Chapter 27
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN
Sawyer
King leaves earlier than me, driving to the fast-food parking lot where he’s meeting the officers and detectives to get wired up. He comes back to the motel about half an hour before we need to meet my brother and Jasper at the train tracks, the wire all set up.
We take his car, leaving Aria’s at the motel.
I’m anxious as King drives us to the abandoned train tracks.
I know what has to be done, but actually going through with it is something different. No matter what Brent has done, there will always be a small part of me that feels guilty. Guilty for the little boy that looked after me when I was young. That experienced all the same loss that I did.
But I have to remember that the little boy is gone now, dead for all intents and purposes. In his place is now a cruel man who deserves this and probably much worse.
King reaches over, squeezing my thigh gently to let me know that he’s here, that we’re in this together as we pull up to the tracks. We get out of the car, looking around, but don’t see Brent or Jasper anywhere. It’s only eight fifty-seven, and we did tell them nine, so now we just wait.
Fifteen minutes pass of us leaning against King’s car, and they still haven’t shown up. I anxiously dig my nails into the palms of my hand, trying not to focus on how late they are.
“What if they don’t come?” King asks.
“They will,” I say. “They have to.”
If they don’t, I’m not sure what I’ll do.
“It’s five thousand dollars. There’s no way they won’t come to get it, right?” I look up at King.
“Yeah, you’re right,” he says, trying to reassure me. “They’ll be here.”
Another ten minutes pass, and I’m nearly sure that they’re not coming at this point. Jasper must’ve caught onto the plan, he knows it’s a setup.
When I’m about to give up hope of them showing up, out of the corner of my eye, I see two figures walking out from behind one of the abandoned trains toward us. I push myself off the car, standing up straight and gripping the bag tightly in my hand.
“About time,” I say as the two of them walk up to us.
Brent is in the same clothes as yesterday, deep bags under his eyes like he hasn’t slept in weeks. He seems nervous. It’s probably not noticeable to anyone else, but I know him. I can tell.
Jasper, on the other hand, seems confident. Too confident. He’s taller than my brother, probably around King’s height, but where King is built and muscular, Jasper is rail thin. He has the same bags under his eyes that my brother does, but he doesn’t seem plagued by the obvious lack of sleep that caused them.
He stops in front of us, unbothered, crossing his arms over his chest as he looks me up and down. I feel King stiffen at my side, and I subtly reach over, squeezing his hand in mine to let him know it’s okay.
“Do you have the money or not?” Brent asks, looking at my bag.
“All five thousand of it.”
“Hand it over then,” he says.
Jasper stays quiet, watching us carefully.
“I want to know why you did it first,” I say.
“What are you talking about?” he asks, confused.
“Why’d you sell Mom the drugs?” I ask. “You knew she couldn’t afford a hundred dollars’ worth of oxy, yet you sold her five thousand, why?”
“She wanted the pills; I knew we’d get the money eventually.” Brent scoffs, his nerves becoming more apparent.
“Hmm. And you know, I’m surprised by you, Jasper.” I tilt my head at him. “I’d think with the big business you’ve got going on, you’d double-check before selling to people you know can’t afford it.”
“Brent knew what he was doing just like I did,” Jasper says, unfazed. “We knew you’d pay up for mommy eventually. If you didn’t, we had other ways for you to make the money back.” A sleazy grin covers his face. “You know, it’s actually a real shame that you did come up with the money. I could’ve made some good change whoring you out.” He looks me up and down.
King goes to take a step forward, but I grab his arm, stopping him.
“Don’t.” I shake my head. “His words mean nothing,” I whisper, my eyes locking on his until I see the anger dim and he relaxes under my touch.
“Aw, I made your bodyguard mad.” Jasper laughs lightly.
“You know, they did an autopsy on my mom.” I turn to Jasper. “It was an overdose, obviously, but what if it was because the drugs you sold her were laced? I feel like it would be my duty to notify your customers if you’re selling bad product,” I bait him.
“The drugs that we sold to your mom and everyone else is clean,” he defends immediately. “It’s not my fault your druggy mom overdosed on the shit. It was bound to happen eventually.” He raises a brow at me.
“I’m sure I have access to that autopsy as her son too, so don’t even try to take us down, Sawyer,” Brent says, a cocky tone in his voice. “We sell the best drugs around here, and everyone knows it. You can’t fuck that up for us even if you tried.”
“You think they got all that?” I turn to King, a relieved smile on my face.
“I’d say yes.” He nods toward the officers and detectives coming around the corner from behind the abandoned train, guns raised in their hands.
“Police,” they yell, surrounding the two of them. “On your knees with your hands behind your head.” They surround the two of them.
I watch Brent’s eyes go wide in shock. Meanwhile, Jasper just looks pissed the fuck off. He glances around quickly as if he’s looking for a place to run and curses to himself, following the officers’ orders when he realizes there isn’t.
