Safe

by Rachel Hanna

  Carly did like Aidan. He was debonair and fun and sweet. But, she was about to go off to college and didn’t want to tie herself down to anyone in her small town of Carter’s Creek. She wanted to get out of there and never look back. She simply couldn’t and wouldn’t allow herself to feel those old, familiar feelings she’d had for him when they first met. He was like her brother now, right? Of course, she was attracted to him, but her feelings were just a confused mess at this point.

  “The country club at the golf course is having a dance tonight. I thought you might like to go… with me,” he said softly without looking at her. She couldn’t break his heart like this. She had to go.

  “Sure. Do we dress up?” she asked trying to sound nonchalant.

  “Nothing too fancy. Just dress like you’re going on a… date, I guess,” he stumbled over his words. It was cute, and she was feeling butterflies in her stomach suddenly. She forced herself to stop feeling that way. Nothing could happen between them.

  A few hours later, Aidan arrived to pick her up. He was dressed in a button-down baby blue shirt and black slacks. She wore a red sundress and white sandals.

  After arriving at the country club, Aidan asked Carly to dance. One of her favorite songs, “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton, was playing. As they swayed to the music, she could tell that she was no longer dancing with a friend. He had bigger ideas, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to go that route. At the same time, she could feel the warmth of his body and the comfort of being with him. A mish-mash of emotions fluttered around inside of her head and her heart.

  Being his friend had been more important than being his girlfriend during the last year. She thought that he felt the same… that he wouldn’t want to ruin their amazing friendship just for the chance of having a dating relationship. Apparently, he had other ideas. He had leaned on her for a year while waiting to see his family and friends again. To him, she was like a soft and beautiful life vest that had saved him. She had been his link to his former life, and now he was falling for her.

  “You want to get out of here?” he asked after the song was over.

  “Where do you want to go?” she asked.

  “To the golf course. I hear that you can see a ton of shooting stars out there,” he said pulling her hand and leading her toward the car. Were they dating? This was a date, after all. Why was he holding her hand? Carly’s mind was moving a mile a minute.

  As they walked along the golf course path, it got quieter and quieter. She could feel the anxiety pitting in her stomach. She could feel his tension as he walked with her.

  They both laid down on the grass looking up at the stars. The night sky was pitch black and clear as a bell. Within moments, she saw a shooting star streak across the sky.

  “Make a wish!” Aidan said.

  “A wish?”

  “You are supposed to make a wish when you see a shooting star? Haven’t you ever seen one before?”

  “Actually, I haven’t.”

  “Really? Well, I’m glad you got to see one then,” he whispered. “And I hope your wish comes true.” He smiled at her as he sat up on one elbow. Carly didn’t make a wish because she had no idea what she wanted anymore.

  A little while later, they walked back to the car. Carly was relieved that he hadn’t tried to kiss her, but she was also a little disappointed, much to her dismay. Why didn’t he at least try to kiss her? Was she misreading his actions? Part of her wanted to kiss him to see what it was like. She had certainly wanted to kiss him a million times over the years, but he didn’t seem to be interested in her that way.

  He opened the door to the car for her, and she got in. As he slid behind the steering wheel, he looked at her with eyes that she didn’t recognize. They were eyes filled with desire, and she wanted to find out what was on the other side of that look. That’s when he leaned in and kissed her softly.

  Carly’s mind whirled as she tried to figure out what she felt. His lips felt foreign to her. They had always been the lips of a friend, and now they were pressed against hers. Warm and soft and sweet were words she could use to describe those full lips of his. She didn’t know what to think or do or say. She felt uncomfortable, yet excited, to finally kiss him after years of being “besties”. Her feelings were a confused mess inside of her head and heart. Before she had a chance to decide what she wanted, he was sitting back behind the wheel looking at her and smiling.

  As the next few weeks passed, they continued to hang out when they could, but Carly pulled back. She didn’t kiss him again, and she created a distance between them in her mind. She knew she was leaving for college soon and would have little time to see Aidan. She didn’t want to give him the wrong impression, and she didn’t want to tempt herself to stay in this old world - this old life.

  Carly left for college in late June, excited to start her new life. Her college was just a couple of counties over, but it gave her the new start she desperately wanted. A few weeks into school, she met a guy named Ethan Caine. He was in one of her classes, and he was the smartest man she had ever met. They started talking, and he asked her out. And then Carly did the unthinkable.

  She was so worried about telling Aidan that she was dating someone else that she decided to let him find out on his own. Knowing he would be at their favorite eating place one Friday night, she took her new flame, Ethan, there to eat. Aidan saw her immediately and looked shell shocked. The color drained from his face as he realized that she had moved on without him. Moments later, he left the restaurant with his friend, and she never heard from him again.

