by Rebel Hart
My smile grew. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”
Instead of the arrangement from the first time, we decided to leave Nikita and Jaxon behind for the second attempt. Everyone slept in after the pool party, and then I had to take Gus home, but not long after lunch, we met up to try the blindfold method again. We opted to take two different cars, so Kyle and Brayden rode in his car, while I rode with Avery in hers. We started at Postings Proper High School, and did the same thing we did the first time.
Avery wrapped Brayden up in a blindfold and put a hair tie around his wrists, then we led him over to Kyle’s truck the same way we did the first time, and put him in the back seat. We had a feeling Brayden would feel less pressured and more comfortable if it was just Kyle in the truck, so we left the two of them and climbed back in Avery’s car to follow behind.
After a few minutes, Kyle pulled away from the curb and Avery kept a close tail on them. Brayden must have felt something solid the first time we did the experiment, because around the same place that Brayden wanted to turn at the first time, was where Kyle turned right. Avery followed and every now and again, Kyle would turn, and eventually, we ended up on the highway that was taking us to North Postings.
“This is good, right?” Avery said. “Nikita and Jaxon found Brayden wandering around North Postings.”
“Yeah?” I said. “If that’s the case, then we could be on the right track for sure.”
At one point, Kyle got off the highway, and the turns got more erratic and uncertain. A few times, Kyle put on a blinker to turn, before turning it off and continuing straight. “What’s going on?” Avery asked.
Finally, Kyle’s car pulled over and stopped. We could see him looking over the backseat, talking to Brayden. About five minutes passed, and I was just about to climb out and walk over to the truck, when Kyle climbed out and walked back to Avery’s car.
Avery rolled down her window and Kyle leaned in. “Hey.”
“Is he panicking again?” I asked. “We can stop.”
“No, he’s fine. He’s going great, but we think he may have screwed up on the exit, he said he felt like it might have been too soon. I asked if he wanted to start over, but he said he thinks if we go back to the Posings Proper exit and get back on the highway, that he can get it right the second time. I’m gonna take Millworth back to the Postings Proper exit, and then get back on the highway and try again,” Kyle explained.
“Okay,” Avery said. “We’re behind you.”
“Cool.” He tapped the side of Avery’s car and then pulled back from the window and walked back to his truck.
“Hopefully, the third time’s the charm,” Avery said.
“Hopefully,” I agreed.
Exactly as Kyle had said, he took Millworth, a street that ran all the way from South Postings, through Postings Proper, and into North Postings, back to the highway exit we’d started on. He hesitated for a moment, likely allowing Brayden to reset and focus, and then eventually he got back on the highway. We drove down the highway following Kyle, but that second run, he got in the left lane. We passed the exit we got off on, along with a couple more, and we were fast approaching the final exit for North Postings—a left exit—but then Kyle got off.
We followed and the car slowed significantly, and then it started to turn left and right at certain intervals and then finally, Kyle’s car pulled over and stopped. Avery and I watched as Kyle got out of the front seat of the truck and opened Brayden’s door.
“They’re getting out,” Avery said.
I opened my door to get out and Avery followed suit, just as Kyle was pulling Brayden out.
“We would walk straight for a while,” Brayden said. “And we’d cross the street. I know because sometimes we’d stop at the light, then we’d immediately turn right.”
“Okay. Let’s go,” Kyle said. He looked over his shoulder at Avery and I, and we both nodded and followed behind him.
We moved exactly as Brayden had expressed, and he was more confident, likely because he was on foot as opposed to in the car. We crossed the street and then turned right, and Brayden stopped. “Is there a door near here that is glass with a metal frame?”
Kyle, Avery and I looked around, and two doors up in a row of buildings from where we were, was a door matching what Brayden described. “Yeah,” Kyle said.
“Don’t tell me where. I’m gonna walk straight and then stop, and you tell me if I’m in front of it.” Without confirmation, Brayden walked forward and then came to a stop directly in front of the glass door we’d seen. He turned to his left so he was facing it and said, “Is this it?”
“Yeah, Brayden,” Kyle said with a smile. “Is this the place.”
“This is definitely one of the entrances I took,” Brayden said. Avery and I walked up and looked at the building, but the door was grated shut, and the building itself had boarded windows and seemed totally abandoned. Kyle took the initiative and took the blindfold and wrist tie off of Brayden, and when he saw the door locked up, he deflated. “Shit.”
“How did you know about the glass door with a metal frame without seeing it?” Avery asked.
“The sound,” Brayden said. “It’s that very distinct sound of the door jam chain rattling against it. That kind you hear when you walk into any of those high end stores in South Postings.”
“Being rich strikes again,” Kyle said.
“Well, I think we found where they’d bring you, but it doesn’t seem like Connor’s here anymore,” I said.
“But maybe there are clues if we can get in,” Avery said.
“We can’t break in,” Kyle said.
“No, but there’s another option,” Brayden said. “This is where they brought me in, but it’s not where they brought me out. I have a feeling that when I was dragged out and dumped after Connor kept me, that they brought me out the back way, so maybe there’s more hope that way of getting in. The only thing is, I was totally out of it when Nikita and Jaxon found me. That’s going to be harder.”
