by A. J. Downey
“Started a little under a year into our marriage. We’ve been together for ten years, so… about eight?” she looked horrified.
“Eight years!?” she asked aghast.
“It wasn’t all bad.” I tried, “It’s not like it was a beating every time I misbehaved. Sometimes I was just locked in our room or…” Hayden looked aghast.
“Ashton! Do you hear yourself?” she asked horrified and I stopped. I thought about it, really thought about it and tears rushed to the surface.
“Oh! Don’t cry! I didn’t mean to make you cry! It’s just nobody deserves to live like that. You treat your dog like that not a person… Hell you don’t even treat your dog that way! Bad analogy, but I think you know what I’m saying.” She looked distressed.
“I guess I try not to think about it too much. I always told myself I could do better, that I would be better but things just kept getting worse. Pretty soon I was being punished for things I hadn’t even done wrong!” I sobbed.
“Like what?” she asked brow wrinkling in confusion.
“One time, he called to say he would be home late so I delayed making dinner so it wouldn’t be cold… he came home on time and took the switch to me for not having his dinner ready when he came home.” I sniffed.
“Jesus!” she crowed, “I’m glad the boys called me, I think you need this.” She rubbed a hand up and down my arm.
“When did Ethan call you?” I asked.
“He didn’t, this was Reaver’s idea. Reaver called me, explained some of what happened and said you needed a place to hide. He explained it could be dangerous but I didn’t care. I wanted to help.” She shrugged a shoulder.
“Why?” I asked softly.
“I come from money, that’s no secret.” She waved a hand as if to use her opulent townhome as an example.
“My dad is an oil tycoon and knows how to make money, except he uses his power and money for good. He didn’t raise an overly sheltered fool for a daughter. I know the warning signs when money and power go straight to a man’s head. Sounds like your hubby has both in spades.” I snorted.
“Courtesy of his daddy.” I said derisively, “Which I don’t get. Chadwick’s dad was a good man.” I twisted my lips.
“What about his mom?” Hayden asked softly.
“She was a piece of work, just like her son.” I huffed a sigh.
“That explains it then.” She said, then asked, “What happened to them?”
“His dad’s sailboat disappeared in stormy weather, presumed to have gone down last year. His mom was an alcoholic and her liver gave out about five years ago. His grandparents are all gone, we have no kids… He’s sort of on his own.” I shrugged.
“Well he had you… He’s a damn fool.” She said succinctly.
“I miss Ethan.” I said and wiped my tears out from under my eyes with my hand. She smiled.
“Tell me about him… What did you guys do last weekend?” she asked and I smiled a real smile then. Lake run. I had a lot to tell her.
We talked until I could barely keep my eyes open, I fell asleep in the plush and comfortable bed and when I woke it was alone, in the dark. The sounds of running water and the clattering of dishes wafting up to me from down stairs.
I got up stiffly and carefully and padded down to the kitchen. Hayden was at the sink rinsing plates and pans and stacking them in her dishwasher. Loyal was nowhere to be seen. Hayden turned and smiled and slid a plate across the counter at me. It was saran wrapped but the food inside looked fantastic. I was starving.
I sat down at the counter on one of the tall stools and she poured me a glass of sweet tea from her refrigerator.
“Where’s Loyal?” I asked.
“Asleep on the couch. Food coma.” She smiled and looked pleased with herself. I peeled the plastic from the plate and she whisked it into the microwave, setting out a napkin and silverware in front of me. The microwave chimed and a steaming plate of Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes and gravy was set in front of me. There was even a side of asparagus. I smiled and tried it.
“Mmm this is good.” I declared and it was. Comfort food at its finest.
“Thanks! Donisha, my daddy’s cook, taught me. I spent a lot of time in her kitchen growing up. My mom wasn’t much of a cook or baker.” She grinned. I didn’t reply, I was too busy feeding my growling stomach.
“How are you feeling?” she asked when I had paused in my eating.
