Watch What Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  Tyler agreed, and looked at his watch and realized how late it was getting. “Steve, don’t go hanging around here late into the night. Get home, same for you too, Matt.” He then stood up from his seat, slapping the report down onto the desk. “We’ll sort out the warrants and stuff, but for now we just need to keep our guard up on any sightings of Natasha.”

  “Sounds good,” Steve stated, nodding in agreement before getting up and heading towards the door. “Good to see you, Austin.”

  “It’ll be even better when we can go out for drinks and not have to be on guard,” she joked with him sarcastically. “I’ll see you two around.”

  Walking around the table as the two men left, he watched his wife walk into the room. Taking a moment, he decided to lean against his desk, watching her waltz towards him. “What do I owe this visit?” he asked her and suddenly panic set in. “What are you doing here?”

  “Calm it, Handsome. Our dads brought us,” Austin told him softly, not allowing him to worry too much. “They’re waiting in the parking lot until we’re done here. Grace is currently watching Dora the Explorer and driving them crazy with it.”

  Tyler laughed, knowing how involved Grace got into that show. “Well I can tell you now I won’t be here much longer. I’ve heard everything I need to for today. Steve’s doing overtime so he can be here and make sure I’m at home with you,” Tyler responded, bringing her between his legs. “I don’t particularly want to be away from you right now.”

  “What did I say about stopping life, Ty?” she asked him, her gaze narrowing upon him, her arms looping around his neck.

  “I know, but right now, I feel so in the thick of things, I just want to just get away,” Tyler admitted. “I don’t know how you’re keeping so calm, Sunny, but I feel like I’m losing control and I can’t stop myself from panicking.”

  Austin felt her eyes water at her husband’s admittance to his own weaknesses, and she inched forward, placing her hands to his face. “I love you, Tyler Armstrong, and the only reason I am able to keep on top of this and keep myself from panicking is because of you.” She gave him a small, reassuring smile. “This time the odds are on our side. She’s out, and she’s hunted.”

  Closing his eyes, Tyler winced at the memories. “How did I ever fall for her?” he asked, opening his eyes to look to his wife. “How could I ever have believed her?”

  “She was cunning,” Austin stated blandly. “You loved her, you shouldn’t feel bad for feeling that emotion, Tyler. You cannot beat yourself up for loving people.”

  “But look what she did,” he stated, his mind accumulating everything she had inflicted upon their family.

  Austin gave him a coy smile, one to settle him a little, and took her arms from around his neck. “She made us love each other without question. She strengthened what we already had.” Watching him disbelieve her, his doubts flittering around in him, she decided to take a new approach. “Right, we need a new pact,” Austin suddenly jumped to life, her tone changing octaves, her face lighting up. She gently took both his hands in hers, clasping them to her chest immediately. “You and I, we still have this knack to beat ourselves up over what’s already happened. It’s not fair is it?” she asked him, watching him shake his head at her. “Well, we have a gorgeous baby girl, plans for more gorgeous children, and a family anyone would kill to have, Tyler. We have it all; we have no need to panic. Sure, Natasha is out, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from this.” She pulled away enough to put her hand out, “No more dwelling. We make the best of everything without looking back or looking over our shoulder all the time.” She watched him and pushed onwards, “Deal, Mr. Armstrong?”

  Tyler looked down at her hand, and then back up at his wife’s expectant gaze. Relenting, he knew she was right - as always! “Deal,” he stated, clasping his hand into hers and shook it. He then pulled her to his body, wrapping his arms around her. “I don’t know what I would do without you, Mrs. Armstrong, and I don’t even want to think about it.”

  “Then don’t,” she mused, pushing up a little to kiss him. “You’re stuck with me for life.”

  “Good,” he remarked with a heavy smirk. “Just know that I will protect you. I would fight for you,” Tyler whispered to his wife. “With my entire being, I would.”

  “I know,” Austin murmured to him, her eyes closing as his hand came to cup her face.

