by Nicole Fox
Jeremy didn’t hesitate. He unzipped a duffle bag that had been sitting on the floor by the bed. He counted out $25,000 in large bills, then handed the bag to Hunter.
“How long do you think it will take?” Jeremy asked.
“You have no idea where she is?”
Jeremy shook his head.
“Could take a while then. Give me everything you have to go on.”
Jeremy handed him a folder. Inside were photos of Opal and Vanessa. But that was it.
“Only photos?”
“That’s all I have. If I had any idea where they were, I would have gone there myself to get Opal.”
Hunter nodded. “Then I’ll get to work. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.”
Chapter Two
Vanessa
Vanessa took Opal’s hand. She paused in the front of the school and looked around before walking on down the road. She was always checking, always looking, terrified that one of these days, she’d turn and see Jeremy coming after them.
“Mommy, what are you always looking for?” Opal asked.
“Oh, just to make sure I know what’s around us.”
Opal was quiet for a moment, then asked, “Are you looking for Daddy?”
“Sometimes.”
“What would happen if he found us?”
Vanessa squeezed her hand. “I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“But what if it does? What if I mess up and use the wrong name?” Fear shook her little voice.
“It’ll be okay. You can just say you were playing pretend. Or that you have an imaginary friend named Opal.”
“I want to see my old friends, though. When will I be able to play with Eva again?”
“I don’t know, honey. Are there nice kids in your new school?” She hated that she had to take Opal out of her old school. But what choice did she have? They couldn’t stay where they were.
Opal shrugged. “I guess. I don’t know them.”
“You’ll get to know them.” Vanessa stopped on the corner, waited for the light to change, and continued on. “You’ll make lots of new friends.”
“But I can’t tell them about where we used to live?”
“No. Remember what I said. We came from Georgia where we lived with your grandma until she died.”
Opal nodded. “Grandma Hill.”
“Right. And we came here because we wanted to make a new life in a place that didn’t have sad memories.”
“Maybe I could say that I had a doggy!”
“Okay… What kind of dog?”
“Mmm.” Opal tapped her finger to her lips. “A golden lab. Named Goldie.”
“That sounds nice. Where is he now?”
“Well, maybe he ran away.”
“So, a golden lab named Goldie.”
“Or maybe Sadie. I like the name Sadie, too.”
“Well, pick one. When you make things up like that, you don’t want to change it too many times, or you might mix up your lie.”
Opal swung their hands back and forth between them. “Mommy?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“How come it’s not wrong when we lie like this? Because you said lying is always bad, and I should never do it.”
“Right. You should never ever tell me a lie. We have to say these things for now to keep us safe. But you’re right; lying is bad. This is only okay because we have to do it to keep us safe.”
“Okay.”
Opal seemed to accept this, but Vanessa’s stomach tightened. She hated having to constantly coach Opal to lie, to remind her of the story instead of the truth. What sort of a mother encouraged her child to lie and make things up? Even if it was true that they had to do to stay safe. This was no way to parent.
She worried, too, that her constant anxiety would affect Opal somehow. The always looking around, the way she jumped at loud sounds. Would Opal grow up being paranoid like Vanessa was becoming?
She opened the door to their apartment and stopped inside to listen, like she always did. Not that if someone was in the apartment, he would make noise and be heard, but it had become a habit for her now. Opal ran to the kitchen and yanked open the refrigerator door. While she sucked juice from a box, Vanessa stared at the front of the refrigerator.
A flyer printed on bright yellow paper hung there, advertising a local fair. She had initially blown it off. No way could they go to something like that and be out in the public and in the open like that. But maybe Opal needed some normalcy. Something they would have done in their lives before they fled.
“Hey Katrin,” Vanessa said, winking. “What if we check out that fair tonight?”
“Really?” Opal’s eyes grew wide. “Can I wear my tutu?”
“Sure. But you have to do your homework first.”
After dinner, when the homework was done, they got ready to head out. Opal pulled her favorite tutu—a rainbow tulle skirt—over her black leggings.
“What shoes will you wear with an outfit like that?”
“Rain boots!”
Opal ran back to her room and Vanessa slipped into her own bedroom. In her bedside table, she kept a loaded handgun. She slid it into her purse, then gave her pepper spray a shake. Could never be too careful. She’d taken classes on how to use the gun, self defense classes, and had pepper spray stashed in her car, purse, bedroom, and kitchen. If her ex did show up, she had to be ready. It might not be enough. She might not be able to defend herself and protect Opal in the end, but she would do everything she could to try.
