Safe for Summer

it. Or maybe it was Nathan’s driving that was doing that. He was going almost seventy, and they were in a forty zone.
‘I need to look in the rear-view mirror,’ Nathan said. ‘I can hardly do that properly if you’re using it to touch up your make-up. Here, vanity unit.’ He reached up and flicked down the visor.
‘My make-up doesn’t need touching up. It’s twenty-four hour,’ Autumn replied, folding her arms across her chest.
‘Really?’
‘Yes, and it’s very expensive. These tiny, tiny bottles probably cost more than you earn in a month,’ Autumn taunted.
‘Well done.’
Autumn huffed a sigh and looked out the passenger window as the streets of South London flashed past her. It was hard to take in what had happened in the last hour. She hadn’t even wanted to meet her mother. She had been deliberately late so it wouldn’t last too long, and now here she was on the verge of being hunted down by a terrorist organization. She had heard of As-Wana, everyone had. They were touted on the news as being the new Al-Qaeda. They had blown up part of an embassy building in Spain a little more than a month ago. Their motive seemed to be general death and destruction with a vague mention of hatred for the Western world, and because of that, London seemed to constantly be on a high state of alert.
Nathan flicked on the radio, and a heavy rock track blasted out of the speakers, shaking the door panel.
‘Turn it down!’ Autumn ordered, covering her hands with her ears.
‘Sorry. Not your thing, is it? You’re more into electro-pop… whatever that is,’ Nathan stated with a smirk.
‘You don’t know anything about me.’
‘I know you’ve been writing music since you were seven years old. You play the piano, the guitar, and the cello, and I also know you’ve sold more records than the Backstreet Boys already.’
‘Don’t believe everything you read,’ she answered.
‘No? Not sold better than the Backstreet Boys?’
‘I have no idea about that. But I wrote my first song when I was eight, not seven. Mother decreases the age every time someone asks her about it, like eight isn’t good enough. Soon she’ll have me composing in the womb.’ Autumn sighed with frustration.
‘I’m guessing you two have a complicated relationship,’ Nathan continued, looking across at her.
‘I’m not talking to you. I don’t even know where we’re going. Where are we going?’ Autumn looked out the window and tried to catch a glimpse of any landmarks she might recognize.
‘Home,’ Nathan answered.
‘I live in a penthouse by the Thames. This is not the way home.’
‘Your new home—well, for tonight. Tomorrow we’ll go to the airstrip,’ Nathan informed.
‘Airstrip!’ Autumn screamed. ‘Where are you taking me? Stop the car!’ Autumn reached for the door handle.
The central locking clicked into place, and Nathan stepped on the gas.
‘Unlock the car! How am I supposed to know that you’re not one of them? I mean, how much does my mother know about you? You could be a member of the gang who wants to kidnap me. You’re ticking all the boxes so far. You’re rude and you pull me around. You’re keeping me in a car against my will. You’re dressed really badly and you drive like a maniac.’
‘You’re flattering me.’
‘This is completely unacceptable. I mean, I need to go home. I need clothes and make-up and my keyboard and my guitar and other things, lots of other things,’ Autumn said, playing with the fingers of her gloves.
‘I have stuff,’ Nathan replied.
‘You have stuff. What does that mean? What stuff? My stuff? Have you been in my apartment? ‘
She was beside herself with anxiety. She liked routine and organization in her life. Every one of her days for the next five years was planned out with hourly windows for people and organizations to slot into. This spontaneity and the danger accompanying it was too much.
‘Fuck, are you always like this?’ Nathan wanted to know.
The conversation was broken by the sound of Autumn’s Blackberry ringing. She hurriedly unfastened her purse and began searching for it.
Nathan swerved the car to the curb and halted. ‘Who is it?’ he asked.
‘It’s none of your business,’ Autumn said as she located her phone and prepared to take the call.
‘Don’t fucking answer it! Give it to me!’
‘I don’t think so.’ Autumn’s finger hovered over the answer key… then pressed.
Nathan grabbed hold of the phone, snapped off the back, and took out the SIM card and battery. He smashed the battery repeatedly on the dashboard, got a knife out of the pocket of his trousers, and cut the SIM card clean in half.
‘When I ask you to do something, Autumn, you do it!’
‘You’ve destroyed my phone! My phone! I have everything on that phone! Numbers, appointments, names, dates! Everything!’ Autumn exclaimed in horror as she watched Nathan drop the phone, battery, and card out the car window.
‘I’ll get you an address book. Remember them? Pen, paper, no hope of being tracked by technology,’ Nathan responded, adjusting the collar of his jacket and circling his shoulders.
‘How am I going to call Juan or Janey? They won’t know where I am.’ Autumn’s eyes glistened with tears.
‘That’s the general idea,’ Nathan said, restarting the car.
Tears began to spill from Autumn’s eyes. ‘But—’
‘Listen, you need to understand something right now. Until this threat is over, I’m in charge, of everything. That’s everything to do with you. What you do or don’t do, where you go or don’t go, who you speak to or don’t speak to. We need to be absolutely clear about that.’ Nathan pulled the car away from the curb.
‘Janey’s my PA. She organizes things. I don’t need anyone else,’ she said, searching her purse for a tissue.
Nathan grabbed hold of her jacket and clenched a fist full of the expensive material. He dragged her toward him until the gear stick was lodged at the bottom of her ribcage.
‘Do I have to fucking spell everything out to you? You either do as I say or someone is going