Watch What Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I’M putting her to bed,” Austin responded to her husband’s words. She had nothing to say right now. She was numb, she could barely feel Grace’s weight in her arms, but she carried her up the stairs, cautiously taking one step at a time, walking mechanically to her daughter’s bedroom.

  “Mommy?” Grace mumbled at her as she lay her down onto the bed.

  “Shh, baby, I’m just tucking you in,” she replied and watched as Grace made incoherent noises before snuggling into her bed. Austin picked up Grace’s doll and tucked her against her daughter’s tiny body. Pulling the sheets up, she raised them to Grace’s shoulders, coving her entirely, before pushing some of her unruly curly hair back.

  The sight of her daughter - brought into the world with an abundance of love and security - sent her into a downward spiral. Withdrawing her hand from Grace, Austin backed up, her palm beginning to skim across the scars up her arm, and she regrettably allowed herself to fall victim to the thought of what Natasha could do to them all.

  Placing a hand over her mouth, Austin closed her eyes and tried in vain to stop her hands from shaking. It had been a long time since she had been driven with this amount of fear and disgust all at once. The first time, she found she regretted how weak and feeble she had become. She didn’t want to be that person again, she wasn’t her.

  “Sunny?” Tyler’s voice penetrated her guarded thoughts and she broke out of her reverie. He had watched her long enough from the doorway. Now he was taking charge.

  “Yeah?” she asked him, turning on the spot so her back was now to Grace’s sleeping body and she was facing her husband. She stood with a raw expression of pure vulnerability that she scolded herself with.

  “You’ve been up here a while,” Tyler commented, and watched Austin’s face fill with shock as she apparently hadn’t noticed. “We will be okay,” he told her, pressing on with the matter at hand. “This is something we can get through.”

  “What if you turn into the zombie they brought home, Ty?” Austin asked him honestly, her tone wavering with an ounce of fear as it settled. “I need to know you’re not going to let this get you in over your head. How can I trust you when you fell apart?”

  “I panicked,” Tyler replied with an apologetic tone. “I panicked at the fact he used you as a weapon against me. I panicked because of what Natasha’s doing. I just panicked. Right now, knowing she’s out there, I don’t feel panicked. I’m not waiting for it to hit, I can prepare for it now. With Robert’s behavior and the things he said, I’m pretty sure he’s involved.”

  “You think he had something to do with it?” Austin gasped in utter horror. The terror solidified when Tyler nodded his response to her. “Well, then if he is, won’t she come back here?”

  “She’s a wanted woman,” Tyler told her, his words hitting her hard. “Her photo will be in every police department in the country. She can’t run forever, Austin.” He stepped towards her, closing the gap as the seriousness of the situation really fell upon them. “If she comes back to town she might as well be handing herself back over,” Tyler finalized and went over to his wife, engulfing her within his embrace and holding onto her tightly. “She’s not stupid.”

  “You’re right,” Austin mumbled against her husband’s chest, and sank against him as she recuperated from the newest shock in her life.

  Drawing in a deep breath, Austin shook the bad omen that had landed on her shoulders and thought about what was more important to her now - her family’s happiness. She wouldn’t subject Grace to the hell Natasha was able to reap, and if she had anything to say about it, Natasha wouldn’t be able to get within reaching distance of Grace.

  “And even if she is that stupid, she’s walking into a totally different town,” Tyler whispered at his wife, keeping her mind clear of any uncertainties. “Now let’s go back down stairs.” He released her from his grip, heading over to Grace to kiss her goodnight before taking his wife’s hand and taking her back to their family.

  Going down the stairs, the pair could distinctively hear a heated conversation going. Everyone trying to decide the best course of action for the situation, each trying to believe their options were the better ones. Austin looked over her shoulder at her husband and rolled her eyes before rushing down the remaining stairs and heading back to their family.

  “Why are we all standing around?” Austin asked, clapping her hands together before rubbing them in anticipation. “Don’t we have another movie to watch before we call it a night?”