She shoved the pepper spray back into her purse and felt it crunch something in the bottom of her bag. She pulled out the wrinkled paper and saw that it was a photo. An older shot of her and Opal and Jeremy. They looked like such happy family in the photo. But Vanessa remembered the fight that had happened right before the photo was snapped. It had all been lies, then, too. Act happy, act perfect, be a good wife, have a pretty little family. They were anything but.
She’d been miserable with Jeremy from the start. He’d been awful to them both. She’d put up with far too much before she finally left. Maybe he loved Opal, though he didn’t act like it, but he’d likely never loved Vanessa. He might not even be capable of love. And that was why they had to leave. It was one thing for him to make her feel unloved, but she wouldn’t let Opal grow up like that. She would make sure Jeremy never saw Opal again. Even if it cost Vanessa her life.
# # #
Hunter made himself more comfortable in the car. Who knew how long of a wait it might be. Across the street sat an apartment building. He didn’t know for sure if this was right building, but it was a start. With so little to go on, he’d had to jump on the first thing that made any sense. He picked up one of the photos that sat beside him on the car seat and studied it again. He wanted to memorize their faces so he’d know without a doubt when he saw them.
After his meeting with Jeremy, Hunter had gone home and scanned in the photos. He’d then used Google to search the images to find matches. Amazing what even the free software could do these days with facial recognition. He’d gotten a match on an elementary school web site, of all places. Maybe it made sense. She would want to stay close to her daughter to watch her, right? The name listed by her photo was Joanna Hill, but he would assume they would be using fake names. You didn’t just kidnap your child and run, then blow it all by using real names. And obviously, Vanessa was smart enough to know that much.
He’d then searched through the rest of the school’s directory and sure enough, there was a match for a little girl with the last name of Hill also. And this Katrin person looked an awful lot like Opal. Her hair had been cut and was styled differently, and Vanessa had apparently bleached her hair blonde, but he was pretty sure it was them.
Using their new names, he was able to find an address. And that was where he sat now. Across from where Joanna and Katrin Hill lived. Sooner or later, they would leave the building and he’d know for sure if it was them.
He stuck another chip in his mouth a
nd stared absently at the building. People came in and out. It was a large building with a lot of apartments. Easy to get lost in. Easy to avoid your neighbors knowing too much about you. And it would be easy for him to get into the building when he needed to.
He waited for almost two hours before he hit a stroke of luck. The building’s door opened and a woman and child stepped out. The child wore a bright skirt and rain boots, and the woman had that same bright blonde hair flowing straight down her back that he’d seen in the photos. It was even longer than he’d thought from the photos. It nearly reached her perfectly rounded bottom. He watched them walk a few feet, but he was sure. It was them.
Hunter got out of the car to follow them. He walked parallel, catching up slowly so it wasn’t obvious that he was following them. He was closing in on them when a sudden loud noise caused him to spin around. I could have been a gunshot, as loud as it was. A car coming down the street had blown a tire. It was squealing along the pavement, swerving out of control.
He kept an eye on the car, watching it move down the road. Then he watched it move toward Opal. Once glance to her position confirmed it. The car was coming right for her.
Without thinking, Hunter dashed across the street. He scooped Opal up and out of the way. Seconds later, the car slammed into a pole that Opal had been walking in front of moments ago. The pole bent around the car and it finally came to a rest, half on the curb, half in the street.
“Katrin!” Vanessa ran over and put her hand on Opal’s back. “Are you okay?”
Opal nodded, her face shocked and scared.
Hunter took a moment to really look at Vanessa. It was definitely her. No doubt about it. The same round, grey eyes, pouty lips, curvy body as he’d seen in the photos. Yet somehow, her beauty hadn’t been conveyed in the photos. She met his eyes and he froze. For that moment, everything around him stood still, even time itself. There was nothing but her eyes. Her beauty made his heart tight and his brain still.
Vanessa broke his gaze and grabbed Opal out of his arms. She cradled her against her chest, then took off running. He watched them for a second before he realized that they were getting away from him.
Chapter Three
Hunter
Hunter stood there, watching them go. Even from behind, Vanessa looked like an angel. He was completely entranced.
Vanessa stopped in front of a black sedan. When she walked around and opened the door to put Opal inside, he snapped out of it. They couldn’t get away now that he’d found them.
Hunter shook his head, waking himself out of his momentary lapse in professionalism. He needed to think about this clearly.
If he got back in his car and chased after her, it would be obvious that he was after her. Instead, he turned and walked slowly to his car. He got in as Vanessa sped away in her car. He waited until it was almost out of sight, then pulled out as cop cars flew down the street, heading toward the scene of the accident. If he didn’t get out now, he’d be stuck in traffic and possibly have to give a statement. With her car barely still in sight, he pressed on the gas to stay close to her without being noticed.