  Two years later, she married Ethan. She was only twenty years old, but Ethan represented a whole new life to her. All of the old things were gone. Her heart always felt bad for how she had treated Aidan, but she knew she couldn’t tell him face to face that she didn’t want a relationship. She regarded herself as a coward for the way she handled things. She felt disgusted with herself for throwing away a long friendship the way that she did. But, life goes on. Ethan became her husband and was a good one until a few years ago when it became apparent that he was not who he said he was.

  Chapter 3

  Hours passed as Carly continued to sit in the questioning room. She was growing more irritated by the minute as Detective Cloud tried to work out where she was going and who would guard her. She hoped they would get some Rambo-like character who could make sure that she was safe.

  The thought that her own husband would try to have her killed after a decade of marriage was terrifying to her. How close had she come to dying? Where was the hitman? Would he find the safe house? Carly wondered how quickly the legal system would let her divorce her murdering husband. She hoped that it would be soon because she wanted nothing more to do with his last name.

  “Mrs. Caine,” Detective Cloud said as he returned to the room.

  “Please, either call me Carly or Miss Davenport. I don’t want to be associated with the name Caine ever again,” she said holding up her hand.

  “Fine. Carly… We have worked out the logistics of the safe house and your guard. You will be leaving within the hour.”

  “Don’t I get to go home and get some things? And say goodbye to my friends?” Carly asked with pleading eyes.

  “No. I’m sorry. We will have items at the cabin for you. Clothing, toiletries, food. It is far too dangerous for you to go back to the home that you shared with Ethan. That is the first place that the hitman will look.”

  “Cabin? What cabin?” Carly had imagined some state-of-the-art Fort Knox type of setup when it came to a safe house.

  “You will be in a log cabin in the north Georgia mountains. The set up of the property is such that our team can monitor anyone trying to gain access to you.”

  “I am going to a cabin in the mountains? Are you freaking kidding me?” she asked standing up to show her displeasure. “Is this some redneck witness protection program you are running here, Detective Cloud?”

  “I am not kidding, Carly. This is one of our most sec
luded safe houses. Being that it is two hours from the city, you are a lot more likely to stay safe there. We will have guys outside who will stay in our camper set ups. Then, you will have one guard who will stay near you twenty four hours a day inside the cabin.”

  “I can’t believe this. Ethan is still ruining my life even though he didn’t kill me,” she said sitting back down slowly and putting her head in her hands.

  “This is the best course of action, Carly. We need to keep you safe; you are in grave danger. Besides, our case will go up in flames, and Ethan would stand a good chance of getting off. Is that what you want?” Detective Cloud asked her.

  Carly sat for a moment staring down at her hands. She slowly moved her eyes up to look at Detective Cloud.

  “Of course not. I will do what needs to be done,” she said with hollow eyes.

  As Carly waited for the Detective to come get her to leave for the safe house, she started going back in her mind. Did Ethan ever give her a reason to think he was capable of murder?

  Meeting Ethan Caine had been a whirlwind in her life. Coming from a small town, Carly had never met anyone like him. Originally from New York, Ethan had transferred into Granger College from a school near Manhattan. His family had money, and Carly enjoyed the high life that he was able to provide her.

  Her mother even loved Ethan. Unfortunately, Evelyn had passed away in an auto accident three years after Carly married Ethan. She was happy that her mother got to meet her husband and be at her wedding, but it had become harder to live with Ethan in recent years.

  About five years into her marriage, Ethan started to travel - a lot. He was working in real estate investments all over the world, or so he said. Then, about two years before the murder took place, Ethan started interacting with some seedy characters. Carly tried to stay away from these people, but Ethan was bringing them around the house a lot.

  When she asked who they were and what he was doing, he had become combative and argumentative. They argued a lot about his absence from their marriage, the fact that he no longer wanted to have kids, and her ambivalence about his business dealings.

  They had traveled a lot early in their marriage, but now there were no romantic vacations. His parents no longer came around, but they were most certainly supporting anything their prized only son did in his life. Carly felt trapped and alone in her marriage but was too scared to leave.

  Her only get-away was her work as a marketing executive. She was good at what she did, and her clients loved her. Ethan would get jealous of her success, which was ironic since he was wealthy in his own right. He wanted her at home, taking care of his needs, and not at her corporate job. Many times they had argued over her work, but Carly refused to give up her career.

  As Ethan seemed to pull away from her more and more over the last several weeks, Carly knew something was terribly wrong. She had found him taking money from their accounts, hiding money, and planning trips to places that made no sense. He had no business dealings in Mexico, yet she had uncovered several trips there.

  When she confronted Ethan about her findings, he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He was shocked, but he seemed more irritated at her questioning than anything else.

  “Ethan, I know something is going on. Let me help you get through whatever this is,” she had said to him. His steely blue-green eyes never wavered.

