“There’s a target on my back too you know,” I offered as some kind of reassurance, sitting beside her. “Besides, I couldn’t leave you.”
For a moment Avery looked uncomfortable about what I said but then she smiled at me and squeezed my hand. “Do you trust me?”
I was taken aback. I hadn’t expected her to say that. I mused over what she had said and tried to decipher if I trusted her. With everything we had gone through these past few months, it was hard to say and even harder to convince her. I remembered in brevity when we were leaving the hospital, she told me she trusted me without me even asking; she hadn’t hesitated. She had answered immediately. She trusted me. And I owed it to her to trust her and despite everything shouting at me that I couldn’t completely rely on her, I answered. “Yes, of course.”
Avery eyed me for a moment before nodding solemnly with a smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes. “Good.”
Chapter
XXXIV
The silence Avery and I enjoyed came to an abrupt end when the glass door of the kitchen slid open and her parents walked out, their faces business-like and scarily cunning. I tried to pull away from Avery before they said anything, but she tightened her arms around my torso. Instead, I pulled us both up and ran a hand at the back of my neck, avoiding their quizzical gaze.
“What’s wrong?” Avery asked in a flat tone.
Her mother sighed and took another step forward. “We aren’t the enemy, so how about you stop acting like it?”
Mr. Sanchez put his hand on his wife’s arm and she backed down, smoothing her hand over her skirt. “Let’s all just calm down.”
Avery muttered something under her breath and looked away, ready to retort at any moment.
“Tomorrow we can go to the police with our lawyers; we don’t want to implicate you or this family further. That being said, apart from misdemeanors in your ‘gang’ was there anything else…?” her father asked stoically.
Avery sat up straighter, slowly pulling her arms from around my torso and shaking her head slowly. She seemed to be in inconsolable pain, and I could imagine exactly what she was thinking about at that moment. Her father’s brows furrowed, and he stooped and looked at her at eye level, which distorted the aura of professionalism he casually exuded.
“What is it?” he pressed.
Avery held her head in her hands and small tremors wracked her body. “Back when I was here, something happened.”
Her father’s hands clenched almost involuntarily. “He hurt you?”
I ran a hand at the back of my neck. Sure, Elijah had hurt her, but I doubted it was the way her father thought. Actually, I was hoping that it wasn’t true, based on what she had told me, it couldn’t be. But still…
Avery looked up at him and shook her head. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” he demanded, visibly tense.
“One night, Elijah brought me out to the old warehouse on Old Windsor Street and I thought he just wanted to hit me again, honestly,” she whispered slowly, ignoring the fire burning in her father’s eyes. “But, when I got there, a guy was tied to a chair; he looked so bruised so weak, so feeble. I didn’t understand what was going on. As far as I knew he would’ve been taught a lesson long before getting to that stage. He was begging for help.
He was begging me to do something. But Elijah just laughed and asked him if he really thought I was capable of doing anything to help him. They didn’t stop, even when I screamed, even when I begged him to just let him go. I knew he wanted to show me that no matter how ‘good’ I got, he was still more powerful…”
Avery shuddered and blinked away tears. “When he stopped moving,” she paused periodically, trying to figure out how best to phrase her words. “When he stopped moving, he brought us to where he planned to get rid of the remains. After that, I knew I had to leave.”
Mrs. Sanchez who looked horrified and quite nauseated finally spoke up. “Well why didn’t you go to the police or come to us?”
“I—I—I couldn’t,” she said helplessly. “I’m sure he knew that that night would’ve been a breaking point for me, and it was. It broke me completely. I wanted to tell someone as soon as it happened and as perceptive as he is, he knew it.”
I spoke up, “He hit you where he knew it’d hurt.”
“Yes,” Avery replied looking at me, staring into my eyes, telling me that my hunch was right. “He told me… He said if I said anything it’d be Reena next or you guys. He knew that the last thing I’d ever want was to hurt you or Reena. I couldn’t take that chance. You guys were safer here than Reena was by herself, so I had to go to protect her. But she’s stronger than I thought, much stronger than me and she ended up protecting me.
“The time he was there, he didn’t hurt Reena, but he knew it would drive me crazy knowing he could and that’s what he used against me; a master puppeteer.”
Her father looked at her for a long moment before sighing and falling back on his heels. “You still could have come to us. There’s no reason why you should’ve dealt with that alone. We could’ve taken measures… We could’ve protected you.”
Avery looked past all of us longingly. “I know that now,” she trailed off, staring into the distant future. “But there’s something I learned not too long ago. Elijah doesn’t want me gone, infinitely at least. All the things he has done has shown me that he just wants me to be a puppet he controls, ultimately he wants me back.”
Her mother laughed without emotion. “Why does this sound like you’re rationalizing this psychopath’s behavior.”
“I’m not rationalizing it, I understand it,” she replied offhand, way less perturbed than she was before.
Her father stood and dusted off his pants, he was trying to hide the fury burning in his eyes, but I could see it as plain as day, because I was feeling a fraction of that, I understood what he felt. I understood the helplessness that came with a situation like this. I understood everything. “I have some calls to make,” he commented lightly, taking his wife’s hand and towing her along.