“Good job, you two,” an officer says, nodding at us. “I’ll have someone come over and take the wire off.”
King nods a thank you at the officer as I lean into him. He wraps his arms around me immediately, and I let myself relax into him. We watch as the officers cuff them and pull them to stand.
“You fucking bitch,” Brent yells at me, struggling against the officer holding him as they go to pull him past us. “You’re gonna regret this, Sawyer.”
“A badass fucking bitch who outsmarted you.” I smirk at him. “Have fun in prison, Brent,” I call after him as they drag him away.
I let out a sigh of relief that feels like I’ve been holding in for years.
“It’s over.” I smile up at King.
“Yeah, it’s over.” He nods down at me, leaning down and placing a gentle kiss against my lips.
We wait another twenty minutes for the cars to take Jasper and Brent away and another officer to take the wire off King. They ask us both a couple more questions, getting our official statements, and after that, they tell us we’re free to go.
“You ready to go home?” King asks.
“Almost,” I say. “There’s just two more things I have to do.”
After I give King directions, he drives us over to the woodsy area. Once he parks, I take the urn filled with my mom’s ashes, and we get out of the car. King follows right behind me as I walk us through the trees and toward the clearing.
I pause once we’re there, looking around.
It’s exactly how I remember it.
It was my seventh birthday. One of the few that my mom actually remembered after my dad died.
She was in good spirits that day, which was rare by then. She insisted that we had to celebrate, but all I could think about was how much I missed my dad. She told me she missed him just as much and that she had a secret place where she would go to talk to him.
Tall trees surround us, but if you squint through them, you can see the sun shining bright in the sky. There’s a rocky area that leads into a small creek where freshwater flows. She told me that sometimes she’d come here, dip her toes in the ice-cold water, and stare up at the sky.
She said she could feel him here with her.
So, on my seventh birthday, that’s what we did. We came to this creek, put our feet in the water, and looked at the sky. I was too young to really understand what she meant back then. I couldn’t feel him here, but I was happy to spend a normal day with her.
But now, I think I get it.
It wasn’t necessarily his presence she was feeling, but the calmness of this place. That’s how he made her feel. Calm. Safe. Loved.
It’s how Damien makes me feel.
She didn’t have that in her life anymore, but she found it here. It was an escape for her.
I hope she has that feeling now, wherever she is.
I open the urn, tilting it toward the wind and watching as the ashes blow out of it. I wait until the urn is completely empty, and then I put the cover back on.
“I love you, Mom,” I whisper to the sky, then turn to King. “Okay, one final stop.”
We walk back to the car, and I have King drive to the trailer park that I grew up in. Chills spread over my body as we pull up to it. It feels weird being back here. It doesn’t feel like I belong here anymore, although I’m not sure I ever did.
King follows me into the trailer, the door slamming shut behind us from the wind.
“Welcome to my crib,” I joke, opening my arms wide to show off the small space.
“So, this is home?” he asks.
“No.” I shake my head. “This is just where I grew up.” I smile softly at him. “I’ll only be a second. There’s just one thing I need.”
I walk into my mom’s room. It’s strangely cleaner than what I expected it to be. Everything is put away except for a small pile of laundry in the corner that’s neatly folded. You’d never guess that someone who was struggling as much as she was lived here.
I don’t touch any of her things. There’s nothing material that I really want. Anything that actually mattered or was sentimental, she sold for drugs a long time ago.
I walk over to the side of her bed where her nightstand is. I smile at the picture sitting on top of it. It’s what I came here for.
It’s of her and my dad when they first met. They were both so young and full of life. I hate to think about how they were both robbed of it. Their happy ending.
The funeral celebrant said earlier that my mom would be survived by me. It’s a lot of pressure to put on a person. To have to live life for the both of us.
But then again, maybe it’s simple.
My parents might not have gotten their happy ending the way they expected, but I’ll get mine. For all of us. He’s standing right outside the door waiting for me.
I pick up the picture frame, wanting to take it with me, but the back of it falls off as I do. I reach down to pick it up, seeing a gold chain that fell out with it.
I pause as I lift it between my fingers, tears welling in the corner of my eyes.
Sitting in the center of the gold chain is a butterfly, the same as the one around my neck. I was sure my mom sold her necklace, that it was gone forever.
But she didn’t.
She kept it safe in the back of this picture frame the entire time.
And I’ll do the same.
I place the necklace back where it was behind the picture, securing the backing on tightly before walking back out of the room to meet King.
“Find what you were looking for?” he asks.
“Yeah, I did.” I smile.
I take one last look around the trailer, knowing that this will be the last time I’m here for real this time.
This is another defining moment. I’m leaving it all behind, but this time, I know that what I’m leaving it for is better than anything I could’ve ever dreamed of.
“Okay, I’m ready.” I nod to myself.
“Let’s go home.”
For the first time, as I say those words, it truly feels like I actually have one.