Chapter Fourteen

 

 

We headed back to Ginger’s in silence. There was this tension between us as the weight of everything we had just said and done set in. It wasn’t until we saw Ging leaning against the door of the stables that we both visibly relaxed. I got off the horse first and then helped Aly. Aly still looked a little thrown by the kiss and the heaviness of our conversation. Not only did she have to dig up a lot of emotional baggage and hear a lot about me, but she also found out there were warrants out for her dad and ex best friend’s arrest. That had to be hard for her, even if they were the ones who kidnapped her. I emphasize “for her” because if it wereme, I’d want them dead. I still wanted to fucking kill them for what they did to her. However, her brain didn’t work like mine; she was a much better person, and it did something to her, something bad, when she felt she wasn’t doing the right thing.

Ging approached us and grabbed Panter so she could put him away. We both followed, and she kept turning back to Aly and giving her a funny look.

“So you dump her or something, Axel? Why does Blondie look like she has been crying her eyes out?”

Ginger was crude and sometimes rude, but if you understood her, you knew she didn’t mean to be. It was just the way she talked. At first, Aly seemed offended by her, but I could tell that it bothered her less now. I was glad because I would have hated for Ginger and Aly not to get along.

“I didn’t dump her, Ging. There was just some stuff we had to discuss, and it was heavy.”

She raised an eyebrow at me.“On a date, Axel? Really?”

“That’s what I said,” Aly mumbled. We all laughed.

From there, we ate the best chicken pot pie either of us had ever had, and Ginger was impressed by how much Aly ate. For a girl who wasn’t even five feet tall, the girl could chow. I told Ginger all the best Aly stories I could think of,especially how she showed up at the bar and stopped me from taking drugs and all that shit. Ginger loved that story and laughed her fucking ass off. It was kind of funny now that it was over. I could see how curious Ginger was about how we met and most importantly how serious I was about Aly. She hadn’t seen me care about anyone or let anyone in since Sarah, and I knew she had a lot of questions.

I shot her a look early in the lunch to let her know we’d discuss everything later. Aly would be too embarrassed to discuss it all with someone she just met and probably couldn’t handle any more emotional shit for one day. Ginger seemed annoyed with having to wait, but she nodded and respected my wishes. Ginger was skeptical of Aly. She loved me, and from the outside, Aly just seemed like a sweet little do-gooder. She was confused. I tried to tell her some stories of Aly that showed how feisty she was, but every time I did, she just seemed more shocked than convinced. It would take time.

The next three weeks were enjoyable. Aly and I had a good time together. It was easy to be with her, and I genuinely cared about her. The problem was that both of us were getting restless. Aly was ready to move on with her life, and so was I. I tried to keep her occupied, but I could tell she wanted her life back, her own life. Aly was independent and did not want to be controlled by others. Physically, she was healed, but I knew it would be a long time – if ever – for her to heal emotionally.

Although I was secretly hoping to have her dad and Brandon behind bars before either of us left my parents, the police still hadn’t been able to find either of them. We had no way of knowing how long that would take and we couldn’t keep our lives on hold waiting for the police to find them. I had an idea of what I wanted to do going forward. I had a ton of money saved from boxing, and I wanted to start my own fight gym. Something not for pussies like the gym in my hometown. Maybe a place where people like me could get some of their aggression out in a way that wouldn’t send them to prison. The concept wasn’t fully formedyet, but that was what I had my sight set on. Problem was, I didn’t want to go anywhere without Aly and having that conversation meant facing the obvious problems in our relationship. Was I going to follow her when we left? Was she going tofollow me? Were we going to go our separate ways and forget this? Did she even know what she was going to do? Was she safe? And a whole other list of questions I didn’t want to have to acknowledge or have the answers to.

Dad was always on my back about it. He said I just needed to tell her how I felt and that I didn’t want to lose her and the conversation would work itself out. Usually, I found Dad very wise, but in this instance, I thought his advice was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard. My relationship with Aly didn’t even feel like it was progressing. I mean, part of it was that neither of us knew how to be in a relationship, but there was more to it than that. We were both great about opening up to each other the first two weeks, but it was somewhere into the third week things felt different. We kissed, shared romantic moments, talked about our past, our struggles, but both of us were too afraid to talk about the future. That was holding us back.