  "How are you so calm?" Sienna asked as Austin came back into the room like nothing was wrong.

  Austin shot her sister a sarcastic look and shrugged as she began to speak, "Because I am not allowing that woman to dictate my life. I don't know what she has planned, nor do I want to satisfy her ego by even thinking about it. My life doesn't revolve around Natasha Truman, and it won't. Not today, not tomorrow, not even next week."

  “Well,” Danny perked up from his seat. “I never thought it’d be Austin as the one dishing out sanity.”

  “Bite me,” Austin glowered at him sarcastically. “Look, okay, I am not going to stop my life, and live in panic because she’s out there,” Austin stopped them in their bickering, each of them shocked into silence. “She’s got a massive shock coming to her if she even dare comes near this house.”

  “Austin’s right,” Jane added, taking on her daughter’s calm demeanor. “Natasha is a passing problem. She isn’t going to damage any more of our family. I didn’t raise children to be weak and give up when given a challenge, and I’m more than sure that Tanya didn’t raise weaklings either.”

  “Damn straight,” Tanya agreed with Jane. “Do I think it would be wise for us to carry on life as normal? No, I mean we have to keep our wits about us, but I don’t think we should be tailor making our life to Natasha. I did that once before and I won’t go back to that.”

  “I just want to make sure we’re looking after everyone,” Tyler commented. He wasn’t worried as much as he should be, but he was going to make sure that any threat remained away from them.

  “I’m up for that,” Dean commented, crossing his arms over his chest. “If it means we don’t go out alone until that bitch is caught, then so be it. I think there are enough of us to make sure that happens.”

  “Alice and I are near on identical shifts for this rotation so that’s us together practically all the time,” Tom commented, knowing how he didn’t want the stress of this, and the potentiality of Natasha’s actions, to have a similar outcome as it did for Austin once upon a time. He didn’t know if it was possible to live through that devastation twice in one lifetime.

  “I’m good with that,” Alice agreed. She was admittedly nervous, she had seen the extent of what Natasha’s actions could do, she didn’t want to see those vicious memories come back to haunt them.

  “We need to make sure Gracie is okay,” Austin announced, her voice a little emotionless as she said it. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, and I won’t change my daily routine with Gracie, but Natasha has called her out on paper and to my face. I won’t take chances with my daughter’s life.”

  “Think I was going to let either of you two out of my sights?” Tyler asked her incredulously. “You and she are under lock and key.”

  “Ty, she’s three, Grace is used to routine. You can’t just throw that out and expect her to carry on. She’s a child, she will know something’s wrong,” Austin fought back with him. “I don’t mind one of the guys being with us, hell she’ll love that, but you can’t keep a three year old inside and out of sight.”

  “Aussie’s right,” Nicolas agreed with his daughter. “I can call in and do some hours at home. I can be here while you’re at the station, and when I’m not here, Tyler, your father can or one of the boys. We’ll work with our shifts.”

  “Well then we’re sorted aren’t we?” Austin asked them all, “Now, I say we resume our evening and make the most of it.”

&
nbsp; “I am proud of how well you’re taking this,” Dean commented, having watched his sister just take it all in the stride.

  “I’m left with enough reminders of what Natasha did, but do I sit around and wallow on it?” she asked them, gazing at them for a moment to gauge their responses. “No, I don’t. Do you want to know why?”

  “Why?” A few of them mumbled at her.

  “I don’t because after everything, I got the life I grew up believing in. It shouldn’t have taken what it did for me to get it, but it did, and it only made me stronger. She ran my life once, she played devil’s advocate for me, and I refuse to allow her the opportunity to scare me and terrorize me.” Taking a moment, Austin tried not to become absolutely enraged. “I am not her victim so why the hell are you acting like you are?”

  “Aussie’s right,” Tom stepped in, remembering how Natasha played them all. “She called the shots for too long. She might be out, but if we start running around worrying about her, she’s going to have a better upper hand chance of fooling us than if we were to carry on living a normal life.”

