by Linzi Baxter
Across the room, I could see Abe wanted to come to my aid, but George held his arm, not letting him come help me. My panic attack was threatening to take over, and the man I counted on stood to the side, watching. I could see the hurt in his eyes, but the more I focused on him, the more labored my breaths became.
I heard the sound of Abe’s voice, but the lick across my face made me turn. Axel swiped his tongue across my lips, leaving a trail of slobber. My heart stopped threatening to beat out of my chest. My palms weren’t shaking. Axel pushed at my hand when I stopped petting him.
I wasn’t dizzy like I normally was when a panic attack took over. I didn’t hyperventilate or pass out. Nobody knew how bad my attacks got at home when I was alone, and nobody could help me out. I would hyperventilate until I passed out. A year ago, I’d had an attack in the bathtub and woke up choking on water.
Abe walked over and sat next to me on the floor. He ran his hands through the dog's hair. “You want to keep him?”
“Yes, thank you.” I knew service dogs were expensive. And ones trained for anxiety could even cost more. “I’ll pay you back.”
“I wanted something to help you.” He pulled me closer to him. “You don’t have to repay me anything as long as he makes you happy and helps you go outside. That is all that matters.”
George walked over and patted Axel on the head. “If you need anything, call me.” Abe stood and walked the older gentleman out of the house. I think Axel knew I was going to be his new owner. We clicked, and I couldn’t imagine my life without him already.
Abe walked back into the room, his phone to his ear and a frown on his face. I could hear Director Charles's voice faintly. Abe agreed with him a few times before hanging up the phone.
“What did Charles want?”
Abe ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “The bomb techs pieced together enough of the explosive device to link it back to Stark Night. Charles also said he found a document in the files that proved HUE is Stark Night. They're planning on running a raid tonight. Vincent was seen going into the building. This might be their only shot to take him down.”
“That’s good news.”
“Yes, but he asked if I could come to assist.”
“You’re not part of the FBI.” My voice came out whiny, but I didn’t want something to happen to him. “You don’t have to go.”
“This is what I do for a living, Addie. I’m more worried about you staying home alone than me going on a raid.”
“Go.”
“We need to talk about this, but they want me there now.”
The pity in his eyes was enough to make me want to cry. I could deal with him worrying about me, but pity hurt. “Go, Abe.”
He leaned down and brushed his lips over mine, hesitating for just a moment before letting me go, and in that moment, it felt like we were letting each other go.
Abe rushed out the front door, and I sat down with Axel. He would never leave me. My phone buzzed next to me. It was Lena. I thought about not answering, but knew she would keep trying until I did.
“Hey, Addie, how are you?”
“I don’t know. Abe hasn’t brought up what will happen once the mission is over, since the day after the explosion. I’ve tried to bring it up a few times and he says not to worry.”
“From our conversation a few days ago, I figured Cruz and I would be packing our houses up and moving to Fort Lauderdale. Why the sudden change?”
“He bought me a service dog to help with my anxiety and to help me leave the house. And he seemed mad about me wanting to go to Boston.”
Lena laughed. “You think you’re breaking up because he bought you a dog or because you want to go to Boston?”
“We weren’t really dating. Hell, we’ve only known each other for a week. I can’t change the course of my life for a guy I’ve known one week.”
“Service dogs cost a lot of money. I highly doubt that he plans on ending things. Why don’t you ask him?”
“Because he got a call before we could talk more, and now he went to go assist the FBI to take down HUE.”
“Oh, Addie. You can’t just guess what he’s thinking. You should know that better than anyone.”
“Did you meet someone?”
Lena didn’t answer immediately, and I glanced down to make sure we didn’t get disconnected.
“Yes.” She let out a sigh. “But I don’t want to talk about it until you get back. It’s a conversation we need to have in person.”
“I just want to know one thing. Does he make you happy?”
“Yes, now let’s get back to you. Are you upset he went to assist the FBI? Is this really what’s bothering you?”
“Yes, and no. I don’t understand why the FBI even called, and he didn’t even ask if I wanted to come.”
“Addie… you have panic attacks sometimes when you leave, and you’re not trained for this. He is. And you would be upset if he asked you not to do your job.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have answered the phone when you called. You try to make sense of everything, and I want to be mad at him.”
“Because if you like him too much, you might get your heart broken?”
I rested my hand on Axel. “Yeah, and I’m not sure how we can make it work. Each day I’m with him, I fall more. He bought me the cutest dog, and I’m mad at him.”
“I think you guys need to talk and soon. Or things might get worse.”
“I know.”
“On the bright side, if he finishes up the mission tonight, you might get to come home tomorrow, and I can help you figure everything out.”
“Or you can bring a big tub of ice cream and help me cry about the man I lost.”
“You deserve to be happy.”
“I wish you would tell me who you fell for. I didn’t even know you liked anyone.”
“Things have a funny way of working out.”
“If you say so. I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know how everything turned out.”
“Talk to you soon.”
“Bye.” I hung up and smiled.
