Hold on to Hope

by Jackson, A. L.

  Agony tightened my chest, the thought of that little boy being snatched away.

  But this woman obviously needed help, and I wasn’t going to stand in the way of that.

  “Where is she? We have been trying to get in touch with you for several days.”

  I rubbed my hands up my arms, trying to quell the chills that lifted.

  A frown crawled to his brow. “What do you mean? I haven’t heard from anyone. Figured your cop friend didn’t give a crap about another basket case roaming the streets.” Bitterness filled his short laugh, and he shook his head. “I gave up and headed back for California then turned back around when I got another call from her yesterday.”

  The constricting lump that had been in my throat was back, although this time it was all different. The need to protect this little boy greater than anything I’d ever felt.

  Bigger than my fears.

  Bigger than the wounds.

  He started to back away, his demeanor urgent. “Listen . . . do you know where Evan is? I need to talk to him . . . see if I can get him to come down and talk some sense into her.”

  My nod was frantic. “Yes. We . . . he moved just a short while ago. Let me grab my keys and my phone and you can follow me over there.”

  “You sure? It’s late.”

  My tongue swept across my dried lips, the words rushed and haggard. “Yes.”

  Absolutely.

  Yes.

  I needed to do this. Be there for Evan. Fight for what was right for that little boy.

  My spirit shivered in awareness. In fullness. I’d already felt it—experienced it—the depth of the love I had for him. Maybe right then was the first time I really felt like I had the right to feel it.

  “I’ll be right back, let me grab a couple things,” I told him, and I rushed back through the quiet house and into my old room, trying to keep my footsteps from banging through the house and waking Josiah and Carly. I grabbed my keys, phone, and wallet from the nightstand and slipped my feet into some sandals, didn’t take the time to change out of my sleep shorts and tee.

  I was back at the door in less than two minutes.

  Chris gave me a grateful smile. “Thank you for doing this, Frankie Leigh.”

  I returned a wary one because I really didn’t think he should be thankin’ me.

  Yes, I hoped his sister could find a way to heal.

  To be well.

  But I was no liar, and the truth was, I was doing this for Everett and Evan. “You can follow me over there.”

  I hurried down the two steps to my car, and I backed out onto the street. Headlights lit behind me from where his car was parked, and I started toward home.

  Home.

  Knot in my throat, I told my phone to dial Seth. It was past midnight, and I cringed thinking about waking him, but he told us to call immediately if we had information.

  It went to voicemail, so I left a message. “Hey, Seth. It’s Frankie Leigh. Could you give me a call as soon as you get a chance? Chris showed back up. Said he found his sister yesterday. He wants Evan to go and talk with her. He said he hadn’t heard from you, and well, I just . . . I wanted to let you know what was happening. We’re heading over to the new house right now. I’ll talk to you later.”

  By the time I ended the call, I was already to the new neighborhood. I made the right and then the left, easing into the short driveway of the slumbering house.

  All the lights dimmed.

  Everything quiet and still.

  Though that energy echoed back.

  Alive and warm and inviting.

  And I knew . . . I knew that this was where I belonged.

  Cracking the door open to get out and getting ready to shut off the engine, I jumped when my phone started ringing through the speakers. Seth’s name lit on the dash. I quickly answered it. “Seth, hey.”

  “Frankie,” he said, sounding out of breath. “Where are you?”

  “We just got to the new house. I’m sitting out front in my car.”

  “Do not get out,” he shouted.

  “What?”

  “Do not get out, Frankie. He is not who he said he is. I’ve been following a lead and I just got confirmation. Get as far away from him as you can.”

  “Oh God, what?”

  Panic kicked in, pulse pounding out of control, and I fumbled to get the door shut so I could lock it, so I could hang up and text Evan and pray he saw his phone light up so I could tell him not to open the door. To wait for Seth. That I didn’t know what was happening, but I knew help would be on its way.

  But a hand was in the way of the door, forcing it open. Gasping, I fought to shut it, but he was too strong, and he was right there standing in it.

  Chris grinning down.

  But it wasn’t close to being that innocent smile he always wore.

  It was . . . deranged.

  Eyes wired.

  He reached over and pushed the button to kill the engine and ripped my phone from my hand. He tossed it to the ground on the driveway. “You won’t be needing that.”

  “Wh-wh-what are you doing? Who are you?”

  “Get out, bitch.”

  I felt the prick at my ribs.

  The tip of a knife.

  My hands started shaking uncontrollably. As uncontrollably as the words that were spilling from my mouth. “Please . . . don’t do this . . . I’ll give you anything.”

  He laughed a menacing sound, and he forced me out of the car. He pulled my back against his chest, an arm locked around the front of me, his mouth at the back of my ear. “Sorry, gorgeous, but you don’t have a thing that I want. All except for your pathetic fiancé’s heart on a silver platter.”

  Fear spiraled.

  Sweat slicking my flesh.

  Pulse thundering out of control.

  “Please, I don’t know what you want, but I know you don’t want to do this.” The words tumbled out in a panicked plea, and I was dragging my feet, trying to slow him down. To distract him. To do anything to keep him from getting to that house.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the car he’d pulled in beside mine. Realized it was the same car I’d thought had been following me last week.