  “Alice is pregnant,” Danny pointed out, stating the obvious for the moment. “The stress isn’t good.”

  Tom rolled his eyes. His inner doctor yelling out at him with every ounce of knowledge he had. “Look, I can look after my own wife, and I’m pretty sure we’ll all be here to look after Austin and Grace because let’s face it, if Natasha is going for anyone first, it’ll be Tyler and Grace.”

  “Eliminating me in the process,” Austin threw in a caste joke, laughing at herself to relieve tension. She laughed even harder when Tyler’s face paled on her and everyone literally stood gawking at her. “Oh come on! I’m joking, but it’d make sense. She’s already told me she’s still in love with our main man and, at the end of the day, Tyler is the main point of all of this. He loved me, therefore Natasha hates me. I love Tyler, am married to him, gave him his first child, it’s just additional ammunition. I’ve even managed to break his heart, abandon him, give him a hell of a lot stress, and he still fought for me. He gave up on her. I am her number one problem.”

  “You seriously did spend too long with Michael and those guys didn’t you? You have like a little inner FBI cop girl in you,” Dean joked, knowing from experiencing chats with the group of people who looked after and loved Austin what their job entailed. He watched Austin nod her head slightly, it might have been nearly four years since she abandoned that life, but she still carried it around with her. “Whatever happens, you are not being eliminated.”

  “Going to make sure of that?” Austin continued to try and make this a joke.

  “Yes,” the answer resonated from around the room silencing her entirely.

  ***

  Later that evening, Austin sat on the edge of hers and Tyler’s massive bed, rubbing moisturizer into her skin. When she hit the scarred part of her shoulder, she slowed her actions. It wasn’t for a moment of self-pity. It was more for her self-preservation.

  “You still scare me when you get too quiet,” Tyler burst into the silence as he came out from the bathroom. He had left her while he brushed his teeth, and when he came out he saw her staring off, rubbing cream robotically into her skin. He watched her drop back to earth and look to him. “Want to talk about it?”

  Austin shook her head nonchalantly, but didn’t want to clam up on him. “I just can’t believe how our lives have turned upside down so quickly. Everything was running smoothly. Everything was perfect.”

  “It still is perfect,” he countered, fighting back at her claim.

  “Sure about that?” she asked him, raising her brow at him with expectation for him to relent. “We have to have you or one of the other men in our family here at all times, the others need someone with them. We’re changing our lives for her again.”

  “It’s temporary,” Tyler stated, knowing that the plan for their imminent future wasn’t going to bode well with Austin. “Life goes on, Austin. Those were practically your own words, so believe in them. Suck it up, accept this minimal change, and let us just fix this mess.”

  “Okay,” Austin replied, allowing her shoulders to slump dramatically. “I just need sleep.”

  “It’s a good idea,” he agreed, pulling the sheets down on his side, matching Austin’s motions. He waited for her to climb in, before he turned the light off on his side, and sat down onto the spongy mattress. Climbing into the bed, Tyler faced his wife, and pulled her close to him. Their heads still on the edges of their own pillows, their eyes soul searching with their other halves, and he took the moment to just relish the quiet.

  “I knew you were worried, but wouldn’t show it,” Tyler admitted, watching the impish look cloud his wife’s face. She was always weakest to him, the easiest book to read when she had a facade on. “I know this must be scary, but you’ve got me.” He shuffled a little closer to her. “I promise to always protect you, Austin,” Tyler murmured softly before pressing his lips to her forehead. “I have no other jobs in life apart from loving you and Gracie, and making sure you’re protected.”

  “And to be Chief Armstrong,” she joked with him, striving for normalcy. She watched him pull a look at her and she giggled at him. “I feel safe right now. I always feel safe in your arms.”

