“How do I find you?” I ask aloud, but to myself. If I were them, obviously, I’d be tracking me. But, with Jude in the way, then it’s quite possible they’ve lost the track. I sit on one of the chairs, tapping my finger on the table. Looking out to the peaceful, sleepy city below, my brain races as I think of a possible way to get them to come to me, instead of me trying to find them.
If they were searching for me, then maybe I can go somewhere they may be watching. But, where would they think I’d show up at? Maybe, my parent’s crypt? Or home? Or maybe even back to Dallas’s?
Dallas seems to be the most logical choice.
Yeah, I have to get to Dallas’s place. How am I going to get there though? And what am I going to do once I’m there? I’ll get a cab from the hotel, and when I get there, I’ll wait. I won’t knock on the door, because I don’t want to involve her or her family any more. I’m purely going to use them as my gateway to hell. I have a feeling I’m about to enter those gates, and I probably won’t leave alive.
With my newfound determination, I head into the bedroom, where Jude’s relaxing on the bed in a t-shirt and boxer briefs. “Where did you get clothes?” I ask looking down at the same clothes I’ve been wearing.
“You don’t listen. Frank went and bought us clothes, and I told you he had. But you were too enthralled with what Nick was saying.” Do I detect a hint of jealousy in his voice?
I think back to this afternoon, and of course, he’s right. “Oh yeah,” I say as I play a little movie in my head of when he told me.
He points toward the bathroom. “The bags are in there.”
“Thank you. I’ve ordered dinner, burgers. They should be here soon.” I step closer to the bathroom. “I’ll go have a shower.”
“Okay.”
Closing the door, I rustle through the bags and find a pair of jeans, a long sleeve t-shirt, socks, undies and even a light jacket. Taking the cash out of my pocket, I slide it into the back pocket of my new jeans, making sure the bills aren’t visible.
Standing beneath the stream of water, a million thoughts jumble around. When they come to me, what will they do? Who are these people? Why did they do it to begin with? What are their intentions? What will they do with me once they have me? There’s no one coherent plan, only thoughts about going to them, meaning I’m about to step into the lion’s den. I hope the lion doesn’t bite . . . at least, not right away.
Once I’ve come to terms with the situation I’m about to step into, I’m ready to face whatever the consequences are going to be. Moving out of the shower, I dry myself and get changed into the clean clothes Frank purchased for me.
The moment I open the bathroom door, a beautiful aroma gently wafts past me. My stomach grumbles in response to the delicious smell coming from the front of the suite.
When I enter, Jude’s watching TV with our dinner sitting on the small round table. “You could’ve eaten,” I say as I take my seat at the table.
Jude turns the TV off, then heads over toward the table. “I wanted to wait for you,” he replies.
“It looks great, doesn’t it?” I pick my burger up and sink my teeth into it. Jude nods, but something’s off about his behavior. He’s unusually quiet. He picks at his fries and stares down at the burger. “You okay?”
“I’m worried about Nick.”
“Why?”
“I’ve been thinking about everything, and I have this feeling he’s not being entirely truthful about a few things.”
“Like what?”
“I have no idea. He’s just . . . off. Either he’s hiding something, or he’s lying about something.”
“How do you know?”
“Being in my business, you learn to read people. The more I think about him, the more I think he’s putting on a façade.”
“When I touched him earlier, I didn’t see anything like that.”
Jude sits back in his chair and rubs his chin. “Maybe he’s as good at the vision thing as you are; or maybe he’s better at it than you. Or, he’s maybe learned how to show people what they want to see.”
“Jude, I think you’re reading into this much more than necessary. He ran from us. He tried to get away from us.”
“Maybe because he wanted you to chase after him.” He shrugs.
“That’s ridiculous. Who’d get themselves caught on purpose?” Ugh, me.
“I’m just saying, I don’t trust him.”
“You don’t have to. We heard what he had to say, and I suppose tomorrow we can ask more questions.” Although, by tomorrow I hope to make contact with them.
