My phone buzzes against my face and I wake up, staring at her wall. I grab my phone and quickly answer it, rubbing my eyes hard. “Erica, is everything okay?” I ask, thinking it might be her, calling from work. I hear her cooking breakfast in the kitchen and realize it’s Sunday.

“We’ve found you,” a voice says.

“Hawk,” I sit up, shaking with rage. There’s a sharp laughter on the other end of the call. “Face me once and for all. No weapons. Face me and let’s end this.”

“Don’t forget where you came from,” he says. “Stop running from the past. It always catches up to you.”

“I’ve changed, Hawk. I’m a new person,” I say. I think of Aidan and my heart starts pounding faster. I need to protect him, but how can I tell them who I really am? They won’t understand when they hear my story. Erica will kick me out for good.

He continues to laugh. “Stop fooling yourself,” he says.

“Just leave me alone. You want money? Great, I’ll send you a check. I’m done with the business. I’m done working for you, Hawk. I’ve got other priorities,” I say, glancing over the backyard wall

“All the lies you’ve been living,” he says. “Do you think your little family would understand?”

“You bastard,” I scream. “Come and find me. Now! I’m right here, dammit!”

The phone clicks and I’m left with silence. I have to stop myself from throwing the phone at the wall and shattering it to pieces. “Fuck,” I whisper, falling to my knees.

All I want is to turn things around. I want to block out all my wrong doings. It’s not all my fault. I was brought in as a young kid. I didn’t know any better. I had no guiding force in my life. As an adult, I still have no say. I’ve made all the wrong decisions. This new life of mine is all over once Erica finds out who I really am. A monster. A low life. A sucker who fell into the wrong shit.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Erica walks into the room, wiping her hands on a dishtowel.

“Nothing,” I smile. “Just talking to the realtor.”

“You’re getting a new house?” she asks me, shocked. “Since when?”

The lies keep stacking up. I’m just digging the hole deeper. “I’m just keeping an eye out,” I say, hugging her. “You know, just in case you want something bigger.”

I kiss her, while she simply rests her chin against my shoulder. She’s not buying it. “What is up with you this morning?” She walks away from me, shaking her head, lost in thought.

I lean against the doorway and sigh to myself. There’s so much guilt pent-up inside me. I have no idea what to do. Do I tell her and let everything fall apart in an instant? Of course not. Her worrying isn’t going to help anything. I need to protect them on my own.

Breakfast is normal. We all sit at the table like a real family, but I’m not fully there and Erica can sense it. When we go to the park again, we walk toward the court in silence. That is, until she decides to break it.

“Can you just tell me what you’re thinking? Are you trying to back out of this already?” she asks, looking hurt.

“I’m not, Erica,” I tell her. “I’m telling you the truth.”

“I have to be really stupid to be trusting you, don’t I?” she asks me. “Whatever it is you’re planning can’t be good. I can tell. You have that same look on your face as the day you left.”

We continue walking for a good couple of minutes and I have no idea what to say to her. A man walks next to us and smiles. I recognize his face. He’s the same man from the bar, right before I left to England.

My muscles twitch. My eyes dilate. I clench my fists together. “Cute kid you got there,” he says to Erica. I hold my fucking breath, waiting for him to spill everything about me.

“Thank you.” She smiles and continues to walk.

I whisper at her, “Come on. Let’s keep walking.”

She looks at me with a sense of urgency in her eye. “What’s wrong, Walker?”

“I just get a bad feeling about this guy,” I whisper.

The man continues to walk the other way and whistles to himself. “Bye, Aidan,” he says. A chill runs up my spine. I spin around and the man has turned into the nature trail, barely able to be seen.

I do what I have to do. I run after him, as Erica screams, “Walker!”

“Bye!” Aidan waves as a sea of green swallows us up.

I can’t let him get away with terrorizing my family. I know this is all my fault, but this ends now. “Hey!” I scream. I see him in front of me. “Stop!” He’s on a full sprint now. He turns right onto a separate trail and immediately turns left, ducking through the endless trees.

I pick up the pace and try and to keep up with him, but he knows the paths well. “Bastard,” I mutter under my breath as we reach a point where the trees diverge into a rocky landscape. Giant boulders line up in front of us. “I’ve got you.”

He climbs the boulder directly in front of him and I’m actually amazed at the speed he scales upward. “Dammit,” I sigh and run forward, climbing the best I can. It takes a good five minutes before I get to the top and I’m sure I’ve lost him. However, when I finally pull my body up, I’m face to face with the man.

“I’d suggest turning back around,” he says. His voice is spine tingling, but I’m not afraid of any of Hawk’s men. We’ve all been trained in the same way.

“Like Hell,” I mutter. “This ends now.”

“No,” he laughs. “It ends when Hawk says it ends.”

I swing with all my might, knocking him in the jaw. He falls back and ducks to the ground, swinging his leg across mine. I trip backwards and roll off the boulder. Luckily, I find a place to hold on, hanging off the edge. I look up and he’s standing above me with his foot dangling over my hand.

“I could end you right now,” he says.

I’m breathing with all my might, looking for a way out of this, but I’m fucked. “So be it,” I say.

“Listen to Hawk,” he says. “If you don’t, it’ll be your son who pays, not you.”

“You wouldn’t,” I say. “An innocent child? We don’t go that low.”

“I’ve done worse,” he says.

“Who are you?” I ask him.

“Stay in line. This is bigger than you now,” he says.

Just as he’s about to step on my knuckles, he turns around and runs off, jumping down the rocky path. I pull myself up and lay across the rocks, out of breath and in pain.

I hear running behind me and turn to see Erica holding Aidan in her arms. “Walker!” she screams. “Walker?”

She sees me on top of the boulders. Her eyes are filled with fear and adrenaline. “I tried to get to him.” I pick my body up and find a way down.

“Who was he?” she asks, confused.

“I don’t know,” I lie.

“Come on, Aidan,” she says. “We have to go home early.”

“Really?” Aidan pouts. “Why?”

“We just do, sweetie,” she says, shuffling him away from me.

“Wait,” I tell her. “You’re leaving without me?”

“Come if you want,” she says. “But you’re telling me what happened up there.” She looks down at my leg. It’s bleeding through my grey sweatpants.

It’s already gotten to this point. Retaliation on Hawk’s part. I should have known this would happen. The stakes are the highest they’ve ever been. I’m not letting him get away with what he did. When I get the chance, I’m taking him down for good.