We sat in silence for a few minutes after they left, the chill in the air not affecting us in the slightest. Avery was staring at my hand that she held in her palm. I watched as she held it against her face and closed her eyes. I sighed deeply; I had never been so confused in my life.
“Earlier, when you spoke about him, how he wouldn’t want to get rid of you, why did you sound so longing?” I asked in a light whisper, hoping I didn’t sound too perturbed.
She opened her eyes slowly, her ocher eyes seeming dull in comparison to the times I had seen it before. Something was off but I couldn’t put my finger on it. “Is it Stockholm Syndrome if you weren’t kidnapped?” she asked lightly.
I pulled my hand from her grasp and it fell with a lifeless thud. “I’d call that delusional.”
Avery smiled sadly. “I’ll add delusional to the descriptions about me.”
“You don’t really mean that, do you?” I asked, hardly looking at her, I didn’t think I could look at her, to possibly see emotions I didn’t want to, on her face.
“What do you want me to say?” she asked me quietly, her voice sounding far away.
I looked up at her, my brows furrowed and my hands clenched. “Are you telling me Elijah still has a chance?”
Avery smiled and rolled her eyes. “I threw up after kissing him, let’s say if he has a chance it’ll be completely different.”
I nodded, unconvinced and smiled as she moved to kiss my cheek. Something about her tone, her choice of words and her demeanor put me on edge. But I simply wrapped my arms around her torso and made myself comfortable. I would find out sooner or later, but I also wondered about something else.
“How are you sure he doesn’t want to hurt you?”
Avery pulled away a little from me so I could see her face and shrugged. “He had plenty of opportunities to ‘get rid of me’ back in Aspiration Park. Even the first day I showed up at your house, he was there and apart from a
slap to the face he didn’t do anything to me. He’s always told me he needed me, but I guess I didn’t realize the extent.”
“But back at the restaurant he said, ‘get rid of them’…,” I muttered, trailing off.
“I know, but look at the evidence,” she said sadly, “He doesn’t want to hurt me in particular.”
I sighed, I didn’t know what I wanted her to say but now that she said it, my unease was through the roof. I snaked my arms tighter around her torso, afraid to let go, afraid of what it would mean.
It was getting colder and colder when Avery jostled from where she had her head on my chest and stared up at me resolutely. “I need to go into town. I—I can’t take it here anymore, it’s suffocating.”
My brows automatically furrowed. “Why now though? I’m pretty sure your parents will have my head especially after hearing what they just did.”
“Can we just go for a drive?” she asked calmly, a direct contrast to what she had said previously—it seemed as if she calmed down in less than a second because now her eyes were unfocused and her lips set in a tight line as if she was bracing herself against all ranges of emotion.
I sat up straighter; pulling her along with me, trying to decipher what was going on inside her mind. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she answered offhand, emotionless. “Are you going to take me?”
I paused for a moment, raking my eyes over her face, her expression was indecipherable. Something felt off but I knew how she felt about being home so there was nothing I could think of that would enable me to talk her out of it. I was on edge because I knew for a fact that Elijah would be closer and closer to where we were and having him finding us before we had police protection would be detrimental undoubtedly. But on the other hand, I didn’t want her to leave alone, because if anything happened to her I’d blame myself. I promised myself that I’d protect her no matter what came our way.
“Let’s go,” I muttered, albeit reluctant.
Sneaking out without her parents noticing was a feat by itself; I noticed they were in a deep, heated conversation in the living room. But Avery knew all of the exits and entrances due to her volatile past. After checking to see what her parents were up to, she led me back through the kitchen. There was a garden to the side of the house with well-manicured flowers and plants. We carefully trekked through them, cautious with our every step, Avery was quiet, thoughtful and I made more than the usual effort to keep up with her.
Before, I made the assumption that the house was huge but the expanse of land on either side solidified that view. Avery managed to cleverly maneuver us through the variety of trees to the right of the garden so that even if someone came to the window, they wouldn’t be able to notice us stealthily making our way to the front gate. We exited near the massive gates at the front of the yard expanse and I paused, looking at Avery with a brow raised.
“How exactly are we supposed to leave without them noticing?” I asked skeptically, trying to resist a change in tone that seemed inevitable.
Avery turned around and looked at me, her expression softening. “I can enter the code here; they’ll probably still notice. But we’ll be gone by then.”
“Why are you so eager to leave?” I asked, scratching the back of my neck uncertainly. “And besides, why do you think they haven’t changed their codes?”
“I need to get out of here,” she enunciated, looking squarely in my eyes. “And my parents are very methodical, they haven’t changed it.”
She shooed me off to the car and I reluctantly complied, checking constantly to see if her parents had noticed and were coming out to stop us by force. Avery seemed completely on edge and it automatically put me on edge. Sure, I knew that Elijah was probably prowling the streets at that very moment and, yes, I was exactly terrified and the fact that she’d rather leave than stay in the cocoon behind the huge walls and gates of her parent’s home was puzzling. I slowly inched the car to where she stood, and she got in as soon as the gates began opening.
