by JL Long
I slam my fist against the brick wall outside the police station, listening to the same stories over and over again.
“We don’t have anything.”
“She’s in the wind.”
“We’ll get her.”
I’m done fucking waiting around.
I’m done seeing the fear in my wife’s eyes.
I’m done lying to my daughter that everything is okay.
None of this is okay.
None of this should be happening.
The fact that we have to watch our every move is the fucking worst. We can’t live our lives peacefully. Even more is the fact that on my daughter’s birthday, she is woken up by her father yelling at her mother. It should have never happened. I shouldn’t have lost my cool, but if Aria hadn’t created this burden, I would have been in bed with my wife while our daughter slept in a high from the best birthday party she’d ever had.
We have to adjust our lives. It’s goddamn time Aria starts adjusting hers. This shit is getting fucking ridiculous.
“Lawson, you gotta calm down and stay focused.”
I jerk my head back to the sheriff standing in front of me. “Stay focused?” I repeat. “That’s all I am, John.”
“We’ll get—”
"Don't fucking tell me you'll get her. It's been goddamn weeks, and you haven't gotten anything more than you had before.”
“We aren’t equipped for these kinds of situations.”
“No? Then call in someone who is.”
“Now—”
I lift my hand, stopping him from uttering another word. “Call me when you actually have something.”
Once I’m back in my truck, I pull my phone out of my pocket and bring up Benny’s contact. He answers after the first ring.
“Yo.”
“She fucking hit our house again last night.”
“Fuck,” he growls into the phone.
“You got anything on her?”
“Yeah, I got the place she’s crashing at. Just about to call you. I got a couple guys who are gonna go in with me.”
“I want to be there,” I clip.
“Not sure that’s a good idea, man.”
I will fucking be there. I will be the man who takes this vile human being down. I may not be trained in shit like this, but I’m not stupid. I know how to use a gun. I know how to protect myself.
“I don’t care if it’s a good idea or not. When are you going in?”
He mutters a few curse words, then replies, “Dark. You gonna tell Selena about this?”
“Fuck no.”
More muttered curse words.
“We meet up and go in together, yeah?”
“Yeah. I gotta get back to Lena. Text me when you’re ready.”
He confirms, and we disconnect.
I put the truck in reverse and head back to my family with a vengeance I've never felt before running through my veins.
“I think we need to talk.”
“About what?” I ask Selena.
Since last night, we haven’t had a moment with just me and her. I knew this was coming. There are some things I haven't been clear on with her, and she's waited long enough for those answers.
“Well, for starters, you can explain to me why you didn’t tell me you had a gun.” I set the wrench down and turn to look at her standing in the door of the garage.
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you worrying.”
Shitty excuse, yeah. But the only one she’s going to get.
“Don’t do this, Law. Don’t shut down on me now.”
I spin the stool around so I am facing her completely. “I’m not doing shit, Lena. I’m fucking protecting what is mine. I’m doing that in whatever way I see fit.”
She jerks her head up slightly in confirmation and crosses her arms over her chest in defiance.
“Okay, then tell me what really happened last night.”
“I already told you.”
She tilts her head to the side. “Yeah, you did, but I know you, Lawson. You aren’t telling me the whole story.”
“You doubting me?” It’s shitty to throw that in her face when a week ago I doubted her, but I have to get her off this goddamn subject.
I can’t tell her what I found on our porch last night.
I just can’t.
It’s fucking sick. It’s fucking morbid. Even the thought of it makes the bile start to rise in my throat.
It’s shit Selena would never come back from.
“Lawson,” she breathes in that goddamn voice. The one that crawls its way into my soul and cuts little slits throughout my entire body. I say nothing as she stands there waiting for me to respond, tears pooling in her eyes. I watch her dig her fingernails into her arm, the blatant wishing that I’m not doing exactly what I said I’d never do again.
“This is going to tear us apart,” she whispers. “She’s going to get what she wants.”
She spins around and runs from the shop door.
I haven’t learned my fucking lesson. I don’t run after her. What am I going to do? Promise her everything is okay for the millionth time? I’d probably be fucking lying. Do I show her the note? Do I show her the book?
I’m fucking helpless.
I stand up, kicking the stool backward. It slams into the tool box five feet behind me, and I pick up the last of the wrenches intending to put them away, but the anger burning inside has me launching them across the shop.
Just as I move to pick up an envelope that flew to the ground, my phone on the workbench rings. I grab up the envelope as Benny’s contact flashes on the display.
It’s just a fight, Selena. I keep telling myself this as I walk back into the house. My parents are in the living room with London, and Carolina is in the kitchen. I hit the floor and lose it. The thin wire holding me together loosened and let go.
This is how it’ll all fall for us.
Aria will win.
Car lights shine through the mudroom door and soon disappear, alerting me that someone is leaving. I move to my knees and peer out the window to see Lawson’s truck flying up the lane.
