Chapter 5
Xander
I sent a message to Wes.
Nothing in the content. It was blank.
It was a signal to let him know I was alive.
I was alive and would contact him as soon as I could.
That was the gist of the message.
Blank for safety reasons.
The same sort of message was sent to Ethan. For him it was a code though. Code 9. Meant the mission had been compromised and he should move to the next plan of action. Whatever that was.
Whatever it was wouldn’t involve me and I supposed I’d be in the shitstorm I’d been in previously, back to square one.
I sent the code to confirm the next steps even though I’d left Wes with the instructions. I guessed Ethan would have probably taken action anyway, given shit hit the fan days ago, nevertheless, having confirmation the mission had been compromised sealed the deal.
I’d managed to get myself up and emailed him the code, blotting out the IP address so it couldn’t be traced here to Frankie’s family.
I didn’t say where I was because this place wasn’t for me to broadcast.
Frankie hadn’t said anything to me to caution me, but I guessed straightaway that he’d kept his family away from his life and activities with Giovanni.
The way they carried themselves was a dead giveaway. They were different. Not so tense or on edge. We’d been here for a day and a half and it felt like living back in Idaho with Jack.
I grew up rough in Chicago. That was where he found me and took me in. A year later he moved to the farm house in Idaho.
I’d thought he was going to bid his goodbyes when he told me he was selling up and moving. Then he said he wanted his kids to have some of the country life like he had. Kids, as in plural. Claire and me.
It was then that he really became family to me.
Knowing that he would not only take me with him, no questions asked, but also he made sure he got a big enough place so that I had my own room and space in abundance.
He wanted me to have somewhere I could call home and always return to.
Neither of us knew at the time that I would end up falling for his daughter.
These people here lived like him, so it wasn’t for me to give my location away.
Like Frankie, Wes and I had separate phones. My phone had been taken from me but I’d memorized Wes’ number for the secret phone.
He’d messaged back with the same blank message. That meant received.
I was sitting on the edge of the bed trying to heal my core. I did some deep breathing techniques I’d learned from some Buddhist monks in Nepal.
The technique helped to build inner strength. As soon as I got mine we needed to make a move.
On my plan I wanted us gone by morning. The early hours of the morning, so we’d still have the cover of darkness.
Frankie came into the room and looked me over with concern.
Another thing I’d done when I got some ounce of my strength back was talk to both him and Jia properly. I gave them the full run down on me.
I’d felt they deserved it. They more than deserved to at least know me given that they’d risked their necks for me multiple times and we were in the height of it. There were no secrets now. I’d filled in all the blanks and even told them about Claire and Jack. They knew that to everybody else I was supposed to be dead and that just got wiped from my records so I could blend in when I became a knight.