  “No matter what, Austin, I will always be the man that saves you. Whether it be from yourself, or from someone else. I will always be here.” Tyler kept her close, unable to let her go. “It scares me how both weak and strong you make me, Austin. It terrifies me how much I need you and Gracie to make it through a day.”

  “You’re not on your own,” she spoke gently to him, her expression just as light. “You and Grace are my vices. You’re my entire world now.” She reached up again, her feet reaching up into tiptoes so she could kiss him. “You’re the only weakness I’ll thank God for giving me.”

  “I’m glad we agree on that,” he told her, kissing her deeply. He allowed all his qualms to disperse from him in that instance.

  Pulling away, Austin dropped back so her feet were flat on the floor again. “C’mon,” she said, taking his hand in hers. “Let’s go to the park. We can get ice cream and wander home. Natasha might be out there, but I know we’re safe wherever you are. She won’t hurt you,” Austin spoke with certainty. She wasn’t entirely sure that Natasha would spare Tyler, but if she loved Tyler as much as her letters said, then she had no doubts.

  “You’re right,” he agreed, quickly seeing the sanity behind that conclusion. “Let’s go get our girl and relax a little.” He then took Austin from his office and into the main part of the station. He stopped abruptly, Austin crying out in disagreement as she walked into him. “Diane?” Tyler asked, seeing the frazzled looking woman in the foyer of the police station. “What are you doing here?”

  “Er-erm,” she spluttered in shock as she saw Tyler, and then saw Austin step out to his side. “I’m here to see Robert. I got a call about Natasha. I can’t believe she got out,” Diane told them, her tone low with apology. “I’m sorry this is happening. I wish I had brought her up better. I wish she could have just accepted what had happened.”

  “Diane, there is no need for you to apologize,” Austin stepped in, calming the woman down.

  “How can you talk to me? You should hate me,” Diane fretted feebly.

  “I could, you’re right, but that’s not going to happen,” Austin stated the God’s honest truth. “Natasha is a nearly twenty-eight year old woman, she knows better. This has nothing to do with you. She’s just out of control.”

  “Austin’s right,” Tyler dropped in understandingly. “Now why are you here? We don’t need you for anything to do with the case.”

  “I really do need to see Robert actually,” Diane commented, looking around the department to see if Robert was in sight. “Is he here?”

  “He’s through there in his office,” Tyler pointed to Robert’s office door. “He could do with a break so head in there to him.”

  “I wonder what that’s about,” Austin mused, watching the older woman head towards the office door of her ex-husband.

  “No idea, but I think it’s our cue to leave,” Tyler whispered at her, pulling her away from a potentially lethal conversation.

  ***

  “Diane,” Robert remarked, only appeasing her with a slight acknowledgement. “Why are you here?”

  “Because our daughter escaped from prison, Robert,” Diane responded, her tone withholding from much emotional input. “We need to let bygones be bygones for this.”

  “What, so that you can screw me over again after she’s locked away?” he asked her aggressively.

  Diane sighed, rubbing her brow with her hand. “Look, the divorce settlement was I got the house. I didn’t ask for that. My lawyer did. Now I’m sorry that you and I are no longer together, and we can’t even look at one another, but Robert, this is dire.”r />
  “Oh, like you care,” Robert snarled at his ex-wife. “You were hardly there for her in the courtroom that day.”

  “She tried to kill someone! How could I have been supportive of that?” Diane asked the man before her, her voice becoming hoarse. “She admitted to me she had. How could I live with myself for knowing that, for knowing her lies?”

  “She’s your daughter,” Robert responded coldly, as if nothing else should matter.

  “Oh c’mon, Robert! How can you still support her after everything? She’s been targeting that family now for too long. It isn’t fair,” she tried to rationalize with him, but she could see how badly she was losing this battle.

  “Life isn’t fair, but well, at least you didn’t have your daughter locked up, and your wife fall out of love with you!” Robert targeted her venomously, lashing out how he could.