The only positive thing going on in my life was that Mac and I would spar at the gym after hours, and I mean really spar. It helped me stay calm with everything going on. There was something about coming home a little bloody — either mine or his; didn’t matter — that was just inherently calming to me.

 

I loved X. There was no doubt about that.

I didn’t want to lose him, but I still had no idea what I was going do with my life. I knew it was about time to leave X’s parents’ house, and every morning, the weight of the decisions I had to make became heavier and heavier to carry. Despite being a couple, I felt myself holding back with X now more than ever. My fear of the future was like a dark cloud hanging over my head, suffocating me.

Since we became a couple, X told me I could use his car anytime. If he needed to go to boxing or something, he’d ask Mac or call me to pick him up. I had never used his car without asking him, but I needed to today. X’s parents left last night for a quick twenty-four-hour getaway, and X and his dad had a long talk on the porch before they left. I knew that talk revolved around the fact that X and I were being extremely immature and avoiding each other at all costs. We both occasionally mentioned our futures and leaving X’s parents’ house in passing, but anytime we went to talk to each other about it in depth, one of us would make an excuse to change the subject, kiss the other one as a diversion, or just flat out leave.

I quietly snuck out of the house before X woke up. I put the car in drive and sped out of the driveway. I went to a local coffee shop and sipped on passion tea while I read some random book I found in the downstairs bathroom. I read for several hours before I realized how ridiculous this all was. I was avoiding X again. My self-doubt and fear almost caused me to lose him once, and it was about to ruin any chance I had at making our relationship a lasting one. I bolted out of the coffee shop and back towards the house. X would be just waking up, and we needed to talk. We were just starting out in our relationship. It was too early for us to be having issues, especially when they were simply from lack of communication.

When I got to the house, I ran through the front door, threw my keys on the stairs, and let my purse fall from my shoulder into my left hand.

“X? X?” I called out. “We need to talk.”

No response.

“X?”

He wasn’t on the couch where I’d left him. I walked through the living room. The further I got in the house, the more unsettled I felt.

“X?” I called out as I headed into the kitchen.

I glanced around the kitchen and didn’t notice anything until I looked at the door that led to the backyard. Blood. I held back a scream and held my purse closer as I walked to the door and started to open it. My heart was pounding uncontrollably in my chest because some how I knew – I knew what I was going to see when I opened the door.

The door swung open.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

Ryan was holding X with his hands behind his back and a gun to his head, and X was bleeding…badly. He’d been stabbed. He didn’t look beaten, though. There was just a single stab wound. Around them were several of Ryan’s men and Brandon. Brandon?

I felt myself go white and stumbled back a few steps. X looked at me with deep concern. He was bleeding a lot but still upright, staying strong. He wasn’t fighting, and I knew it was because there were guns pointed at me. If he had fought, I would have been dead already. If he fought before I got there, they would have shot me, before I even opened the door. The stab wound was simply to have stunned him long enough to lead him to the backyard. It wasn’t intended to maim or seriously injure.

“Alyyyy…” Ryan said with an exaggerated friendliness. “Glad you could join us. Why don’t you come on out here and shut the door?”

I looked at X, and he looked downright pissed. Underlying his anger, though, I could tell was a whole lot of worry. I took a few hesitant steps forward and shut the door behind me. I walked into the middle of the backyard. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of X’s injury or the gun pointed at his head. The only thing I could feel, however, was Brandon’s eyes on me and it made me want to puke. If having a gun pointed at X and being trapped in the backyard with Ryan wouldn’t have already set my teeth on edge, Brandon being there brought me to the point of tears. I tried to stifle back the memories he bought up. He had been my best friend, someone I had confided in, and someone I thought would have had my back. I tucked my purse in close to my body and quickly pulled out the gun I had bought ages ago.

“Let him go,” I said, pointing the gun at Ryan. “Now.”

“What the fuck, Aly?” X gasped. “Where the hell did you get that?”

