The chill in his words made goose bumps rise along my forearms, and guilt in me rose higher. He trusted me to be honest with him. But I can’t let Aaron get away. Flint’s going to be so mad when he finds out, but I have to do this.
“It won’t come to that. We’ll find a way to stop him without anybody getting hurt.” I swallowed. The comforting words tasted bitter on my tongue, especially when Flint nodded acceptingly.
“You’re right. We’ll catch him together.”
Mica opened the front door and tapped her foot. “So . . . are we going?”
I gave Flint one last squeeze before saying, “Yeah. Let’s go.”
Leaving Flint at the apartment building was hard. I was purposefully deceiving him, but only because I knew he would stop me if he knew my plans. But I can’t let Aaron get away! I just can’t!
“So what are we going to buy?” Mica asked cheerfully as we trailed down the hallway to the stairwell.
I pushed open the door to the stairs and waited for it to close behind us before I responded. “About that . . . I actually have something to discuss with you that doesn’t involve grocery shopping.” Our feet thudded on the carpeted stairs as we jogged down them.
We pushed open the outer door to the parking lot. Warm evening air rolled on the breeze. A few birds chirped from the tall trees lining the back of the lot.
Mica raised her eyebrows. “Why do I get a feeling that what you’re going to tell me isn’t anything good?” She grinned.
I laughed. Without a doubt, I knew I’d picked the best partner in crime.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Mica wasn’t entirely convinced that my plan was a good one, but she did promise to not run back to our family to tell them . . . within reason.
“If I actually think harm is going to come to you, sorry, Lena, but I’m going to spill the beans. I can’t let you get hurt.” She drove through the residential streets toward Aaron’s home.
I quickly nodded as we turned down the street that Aaron lived on. “I totally understand that, but honestly, Mica, you know what I’m capable of. Aaron won’t get the upper hand.”
“I know, which is the only reason I’m willing to help you.” An excited gleam entered her eyes when she pulled up to the curb. “I’d love to be there to watch when you unleash your power on him.”
I smiled and unclicked my seat belt. “That would be pretty cool, but I have to do this alone. If you’re with me, he’ll probably be less likely to attack.”
Mica sighed wistfully as I opened my door. “I know, but I can still daydream about it.”
“So you remember the plan?”
She nodded, her face turning serious. “Yeah. You’re going to stroll up to his house in hopes that he’s home. From there, you’re going to ask him to let you in, and then you’re going to confront him. With any luck, he’ll try to attack you. You let him go just far enough so there’s evidence that he actually tried to hurt you. From there, you’ll blast him with an energy ball, which will knock him unconscious, and then you’ll call the police. They’ll arrive and see a young woman in distress after a man tried to assault her, and they’ll arrest him. With any luck, they can link his DNA to the various crime sites from the previous attacks, and voila! We have our serial attacker in prison for the foreseeable future.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
I was about to step out of the vehicle when her hand shot out and grabbed me. “Lena? What if it doesn’t go to plan?”
I debated how to answer her. “If I couldn’t control energy, I wouldn’t trust this plan, either. But I can. I can stop Aaron in a second if I want to, and this plan will also prevent him from running. You heard Luke. It sounded like Aaron was packing up, and if he leaves now, he’ll just go somewhere new and attack women all over again. I can’t let that happen.”
Mica nodded tightly. “Okay, but if I see anything that makes me think you’re in trouble, I’m calling the cops and our family. Got it?”
“Yeah, please do, but don’t worry. I got this.”
She grimaced before squeezing me one last time. “Famous last words.”
I laughed hollowly and closed the door, hoping she was wrong.
My feet tapped on the sidewalk as I walked toward Aaron’s house. Streetlights clicked on as I passed them. The evening was truly growing dark.
Sweat lined my palms, and I rubbed them on my thighs. While the plan in my mind seemed sound, Mica had a point. If something went wrong, this could go drastically south in no time.
I chewed my lip as I pondered what could happen. I didn’t want to think about what Aaron could do if he did get the upper hand. Assaults didn’t take long to occur. The police might not arrive in time if that happened. And if Flint found out Aaron assaulted me, he’d go crazy and potentially expose his powers in a rage.
I swallowed tightly. I won’t let that happen. I’ll use my power and keep the situation under control. This will be fine as long as I keep my cool.
With that thought firmly in place, I picked up my pace. I reached his house a minute later. A light illuminated the living room. Hopefully, he’s still here.
I stepped up to the front door on the concrete porch. Aaron’s home was surprisingly large and well maintained. Beautiful rose bushes lined the flower beds below the front window off to the right, and the siding looked freshly painted. A few feet from the front door, a lounge chair sat on the porch. A small table with an ashtray was next to it. Several cigarette butts were squished into it.
Weird. I don’t remember Aaron being a smoker.
Pushing that thought aside, I lifted my hand and knocked on the front door.
Silence came from the other side.
I lifted my hand again and knocked with more vigor.
Nothing.
I then hit the doorbell. A singsong tone came from within just as a sinking feeling started in the pit of my stomach. Did he already leave?