  “Then all is right in the world,” he said and pulled her across the minimal space between them on the mattress, getting her settled against his bare chest. “I love you, Austin Armstrong,” he mumbled against her hair, kissing it gently as he did so.

  “I love you too,” she replied softly, her hand pushing its way up his chest, her hand above his heart.

  Lying there, she listened to her husband’s breathing begin to deepen minute by passing minute. She could tell from the way his arms began slack around her that he was sound asleep, exhausted from the excitement thrown their way, and she closed her eyes to try and will sleep even when she knew it was futile.

  Regardless of what she had said, the facade she had created around herself, Austin didn’t sleep that night. She lay awake, waiting for the tiniest noise to creep through the darkened house alerting her of an intruder.

  Turning onto her side, she watched Tyler sleeping beside her and made a silent vow. After tonight she wouldn’t let herself lose sleep over the likes of Natasha Truman.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “SOMEONE crashed into the van?” Tyler asked as he sat reading over the report, Steve and another of his closest on the team, Matt, sat with him. “Why the hell did they not do a patch up job at the prison infirmary?”

  “According to the nurses at the prison, Natasha got cut quite deep during a brawl, and she was noted as unstable,” Steve commented, sitting forward in his seat. “Apparently, the nurse wasn’t entirely equipped so they thought it best to take her to the closest hospital for necessary treatment.”

  “This just doesn’t add up,” Tyler remarked and huffed, picking the file up from his desk so he could sit back. “What are the chances that there’s a fight she’s involved in, gets badly hurt, and then requested outside medical attention only to be involved in a car wreck on route?”

  “See, that’s what I thought too,” Matt responded, showing the same skepticism. “It’s just not sitting right with me.”

  “And with all the letters,” Steve pointed out, watching Tyler tense up at the comment. “There was more wasn’t there?”

  Tyler lifted his head to look at them and nodded. He ran a hand over his face, allowing the police report to rest in his lap. “She sent one to Austin. Pretty specific if you ask me. The entire thing was insult after insult towards my wife for marrying me and having my child.”

  “She really does have a clear vendetta,” Steve winced as he listened to Tyler. “Personally, I think Austin is by far the better woman, but I’m pretty sure that’s a general consensus in this town.”

  “Have you had any contact with her?” Matt asked, gauging the situation.

  Shaking his head, Tyler sighed. “The closest I’ve been to her s
ince she was sent down is looking through one way glass at her.” He resigned himself to the inevitable fate that was bestowed on them. “She made sure that Austin knew that her life with me is much more than a little short lived.”

  Steve chortled a little. “Woman is literally delusional. If her letters didn’t prove it, that comment did.” He looked directly at Tyler, the mirthful feeling still in him. “Did she really think Austin would give you up without a fight or you’d just willingly walk away?”

  “Mind if I disrupt the brain storming session?” Austin’s voice broke into their chat after a sharp knock on the door resonated out. She smiled as they all turned around to stare at her. “I know you’re discussing Natasha, one of the guy’s out there said so,” she said pointing over her shoulder. “But I really think you need to look less stressed.”

  “It’s our job,” Steve joked lightly.

  “You do your job,” she commented, pausing slightly. “Being a good cop everyday does that. Don’t turn dark and brooding over it.”

  “I thought you liked that,” Tyler remarked, his voice light and teasing.

  Austin laughed a little. “I do, husband of mine, but over the likes of Natasha I don’t agree. Plus, you’ve forgotten one thing,” she observed, giving another short pause before continuing. “Natasha is expecting you all to be on edge, searching for her at every turn. We know how she works. We grew up together remember.”

  “That’s true,” Steve agreed, remembering how self-centered Natasha was. “That girl always did love the attention being on her.”

  “She’d probably love knowing we’ve all sat here discussing her now,” Matt joked, standing up. “Right, I’m going to get back to work. I’ll look into getting a warrant to search her parents’ houses and we’ll get on that soon as they are granted.”

  “I think we should stick someone outside as well just in case.” Steve added, gaining agreement.