Brandon stepped forward, but Ryan put a hand out to stop him.

“Well, well, Aly, you are always full of surprises. I thought you were Christian,” he said, paying no attention to the gun I had pointed at his head.

I glanced at Brandon. “I do what I have to. Now let him go,” I said, jerking the gun and clicking the safety off.

“See, here’s the thing, Aly. If you pull that trigger, my men will pull theirs. You can’t kill me without killing yourself.”

“Aly,” X warned. “Put it away.”

I kept my gun where it was.

“What’s he doing here?” I asked, gesturing to Brandon. “I’m surprised you didn’t loop my dad in. I’m sure he wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on the chance to torture me again.”

“You see, this is where it gets entertaining, Aly,” Ryan said with a smile.

I glanced over at X, and he was breathing deep to try and manage the pain, but the minute he saw me looking at him, his face went back to neutral.

“After you told me what happened to your arm, I knew I had to bring them in.”

“You did WHAT?!” X yelled.

I took a step back but steadied the gun. Somehow X yelling at me made me cower more than anything else going on.

“Oh yeah,” Ryan jumped in. “I asked why the hell her arm looks like it went through a meat slicer and she told me.”

“No, it wasn’t like that,” I said desperately to X. Tears started to fall down my face. I felt out of control. “It was the day you went to the bar. Ryan told me he knew where you were. I was so scared you were going to drink, do drugs, all the stuff that you know is bad for you! I was so worried. So I agreed to tell him what happened to my arm and in return he told me what bar you went to. I never thought this would happen. I couldn’t have known.” I started crying harder. “I’m so sorry.”

“Jesus, Aly,” X groaned. “I told you to stay away.”

I looked at my feet. “I’m sorry.”

Then, Ryan jumped in again. “Back to my fucking story! I had a plan going already, but once I knew there were other people out to get you, Aly, I knew I had to rope them in as well. It was even better that it was your own family.”

I winced as he said this. Hearing the reality of my situation from another person – especially someone who had made X’s life miserable – was painful, really painful.

“Brandon came easily, but it took a while to find your dad.”

“Oh really, where is he then?!” I yelled.

X was bleeding. He needed to get out of here.

“Dead,” Ryan said with a shrug. “Hung himself.”

“What? My dad’s dead?” I said as my skin went ghost white. He’s dead. My dad’s dead.

“Yeah. Fucking disappointment. He left a note too.”

“What did it say? Tell me what it said!”

“Oh, that he’s sorry. He hates himself. He hopes you’ll forgive him. Blah blah blah.”

“He did?” I squeaked out. I sounded more like a twelve-year-old girl than a woman with a gun in her hand.

“Yeah, he mentioned Carmen too.” Ryan smirked. I stiffened the minute the words left Ryan’s mouth. “Does X know about this?”

“Yeah, he does.”

“All of it?” Ryan said with a grin. “Because Brandon didn’t even know.”

“Stop it, Ryan,” I said with tears welling up in my eyes. I felt the gun going limp in my hand.

“Aly?” X said, looking at me curiously. He was studying me carefully, studying my reaction. He knew I had lied to him.

“Ohhh, this is so good! Should I tell him or should you?” Ryan asked, practically jumping out of his skin with excitement.

I gripped my gun.

“Let X sit down. He’s losing a lot of blood. I’m not joking,” I said as I made a clicking sound with the gun.

“Fine,” Ryan said, raising his hand in surrender and letting X slide to the ground.

With his freed hands, X immediately went to work putting pressure on his wound and ripping some of his shirt to stop some of the blood loss. I blinked back tears. I had to keep it together if we were going to survive this.

“Just so you know, Aly, you are not in charge here. I need this to last a while and can’t have Axel bleeding out on me. So tell Axel the truth, or I put a bullet in his leg,” he said, and he took a shot less than an inch from X’s thigh. X barely flinched. “Now talk.”

I looked at Brandon, who was grinning, and then at X, who nodded for me to continue.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked desperately.

“Axel knows. Now answer the damn question.”

“Carmen didn’t die in a car accident,” I began as I stared into X’s stunned face.