“One last trip before everything ends, am I right?” Avery deadpanned.
“You think it’s going to end soon?” I asked as I maneuvered my way off her street.
Avery paused and took a long look outside the windows. “Sooner than you know.”
I gulped but decided not to say anything, only following her instructions as she directed me to the town center. The only thing I noted about the route was that it seemed particularly long and lonely. Avery gave one final instruction to turn left and I obeyed but as soon as I made the turn, blinding lights shone in the rearview mirror and my brows furrowed. Just ahead I could barely make out the faint lights of a bustling town, but I wondered in brevity if I’d make it there.
I squinted and tried to decipher who was behind me and why they didn’t just go around. I rolled down my window and attempted to usher the car around with my hand. But there was nothing, no motion, no reaction. Only silence. A silence that made the deserted roadways even more eerie than before; silence that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Something was wrong.
I looked over at Avery who appeared grim. “He found us,” she whispered, “Elijah found us.”
Chapter
XXXV
I gaped at Avery as I realized what had happened, what I expected would happen but didn’t foresee to happen as quickly. I tried to control my critical thinking and tried to hastily work out a game plan to come out of this alive. In the midst of my thinking I forgot to factor Avery into all of this, I looked over at her and she appeared calm, she wasn’t in panic mode as I was, in fact she even held onto the door handle.
“What are you doing?” I asked in a heated whisper.
Avery looked at me, resolute. “Nowhere to run.”
“What?” I asked in confusion. But I realized she was probably right. But if there was no way to run, the police could still help us if we contacted them. I quickly dove into my pockets to find my phone, but they were empty, save for my wallet.
Before I could speak, Avery opened the car door and stepped out, calmly. She moved to the rear end of the vehicle without saying a word to me. If this is what she meant earlier and she planned to be a sacrificial lamb of some sort, I couldn’t let her. Throwing all caution to the wind, as I had the habit to, I opened my door as well and followed her to the back of the vehicle. I’m not sure what I thought I would’ve accomplished in following her, but I didn’t see what else I could’ve done, staying in the car and possibly being snuffed out before I got a chance to react.
As soon as I got to where Avery was, the car lights flickered off immediately and we were submerged in darkness, the street light at the end of the road only barely illuminating our surroundings. The car door opened slowly, and I heard him before I saw him.
“No need to look so much like a deer in headlights, Jason.”
I scowled and stood defensively for all it was worth. They all came out of the car simultaneously, all three of them. Regardless of how we wanted to look at it, we were outnumbered, and I didn’t even have my phone to call the police or Marc or my mother. And I suddenly felt helpless.
Elijah sized me up for a moment, a wry smile on his face. A predator analyzing their prey, looking for the quickest but still most painful way to incapacitate them.
“Well, you found us,” I said calmly, surprising myself. My head was spinning, and I could feel bile rising to my throat, but I couldn’t let Elijah know that. Or even Avery know—that I was weak. I was protected all my life and now, there was no one to protect me. I’d have to step up to the plate.
Elijah shot a quick glance at Avery before throwing his hands up but not in defeat, with joy. “How do you think I found you?”
Feeling like I didn’t have much of a choice, I decided to humor him, to get more time to figure out my next move. “You know when Ricky called to tell me that you knocked him out, I was pretty impressed,” Elijah admitted, pacing in front of the two guys that hung back behind him. I could barely make ou
t their faces.
“Were you?” I asked, looking around inconspicuously.
Elijah chuckled. “I underestimated you. Or maybe that was just brute anger from daddy dearest barely clutching onto life.”
I clenched my jaw and my fists automatically balled but I still managed to barely hold the façade that I was unaffected. “How did you find us?”
Elijah smiled at me, like a Cheshire cat and nodded. “I’m getting to that, don’t worry. That little plan you had was pretty clever. I honestly thought you were luring me out of the city to finally finish this, you know man to man. But then again, you’re so weak and timid.” Elijah paused in front of me and pursed his lips. “Getting your best friend to face me is low, Jason, even for you.”
“He wasn’t going to face you,” I spat, through my teeth, slowly losing my resolve.
Elijah raised a brow at me but otherwise continued as if I didn’t even speak. “Then imagine my surprise when I was almost going to cut him off—” sharp intake of breath from Avery— “when I got a phone call. Now can you imagine who called me?”
I immediately stopped breathing and my heart stopped. I knew what he was going to say, and he could see how I paled. I couldn’t speak.
He turned his attention to Avery and actually gave her a genuine smile. “I was shocked she still had my number honestly. But hearing her voice was such a relief, trust me Jason.”
I forced myself to look at Avery, her face was blank and emotionless and unlike me, she wasn’t seething with anger. It all made sense, her sudden need to use a restroom earlier, or when I saw her on her phone in the mini-mart and all the chatter about needing to get away from parents. It was all so Elijah would find us, but for what?
“She told me where you guys were heading and of course you were so far ahead of me into the journey that we couldn’t have our rendezvous a little earlier as I wanted.”
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