“So, we’ll just take it one step at a time,” I said. “The next step is to bring Nikita and Jaxon here and see if they can help us work backwards to somewhere that could still be connected to this building. It’s like Nikita said, if we work together, we’ll be able to find our way forward.”
“Sorry,” Brayden said.
I looked at him and then turned him to face me. “What are you sorry for? Look at what you did? I don’t think I’d be able to do this.” I pulled him into a hug. “We’re one step closer to Connor because of you. Brayden…” I pulled back. “Thank you.”
12
Deon
To say that I got slightly irresponsible in driving around town in Felicity’s car would be an understatement. It was so refreshing to be out in the world temporarily without the fear of being snatched, or killed, or having a body drop from the sky in front of me. I did go to a fast food restaurant, drive along the coast, and take in the fresh summer air.
The last of my stops was a pier that hung out over the ocean. The sun was cresting over the sky and starting to set, and for some reason Cherri came into my brain. Maybe just because the sunset was beautiful and so was she, but I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I wished beyond anything that she could be there next to me, looking at the amazing colors against the waves. Maybe I’d get lucky enough and one day I’d be able to bring her and we could just sit for hours.
Us having sex in her car blossomed into my mind then. I hadn’t thought once about how starved for her skin I was until that moment. Finding and taking down Connor was more important than ever because I wanted to get back to the love of my life. I wanted to hold her and make love to her again, and I wanted to be the one who could protect her from anything trying to hurt her.
The sound of a car pulling up near where I was sitting on the pier made me jump, but when I turned around, Felicity was pulling up in her other car. She got out and walked down the pier and sat down next to me.
“You scared me,” she said. “I
thought something happened. Thank god I have the locator activated on my car.”
“Sorry,” I replied. “I got out of prison last July, and then I went on the run again in October. I was bouncing from place to place until Connor’s guys snatched me in like March or April. I don’t even fucking remember. I haven’t been able to just…” I took a breath in and then let one out. “Sit. When I came to stay with you, I finally was eating good food, sleeping in a comfortable bed but—”
“It still feels like prison?” Felicity finished.
“I love living with you,” I said. “But I don’t remember the last time I was able to just sit and not feel like I was running. Even after I got out of prison, I saw Nathan and Connor almost right away, and then it felt like I was dodging them again. I haven’t had a normal life since the 8th grade.”
“I hate that,” Felicity said. “We’re gonna get you back to a normal life, but when you just disappear…”
“I know,” I cut her off. “I’m sorry for scaring you.”
Felicity put her hand on my back and started to rub it. “You’re safest at home. I know it sucks, but all it takes is for one wrong person to see you. I just need you to hang on a little bit longer. We’re gonna get you back home, back to your family, back to your woman. We’re close, probably closer than it feels like. Just be a little more patient.”
I nodded, knowing she was right. “Yeah.”
“How did the meeting go?” she asked.
“Good. I told Nico everything I knew. Nathan probably would have been more helpful, but I’m glad he’s not this deeply mixed up in all this shit. Nico was pleased with the information I was able to provide. He seemed confident that he’d be able to dig something up.”
Felicity let out a sigh of relief. “Excellent. I’ll be sure to brief Garrett when I see him next week.”
“You’re seeing Venom next week?” I asked.
“Yeah, to go over his appeal,” Felicity said. “It’s been filed, but I keep filing extensions on the court date because I want to make sure we have everything we need to be successful in the case. We only get one shot locally, then we’d have to take it federal, and that’s gonna be much harder with judges who don’t understand the influence Connor has. I think I’m going to set the court date for later this month. If we can file while Connor isn’t around to testify, then the main thing that caused the violation of Garrett’s parole won’t be there. We stand a good chance.”
“But what if Connor does show up?” I said.
“Well, it wouldn’t look good for Garrett, but then we’d have him at least,” Felicity said.
“I’m not willing to wager Garrett’s freedom like that,” I said. “We have to wait.”
That seemed to suck all the air out of Felicity. “I don’t want to wait. This is so important. This might be the only shot we get.”
“It’s too risky. It will be better if we can get rid of Connor for good and ensure that Garret gets out. We can’t rush it,” I said. “It’s like you just said, we have to be a little more patient. If we can sort Connor out, there’s more than one problem we’re going to be able to solve.”
A smile came across Felicity’s face. “Okay,” she said. “We’re in it together, so we wait it out together?” Felicity said.
I nodded. “Exactly.”
“Okay. I’ll file for another extension. The judge respects me a lot, but hopefully we can bring this to an end soon. Their patience with me has got to be running out.”
“Nico’s on the case now, and if I know my brother at all, and oddly enough, I think I do, he’s not just sitting around either. The other shoe is going to drop, we just have to wait.”
Felicity started to laugh. “Wait, when did it flip from me convincing you to you convincing me?”
I joined her, chuckling myself. “I think we may both be much better at giving advice than we are at receiving it.”