Jude scoffs and raises his brows at me. “Yeah.”
Hmmm, why is it I get a feeling Jude means more than what he’s telling me? Leaning over, I touch his hand and force myself into his vision.
I’m in this room, and Jude’s pacing. Ronan’s in here with him while Jude’s angrily trampling the length of the room. He’s dressed in what he’s wearing now, and the curtains are still opened revealing the darkness of the night. There’s no hint of the sun rising, which means it’s still late at night. “I knew she was going to do this,” Jude spits toward Ronan.
“Is that why you . . .”
“Don’t say a word. She could be watching us right now.”
Ronan cautiously glances around the room. What have those two done? Ronan steps forward and places his hand on Jude’s shoulder. “We’ll find her,” he says in a softer tone, which is so contradictory to the man he is.
Jude’s phone rings, and he holds up a finger to Ronan. He swipes his finger across the screen and answers the call with a short, curt, “Yeah.”
I step closer to try and see the name on the screen, but with the phone to his ear, I have to wait for him to pull it away.
Suddenly, I’m back in the room, with Jude staring at me. “Did you see what you wanted?” he asks mockingly. He knows I touched him to see his future, the unfortunate part is, he knows me so well so he’s able to prepare himself.
“Not exactly what I wanted to see, but it’ll do.”
Jude picks his burger up and takes a massive bite. When he’s chewed, he stares at me. Apparently he wants to ask me something. “Are you going to tell me why you wanted to see my future?”
Crap, I wasn’t expecting a question so forward. But then again, this is Jude. Quickly, Nick pops into my thoughts. “I was afraid you were going to kill Nick.”
Jude huffs and shakes his head. Damn him. He knows I’m lying. “Are you really going to stick to that?”
“It’s the truth. I wanted to make sure you’re not going to kill him because you think he’s suspicious. And, I’m worried for him. I would hate for someone else to die because of me. And he seems like a good guy,” I say.
Jude lets out a forceful gush of air. His gaze rolls over me, and I feel myself about to break down and tell him the truth about everything. I’m literally on the verge of opening my mouth when Jude’s lips twist. “Do you know how I know when someone’s lying?”
Oh crap. “No,” I meekly reply. “How?”
“The person talks way too much. Giving me more information than I asked for.”
“I wasn’t babbling.” I snap toward him defensively. Shit, if I didn’t give it away in my answer, my reaction just did.
Jude finishes his dinner and stands. “I’ll take the sofa, you can have the bed.”
Double crap. That means he’s sleeping out here, and I have to get past him in order to leave via the door. “Considering it’s because of me you’ve lost your home, it’s only fair I sleep on the sofa, and you take the bed.”
He shakes his head at me. “No, I insist. I’ll sleep here and you take the bed.”
If I argue with him, then I’ll prove him right in whatever suspicions he has. “Okay. But I think I’ll watch TV first.” Hopefully he’ll fall asleep, and I can sneak out.
“Great, I’ll join you.”
Take a damn hint! Go away. “Okay.” I stand and make my way over to the sofa, where I slump down.
Jude flicks through the channels before landing on a movie. I’m not paying attention to it. Instead, in my head I’m going over my escape route. There’s a staircase at the end of the hall, near the elevators. I’ll take the stairs down a few floors, then I’ll take the elevator the rest of the way. Knowing Jude, he’ll be able to get his people to hack into the security system of the hotel and track where I’m going. Damn it, that means I’ve got to leave through the kitchen. A back exit.
It’s the only way I’ll be able to get a head start before Jude and Ronan come after me. Possibly I’ll get to them, and that way, I’ll be able to keep Jude safe.
The moments drag on quietly, and every time I look at the clock on the wall, it appears the hands are moving backward. Sheesh, hurry up and fall asleep, Jude. My own eyes get heavier and heavier, but I’m on a mission, I need to get out of here.
The longer I stay, the harder it’ll be for me to leave. And, the more of a chance they’ll kill everyone to get to me.