“Better.” I was surprised that it was true. I had slept like the dead and for a long time and now I was wide awake.
“What time is it anyways?” I asked.
“A little after nine.” She smiled.
“Oh.”
“Not tired?” she asked.
“Not anymore, feels like the first time I’ve really been awake in a while.” I answered.
“That will probably be short lived. You still have a lot of healing to do. How about a movie or two?” she asked and I smiled.
“Sounds good.” I slipped off the stool as she took my empty plate. She rinsed it and added it to the dishwasher.
“I’ll meet you in the living room.” She smiled and I went back to the chaise lounge and sat down. Loyal was out cold on the couch. I smiled, got up and covered him with the throw artfully draped on the back of the thick leather sofa. He didn’t stir.
I sat down and put my feet up. Hayden returned in a matching pajama set with some pillows and blankets. I laughed a little. She tossed them down on the floor by the lounge and handed me a blanket to snuggle down with. She put on Phantom of the Opera and sat down next to me. We kept the volume to a dull roar on account of the sleeping Loyal and before we knew it, Phantom turned into Les MIs and Les Mis into a movie I’d never seen before called Pitch Perfect which I absolutely adored.
“Don’t you need sleep?” I asked Hayden gently as she went to put on Fried Green Tomatoes.
“Only have one appointment, tomorrow afternoon. The rest of my work I can do from home on my laptop.” She confided.
“Besides, this is way too much fun.” She said in a conspiratorial whisper.
“Maybe for you two but honestly you just convinced me that I am never having a girl. Woman comes to me and says she’s pregnant, okay. Girl pops out I’ma be like ‘you better put that back!’ Nuh uh. Not happening. Not now, not ever, no girls.” Derek’s sleepy tirade from the couch had us both dissolving into a fit of giggles. Which hurt but was worth it. Hayden got me a pain pill and we watched Fried Green Tomatoes and by the end, I was ready for sleep again.
I returned downstairs but Loyal was gone, in his place was a thin older club member with a scraggly beard and rotten teeth. His blue eyes were getting a touch milky with age but he looked like he knew his way around the revolver sticking out of the front of his waistband.
“Who’re you?” I asked sleepily, rubbing my eyes.
“Go by Gypsy. I work at the garage with our VP. Nice to meet ’cha.” He said and looked me up and down. I recognized him from the lake run but we’d never been formally introduced. He took a drink of coffee out of the mug in front of him and I smiled.
“Nice to meet you too.”
“Got a gracious hostess.” He remarked and Hayden came in from the garage in some yoga gear. She smiled at me.
“Didn’t want to deviate from the routine like Reaver said. Went to yoga.” She set a briefcase on the dining table and said, “Be right back, let me shower. Make yourself at home!” She went up the stairs two at a time.
I slipped onto the stool next to Gypsy. He was a man of few words but at the same time a pleasant conversationalist just the same. Hayden returned and when she did I had sandwiches waiting along with fresh vegetables sticked into finger food. She smiled and said thanks. We all ate together.
“When did Derek leave?” I asked.
“About ten when I got here.” Gypsy explained, “She set me up with some coffee before she dashed out the door for some yogurt.” He looked perplexed and Hayden and I laughed.
�
��Yoga.” We said in unison.
“Well whatever the Hell damned thing it is.” He said and smiled showing all three of his brown and broken teeth.
“Well! I have some work to do, a meeting in about two hours and then I’ll be home.” Hayden said. I nodded.
“Then you have a date with a pedicure, I’m giving you one. You need to relax! You have worry written all over your face.” She smiled and I could tell I was at her mercy.
Hayden Michaels was a force to be reckoned with and a whirlwind of positive energy. Truth be told, I was worried and her personality was just the thing I needed while I continued this awful waiting.
I missed Ethan so much and I was so afraid not only for him, but the others as well. I would be glad when this was over. I closed my eyes and did something I didn’t often do anymore. I prayed.
Please God, let it be over soon and let them all come safely back to me.
Amen.