Cold seeps its way from my fingers all the way to my shoulders and down. Something’s not right. Law wouldn’t leave, not like this.
A simple question and he got spooked?
My mind reels with the possibilities of why Lawson is being this way.
I pull my phone out of my back pocket and bring up his contact.
I press send.
“You’ve reached…” sounds through the ear piece after one ring.
He ignored my call.
I hit the contact again.
“You’ve reached…”
“Goddamn it!” I shout. I hang up the phone, then send him a text.
Me: Come back…
I wait.
One minute.
“Lena, what’s going on?” Carolina asks from somewhere in front of me.
Two minutes.
“Honey, what are you doing on the floor?” my mother asks.
“I have to go. I have to find him,” I tell the floor as I move to stand.
“Go where?”
“I need you to watch London for me, okay?” I tell my mother. I grab my spare set of keys off the hook and reach for the door.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” my dad booms from the kitchen.
I don't listen. I have to get to Lawson. I can't explain this feeling running like wildfire through my body. All I know is it’s bad.
I turn the knob and pull open the door.
“Selena!” my mother yells.
“I’ll go with her, Joan,” I barely hear Carolina say before I’m out of the house. I run to my car and climb in. Carolina races to the passenger side and gets in just as I’m putting the car in reverse.
“I have no goddamn shoes on. What the hell is going on right now?”
“Law left.”
“Yeah, babe, he sent your dad a text saying he would be back in a little bit
.”
“Something doesn’t feel right.”
“So you decided to go chasing after him?”
I don’t answer her. I grip the steering wheel tighter as I press on the gas pedal. I shouldn’t be driving this reckless knowing Carolina is pregnant. I should slow down, but I can’t.
Whatever this feeling is inside me, it’s telling me to get to Lawson.
I slow my speed just enough to turn my car onto the highway.
“Lena, honey, tell me what’s going on inside that head of yours.”
“I have to get to him,” I tell her in way of explanation.
Her voice lowers when she comes back with, “We haven’t had a chance to talk about what happened to you. This woman…”
“This woman,” I start. “This woman wants my husband. She got inside my head, I thought she and Lawson were having an affair. After I got back from my trip visiting you, I found them together in Law’s shop. Nothing was going on, just Lawson drawing up her tattoo, but she was touching him. I got the wrong idea. I wouldn’t let it rest. It ate me alive to think my husband found another woman who could give him something I couldn’t.” I stop for a moment and take a deep breath. “It turns out, she had an idea in her head that she was going to steal my husband from me. It didn’t work out the way she wanted, so she took it to the next extreme. She had a man break into my home and attack me. If Law wouldn’t have shown up when he did, that man would have taken me to God only knows where. Notes have been dropped at our house, notes that say she’s going to end me. The note and flowers last night and Lawson leaving tonight is not a coincidence.”
“Jesus.” She turns her head to look out the window, then lurches forward. “Selena, that’s Law’s truck!”
My head jerks to where Carolina is pointing. It’s Lawson’s truck. “What is he doing?” I ask out loud. A question only Lawson can answer. I hit the brakes, preparing to turn into the gas station parking lot.
“Shit, shit, shit!” she yells and starts pointing to the road in front of us. “That’s Benny’s truck, isn’t it?”
I squint my eyes, trying to decipher whether it is. Then I see the decal on the back window only Benny would have.
I hit the gas.
“Are you going to try to get them to stop?”
“No, I’m going to follow them.”
“Shit.” She pauses for a moment. “Give me your phone,” she demands.
“What? Why?”
“Give me your phone, Selena.”
Taking one hand off the wheel, I pull the phone out of my pocket and hand it over to her. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to track his phone in case we lose them. I didn’t have a chance to grab my phone in my haste to get to the car,” she says with little enthusiasm in her voice.
“Good idea,” I say, ignoring her tone.
“What do you think they are doing?”
"They've been secretive the last few days. I think they have something planned with Aria."
If that’s the case, I definitely need to follow them. This woman is so unpredictable she could have figured this out and has a plan of her own ready to go.
“Who’s Aria?”
“The woman who wants to take my place.”
“Right, right.”
“I’m scared, Carolina. I’m afraid she is going to win.”
For the first time in what feels like forever, I admit my greatest fear. I know she will never get my family. That’s just not possible. But taking me out of this world is something I don’t much like the thought of either.
I sit in the passenger seat of Ben’s truck.
Complete silence.
This will go one of three ways.
We’ll come out alive with Aria in cuffs, or we’ll come out alive with Aria dead. The last way is not one I want to put much thought into.
I sit in silence to focus. I’m not a man who does this every day.
Shit.
I rub my palms against the thighs of my jeans, the sweat building faster than I can wipe it away.
I need this, though. I need to be the one to take her down. I don't want to kill her; I just want to be the one who looks into her eyes when she realizes she will never get any of what she ever wanted.