But then footsteps sounded on the other side, and the door opened.
Aaron’s frame dominated the doorway. My vision switched of its own accord. His ugly, writhing black cloud swirled around his shoulders. I remembered it so clearly now. At times, it resembled a slick eel that slithered and slunk around his skull. Sometimes it was like a tidal wave that roared over him as if it might pound its victim at any moment.
He opened the door wider and smiled. Behind him were stacks of bags and a few boxes. Luke had been right. Apparently, Aaron was planning to head out of town.
I got here just in time!
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” He stepped to the side to allow me in. “Would you like to come in?” He leered.
I balled my hands into fists and shoved them into my jacket pockets. As I stepped into his house, the first thing I registered was the scent of cigarette smoke—that and the expensive furniture and university pictures hanging on the wall. So Aaron’s a student? But this place seemed too expensive for a student to afford, although Aaron did have working knowledge of the campus. He had to be a student or someone that worked at the university. Regardless, I didn’t have time to wonder. Nervous energy swirled inside me when he closed the door behind me.
The sound of a bolt sliding into place came next.
Reminding myself that I was stronger than him and not trapped, I turned to face him. “I know you’re the man assaulting women on campus.”
His cocky smile faltered before he hid it behind a sardonic smile. “That’s quite an accusation to make.”
I took a sudden step toward him.
He stumbled back a step before righting himself. Fury flashed in his gaze. I could tell he didn’t like how I’d taken the upper hand. Before, I’d always run from him, but a lot had changed since we’d last met.
“I know you’ve been following Abigail Jonas. I know you intended for her to be your next victim. And I know what you’re capable of. All of us know that you tried to attack me two years ago on Pete and Val’s ranch.”
He put his hands on his hips and stepped
forward. A flash of surprise crossed his eyes when I didn’t retreat, but again, he quickly covered it.
When we were standing toe to toe, he looked down at me. “You have no proof of that.”
“I may not have proof, but we did tell the police about it. There’s a record of it in Little Raven’s Police Department.”
He laughed. “Do you think that really matters?”
I curled my fingers into my palms and forced myself to remain calm. More than anything, I wanted to wipe that smirk off his face, but I needed to maintain my cool. If he didn’t attack me, I had no way of proving that he assaulted women.
I needed him to come at me. Without that, the police would never arrest him. Instead, I would be the one harassing him by coming to his house and confronting him like this.
“It must kill you that I got away.”
His nostrils flared.
“All alone in the mountains with just little old me, and you still couldn’t catch me. How did that make you feel when I escaped?”
Something flashed in his eyes, something dark and malevolent. “But now you’re here. And you’re ripe for the picking.”
He took a step forward, forcing me back, but there was still a room to my side. I wasn’t cornered as his cloud grew and pulsed in a way that I knew meant he was going to act now.
I pulled the energy from all around me, calling on the animal and plant life forces from outside. Within a second, I had a huge energy ball, ready to do my bidding. “I don’t think so. You won’t have the upper hand this—”
My words cut off as I felt the presence of another energy filling the room. I spun around just in time to see a bat coming down on my head. And the hands that gripped the bat created a shock in me so great that my power vanished.
Professor Dillinger!
My teacher’s face registered in my mind before everything went black.
CHAPTER TWELVE
My body shifted, moving and swaying as a pounding headache pummeled my mind. Something rolled into me. Groggily, I opened my eyes.
A large wad of something filled my mouth. “What the . . .” I tried to say the words out loud but couldn’t.
My eyes flew open. I can’t breathe!
Darkness surrounded me as I frantically tried to clear my mouth of whatever filled it, but my hands were pinned. My breathing increased as the sickening taste of dirty cotton coated my mouth. Something’s in my mouth! And my mouth is taped closed!
When I kicked out, my feet encountered a hard panel, and I realized my legs were restrained in addition to my arms. Fighting, I tried to free my arms from behind my back, but something hard and thin cut into my wrists. What’s happening?
And then it all came crashing back. Memories returned like bullets from a machine gun.
Aaron. Professor Dillinger. The bat.
They bound and gagged me!
My head swam. Blackness threatened to descend again. I forced myself to take slower and deeper breaths since I was hyperventilating, but that was hard around the gag.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Okay, stay calm. Figure this out!
The shifting and moving were the biggest indicators of my location. But the thin line of light coming in through the cramped space, the muffled voices to my left, and the road noise made it very apparent I was tied up in the back of a trunk.
Crap!
The memory of turning to see my professor lifting the bat surfaced again. He’d hit me over the head. No wonder I had a pounding headache and my head felt tender. I probably had a goose egg the size of Staten Island on my scalp.
So Professor Dillinger and Aaron are working together? But how can that be?
I closed my eyes and tried to listen to their words. I recognized the muffled, nasal cadence of my slimy teacher’s voice from the front of the car. He was talking to Aaron. But between the jostles, dips, and road noise, I could barely hear them.
Listen harder!
I closed my eyes and concentrated.