They made one turn, then another. Each time, Hunter was careful to keep several cars between them. Vanessa couldn’t think he was any sort of threat. He had to win Opal’s trust if he wanted to have any chance of getting her away from Vanessa so he could kill his mark and return the child to her father. If all went well, this would be one of his fastest jobs ever.
There was just one problem. This attraction to Vanessa could get in his way. He’d never seen someone so gorgeous in his life. In the photos from Jeremy, he knew she was beautiful. But in person, she was something else. When their eyes met, he felt like he never wanted to look at anything else in his life.
His desire for her was intense, too. He wanted her. As he drove, his mind filled with impure thoughts. He pictured her naked, and pictured all the things he wanted to do to her. He adjusted his pants to make room for his hard-on and followed Vanessa down another road.
He had to get past this. If he allowed himself to want her like this, it could mess up everything. It could get in the way of him doing his job well. And that was unacceptable. He had a perfect track record. Never messed up a job, never came close to getting caught. He wasn’t going to jeopardize his reputation for some horrible woman who beat her child, even if she was drop dead gorgeous. Dead and gorgeous is exactly what she’d be by the time he was done with her.
He needed to stay focused now. Gain the trust of the child. Get her away from Vanessa. Kill Vanessa. It was that simple.
Vanessa turned into the large parking lot of the fair grounds. He pulled in shortly after. This would be a good place to find them and act like it was a coincidence. Maybe not the best place for a hit, but they wouldn’t stay forever. And it’d be packed enough that he could watch them without being noticed. Perfect.
# # #
Vanessa pulled into the parking lot, still feeling shaky. Who was that guy? He came out of nowhere, just in time to save her daughter. And he was gorgeous and daring, self sacrificing enough to give himself like that, to put himself in danger like that. He didn’t know them. Didn’t know anything about them. But he’d stepped in and saved the day, like he was a real hero.
She wanted to believe this sexy man was a hero, that they still existed. But it was hard for her to believe in any good anymore. Especially the good of a man when it came to her and her child. They had been hurt too many times.
“And he just ran across the street—whoosh”—Opal made a swooshing motion with her hand to show how the man had run over to her—“then just boom! Crash, smash!” She smacked her hands together for effect. “That car totally would have squished me.”
“I know. You’ve said that several times now. I’d rather not think about it.”
“Do you think that man was actually”—she dropped her voice to a whisper—“an angel? Like a guardian angel? Maybe that’s how he came out of nowhere.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. I think he was just a very brave man who saved you.”
“He was.”
Opal had been talking about the man since they’d gotten into the car. At first, she’d been shocked. She hadn’t really known what happened, but once Vanessa got her comforted and stopped her tears, she’d been amazed. Then she couldn’t stop talking about it. Vanessa just wanted to forget it all. The man was gone, and they’d never see him again. Opal was safe. It was time to move on and forget it happened.
“Ready to have some fun?” Vanessa asked as she removed her seatbelt.
“Yes! I want cotton candy and to ride the Ferris wheel.”
“We can do all of that.”
They climbed out of the car, and Vanessa took her hand as they walked toward the fair. First, they hit up the rides. Always better to get those out of the way before eating so they didn’t have to worry about upset stomachs.
They rode the Ferris wheel twice, then a ride that spun them in circles while in a little cart. Then it was the swings, then another spinning ride. As they climbed off, Vanessa slightly dizzy, she looked up toward the crowd and, for a moment, thought she saw the man who had saved Opal earlier. She took Opal’s hand and hurried her away from the ride and toward where she’d seen the man.
She wasn’t sure why she wanted to see him again. Maybe to thank him? But when they got to where she thought he’d been, there was no one there that looked like him. Either she’d been seeing things, or he’d gone.
As they walked away toward the next ride, her paranoia started to settle in. Was it the same man? And if so, why was here? Could be following her? What if the reason he seemed to disappear was that he hadn’t wanted to be seen? Maybe when she saw him, he took off so he could keep watching her.
“I want cotton candy now,” Opal said.
They made their way toward the part of the fair where the games and food were. She kept her eyes peeled for the bags of fluffy blue and pink, but instead of finding the sugary treat, she found some
thing else. She paused to look at one food stand and, when she turned to move on, the man was there, smiling.
“Hello again,” he said.
Opal gasped. “Mommy! It’s the angel man.”
Vanessa wished she wouldn’t have called him that. She didn’t want Opal to have some kind of worshipful feelings toward this man she didn’t know.
“Right,” Vanessa said, pressing her lips into a tight smile. “What a coincidence.”
“I’ve seen you before,” he said. “I work just around the corner from your apartment. I was leaving work when that whole thing happened with the car. Crazy, wasn’t it?”