“We got a tail.”
I lean my head forward a bit to see the car following behind us. It’s staying at a moderately safe distance. Though, close enough for me to tell who it is.
“Fuck,” I growl.
“It’s Selena, ain’t it?”
“Yeah,” I say through clenched teeth. “Pull over.”
He slows the truck and pulls off to the side of the road. I climb out and wait for Lena to do the same. If she’s fucking smart, she’ll pull over. Her car begins to angle to the side, and she stops about ten feet in front of me but doesn't shut the car off or get out. I look to the passenger side and see Carolina sitting there. I roll my eyes in frustration.
Jesus Christ.
What do these two think they are going to do?
I move to Lena’s side of the car and rap two knuckles on the window indicating for her to roll it down. She hesitates, but then the window slides down. I don’t blame her because I am about to rip her a new one.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“I—I—” she sputters.
“I’ve got shit to do, babe,” I say impatiently.
Her eyes narrow. She’s getting angry. So be it. I hit that stage a while ago.
“What are you doing?”
“Doing what I need to. Now, how about you two turn this car back around and go home where you were told to stay.”
“Don’t treat me like a child, Lawson,” she clips.
"Do as you're told and I wouldn't have to."
She turns her head to look out the windshield, and whispers, “I don’t feel right about this.”
I let out a whoosh of breath. “Lena, everything will be fine. I need you to trust me right now and go back home.”
She looks back to me, her eyes soft but full of concern. “Please, just tell me what you are going to do.”
“I’m going to end this.”
“Lawson.”
“Go home, Selena,” I tell her, and turn back for Benny’s truck.
“Lawson,” she shouts out the window.
“Go home, Selena,” I repeat over my shoulder.
I climb back into the truck and wait for Selena to turn the car around. A few moments go by before she angles the car back toward our house.
I let out a deep breath and return my focus to Benny. “I hope to God I didn’t just lie to my wife.”
“What do you mean?”
"I told her everything would be okay."
He smirks. He is seriously one crazy motherfucker. “It’ll be fine. We have the element of surprise on our side.”
“Yeah, that’s what has me tweaked the most. This bitch can seem to disappear in the blink of an eye. I don’t think anything surprises her.”
“Tonight will be the last time we have to worry about this.”
“What if she’s not there?”
“Then we wait.”
Waiting has never been so goddamn miserable.
We’ve been sitting here for what feels like an eternity, but has only been two hours.
We entered this dumpy ass rundown shack with seven guys. Two of them are out back keeping an eye on things, two of them are securing the front perimeter, one is in the back of the house, and Benny and I are in the living room. The entire place is pitch black, even outside. You’d never even know this place was here if you weren’t looking for it.
“Man, she’s not fucking coming back here,” I mutter from my spot in the chair.
There is nothing in this place that indicates she’s even been here besides some clothing in the bedroom.
Benny pulls out his phone, checks something, and then mutters under his breath. I can’t make out what he said. He shoves the phone back in his pocket and talks to the
others through the ear pieces they put in earlier. “Rendezvous front porch. Now.”
His attention then focuses on me.
The look on his face has my blood instantly boiling. “Don’t you fucking tell me we’ve been sitting here idle for hours leaving my wife wide open for this dumb bitch to make another move.”
“Law…fuck.”
I don’t bother listening to what else he has to say. I bolt for the door.
When my boots hit the porch, headlights are pulling up the aged path. I spin around to find Benny right behind me.
“She’s going to be hostile. Let her make her move first. Stranix and Rybeck, circle her.”
I turn back to the approaching car stopping just feet from the porch. The car door swings open and a woman steps out.
She leaves the car on. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust with the headlights shining straight into us. When the woman steps around the opened door it is made certain it is Aria standing there.
I take a step forward, but Benny grabs my arm. “Wait.”
It takes all the strength I have to stand in place. I don’t want to hear what this bitch has to say. She’s said too much already.
“I knew you’d find me,” she says, her voice happy. Fucking happy.
I shake my head. She doesn’t get it.
She takes two steps forward.
“I did,” I agree with her.
“Did you leave her?”
My fists ball at my sides.
“Bait her,” Benny whispers only loud enough for me to hear.
Fucking bait her.
I want to goddamn vomit.
“Yeah, I did.”
“Make her believe you,” Benny whispers again.
“Where’s our little girl?” she asks.
The bile rises in my throat.
I can’t do this. I can’t stand here and lie and talk about my wife and my daughter like this.
“She’ll be with us soon,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Are you lying to me?” she asks, then looks around, finally noticing we aren’t alone. “Who are these people?”
“Friends,” I tell her.
“Hey, Aria. I’m Benny. Our boy, Lawson here, told me all about you. Nice to finally meet you,” Benny tells her, and Jesus, he sounds like a goddamn professional at this.
