Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) (31 page)

‘
Chris is right honey,’ Anna whispered at my side. ‘We won, and
once we deliver our message, we’ll be free.’

I shook my head and replied, ‘But there’re too many questions
still left without answers. What if there is someone else
behind
New Dawn
?
What if we’re revelling in our victory prematurely?’

Chris
sighed and his eyes were filled with pity.

‘
Lucas,’ Anna said as she tugged at my sleeve,
‘c’mere.’

She
stood and headed into our bedroom, and I joined her. She paced by
the bed, her hand pinched her nose.

‘
What’s up?’ I asked.

‘
What’s up?’ Anna snapped and I recoiled in surprise. ‘We get
everything we’ve worked for, everything Jessica and Paul died for,
that
we
almost
died for, and you’re keeping it going!?’

I
couldn’t speak, I could only stare wide-eyed. Anna stopped and
crossed her arms, her eyes darkened with anger, and my heart
jolted.

‘
We won,’ she fumed. ‘We won, Lucas. We fought, we fought and
fought and fought, and we
won
! Can’t you accept that? Why do
you want to keep it going? Chris is right, your Dad was a cruel
bastard, and you’re going to let him keep you in this state of fear
and paranoia?’

‘
But-’ I started.

‘
No!’ Anna shouted. ‘No buts! We did what we planned, Lucas.
It’s over now. We can finally get some semblance of our lives back.
We are not going back.

‘
You are not taking us back.’

I was
stunned, and after her final sentence she left the room. Was Anna
right? Was I falling into another of my father’s traps? He always
had commented on my predictability, how he could manipulate me. But
all the questions I had. My instincts screamed and burned, there
was something there, something to my doubts. Or was there? I shook
my head and just managed stop myself from punching something. Anna
and Chris were right. I wouldn’t let my father bury himself inside
my mind and poison it.

It was
time to have our lives back.

‘
Lucas!’ Anna shouted. ‘You need to come through.’

I took a
deep breath and headed for the door. I was hesitant about joining
them again, I had never argued before with Anna, and it was new
experience I wasn’t keen on revisiting. I shouldn’t have worried
though. As I entered the room, Anna had Alex clutched in her arms
and Chris stood in front of them defensively.

At the
door to the corridor, a man stood steady, his hands clasped at his
front.

A
stranger had entered our home.

The Blackmail

‘
I assure you,’ the man broke the silence, ‘I’m not here to
harm any of you.’

No one
moved. The stranger didn’t look worried, serene almost. He looked
young, mid-twenties at a stretch, but there was a glint in his grey
eyes, something that whispered danger. His brown hair was short,
and the silence grew longer as everyone remained
immobile.

‘
Who are you?’ Chris asked.

‘
You contacted me,’ the man replied. ‘Where is Jessica? You
said she was in trouble.’

‘
She’s dead,’ I said.

The
man’s eyes darted at mine. His features hadn’t moved, but his hands
unclasped, and his posture changed.

‘
By your hand?’ he asked the room.

‘
No,’ Chris said. ‘We didn’t kill her and the person who did is
dead. Jessica was one of us.’

The
stranger nodded, but didn’t look convinced. A click brought his
eyes up, and Brian appeared behind him, a gun aimed at his
head.

‘
Brian,’ Anna warned.

‘
It’s quite alright Ms,’ the stranger nodded.

He
turned unexpectedly and knocked the gun from Brian’s hand before he
pulled the boy’s shirt and threw him into the room. Brian thudded
to the ground and crawled backwards.

‘
May I see Jessica?’ the assassin enquired.

Chris
nodded and glared down at Brian. He shot a quick glance my way
before leading the man through to the other room. While they were
gone, I walked over to the fallen gun and put it by my waist. I
couldn’t be too careful.

Both men
were gone for nearly half an hour, and when they returned, the man
stopped in the doorway again.

‘
Guys this is Daniel,’ Chris said as he walked over to Brian
and his array of computers. ‘I’ve explained to him what happened,
and he’s willing to help.’

I sighed
with relief, and Anna’s eyes lit up.