Abe and I did need to talk. I wasn’t sure what tomorrow would bring, but I wanted to see if we could make it work. At least I wanted to try. Axel whined next to me. I grabbed his leash from the stack of his thing to take him out.
When I opened the back door, I knew I’d made a mistake. Axel growled next to me as my mother held a gun pointed at my head.
19
ADDIE
M y mother pushed herself into the house with her gun leveled at me.
Axel growled, but my eyes were on the crazy woman I’d spent years trying to find. How could she possibly have found where I was staying? The safe house wasn’t registered to anyone at AA Security. More importantly, how was I going to get out of this alive?
“I don’t think the gun is necessary, Blair.” I used her name, hoping she would calm down, but her hands shook as she stepped closer to me.
“Blair is weak. She’s the reason I’m going to lose everything,” she yelled.
I nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name.” Her voice even sounded different than it had the other day.
“Norah.”
“Well, Norah, do you want to take a seat? We can talk about what’s going on. I’m not going to leave the house.”
“Because you're weak like Blair, but I’m not going to let her out anymore.”
Over the years, I’d read many books on personalities and what might cause my phobia. In rare cases, someone with a split personality could have one phobia, but the other personality didn’t have it. “Come, have a seat.”
My mother’s expression changed as she sat. She glared and kept the gun pointed at me. “I want the information you stole. It wasn’t yours to take.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” My stomach tightened. I wasn’t sure I could keep my mom talking until Abe got back.
She waved her gun in the air and pulled the trigger. A bullet pierced the ceiling. The s
ound echoed through the open room.
Axel bared his teeth, and my heart rate beat faster by the second. The world around me started to fade away. My attack was coming on fast. Axel turned his attention from my mom to me. His wet nose pushed at my hand. I took a few calming breaths. My mother's lips were moving, but I couldn't make out the words. I knew if I died, it would be because of an attack.
“Why aren’t you listening?” Norah screamed.
Her voice cut through the fog, along with Axel’s insistence. I pulled myself out of the panic attack. “You did take something. We have cameras everywhere in HUE corporate office. I tried telling Vincent you weren’t coming for lunch. You and John were always horrible kids, so much like Blair. That’s why I made her leave you.” She jumped up from the chair and paced back and forth.
“I don’t have the files anymore. When someone put a bomb in Abe’s truck, the blast broke my laptop.”
A smile spread across her face at the mention of the bomb.
I kept my hand on the back of Axel’s neck. He hadn’t stopped his low growl. “What was on the files you're worried about?”
My mother stopped pacing, and when she looked at me, her eyes were rounder, and a small frown was on her face, the scowl she had when she came in wasn't there. When she looked down at the gun, she hesitated. But the change was only for a split second before the puckered brow returned.
Blair’s personality was close to the surface, but I wasn’t sure if I could coax my mother’s other personality out. At the moment, that was my only chance of getting out of the situation alive.
I thought back to when she’d come to my house. She’d seemed nice and put together. She wore a knee-length summer dress, but when I met her at the office, her makeup was darker, and she was wearing a black power suit. She was wearing a similar suit to the one she’d worn at the office.
“You took a copy of our books,” Norah whined. “And led the FBI to our doorstep. I know they’re going to show up to HUE cooperate building tonight,” she sneered.
My stomach turned. Abe was on his way to the building.
I reached into my pocket and slowly pulled out my phone. The movement was slow, and every time my mother looked toward the door, I took it out a little more. Abe was my only chance of making it out of this. I needed to warn him, or they were going to walk into a trap.
“How are you so sure that the FBI is doing a raid?”
“The same way I found out where you were staying. It cost me a lot more money than I wanted to spend, but I needed to clean up the mess since it was Blair’s offspring that caused all these problems. With enough money, anyone can be bought. Even people in the FBI have a price.”
My stomach turned. “What is in the books that are worth killing me for? You know they will come looking for you if I die. Is going on the run really worth this?”
“The FBI is already going to be coming for me!” she shouted. “The books showed proof of the money ISIS gave us to make defective equipment for the government. It was easy to get the contract. Most of the time, the government has to buy from the lowest bid. I made sure ours was the lowest. It didn’t matter what they paid. ISIS and North Korea sent us tons of money to make up for it.”
“Why?”
“Money,” she huffed. “Vincent didn’t have enough engineering knowledge to keep up his father’s company. I was the brains behind the operation, along with his father. Mr. Hue has a place ready for me in Russia. Vincent is going to go down for everything.”
“He’s your husband,” I said, wondering if the woman cared about anything but herself.
“He was a mark.” She set the gun down next to her. “So was your dad, but your father wasn’t as easy to manipulate. I tried to get him to steal money from the firms he worked for. Just a little off the top so we could have a better life. He wouldn’t do it. That’s when I found another way to get the life I deserved.”
My anger at my dad over the years evaporated. After she left, my dad had turned inward and stopped caring about anyone but himself. We’d reconnected since he sobered up. My mother was something he never wanted to talk about. Now I wondered if my dad knew about the split personalities.
