, even wanted to be in the service just like him. As a teenager tossed out in the cold due to the twisted behavior of Charlie's pretend wife Olivia Stanton, he resented the man for not bothering to see beyond the batted eyelashes of the whore he made his second wife.
Duko had known what it was like to have a wife now and he'd been hell bent on protecting her ever since the first moment they met. There was a vast amount of difference between Olivia and Rae. Rae was a kind and curious young lady whom had only known sorrow and exploitation while she suffered through her formative years. Olivia purposely went out of her way to cause sorrow and chaos while she was given to causing exploitation in Duko's formative years.
The soft sound of Rae's snores got Duko's attention as he continued to hold his young wife amid the increasing darkness that filled their suite and let his mind wonder about their upcoming plans for their future. For the first time in his life, Duko was looking forward to something instead of dreading the reminders of the past and moving numbly through the present.