Every time my eyes close, I wake myself up and discreetly glimpse over to Jude. The tension in the room is an obvious sign that he’s watching me watching him. He’s making sure I don’t run, I’m making certain he’s asleep when I do run.
My window of opportunity is closing, I’m getting edgy knowing I need to get out of here.
Jude stands, and heads into the other room. “Tired? Going to bed?” I try and make my voice sound disinterested.
“Going to the bathroom.”
Yes! This is it, my opening. Maybe it’ll be the only break I’ll get, so I’m going to go the moment I know he’s in the bathroom.
I listen closely to Jude’s footsteps, and when I hear the door to the bathroom close, I jump up and silently make my way to the other room. Looking around to make sure he’s actually in the bathroom, I make a run for it. I get to the door leading out to the hallway.
Opening it slowly, I look down both ways. No one is here. Closing the door as quietly as I can, I run.
I run so hard I nearly fall over my own feet. I get to the stairwell, push on the heavy door and bolt down the stairs. Thankfully going down steps is much easier on the thighs then going up. I keep running, until I see a huge ‘sixteen’ painted on the wall near the door for the floor.
For some reason, I run past it. Huffing, and nearly out of breath, I make it down to the twelfth floor, push through the door and look around. No one is in the hallway, which means I can run as fast as possible to the elevators. When I get there, I call it, and wait until it comes up from the ground floor.
Getting in, I put my head down and don’t look at anything around me. Elevators have cameras. At some point, Jude will look for me in here. The elevator pings when it gets to the ground floor. Stepping out, I glance around. The guy at reception is looking at his phone, he only looks up when the doors close and make the pinging sound again.
I see signs for the restaurant, so I head that way in hope of finding an exit door. There are a few staff in here, who look like they’re cleaning. “Excuse me,” I say to a woman with a chef’s hat.
She’s an older person, maybe in her thirties, with dark circles beneath her eyes. She looks like she hasn’t slept in a month. “Are you okay, sweetie?” she asks while looking behind me.
“Is there a back exit?”
Her forehead crinkles, and I can tell she’s concerned I’m here this late at night alone. “Are you running from someone?”
Shit. Touching her hand, I launch into a vision. The chef is in a room, it looks like a family room. She’s walking the length of it with a tiny baby in her arms. The baby is coughing and crying. “Shhh, Ava, it’s okay.” She feels her forehead and painfully groans. The baby keeps crying, and the chef stops walking.
“She only got like this in the last hour,” a man says from behind the chef. He looks so stressed himself, his appearance is disheveled, his eyes are darkened from lack of sleep and stubble pokes out from his chin.
“Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?” she asks.
“I gave her some baby aspirin. I was waiting for them to work.”
I let go of the chef’s hand, and I’m instantly transported back to now. “Can I please go out through the kitchen exit?”
“Are you in trouble?” she asks. “If you’re in trouble, I can call hotel security, they’ll help you.”
“Please, don’t. Trust me, I’m not in that kind of trouble. I just need to leave.”
She looks me over, her eyes going to every inch of exposed skin. Finally satisfied that I’m not running from trouble, she ushers me out toward the back. “This way.” When the door opens, I look down the dark alleyway. “Go left, then right. That’ll take you out to the main street.”
“Thank you,” I say. “By the way, in a couple of hours Ava is going to get really sick. Take her to the hospital right away.”
I leave her standing in the doorway, with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.
When I get out to the main road, I run in the opposite direction of the hotel. Getting around the corner, I see a row of cabs. Letting out a sigh of relief, I go to the first one, open the back door and slide in.
I sink down as far as I can, only being able to look through the glass.
“You okay?” the guy asks as he turns in his seat to look at me. “I don’t want no trouble.”
I take out the wad of cash, and thrust fifty dollars at him. “I need a ride.”
He takes the fifty, and turns to face forward. “Where to?” he asks as he starts the cab and takes off down the street.