I glanced at the large silver clock on the wall. It would be a while before Abe finished his mission. My fingers hovered over my phone. I couldn’t make a call unless I looked down. “I have skills to help you cover your tracks. Why don’t you leave, and I can make it look like you disappeared?”
My mother blinked a couple times. It would be easy to erase any evidence of my mother’s existence. That didn’t mean I would, but it would give me an excuse to use my laptop.
“How do I know you’re not just saying that? You could be setting me up, and when I board the plane, it’s filled with FBI agents.”
My mind raced, trying to think of an excuse. “I’ll come with you.”
“I didn’t want you when you were a kid,” she huffed. “Why do you think that would change at all now? I’m not going to share any of my money with you. I worked years to get this. Having to sleep with Vincent was enough to make me want to puke.”
“I have my own money and don’t need yours. And if I cross you at all during our travels, you can kill me. You can teach me to be more like you, and together, we can work to find the next target.”
An evil smile came across my mother’s face. She liked the idea of finding another target. People like her never had enough money. They would keep stealing and doing illegal things until they got caught or killed.
“That could work. It would be easier to have a hacker on my team.”
I took a deep breath to control my nerves. She was letting her guard down, and her fingers were no longer on the gun. If I could get her away from the chair, I could grab the gun and send Axel after her. “Can I grab my laptop? It’s right there.”
I pointed to the end table. Once my fingers touched the keyboard, I could send a coded message to Brock and Abe.
“I’m not sure.” She narrowed her eyes, and my heart dropped.
I jumped when my phone started to ring. When I glanced down, I let out a sigh. Abe was calling. If I didn’t answer, he might think something is wrong. “I have to get the phone. There is a chance it’s my brother, and if I don’t answer, he will send the paramedics, thinking I had a panic attack.”
John was used to me dodging his calls, but the crazy woman across from me didn’t know that, and she also didn’t need to know it was Abe. My phone stopped ringing for a second, then “Sweet Home Alabama” blasted again from my phone. “He won’t stop calling.”
“Fine, answer it, but if I sense anything is off, I will shoot your dog.”
I slid the bar to the side and brought the phone to my ear. “John.”
“Hey, I wanted to make sure you remembered to set the alarm after you took Axel outside.”
“I will set it in a few minutes. The code is 9196, right?” I asked. We’d reprogrammed the alarm with a set of codes I would remember. Abe had also called the alarm company and changed the panic code. If the alarm company called and something was wrong, I was to tell them 9196. If everything was okay, I would tell them 8383.
“Yep, the code is 9196. I can stay on the line while you set it.”
“Axel and I were just coming inside. I can’t set it at the moment.”
My mother stood and grabbed the gun. She had it pointed at me while she walked over to the door and looked out the peephole.
“Okay. That errand I’m running shouldn’t take too long.”
“Okay. John?”
“Yeah, Addie.”
“I just… I miss you.” I wanted to say so much more. I loved him, but with my mom watching my every move, I couldn’t tell him how I felt.
“I’m coming,” he told me. I could hear the worry in his ordinarily-smooth voice. It sucked that I was counting on someone else to save me, like I’d relied on him when it came to my attacks.
“Hurry,” I whispered. “I’ll make sure to set the alarm, and if I�
�m not here when you get back. Don’t worry. I plan to run to the store.”
“Don’t leave the house,” he growled. “Stall.”
“Bye.”
I hung up before I broke down in tears. That might’ve been our last call, and I hadn’t told him how I really felt.
My mother walked over, handed me my laptop, and took the phone from my hand. She placed it on the floor and stomped the screen with her heel. “Get us to Russia.”
The Microsoft symbol appeared on my laptop. I let out a breath as she sat across from me and couldn’t see what was on my screen. This would give me a chance to set everything in motion. I needed to get word to Brock or Abe that the FBI operation was a setup.
When my desktop came up, I clicked the onion icon in the bottom-right corner and sent Brock an encrypted message. I figured my mother wasn’t smart enough to intercept any of my transmissions, but I didn’t know who she had on her payroll with the FBI, and they could be monitoring text messages and emails on the regular network.
Brock replied that he’d received the message and was sending reinforcements. Now I just needed to stall long enough for Abe to get to the house.
20
ABE
I pressed my foot down on the gas. She gave me the intruder code. My thumb pressed the call button on the steering wheel.
Antonio answered on the first ring. “I was about to call you. Get back to the safe house!”
I hadn’t called Addie to talk about the alarm. I was worried she wouldn’t be okay left alone, and the alarm was an excuse to call her.
“Her mother is in the house,” Brock’s voice came over the speakers. “She sent me an encrypted message, and Antonio and I were about to dial you.”
Addie’s mother might send her into an attack. I hoped Axel would save her.
“How did she possibly find the safe house?” I slowed down to take a left. The rural neighborhood made it hard to speed.
Brock let out a sigh. “I’m pretty sure it’s the same one that was trying to set the FBI up to fail on the raid.”