Chapter 29
Trig…
I woke from one of my nightmares midafternoon, maybe early evening. I sat up on the old cot set up in the corner of the warehouse and looked over. Reaver, Dragon and Dray were leaned over drawings we’d made from memory of the floor plan of the house. At least I’d been quiet.
“I think we know how we’re going to do it.” Reaver said when I approached.
“Yeah how’s that?” I asked.
“We need Ashton to be surprised, so I think you’re on track with the whole suicide thing.” He said judiciously, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
“We just need to make this shit believable.” Dragon grunted.
“Any ideas how we’re going to do that? Chadwick Granger ain’t the type to off himself and I think the world knows that.” I said. Dray snorted.
“World didn’t think he was the type to beat his wife either but we proved that.” He crossed his arms. Reaver snapped his fingers and held his arms out like a magician revealing the results of his finest trick.
“I got it.” He said.
“What?” We three asked in unison. Data came in from the outside, zipping up from taking a piss.
“People with a drug habit do some funny ass things. I’ll shoot him up enough to put him out of it and we’ll finish him off suicide style.” He drew his index finger along the inside of his forearms wrist to elbow.
“He’s not going to hold still while you shoot him up.” Dray said dubiously.
“Which is why you’re going to hold him the fuck down for me genius.” Reaver said grinning.
“I should go in with you.” Dragon said.
“No. I want to do it.” Dray said hastily. “I need to atone for what I did to Ashton.” We all exchanged looks and settled on the healing bruises on his face, bruises that I’d put there.
“Son, I don’t think you want to atone for it this way. You’ll just be covering a gray mark on your soul with a much blacker one.” Dragon’s dark eyes were sorrowful and Dray met it with an obsidian look of his own. Dray jerked his head to the corner and he and his dad went off. Reaver Data and I exchanged looks and shrugged. They came back a time later and Dragon looked both unhappy and resigned.
“Dray’s going in with you.” He said and then went on with, “I’ll be on the ground giving you a distraction so you can get out. Trigger will be behind his scope in case shit goes sideways, providing you cover.”
“How we getting you in?” I asked, was it just me or had we skipped that?
“We’re going in during the day using all the codes to disable and reset alarms. We’re going to hide in the fucker’s own panic room. He’d never think to look there. There’s no security in the house after hours, just posted outside. When he’s out we’ll do what needs doing, Dragon will provide a distraction luring security to the front of the house. We go out the back.”
“That’s actually pretty sound.” I said impressed.
“Cool, let’s roll.” Reaver grinned entirely too excited to end this piece of shit.
“Let’s roll.” Dragon agreed.
Yeah.
An hour later I was coming up on Loyal, combat crawling my way to our ledge.
“Hey.” He said.
“Got eyes on Reaver and Dray?” I asked.
“Naw man. Wait… Affirmative, there they are Sir.” He said and I switched him places taking up at the rifle while he spotted for me.
“What did I tell you about that ‘Sir’ shit?” I grunted.
“Sorry. Habit.” He grunted back.
I chuckled. Reaver and Dray were in coveralls with tool bags in hand. They were going in as exterminators.
“Reaver is a fucking riot man.” I said.
“Exterminators? Really?” Derek asked.
“He does love a sense of irony.” I commented.
“So what’s the plan?” he asked me and I quietly filled him in.
“Ballsy.” He said.
“Yup.” I grunted. We watched and waited but nothing… all quiet. Two hours later the man of the house came home. Security settled at their posts. The evening wore on, then night fell, the clouds rolled in, threatening rain. I got nervous. Rain meant mud. Mud meant footprints. Something traceable.
The light turned on in the bedroom. Chadwick pulled back the sheets and got into bed in his monogrammed pajama set and I wanted so badly to pull the fucking trigger and splatter his brains all over his expensive, likely, Egyptian cotton sheet set. More time crept by. One hour, two, a light sprinkle damped our backs as we continued to watch. Another hour, then two and then a shadow passed across the bedroom window.