  “Carly, stay out of my business. I’ve told you that a thousand times. This doesn’t involve you,” he had said gritting his teeth. Who was this man? This wasn’t the fun-loving college boy whom she had married.

  “You are my husband, which makes you my business. I love you, Ethan. Don’t you love me anymore?” Carly had asked him as he stared at her with blank eyes.

  “I have to go, Carly. I have work to do,” he said as he walked out the front door, slamming it behind him.

  She knew she shouldn’t have followed him, but she did. In her work as a marketing executive, she had worked with a large surveillance company. Calling on her contacts there, she made a plan to find out exactly what her husband was up to.

  As Carly followed Ethan for weeks, she started to see things she didn’t like. She also monitored his computer using special software. Ethan had no idea that his wife could be so sneaky, and that certainly worked to her advantage.

  Ethan was meeting up with what Carly could only describe as “gangster” looking men in out-of-the-way places and even in alleys. She looked back and noticed how blood shot his eyes were all the time and how on edge he seemed to be. That’s when she realized that he was on drugs of some kind, at the very least.

  Her surveillance uncovered more heinous things, however. It appeared that Ethan was involved in a large drug smuggling ring from Mexico. Carly didn’t know what to do, and she felt like she was trapped in a very dangerous situation. Instead of telling Ethan what she knew, she continued to spy on him.

  On November 3, she decided to follow Ethan to a meeting he had set up. At this point, he was rarely coming home and didn’t speak to her anymore. She even got so desperate as to reach out to his parents, only telling them that she was concerned he was on drugs. His mother flipped and his father was furious with her for saying things about his son. Carly knew she wouldn’t get any help from them and that she was in it on her own.

  Not wanting to put anyone she loved in danger, Carly didn’t even tell Zinnia about her marriage issues. She simply smiled and said that things were great when anyone asked.

  As Carly followed Ethan, she noticed that he went into an abandoned building close to downtown Atlanta. She got out of her car and hid behind a half concrete wall near a window. She slid between some old crates and wooden pallets that were stacked outside so that she would be better camouflaged.

  Two men were with Ethan inside of the darkened room. They were obviously upset about something, and they were arguing. Ethan was trying to convince them that the money they wanted was coming, but they were pushing him about it. Suddenly, Ethan pulled out a gun and pointed it at the men. Carly realized that one of the men was actually working for Ethan when he then turned on the other man.

  Carly looked closer to see if she recognized either of the two men. She recognized the one Ethan was pointing the gun at as David Sims, a prominent politician from the area. Seconds later, she heard the gunshot as Ethan shot Sims in the chest. She jumped at the sound, which caused her to knock the pallets over. Ethan turned to the window when he heard the noise, and their eyes met. The fury and rage in his eyes was overwhelming, and Carly took off running as fast as she could.

  Panting as she ran, her heart felt like it might burst out of her chest. She was certain that Ethan was following her, but she had no idea how far behind he might be. When she came to a chain link fence surrounding the industrial property, she had nowhere to go but up. She knew that would give Ethan a good shot at her, so she looked around for another option. That’s when she noticed the drainage pipe running under the fence and leading out to the main road.

  Without thinking, Carly ran down into the large tunnel. Filled with muck and mire runoff from the industrial complex, her shoes became saturated with liquid. She ran for what seemed like hours - but was only minutes - until she reached the main road. The police precinct was only a quarter mile away, and she knew that she had to get there to be safe.

  As she ran into the precinct, she was panic-stricken. She explained that she had just witnessed a murder and that the murderer was likely chasing her, so they immediately put her with Detective Cloud. Within hours, officers had arrested Ethan as he was preparing to board an airplane to Mexico. All of her investigations had paid off. Otherwise, the police would not have known where he was heading.

  Accompanied by detectives, Carly went home to retrieve her evidence. About an hour later, they took her back to the station for more questioning. That’s when the officers uncovered Ethan’s plan to get rid of her too.

  “Carly?” Detective Cloud interrupted her thoughts.

  “Yes?”


  “We are ready to go to the safe house now.”

  With that, Carly stood up to prepare for this new chapter in her life with a stranger in a cabin in the mountains. She figured that any stranger would be a better proposition than meeting up with a hitman ready to kill her.

  Chapter 4

  As Carly sat in the unmarked car with Detective Cloud and another officer, she couldn’t help but worry about what it would be like living with a strange man in the mountains. What if he was a jerk? Or a nutcase himself? Had they thoroughly checked this guy out?

  “Detective Cloud?” Carly asked.

  “Yes?” he responded looking back at her from the passenger seat.

  “How much do we know about this guard that will be living with me? I mean, how do I know if he is even a good guy?”

  “Carly, he comes highly recommended through the FBI. I think they checked him out pretty well,” Detective Cloud said with a chuckle.