  Panic pulsed, heart racing mad.

  “Why are you doing this? Those messages . . . they were from you?” I guessed it was a tumble of confusion that came bleeding out.

  Maybe it took that long for awareness to take hold. For it to sink in that he was the reason that Ashley had been terrified that day on the street. I gulped around the realization. The unwanted thought that he was probably the reason she had abandoned Everett in the first place.

  The terror Evan had explained she’d possessed that night.

  It wasn’t Ashley who was crazy.

  Wasn’t Ashley who was unhinged.

  He dug the knife in a little deeper. Pain pricked, and I bit back the cry. Last thing I wanted to do was give this asshole ammunition. From the look in those eyes, he would be feedin’ off the fear.

  Loving it.

  He shoved me up the single step, making me stumble for the door, jerking me back right before I hit it. Fingers digging into my arm to keep me in place, he reached out with his other hand and pressed the bell that would trigger the lights inside about fifteen times in a row.

  A couple seconds later, a light flicked on inside.

  Horror raced.

  No, Evan, no. Do not open that door, I silently prayed. Prayed that he would somehow hear me.

  But I thought the energy was all mixed.

  Chaos.

  The turmoil from earlier in the day too much for either of us to process. Because Evan was seeing me through the window and his face was bleeding relief while I was sure I was going to crumble to my knees.

  He unlocked the door while I screamed, “No! Evan, No!”

  But he couldn’t hear me.

  Couldn’t hear me.

  Oh god.

  Please.

  He jerked open the door like he was going t
o welcome me home with open arms and I was getting shoved again. Flying forward, I slammed into Evan’s chest. Those arms were already there to steady me, and we floundered back two steps.

  Disoriented and confused.

  Chris entered behind me and before I could even turn around, he slammed the door shut and turned the deadbolt.

  It rang through the air like a death sentence.

  I struggled to hold onto Evan, to get him to look at me, for him to hear what I needed to say.

  Run.

  Save Everett.

  I’m sorry.

  I love you.

  But all his attention was trained on the malice infiltrating the house. The sickness that encroached.

  I yelped when Chris grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me back.

  Evan fought to keep hold of me, but he let go when the blade was placed at my throat. “Move, motherfucker, and she dies.”

  Evan froze in horror.

  My head snapped back in a sharp bite of pain, and I let go, gave as the monster jerked my back to his chest.

  The tip of that knife danced at my pulse point.

  A thready drum raced through my brain and pounded through my body.

  Evan was slowly moving, his arms out like he was placating the devil.

  But I saw it.

  His eyes narrowed.

  Clearly calculating a retaliation.

  Violence covered him like a new layer of skin.

  Muscles shivering with it.

  Fury.

  “I don’t know what is going on, but let her go,” Evan demanded, his voice cracking and raw. “Clearly, this is about you and me.”

  Chris laughed this crazed sound. The sound of it banged off the walls and vibrated the windows with nothing but cruelty.

  “Fucking freak. Listen to you. Can’t even fucking talk like a real man, can you?”

  Fucking freak.

  Fucking freak.

  The taunt ricocheted through the room.

  Why? Why was he so angry?

  Besides, he was the one with a knife to my throat. Definitely not my definition of a man. But I knew better than to say a word.

  My lips moved silently, begging Evan to see, “You save Everett first.”

  Evan’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, and that aggression only increased. Evan took a step forward. Chris forced us back one. “Put the knife down, Chris. Let’s talk. Tell me what you want? Where is Ashley?”

  “Ashley?” Chris choked a delirious sound. “You worried about that freak fucker, too?”

  Uncertainty and confusion and anger puffed out of Evan’s chest. An explosion of a plea.

  “She’s your sister. My son’s mother. Of course, I’m concerned about her. Just . . . put down the knife and we’ll talk about it. You can hate me for having a kid with her, but listen to me, man, I didn’t know she was pregnant. I didn’t desert her or leave her alone or any of that bullshit. She packed up and left. I didn’t know a thing.”

  Knew Evan was trying to assuage him. Talk him down from the ledge.

  Chris laughed a scraping, mocking sound. “You always had to take everything that was mine, didn’t you?”

  Confusion deepened the lines on Evan’s face, frustration oozing out, his brows twisting in a tight knot. “What are you talking about? I don’t even know you.”

  More laughter, this time bitter. “Come on, Evan, tell me you don’t even recognize your own brother? Now that is pretty sad, don’t you think? And here I thought maybe you and I could become best friends.” Could feel the crack of his vicious smile at the side of my head. “Probably not, though, right?”

  His brother?

  I watched the commotion go down in Evan’s mind.

  Disoriented.

  Flustered.

  Agitated.

  The three of them got whipped up in a pit of fear.

  So intense Evan paled and his body shook.

  Saw the way his knees went weak. But he fought it. Remained upright. “I have no idea what you are talking about, Chris. But this madness needs to stop before someone gets hurt. Please. I’m begging you to put down that knife.”

  Chris shook his head, carried on like Evan hadn’t said anything at all. “You have any idea what it’s like to live in the shadow of you? This fucking freak who can’t even fucking hear with his fake fucking heart?”