  “I never fell out of love with you! God, I still love you, Robert! You were the love of my life and you betrayed me!” Diane literally bellowed at him, her voice wavering with conviction and anger. “I loved you so much, and you made me feel like I was giving up on our daughter. That wasn’t all on me!”

  “Course it was,” Robert remarked sarcastically. “She is still our daughter behind bars or not.”

  “She tried to kill someone,” Diane stated again, her tone lowering into a bare whisper, her eyes watering heavily as she stared directly into his eyes. This was the first time they had spoken in months, almost a year, and she hated how she still loved a man that made her feel like she was a bad mother. “She broke us. Why can’t you see that?”

  “Because she is our daughter,” he repeated at her, and closed his eyes, striving for some sense of calm.

  Diane inched forward, closing the gap between them. “I know she is still our daughter, Robert, but she is now a fugitive who has broken so many laws, she is passed saving. We can’t do this anymore. We can’t carry on living like we’re both on opposite sides when we both know the only reason you stick by her is because you are trying to save face. Accept what she did so you can move on too.”

  “What if it’s too late?” he asked her, his voice small and worried suddenly.

  Shocked by the change in Robert, Diane unwillingly gasped at him. “It’s never too late.” She didn’t go closer to him, no longer able to judge a man she had slept with for years and loved for longer. “Make it right. Help us find Natasha. She is dangerous, Robert. We didn’t raise her to be that. She’s become that as a result of what she did.”

  “I guess you’re right,” he relented. A broken man left behind. “You know this is the most we’ve spoken since the divorce was finalized.”

  “I know,” she told him, issuing a small smile. “I hope this is the start of us getting our way back to one another.” She watched him before deciding she had done all she could. “I know you’ll help do the right thing, Robert,” she told him, walking over to him, to kiss his cheek. “It’s never too late to change people’s opinions.”

  Watching her leave, Robert felt something shift in him. One of them was the yearn he suddenly felt to have his wife back.

  Chapter Sixteen

  WITH her heart pounding harder than ever, her lungs struggling with over exertion, Natasha ran for her father’s house. She had spent hours running, hiding, disappearing from anyone and everyone that passed by. She was dirty and sweaty, but she was desperate, and she wouldn’t stop running until she was where she wanted to be.

  She hadn’t known if her plan would work or not, but it had, and she was a free woman. Natasha knew it wasn’t for long, but after three years of listening to twisted tales from haunted women, she had realized she wasn’t done with Austin Pearson quite yet.

  Having been mocked and shunned - even beaten - for her obsession with Tyler, Natasha found herself becoming even more crazed. Her cellmate, Chloe, was in for killing the woman her boyfriend was sleeping with. She had tried to kill him too, but failed when she was caught midway through the attack. Natasha’s heart broke at the thought of hurting Tyler. There was no way she could do that. The thought tore her apart, but the moment she thought of hurting Austin, she was calm once again.

  She had shared her stories of struggling to live with Austin and those who agreed with her, hated the sound of Austin. It was those inmates, combined with seeing Austin getting the perfect life, which drove her to manipulate her father and get what she wanted.

  Now she was here, she could see her plan coming together and, if all went well, she would get at least one person she wanted out of this and flee. Looking to the door, she went to make a run for it, but laughter broke her nerve. Not able to make it to the door, Natasha sunk down against the plants in her father’s unruly front yard, watching and waiting for her opportunity to pound on the door and gain access to a sanctum.

  Looking up, Natasha recognized one of the voices she heard. It had been over three years since she had, and even then, it had been him condemning her, but Natasha couldn’t deny how perfect Tyler’s voice sounded as it filtered into the night air, breaking the silence of Point Arena. She could see Austin and Tyler walking hand in hand, as their daughter sat on her father’s shoulders.

  She moved a little, causing her to fall from her perch. She reached out to grab a branch to keep herself from falling completely, but the branches broke and she stumbled to the side. Immediately she closed her eyes, praying she wouldn’t be caught just yet.

