“Yes,” I whispered, my words filled with worry.
“Okay. Stay calm, okay,” he said.
Stay calm? Really? I was passed that.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“Bathroom.” My simple answer.
“Okay. I’ll have someone there very soon. But I need you to listen, okay. You will walk back out there in in just a few minutes. Don’t give away that you called me, or have any way of calling me. I’ll be deactivating your phone after this call, so he can’t try to use it against you. When you walk out there, don’t say anything. Do whatever he wants. Just don’t leave the house with him, okay. Stay inside. My men will be there in less than ten minutes.”
“Okay,” I breathed.
“You’ll be okay,” he said.
“He has a gun,” I breathed out.
“So do you. Taylor has guns hidden throughout the house. Can you find one?”
“There’s none in the bathroom.”
“That’s fine,” Kent said easily as though it didn’t matter.
“Hurry up!” Aaron shouted out, causing me to jump.
“Go on,” Kent said. “Put your phone in a pad or something, then go back out there. Just hang in there, Avidya.”
He hung up, expecting me to do just that. Which I did, of course. I quickly stuffed the phone into a bag of pads that had gone unused. I had just turned off the water as the door swung open, an angry filled Aaron in the doorway.
“You done?” he asked.
I nodded my head, watching him in fear.
He moved his head to the side, indicating that I needed to go to the living room as he waited. Once there, I took a seat on the couch, my hands folded protectively around my stomach. I wished I had worn a shirt that didn’t show off my baby bump today. With my arms folded over my baby, I felt him kick a few times, more than normal. The ache in my gut was still there. Not sharp, but annoyingly so.
“Is he okay?” I asked towards Taylor.
“He’ll be fine,” Aaron said. “But you are one hard gal to track down, did ya know that?”
I shrugged in answer.
“Let me tell ya this,” he went on, swinging his gun around in the air. I couldn’t help but grimace at his actions. Did he even know how to use thatthinghe had in his hand? “I wasn’t sure what I want to do with ya. I knew thatwomandidn’t do as I had told her to do. I knew what would happen if I ever had a spawn with my blood. I knew what fate would be laid out clear as day.
“I always made sure that I had no one to keep the blood of my family going. I am sure you know about how powerful it had once been. Everyone wants to blame me for not doing my part or not selling the drugs that I was meant to sell. Does it really matter, though?”
He paused, seeming to debate on something as Taylor grunted in his seat as he came back to the real world.
“So, what do you want with me, then?” I asked. After all this time, he had to want something.
“I had planned to just kill ya. I had someone that was meant to do that, but apparently, he was on the payroll of your so-called husband. Stupid of him, but I guess someone took him out before I could for failing at doing his job. Where is that husband, anyhow?” he asked, rubbing his chin with the butt of the gun.
I couldn’t help but mentally laugh at how stupid he was. I may not know how to use a gun all that well, but I knew the basics. Never point it at yourself unless you intended to use to kill yourself.
“Not here,” I said, my voice stronger than I expected as I said the words. “He didn’t want me.”
“Why? He was so intent on keeping you safe,” he said, genuinely worried about that. He slowly pointed the gun at the floor. “His family is always here.”
“Because they don’t trust me to not blab my mouth,” I lied. “I wasn’t the girl he wanted after he found out I wouldn’t bow to his wishes.”