  The arm locked around me tightened in a frisson of rage.

  Irrational hostility.

  I could see the stark fear streak through Evan’s expression, but he was trying to keep calm, trying not to set Chris off. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I promise, but whatever you’re upset about, we can figure out. You can let her go.”

  Chris chuckled a dark sound. “No can do, Big Brother. You took everything from me. You have any idea what it was like to grow up as me? Daddy fucking hated my mom because she wasn’t your bitch of a mother. Treated her like shit. Nothing but a punching bag for the rich prick to take his anger out on. A whore he came to in the middle of the night.”

  Hate blistered through Evan’s features.

  Our worlds spinning.

  The frayed threads we hadn’t been able to put together knitting into a blanket of horrified realization.

  Chris’s face pinched with disdain where he had his jaw pressed tight against mine, the sensation of it scraping my skin. “Then that piece of shit who was supposed to be my grandfather? He owed me one thing. One fucking thing. And guess who got that five-million dollars our daddy promised me to keep me from squealing to the counselors at school?” He whittled the knife a little deeper into my throat. “Ding, ding, ding. Not. Me.”

  Hatred seeped into the room.

  Venom.

  Pure wickedness.

  I gasped out in relief when he jerked the knife away from my throat and waved it around in the air. “Nice place you have here, by the way. What do you say we paint it red?”

  Evan lunged forward.

  Chris jerked me back, waving the knife again. “Wouldn’t do that.”

  “I’ll give anything . . . all the fucking money. I don’t care. Just let her go. I didn’t know about you. I promise. You’re right. Our father is a prick. This is all on him. Let’s figure this out together.”

  Could feel the air puff from Chris’s mouth, a sticky hot disease that blew through my hair, his unhinged mind spinning away.

  And I knew . . . I knew in that moment there was going to be no talking him down from this.

  Felt him crack a perverse smirk. “You know, I really thought it would be the kid that did you in. Ashley and I figured we’d get what was owed to us. Loved her, you know. Fucking loved that bitch. Turns out, she was a whore, just like my mother. She was only supposed to seduce you once. Tease you with the idea of a kid since I knew there was no chance you were going to have one. Bitch actually got herself knocked up. And then what did she do? Ran off the second she found out she was pregnant.”

  My heart fell to the floor.

  Ashley had been in on this?

  Some sort of twisted, messed up plan to steal from Evan?

  How could people be so terrible and cruel?

  We’d started circling, and I knew Evan couldn’t hear the sirens that were approaching in the distance.

  Oh, but Chris surely could. Knew he’d be gettin’ desperate. “Took me close to two years to find her . . . should have known she’d try to run again. I finally caught up to her, though, made her pay for what she did.”

  A tiny yelp of agony jutted from my spirit.

  Oh God.

  Oh God.

  “You took my childhood. My mother. The money. My girl. Time to pay up, asshole.”

  “This is crazy, Chris. Just think about what you’re doing. I’ll give you all the money. All of it. Just let her go.”

  Evan’s eyes kept darting to me. Telling me to hold on. That he was going to protect me. Not to be afraid when I knew neither of us had ever been so afraid in all our lives.

  Chris carried on so
casually. “I’m thinking there might be something in this world that is more important to you than the kid, though,” he mused.

  He wielded the knife, dragging the blade close enough that it nicked my jaw in a slow, searing sting. I tried not to whimper. Tried not to cry. “She is pretty, isn’t she?”

  Milo was in the hall, whimpering and whining, turning in circles.

  Feeling the distress.

  Chris pulled the knife away and waved it back and forth in front of my face. “The baby or the girl? The baby or the girl?” He singsonged the threat. “What’s it gonna be? Which one will make us even for what you have taken from me?”

  There are moments in your life when everything comes into sharp, clear view.

  When it crystallizes.

  When you realize all the hope and love and belief you had was meant to be directed at one thing.

  I think Evan and I had lost so much time thinking we were sacrificing for the other. Him protecting me from the life he thought would burden me, and me protectin’ him from the burden I didn’t think he could bear.

  I guessed it was right that second we both accepted that was the meaning of love. We would sacrifice it all, give it up for the other.

  But more importantly, we both gladly give that sacrifice for Everett.

  Pay any cost.

  Lay down our lives.

  Those emerald eyes were on me.

  Conveying the same message I was giving.

  Our connection shivered and shook and trembled. So different. So different than it’d ever been before. Fierce and unrelenting and all-knowing.

  We were in this together.

  To the end.

  Everett. Everett. Everett.

  Evan jumped into action before Chris could process the shift in the atmosphere. Evan spun, bolted down the hall in the direction of Everett’s room.

  Chris tossed me aside, seeing the choice was made, running after his revenge.

  Sirens whirred and the severity flashed and our worlds gathered to a pinpoint.

  The second strung out like it would go on for eternity.

  Chris darted down the hall.

  The door banged to Everett’s room, and Evan was rounding around, a punch thrown that caught Chris off guard, fist ramming into his face.

  He staggered back, not anticipating that Evan was gonna fight with everything he had.