  “What was that?” Austin asked, looking directly at where Natasha was hidden.

  Natasha pushed herself back up, shrinking away into the shadows more as she noticed the family’s gaze on her hiding place.

  “Nothing,” Tyler comforted her, unable to see anything in the distance across the street. “It was probably an animal,” he told her, deliberately trying to drag her onwards away from Robert’s house.

  “If it’s an animal,” Grace piped up, leaning down over her father’s head to look at him as she spoke, “Can we catch it and keep it?”

  Tyler and Austin burst out laughing at the absurdity of their daughter’s request.

  “What?” she asked them innocently. “You keep telling me I can have a pet!”

  “I know, Sweetie, but one that lives in bushes isn’t it.” Austin gazed up at her daughter, speaking lovingly. “Nice try though.”

  “I just want a pet,” Grace said, folding her arms over her chest petulantly. “You and daddy have each other. Unca Tom always says you use too many pet names. I want a pet!”

  Natasha’s blood boiled at how absolutely perfect Austin’s life now was. Even though in this light she could see the scars of the past on her skin, it didn’t stop anything. Even from afar, it was hard to mistake how happy they were.

  “Let’s go home and discuss this,” Tyler spoke, his tone mirthful and happy. He took Austin’s hand in his, and used the other to support Grace on his shoulders.

  Knowing she had lost it all only strengthened Natasha’s resolve of fighting for what she wanted. She would have it all - the man she loved, the daughter she wanted, and the potentially dead wife of Tyler Armstrong. Watching them go, Natasha advanced for the door. She pounded on it, knowing full well her father was home. The moment the door began to open, she pushed her way in, not allowing her father to know it was her until she was in the house and stood in the light of the hallway.

  “Natasha?” he questioned, shocked at how quickly she had made it here.

  “Hey Daddy,” she spoke back, only relaxing when her father closed the door entirely. “Have you missed me?” she asked him, a sparkle igniting in her eyes as she watched him.

  He could only nod. After Diane’s shocking revelation earlier, he realized how much he had lost because of Natasha, and how much he was going to lose if he got caught here with his only daughter. However, a part of him burst with excitement. He could finally hug his daughter without it being watched or controlled.

  “Good,” she said and launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around him.

  The hold made
him stiffen, but he quickly relaxed to keep Natasha happy. The girl hugging him wasn’t the little girl he doted on.

  ***

  Robert looked at his daughter as she entered the room. He set his beer down, the disappointment gripping him tightly again. He was allowing this to happen, aiding and abetting a fugitive, hiding a criminal.

  He knew that now. He had lost the love of his life in order to keep his daughter, but now, after careful contemplation and a lot of regret later, he realized he would rather have Diane beside him nightly, than waiting for his daughter to come back when that wasn’t possible now.

  “I quite like myself darker,” she joked, as if nothing was wrong with this picture. Having asked her father to have some things ready for her, she had dyed her hair in order to hide her appearance a little better. “I forgot how good a proper shower with constant hot water and decent soap felt like.” She looked at her father and smiled. “Thank you, daddy. Without you I wouldn’t have this opportunity.”

  He made a grunting noise as he picked up the bottle of beer up and chased down a large gulp. He had no verbal response for her, no way to hide his newfound disapproval. He knew he could have kept things sweet. He should have complimented her new hair color, been grateful for her appreciation, but he couldn’t find the strength.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, horrified at his sudden change of attitude.

  “You just don’t see what you’ve done do you?” he asked, his tone incredulous as he questioned her motives. “You swan in here, thinking I’m capable to make it all right. I have no power to do that! I’ve exhausted all I can.”

  “You won’t have to do much more than you already have,” she told him, her tone sweet and innocent. “I won’t be here for long.”

  “You’re right,” Robert commented, his face darkening with the harsh realization. “This will be the first place they come looking for you. Here and your mother’s home. They will catch you here.”