“. . . is going too far, Aaron.” Professor Dillinger’s voice was lined with anxiety. “I never agreed to something like this. We’ve kidnapped her!”
Aaron must have replied, but I couldn’t hear him. The next words came from my professor.
“. . . raping someone isn’t killing them. We can’t—”
“The bitch deserves to die!” Aaron snarled.
My heart pounded, and I struggled to breathe. I’d definitely heard that.
I was in deep shit—really, really deep shit. Flint was going to kill me. I laughed hysterically around the gag. Unless Aaron kills me first.
“Aaron, think about it. This is different from the stuff we did as kids, the stuff we’ve been doing lately!” My professor’s voice grew stronger. “If a woman tried to say we’d raped her, we could deny it, and without proof, the law can’t do anything to us, but murder, Aaron? This is a new one, even for you.”
“Losing your nerve already, brother?”
Brother? Professor Dillinger is Aaron’s brother?
My chest rose and fell so quickly that I had to make myself slow it down. I pictured my teacher. He also had dark hair and a stocky build. He had to be at least ten years older than Aaron, maybe even fifteen, but it was possible they were related.
I groaned and wanted to kick the trunk again but knew that would alert them to me being awake. My actions were so stupid. I should never have confronted Aaron. Flint had been right, and now I was going to die.
No! You’re not going to die, Lena. Stay calm. You’re strong. Use your power!
I welled up the energy inside me and then pulled the energy from my cloud along with Aaron’s cloud and my professor’s. I just needed to get my wrists and ankles worked free. And getting this damned duct tape off my face along with the gag in my mouth would be nice too. Dry cotton sat on my tongue. It tasted like an old sweaty handkerchief. Yuck!
Using my ability, I wielded the energy around my back to the restraints. My cloud felt along it. The sensations transferred to my mind.
I groaned. They’d used zip ties on my wrists! Those were nearly impossible to break unless I had a sharp object.
I didn’t have time to figure it out, though. The car slowed and pulled over. The sound of gravel under tires came next. That wasn’t good. If we were on a gravel road, that meant we were somewhere remote.
Lena, think your way out of this! You can still form energy balls even if you can’t get the zip ties off.
That meant I could still blast Aaron and my professor. They still wouldn’t be able to reach me if I kept them at bay. I could knock them out so they wouldn’t be a threat.
I would just have to hold them off until help arrived. Oh, please, Mica, tell me you’ve called the cops!
The car stopped, bringing with it the sound of squeaking brakes. More arguing came from the front of the car.
“Aaron, we can’t do this. We can’t kill her!” Professor Dillinger’s muffled voice sounded frantic.
“If you can’t do it, then stay in the car. I’ll take care of her after I’ve had a little fun. It’s something I should have finished long ago.”
The fear that had been building inside of me gave way to anger. What a sick bastard!
A car door opened and slammed. Footsteps sounded outside. I closed my eyes and pretended to still be unconscious. The more I could take Aaron by surprise, the better.
A pop sounded as Aaron disengaged the trunk’s lock. Cool nighttime air washed across my cheeks when he lifted the lid. He didn’t say anything, but I guessed he was looking at me. Rage built inside me as I called upon the energy from the surrounding plants and animals. From the feel of it, we were in a forest.
You’re not going to win this time!
Aaron’s hands brushed against my cheeks, as if he was going to snake his hand around my neck, just as I slammed the ball into him.
He yelped in pain and flew from the vehicle.
“What the hell?” Another slamming car door sounded from the front. Footsteps came from
the other side. I knew Professor Dillinger had hopped out of the vehicle to investigate.
Even though my teacher had tried to convince Aaron to not kill me, he’d still raised a bat to my head and done all those awful things to my classmates. And who knows what else he’s been doing to help Aaron.
When the professor rounded the back of the car, I had an energy ball ready, but I hesitated. Genuine remorse filled his eyes.
The power around me lessened as my breathing came faster. Maybe he’ll help me.
I struggled again, hoping he’d pull off the gag or loosen the restraints. I pleaded with him with my eyes.
My professor ran a hand through his hair as Aaron got to his feet.
“Watch out. The bitch just kicked me.”
Ha! So Aaron thought my ball was a kick.
I tried as hard as I could to talk through the gag, and when my professor reached down, hope welled up inside me. He reached toward my head.
He’s going to take the gag off!
Stars shone in my head as pain suddenly exploded in my skull.
My professor’s fingers tangled though my hair. He had lifted my head so fast that I hadn’t been able to ready myself when he slammed it back down.
Aaron laughed. “Don’t knock her around too much. I want her awake for this.”
Panic bloomed in my chest at his words. No! My head was still spinning when Aaron appeared at his brother’s side. As they stood next to one another, I could see the resemblance as my vision swam in and out of focus.
“Let’s get her out.” The professor panted. “She’s seen my face now. You’re right. She needs to die.”
My eyes widened at his words. Both men reached for me as panic built up inside me. I called upon the energy, but it was hard. My head still felt so dizzy.
Retribution: The Lost Children World Book 1 Page 10
