There was a strange raised indentation when her hip muscle moved and Henry realized that there were burn scars on the side of her hip as her s.h.i.+rt rode up.  Henry wanted to lean forward to inspect it, but at the same time, he knew it would be a bad idea to distract Ellie while she was driving. He wondered if it was from her driving accident?  Henry did not really know for certain if she had sustained other injuries other than the metal embedded in her spine. He had touched that area during their wedding vows and it had been more stiff than the rest of her body.

He could hear Deul's voice echoing in his head -- take care of her, she's all I have left.

Henry looked at the road ahead of him.  He felt a heaviness in his chest as if he had been sprinting on a track around and around until he felt dizzy from the overexertion.  He looked ahead at the road zipping by and felt the same type of lightheadedness so he looked down at the seat he was sitting on. This car had been gifted to him by Nadia because he really had no connections for race car distributions in Russia.  He loved how she memorized everything he said and could repeat his ideas with ease. She understood his logic without him having to explain it.

Ellie did the same, she clung onto his words.  The way she looked at him was that he was the center of her world.  He always felt guilty that he could not say the same about her.

He closed his eyes to envision Nadia's beautiful body.  He remembered the way that the flas.h.i.+ng camera would play on the planes of her body.  Her profile was perfect and her taste in everything from clothing to architecture to cars matched his.  The way Nadia looked at him was something he craved -- Henry really couldn't wait to meet her again.