“You know, that’s not the first time I’ve heard that,” Felicity said, then she stood up. “Come on, let’s get home. I’m sure Concrete is chomping at the bit to see you.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Over the course of the next few days, Felicity made an intentional effort to make me feel more comfortable and less locked up. She frequently suggested I run errands with her, so long as they were going to be short and get me back home soon. She also allowed me to start taking Concrete on his walks around the neighborhood, even though a car that was one of Garrett’s people keeping an eye on me, always stayed close behind. I chose to ignore it and pretended that I was just some guy walking his dog around his neighborhood. It was my favorite of my new activities. The morning walks turned into runs, which reminded me how much I liked to work out. After mentioning that to Felicity, she brought me into the garage to present me with a surprise.
“Ta da!”
She opened the garage door, and I saw that in the fourth spot in the garage, where there was no car, had been converted into a workout center. She’d purchased a bench press, treadmill, exercise ball, and weights, and had laid them out in a way I could use them. A dog bed was in the corner of the garage, no doubt for Concrete to hang out on while I worked out.
“This is way too much,” I said. “This is so nice.”
“You said you like working out. Honestly, I’ve been waiting for you to mention any hobby or interest, so that I could create an abundance of it for you. I know it’s no fun being cooped up, so I want there to be things that interest you here. You haven’t even touched the new gaming system I bought,” she said.
I laughed. “I’ve never been much of a gamer honestly. Although, I did see a cooking game.”
“Yeah! The co-op one! I want to try it. We need to play it together,” Felicity said.
“That sounds amazing. Let’s do it tonight,” Deon said.
“Cool. Thinking spaghetti for dinner tonight?” Felicity said.
“Yeah. Actually, can I help?” I asked. “I want to learn more about cooking.”
She smiled. “Sure.”
“I feel bad, like I shouldn’t be enjoying myself so much, but if I have to be locked up, this is a pretty damn good way to do it,” I said.
She gave me a hug. “I know I’m not your first choice, but if there’s anything that can make waiting it out more comfortable, please tell me.”
“I will,” I said. “Thank you. What would honestly really help, is for you to let me help you out around here.” Felicity pulled away and I smiled. “Make me clean and shit. Let me cook for you sometimes. I just want to try and feel reasonably normal. I feel like I should be doing more to stop Connor or get back to Nathan and Cherri, but since I can’t, I want to just feel normal here.”
“I can do that,” Felicity said. “I’ll go full mom.”
I smiled at her. “I can’t wait.”
“I’ll leave you to your workout equipment,” Felicity said, walking away, but as she passed a few bags of cement she pointed down at them. “Can you bring these to the backyard when you’re done? They need to be poured for the new back patio.”
“Yes ma’am,” I replied and Felicity chuckled as she walked in through the garage door that led into the house.
Hopefully Nathan and Cherri would forgive me for being okay with my new normal. I wanted my life to cross back over with theirs eventually, but I wasn’t done being Felicity and Venom’s weird, hybrid son just yet, and while Nico hunted for Connor, I was going to lean all the way into it. I wanted to make up for the childhood I’d lost.
13
Cherri
After sorting things out with Brayden and following his trail to the end, we decided to let things cool down for a little bit. Brayden had strained himself much more than he let on to get to where we got, given he fell asleep on the way home and slept for the next six hours once we got back home. We knew that we wanted to compare notes with Nikita and Jaxon and try and find another way into the building, but I also didn’t want to push Brayden past his limit. He’d already done so much, and the la
st thing I wanted was to break him.
“Good morning,” Avery said.
She was walking into the kitchen with Alistair right behind her. They were both still in their pajamas, and Alistair was yawning. Avery slipped by my stool to give me a hug around my back, and then sat down next to me and Alistair across from her. The morning’s breakfast selection was a variety of meats, crackers, and cheeses, along with a basket of sweet breads, and the typical selection of fruits.
“Morning,” I said. “Hey, Ali.”
Alistair smiled at me. “Hey, Cherri. How’d you sleep?”
“I’ve been sleeping better these past few days. I don’t know if it’s because we actually took a huge step forward, but it’s been a little easier,” I replied.
“That’s good,” he said. “I really think we’re getting somewhere with Sicily and these pings. We’re really whittling down the list. Maybe we’ll strike gold and track down Connor and Deon at the same time.”
I rolled my eyes at the thought. “That sounds so overstimulating, I don’t know that I’d even be able to handle it.”
“Same,” Avery agreed. “Either one or the other. Not both.”
“Which would you prefer first?” Alistair asked with a sly smile on his face.
If it was his idea of a funny joke, I didn’t appreciate it, but I chose to ignore the jab and just answer the question. “Well… I really do want to find Deon as soon as possible because I miss him so much, but I think it would be better if we could find him after Connor, so that he can come back and be comfortable and get back to a normal life. I don’t want him to have to come home to a fucking fight.”
“That’s true, but I think Deon’s kind of our missing secret weapon,” Avery said. “Both you and Nathan are so much stronger when he’s around, and I think he’s got some pieces of the whole Connor puzzle that we’re missing.”
“I totally agree,” Alistair said. “I can’t shake the feeling that things would go better if Deon were here.”