Chapter Twenty-One

Trick

“W ell, we can wait,” I reply.

We are all on the same page in this situation, and we know that we are willing to wait it out for as long as necessary if we can ensure that they are safe. Unfortunately, we don’t have the means or the time to make sure that they really are safe, but we can at least make sure that they leave the city. The fucker who was going to sell her is dead and won’t be causing either of them any more problems, so really, the only threat now is the dealer, and if he decides to go back on his word, although I don’t really know why he would.

We all get in the truck, Cash holding tightly onto the envelope that has his letter, the details of the booked B she could see through it. I mean, why would someone leave a giant inheritance and no house? If she starts asking questions around the town, then she will quickly realize that she has no link there. We are all hoping that she chooses not to though. We are hoping that she sees it as a ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth ’ situation. If she gets worried about where the money has come from, she can take all the information to someone at the bank, and they will reassure her that it's all legitimate. At least the money is.

When we get to the apartment building, we park so that we can see the building but with other vehicles, so we don’t stand out. We don’t want to worry her or make her suspicious. We also double check that there is no one here doing the same thing that we are doing, and watching the building. I want to make sure that Jimmy hasn’t sent anyone to watch the place.

Again, there is no reason why he would, but we want to be sure that he hasn’t, and I would much rather be safe than sorry, especially in this situation.

“I’ll drop it in,” Cash says as he puts some sunglasses on. It’s hot today, so wearing a hoody would just make him stand out.

He actually has the best disguise anyway, because no one would suspect a teenager. It’s unlikely that anyone is going to look at camera footage, in fact, the place is so run down I doubt that it has security cameras installed. But he will wear sunglasses and keep his head angled down just in case when he delivers the letter.

We have tried to make the envelope look like it wasn’t hand delivered, with all of the various markings that it would have in order to be delivered here from the fake lawyer’s office. A hand delivered letter would immediately raise suspicions. We all watch Cash as he crosses the street and into the building, the fact that there isn’t a code or anything on the door gives me hope that if there are security cameras there, they won’t be operational.

It’s a tense wait in the car, waiting for him to come back, but he finally does, a smile on his face as he walks back across the road and hops into the car.

“Did everything go okay?” Jensen asks.

Cash nods, “Yeah, I put it in her mailbox, and the mail was still in there, so it should just blend in.”

“Great,” I reply. “I guess we now sit and wait.”

“We could always do shifts?” Luc suggests.

Everyone hums, but no one offers to leave. I think we all want to stay here and make sure that she and the kid are safe. Besides, we only have one vehicle, so we would have to leave and take whoever wasn’t doing the shift back to the house and that would take a while, and mean that the apartment building isn’t being watched, so we can’t really leave anyway.

Finally, we see her and the kid come back, it’s the evening and we’ve taken it in turns to leave the car and use the bathroom in a little café down the street and get coffee too.

She’s wearing a waitressing uniform, and he’s carrying a backpack. I would be willing to bet that he went to work with her and hung out in a corner.

“Now, we wait,” I mutter.

We don’t have to wait as long as I thought we would. About an hour or so later, a taxi pulls up outside the building. The taxi is only waiting for a few moments before Rebecca and Fredrick come rushing out of the door, both of them carrying at least two bags each. Fredrick has a massive smile on his still bruised face, while Rebecca looks nervous. As she looks around, no doubt checking to make sure they aren’t being watched or that her partner isn’t anywhere around, there is a slither of hope in her eyes, and I hope that it grows and she finally feels like she’s safe.

“Well, that was quicker than I thought it would be,” Cash says.

I start the truck and pull out after them, following a few cars behind so that she doesn’t notice us, “Well, she was clearly more prepared to escape than we gave her credit for. Keep an eye out in case we aren’t the only ones that are following her.”

“Got it,” Riot replies for everyone.

I haven’t noticed anyone following us, or her, but the more eyes that we have checking that she isn’t being followed the better. The fact that she was ready to leave so damn quickly just goes to show how afraid she was and how much she wanted out of the situation that she was in.

“Does anyone see anything?” I ask when we are twenty minutes into the journey, and I know that the turn for the airport is coming up soon.

“No, I haven’t spotted anything,” Riot replies.

“Me neither,” Jensen adds, his eyes still on the cars around us.

Luc shakes his head, “I’ve seen a couple of really bad drivers, but no one that I would be concerned about. None of them were following the taxi.”

“Good,” I reply, as I pull into the airport a few cars behind them.

I try to follow as subtly as I can but it’s not as easy as it is in city traffic. I’m hoping that they will just think it’s a coincidence if they do notice us, it’s an airport, it’s going to get used by lots of people. We end up pulling into the line to drop people off and we all watch as she jumps out pulling on the bags and then grabbing hold of her son’s hand tightly.

Even from here it is obvious to see that the hope in her eyes has grown, a lot.

We watch as they rush into the airport and then I pull back out of the line, and we head back the way we came. A massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders knowing that both of them are safe. We have done as much as we possibly can to ensure that they are safe, with the resources that we have.

“When is the next flight?” Riot asks.

“Hang on a second, and I’ll check,” Cash replies, “I honestly thought that they wouldn’t leave this quickly, so I didn’t bother to check the flight times.”

“I don’t think anyone did,” Jensen replies, “I mean, she’s just up and left a job and an apartment.”

“We gave her enough cash that she would have been able to pay for it if she had a lease or something,” Riot says.

“Yeah, we did,” I reply.

“Hopefully, the cops won’t think that she was involved in the disappearance of the target,” Luc frowns.

“I doubt that they will even be made aware that he’s missing. The only person who could have reported him missing was Rebecca, and she didn’t stick around long enough to know that he was missing. Jimmy isn’t likely to report him missing since he was the one that shot him, and he most likely has people in the force to cover shit up anyway. They weren’t married, and he didn’t have a job,” Cash starts to explain and then adds, “She is probably safer and less likely to be accused in this situation than anyone else.”

“Thank fuck,” I reply.

My sentiment is echoed around the car.

“Did you find the next flight?” Jensen asks.

Cash nods, “Yeah, it’s in about twenty minutes; they are cutting it really close.”

“They will be okay,” I reply. Reassuring myself and the others. “When is the next one?”

“Three hours later,” he replies.

“Okay, that’s not too bad,” Riot says.

“Are we going to head home?” Luc asks.

I nod, “Yeah, I don’t think we should hang around for any longer than we have to, and now that we know that the kid and his mom are safe.”

“Yeah, I think that you are right,” Cash agrees.

We hadn’t actually unpacked, so it takes no time at all to load everything into the truck, make sure that the house is clean and there is no trace of us, and then we head out.

As we leave the city, heading home after what feels like way longer than a few days, I say, “I’m glad that we managed to do a good thing and help someone get out of a shitty situation.”

“But?” Rafe signs.

“But, I wish that we had found Ever instead,” I reply honestly.

“Me too,” Cash agrees. “Let’s go home.”