“Show time.” I muttered. I could tell a struggle by the violent movement and nervously I scoped out the security men around the outside of the house. They didn’t even stir. Good.
The bathroom light clicked on and the door shut muting it. A security man looked up but paid it no never mind and I let out a slow controlled breath. I had never been so damned nervous looking through my scope before. Never. Not even when we’d been over in the sand trap with hostiles every which direction around us.
Then it had been all business but this, this was personal on so many different levels. We waited, and waited and waited some more. I swallowed hard and we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, two shadows slipped through the room and out of sight. Shouts carried over the houses and the security men out back whirled toward the front.
“Come on come on!” I muttered. They took off running for the front and I felt a surge of adrenaline.
The back door opened and shut and two figures darted low across the back garden for the fence line. They made it up and over and disappeared without a trace.
Fucking flawless.
“Shit, is that it?” Derek asked.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I waited. It buzzed again a minute count later. I waited and it buzzed a third time. I waited. Nothing else. I didn’t dare pull it out of my pocket. The light would be a beacon with how dark the night and give away or position.
“That’s it.” I intoned.
“Burn in fucking Hell you happy bastard.” Derek uttered and I smiled a cold, cold soulless smile.
“Hoo-rah.” I said and we packed it in. Crawling back from the precipice of the bluff and melting into the tree line.
Dragon picked us up. Dray and Reaver were on their own and showed up before we did back at the rendezvous point.
“We got alibis?” I asked.
“Yep, all out on a run together, we are each other’s alibis. Add to that we all have room charges on our credit cards for San Antonio and a bunch of bikers in Sacred Heart’s colors vaguely matching our descriptions stayed there tonight, well, we hole up here until day after tomorrow and we’re golden.” Dragon said.
“Thank you San Antonio chapter.” Dray said but his usual boyish grin was watered down.
“Doin’ all right son?” Dragon asked quietly.
“Nope.” Was his only reply but the look he gave us said plenty that he just wanted to be left alone to make his own peace with what he’d done in
that house. Reaver was like he always was after a kill. Uncharacteristically quiet. Somber. The most at peace you’d ever see him. His eyes met mine and the predator in him slid behind his bright, icy blue eyes. Yeah his inner demon was satiated for now.
“You make sure?” Data asked and Reaver turned that disquieting gaze on our tech junkie. Data held up his hands and stepped away, going back to his PC.
“I better go relieve Gypsy.” Derek said and we clasped hands and pulled ourselves into each other for a burly hug.
“Take care of my girl.” I said quietly.
“Your girl and her friend are happier ‘n pigs in shit and up to their eyeballs in girly ass movies. I had to try and sleep through three musicals and a tearjerker last night.” He fumed.
“Liar. You fucking watched ‘em!” Reaver said, a grin peeking through.
“How do you fuckin’ know? Were you there?” Loyal demanded.
“Don’t need to be,” he stated, then asked, “How else would you know they were three musicals and a tearjerker if you didn’t?”
Derek looked like he sucked on a lemon and flipped Reaver the bird. Chuckles and outright laughter swept the room. Hell, if they made Ashton happy I would have watched them, but you’d never catch me admitting it to these jerk offs.
“Go take care of my girl D.” I said and he nodded.
“Sir, yes, Sir.” He said and I pinned him with a look.
“Fucking knock it off!” I said and he smiled.
I waved him off, a table was cleared, chairs put around it and a round of cards started while Data monitored the news outlets and police scanners for the fall out. We wouldn’t know if foul play was suspected otherwise. Now it was just one big giant waiting game.
The news broke late the next morning. I texted Ashton’s burner.
Turn on the news.
She came back a few minutes later with…
OMG
I smiled.
We’ll be in San Antonio until tomorrow. It will take us at least another day to come home. Day after tomorrow baby.
I sent her, hoping she would understand.
I understand.
She sent back and I smiled. That was my girl. My regular phone buzzed in my pocket and I frowned I looked at it.
