Chapter Forty-Three
Linden
“You’re sure this is a good idea?” I clutch my forearms as I watch him gear up.
We spent most of the day hanging out with Avery, but I could tell he wasn’t himself. Rather, the old Jack- our mysterious neighbor, not the real, raw Jack I’ve fallen in love with.
“I don’t want to be away from you guys, but the sooner I end this, the better. You’ll have a clean break. We all will.”
“You’re going to tell your boss that you’re done?”
“I’ll tell them that I have a family now. My priorities have shifted. If they still want me for local jobs, I might stay on. If not, I’ll consider myself retired.” He slides his gun into the holster that’s tucked under his belt.
“You don’t think family life might bore you?”
“I don’t know any part of you that’s boring, momma bird,” he whispers, leaving a gentle kiss on my lips.
“I’m afraid that once you walk out that door, reality is going to sink in again. The way our life has been upended is going to hit me.”
“I won’t be gone long, and when I get back, I’ll put any pieces that came loose back together again.”
“I don’t know if I should call you my fixer or my protector.”
“Just call me yours.”
There’s my Jack.
I squeeze his hand. “That I can do.”
“Are you going bye-bye, Mr. Jack?” Avery says from landing by the stairs.
“Yeah, I am. Just for a little while.” He smiles softly at her, but it falls as soon as her little bottom lip starts to tremble. “Oh, no. No, no, no.” He falls to his knees in front of her and wraps her in a hug.
“I don’t want you to go,” she cries, and my heart breaks.
“I don’t want to go either, princess. But I’ll be back in two days.”
“What if Mommy gets hurt?”
“She’s not going to get hurt. You guys are safe here with Aunt Kay.”
“But, but, I miss you.”
“I’ll miss him too, Avery, but he has a job to do. Okay? We’re going to play and spend time with Ms. Kay, and Jack will be back before we know it.”
“Otay.” She wipes at her face again and slumps into my arms this time. “Wait!” She takes off down the hallway towards the sailboat room with newfound enthusiasm.
“Well, that fucking sucked.” Jack rubs his forehead. “How do parents get anything done when their kid is so damn cute?”
“It is a severe form of torture. Welcome to the club.” I wink, and softness envelops him for a moment.
Strapped to the teeth with weapons, and his face glows with the realization that he gets to step up as the father figure that Avery has always deserved.
“Here, Mr. Jack!” Avery scrambles back down the hall holding a beaded bracelet in her hand. “So, you not sad.”
He slides the stretchy bracelet onto his wrist and smiles at it. “Thank you, I love it.”
She gives him another big squeezy hug, and he looks at me over her blonde head. “Luckiest guy in the world.”
“Luckiest girls.”
* * *
“What do you think?” Kay asks after we leave the community center. She knew I’d be stir crazy sitting around with Jack gone today, and she insisted that Avery and I join her downtown.
Despite my early hesitation to be out in public so soon after our nightmare the other night, it turned out to be the best day.
Avery spent hours playing with other kids her age. If they weren’t crafting or running around, they were taking turns showing each other pictures from the books in the little library corner.
I helped Kay serve food during lunch, and she introduced me to no less than one hundred people.
It’s the first time I’ve felt any sense of community since college. I even spent an hour reading aloud to some of the kids.
Part of my chest is tight because I’m worried about Jack… But my heart is also full after a day like today.
It’s been perfect.
“I’d love to come back. I’m really glad we came with you today.”
“I’m glad, too. Summer is busy because the kids need somewhere to gather, but once school is in session again, we’ll need tutors. And the littles loved story time with you. You can make a corner for yourself here, Linden. We’d be lucky to have you.”
“Thank you for saying that. I appreciate you taking us under your wing.”
“Aunt Kay doesn’t have wings,” Avery giggles as she skips down the sidewalk. The community center is only a few blocks away, and it’s a nice evening getting to walk under all the old oak trees lining the street.
“You’re right, no wings. She has been very nice though, huh?”
“Yes. Thank you, Aunt Kay.”
