“I’m sure Rhett will have something planned,” I shrug, even though I can practically feel my insides shaking.
Aaron snorts. “Good luck to him.”
I sit back down by the fire, facing Aaron. “Why did you do this, anyway? Get into such a dangerous life. Surely it brings you no joy?”
His eyes drop for a second, and I can see my question has stumped him. Is that not something he has asked himself before?
Surely it is.
“Family.”
That’s all he says.
Right, so his family got him into this, which means whoever he is working for is related. I don’t know if he realizes it, but he just gave me some very valuable information.
“You enjoy killing people for family?”
He doesn’t say anything.
“Drug dealing? Lying? Hurting innocent people?”
“Nobody I hurt is innocent,” he mutters.
“Fallon and I are innocent.”
He glares at me. “You two went digging and you didn’t like the outcome when you found what you were looking for. If you were so innocent, you would have minded your own damned business and we wouldn’t be here.”
“Just because we wanted to make sure a man didn’t die for nothing doesn’t make us bad people. He was murdered. That isn’t something to skip over. We were doing something we thought was for the best. We didn’t realize the person who was meant to be protecting us, was a god damned monster.”
His eyes move to mine. “Define monster? Because you were the one in prison for years.”
My back straightens. “I didn’t hurt anyone.”
“Didn’t you? That girl at the gas station could have died. She now lives with PTSD because you and your little friend tried to rob her. You could have stopped it. You are just as much to blame.”
His words hit me like a slap to the face, and it takes me a moment to gather myself enough to answer. My knees tremble, and so I bring them up to my chest and wrap my arms around them so he can’t see that his words have impacted me so greatly.
“Maybe I could have stopped it, but I still chose to do the right then when it came down to it. You have never once tried to do the right thing. You killed someone without so much as a second thought. Don’t talk to me about being a bad person, buddy.”
“He had it coming,” he mutters, leaning back on the tree and closing his eyes.
“Don’t you want something more for yourself? A family? A life not controlled by someone else? Surely there is something out there you want that is better than what you’re doing?”
“I like what I’m doing,” he murmurs.
“Now you’re lying.”
He leans forward and opens his eyes, exhaling. “I enjoy selling drugs, I enjoy killing people and I’ll enjoy every second of watching you suffer when you go down for this, and you will go down for this.”
I glare at him. “I hope you get shot in the penis, develop gangrene and have to watch as it drops off.”
His mouth tightens. “Your mouth will get you into some trouble, you know that?”
“Only the good kind, but you’ll never know because you won’t have a penis.”
“It’ll bring me great joy watching that tongue of yours get cut out when you bad mouth the wrong person.”
“I promise you, that won’t happen. You’re not walking away from this, I’ll make sure of it. You’re done, Aaron. Get used to it.”
He closes his eyes again. “I’m done fucking talking. Shut up and let me sit here.”
“You don’t have many other options,” I mutter, and then stare down at the gun on the ground in front of me.
Come on, Fallon.
I don’t know how much more of this I can possibly take.
15
It takes Fallon about five hours to return.
In that time Aaron and I say nothing to one another, but I can see his condition deteriorating. He’s withdrawn and pale, his skin has a greyish tinge, and he looks lethargic. He needs medical care, and he needs it soon.
So, when I hear voices coming from a distance, I nearly cry with relief.
Not only did Fallon find the guys, but she waited for them to come to her and brought them right to us. I could hug her, I’m so happy. Her smiling face comes into view, and I can’t help but leap up and rush over, throwing my arms around her. A second later, the guys all appear. The moment I see Lake, I feel a lump form in my throat.
I walk over to him and fall into him, pressing my cheek into his chest. Relief unlike anything I’ve ever felt washes over me. I didn’t realize until this very second just how scared I truly was. Every second that passed out here, I was worried about what would happen. Would Aaron get free? Would we get home? Would something go terribly wrong? Surely I couldn’t have gotten my freedom back only to lose it again.