I turn to make sure Jude’s not chasing after the cab. In a way I’m relieved he’s not, but I’m kinda upset he hasn’t realized I’m gone.
Or maybe he has, and he’s relieved I’m no longer a thorn in his side.
“You wanted this,” I say to myself.
The cab driver looks at me through the mirror. “You didn’t say where to?”
Disappointed, I give him Dallas’s address. With my head leaning back against the headrest, my eyes start to water. Hurt fills my heart, but deep down I know this is the right thing to do. I shouldn’t be selfish and hope he’d notice I’d snuck out. That’s the whole point of sneaking out. For him not to know I’m gone. This is to protect him.
The comforting feeling of knowing he’s safe now doesn’t translate well to my heart. A knife twists in it, and the wound it was already sporting grows deeper.
It hurts like hell.
When we near Dallas’s house, I stop feeling sorry for myself and push through the pain to try to see the positive in the situation. No one else will ever be put in a position of fear on my account again.
“Can you go around the corner and stop please?” I ask the driver. He nods his head, and slows, finally coming to a stop about a block away and around the corner. The fifty I gave him was more than enough, and he hands me the change. “Keep it.”
He salutes me, and when I get out he leaves quickly.
I have no idea what to do. I’m hoping someone’s watching Dallas’s house, because if they aren’t then I’m not sure how I’m going to find these people. The taillights of the cab disappear, and I’m left isolated. Standing in the dark night, I look up the street, then down. If they’re here watching Dallas’s house, I have to make my presence apparent.
I stroll past her house, get to the end of the block, then turn and walk past it again. “Come on,” I say as I look around for any type of movement.
Nothing.
I walk past her house again, and I hear a dog barking from down the road. My heart beats quickly at the possibility of it being them. Standing in the middle of the sidewalk, I look toward where I hear a dog barking, but can’t see anything. The dog stops barking, and I lose hope of it being them. The dog was just barking to hear itself.
“Come on,” I whisper.
Turning, I’m face to face with a masked figure.
My heart jumps with fright.
My skin is instantly covered in a fine layer of goosebumps.
&nbs
p; Adrenaline pumps through my body.
“We’ve been looking for you,” says a deep, throaty voice.
Before I have a chance to respond, something sharp is stuck into my neck. Within seconds my eyes become droopy, and I pass out.
This isn’t the way it was supposed to happen.
Blinking, I look around me. My head is spinning, and my stomach is churning. Bile rises to the back of my throat, and I swallow the sensation of wanting to throw up.
My hair is falling over my face, and when I try to lift my hand to sweep my hair away, I find it weighted and restrained.
Groggily, I try to focus on the room I’m in. It’s white and sterile, with no windows.
It’s impossible to be centered when the room is spinning and you feel like you’re going to throw up. “Hello,” I call as I blink as many times as I can in an attempt to focus.
“Don’t move around too much. The drug we gave you takes time to wear off,” comes a robotic male voice over a speaker.
“Where are you?” I ask, still seeing everything through hazy vision.
“We can see you, Alexa. You’re in no danger.”
What an odd thing to say. They can see me and I’m in no danger. Why are they saying I’m not in danger, because they’ve got me restrained?
My eyes are slowly beginning to focus, and I notice I’m not in my clothes. I’m in loose, white pants, and a white t-shirt. It feels all very . . . experimental. But, I suppose that’s exactly what I am. An experiment.
“I came to you. So why am I restrained?”
“For your own protection.”
I let out a humorless chuckle. “I haven’t hurt myself since you gave me this future-seeing thing. Why would I hurt myself now?”
For my protection . . . my ass.
They’ve got me restrained because they don’t want me losing control and hurting them. I rattle the cuffs against my hands, and find they’re incredibly secure. “Alexa, please don’t. We don’t want to sedate you again.”
Rolling my eyes, I stop trying to break free. “Then take these cuffs off. I came to you, remember?”
The Curse: The Butterfly Effect, Book 2. Page 18