“You are so welcome, sweet girl. What should we make you for dinner tonight? I’ve got some of my special chicken and noodles that I could make.”
I almost speak up to politely decline for Avery’s sake, but she beats me to it.
“Yes, pwease!”
My mouth pops open and then shuts quickly. Thank God, she wants to eat something besides chicken nuggets.
“I think she’ll like it. I used to make it for Jack when he was sick as a boy because it’s not too flavorful, but the broth is hearty in the stomach.”
“Thank you,” I whisper to Kay, holding back a flood of emotions.
I wish Jack was here so I could thank him again for bringing us here. Somehow he knew exactly what we needed when I wasn’t even quite sure.
“You’re worried about him?” Kay asks, sensing where my thoughts have gone.
“Yeah. He’s very good at what he does, but it’s odd to know what he’s out there doing now when I used to be in the dark for so long.”
“When he told me he was going into the Navy, I knew I wouldn’t see much of him after that. He always had such a strong moral purpose in life. He didn’t fall for false agendas. He believed there was good and evil.”
“He told me why they moved to South Dakota…”
She nods solemnly. “I’m glad he could talk to you. I always felt guilt for introducing him to that man.”
“He doesn’t blame you. He feels bad that he might have ruined your relationship with the church.”
“Truthfully, I was willing to forgive them for how they ostracized my family because that was God’s way… That is, if they admitted their fallacy for their treatment in the first place.
“I expected the members of the church to see their errors and seek their own forgiveness, but they never did. They even allowed Deacon Gillum to keep his title and move on to a different church once he healed from his injuries. I was angry. I even wrote to the Pope.”
“Did you get a response?”
“No, but that was probably my fault. I don’t know if I expressed myself in the best light. I was very cynical.”
“I’m glad that he had you and his parents to be angry for him. I don’t know if he would be the same man he is today if you all weren’t there to protect him as a kid.”
“Seeing him protect you girls is the biggest blessing. I know he turned out okay because of how tenderly he loves you two.”
My cheeks get warm at her keen observation. I mean, he just told me that he loves me a day ago, yet somehow Kay picked up on it almost instantly. I’m betting the moment we walked into her house for the first time.
Avery rushes up the front stoop and flings the front door open, making Kay and I gasp.
The front door should be locked. Jack said he wouldn’t be back until tomorrow at the earliest.
“Avery!” I sprint inside blindly after her, Kay nearly on my heels.
Please, be home early, Jack. Please…
“I thought you went to your parents,” the voice drips down my spine. “Where’s your boyfriend?”
The man sitting on the steps just behind the front entryway looks more disheveled than I’ve ever seen him. And that is saying a lot.
His forehead is shiny with sweat, and his eyes are bulging and red.
But where his elbows are resting on his knees, there is also a gun swinging from his right hand.
“What do you want, Turner?”
“What do I want?” He scoffs. “No one cares what I want.”
“How did you find us?”
He smiles under dope-filled eyes. “What type of mother lets a toddler carry a purse without checking inside of it? Seems irresponsible to me.”
Avery is standing beside Kay, looking frightfully at her father. They’ve never had much of a relationship, but I can never recall her being so afraid. I’ve always shielded this part of him away from her.
I reach for Avery’s favorite sequined purse, and dump it onto the floor. Nothing stands out, but when I squeeze it between my hands, I feel the hard plastic of a tracking device slipped between the inner fabric.
“Leave us alone, Turner. You can have a clean break now. Just go.”
“My parents will never let me be. Not until they get their precious daughter back.”
“Who cares about their daughter! This is your daughter, and you’re scaring her.”
He laughs maniacally and stands, making us all shift closer to the kitchen. “You’re the one who said I wasn’t deserving to be her father. So what is it, Linden? Am I her daddy or not? Just when it’s convenient for you, huh?”
“You know that isn’t fair.”
He takes slow, lobbing steps down to the main level, and I put myself between Avery and Kay.
“None of this is fucking fair!” He yells, clawing at his hair.
“So what’s your plan? What? Take us back to your parents? I don’t understand what you want.” I take another step back.
“No… You’re no use to us anymore, Linden. We just need the girl.”
“The girl? Listen to yourself. She’s a child. Your child. She loves you.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “She loves you. So we might as well cut the cord now while she’s young.” He lifts his arm, pointing his gun in my direction, and my entire body goes still. Kay gasps behind me, and I pray that Avery isn’t looking.
“Please, not in front of her,” I beg.
His chest rises sharply as he contemplates my request, and I see a peek of humanity still buried deep inside of him.
Until he suddenly shifts his shoulder to aim his gun directly at Kay.
“No!” I gasp, jumping in front of his gun’s path.
Turner tilts his head in annoyance. “What are you going to do, Linden? Take a bullet for an old lady?”
“She doesn’t deserve any of this. I brought this mess here!”
“You’re right. You did. If you would have just stayed where you were meant to, all of this would be over. No one would have died. My parents’ patients would still be alive. And I wouldn’t be here cleaning this up!” He yells.
“I’m sorry,” I cry. “I’m so sorry, Turner.”
My apology makes him hesitate.
“If I had been a better wife, you wouldn’t be dealing with this. If I was a better daughter-in-law to your parents, we could have avoided this.”
“What are you doing? Don’t try to trick me.”
“I’m not. I wanted us to be a family. Remember? We wanted to be happy.” I take a step towards him, and he falters slightly, but doesn’t lower the gun.
“All I’ve ever wanted is for Avery to be happy. That’s all I want. Don’t you want that too?” I plead softly, standing right in front of him and his raised arm.
“My parents don’t want to hurt her. My mom only wants her to compare to their research. She wants Avery to be the blueprint.”
“Do you really believe that? After all that they’ve done… All the people they’ve hurt…”
His gun dips mere inches, and I take another step, wrapping my arms around his shoulders in a hug. “We can still do this together. We can be a family.”
“Really?”
“Of course. We said vows, remember?” I utter softly.
His face falls to my neck, and I know I took too bold a risk when my body doesn’t soften in his embrace.
I can’t fight my detest for him, and he goes stiff.
I anchor my wrists together behind his back, as if that’ll stop the inevitable. “Kay, go!”
Turner jerks away from me, but my reluctance to let go slows him down. And when my grip loosens completely, it knocks him off balance, giving Kay a chance to disappear through the kitchen door with Avery.
I need to give them a chance to run.
“You bitch. I knew you were lying.” Turner’s gun digs into the center of my forehead, and I can’t feel anything but the pressure building between my eyes.
“I will always protect my baby,” I breathe out raggedly. “Like you should have!”
Turner’s fist wraps around the back of my head, and he yanks me forward roughly until we’re nearly hugging again. Except this time, my face is against his cheek, and his gun is poised on his opposite temple.
“Turner, don’t,” I beg, feeling the vibrations coursing through his body. “You can run away.”
“My parents will never let me go.”
“Your parents are dead!” I scream.
“What?” His fingers are gripped in my hair so tightly, I can’t budge as he locks our heads together, crushing my windpipe against his shoulder.
“Your parents were evil. If they aren’t dead right at this moment, they will be soon. Jack will kill them,” I snarl.
“Don’t say his name!” He yells, gripping my hair so tight I scream in pain.
“I hope he does it slowly, and tortures them like they deserve,” I grit out painfully, trapped between his head and shoulder.
“I don’t believe you!”
“He’s not a coward like you! He’ll do whatever it takes to protect us. To protect Avery!”
“No!” He yells. “You’re mine, Linden. Not his!”
“I hate you,” I cry. “I hate your family!”
“You can hate them, Linden, but Avery is a Scott, and so are you. Your little girl is tainted by our evil blood,” he spits through clenched teeth, gripping my scalp tighter.
I can’t see his other hand, but I know he is going to pull the trigger at any second, leaving Avery without a single parent in this world.
Jack. Keep her safe. Please.
Someone’s sobbing, and I don’t know if it’s him or me. The room around us is gone, and I’m drowning in what feels like my final moment.
Every exhale expels roughly from my lungs, and I keep waiting for the–
BANG!