‘
Jessica was a friend,’ Daniel said, and he re-clasped his
hands in front of him. ‘If she fought with you for those goals,
then I will make sure to honour her wishes.’

‘
Can you?’ I asked. ‘I mean, do you know exactly who employed
her?’

Daniel
shook his head as Chris returned to him and handed a USB drive
over.

‘
Not exactly,’ Daniel answered, ‘but generally, yes. I would
also like to take her with me.’

‘
No,’ Anna said, and she chuckled nervously at her own
forcefulness. ‘Sorry, I just mean we have a promise to keep for
her, her dying wish to finish.’

‘
We take care of our own,’ Daniel pushed.

‘
So do we,’ I said, backing Anna up.

Daniel
contemplated that. Eventually he nodded, but he didn’t look
particularly happy.

‘
If you could get that to where it belongs as fast as
possible,’ Chris said, ‘it would be majorly
appreciated.’

Again
Daniel nodded, but he stayed rooted to the spot. He must have
sensed our discomfort because he moved into the room, and everyone
stiffened. He walked over to Anna, and I stepped up to her side.
Daniel smiled, stopped and raised his hand in surrender. He dug
into his pocket and retrieved a small card.

‘
Jessica spoke very highly of you,’ he said to Anna and handed
her the card. ‘These are various ways you can contact me, none of
which can be traced. If you ever need to, consider me at your
service.’

For
someone so young, Daniel’s voice and words made him sound far
older. There was a maturity and grace to him that frightened me,
and after an incline of his head, he left the room and made his way
out of the building. The rest of us remained still, our hopes
continued to climb while we tried to keep them at bay. If Daniel
came through, if the message got to its recipient, if the blackmail
had the desired effect, we would be free.

We would
be free.

*

‘
I’m sorry,’ Anna said, ‘about before.’

We had
retired for the night to our respective rooms. Alex slept soundly
in his crib, and Anna and I sat cross-legged on the bed facing one
another. We’d been sitting in silence, the both of us working our
way through our thoughts. I reached out and clasped her hand. Our
eyes met, and in hers, I could see the reflection of the stars that
clung to the sky. Anna meant the world to me and both she and Alex
were the two most important beings in my life.

‘
No, I’m sorry,’ I sighed. ‘You’re right, you’re always
right.’

She
smirked and replied, ‘Of course I’m always right.’

I
laughed, and Anna joined in. It was beyond refreshing, beyond any
simple word to describe good feelings.

‘
I don’t think I’ll ever get past it,’ I said once we’d
stopped, ‘the paranoia. It’s always going to be there. But I’ll
try, I promise you, I’ll try to work past it, for you, for Alex,
for us.’

‘
I’ll be here to tether you,’ Anna whispered. ‘I’ll always be
right here.’

I smiled
and pulled her forward and embraced her. My lips found hers, and
when we separated, I rested my forehead on hers. It didn’t take
long, both us being exhausted, but we lay down in each other’s
arms, and passed into sleep.

*

I had
just showered the next day when it happened. I stared at the small
vial in my hands, the one I’d lifted from Digilock. My mind tangled
with itself over the loss of my abilities. Would they come back? Or
would I remain the way I was? What would happen if I needed them,
if the fight wasn’t truly over? I couldn’t figure out if injecting
myself with it would make a difference. I’d already had it, already
been changed. Whatever aspects of my DNA had been altered were no
doubt still altered, but maybe it could kick-start my
abilities…….

‘
Guys!’ Chris shouted. ‘Come here! Hurry up, come
on!’

I
replaced the vial in its hiding place, a loose tile I’d pulled up
in the bathroom, and then dug a hole under. I then raced back to
the War Room, my senses and nerves on high alert. When I made it
into the room, everyone was crowded round a screen at Brian’s desk.
Their faces were focussed solely on one screen, and even when I
spoke, no one looked at me.

‘
Rewind it,’ Chris said to Brian.

I took
up a place behind them and crossed my arms. The video they were
watching had been posted on a news website, and once Brian hit
play, a reporter jumped to life on the screen. The man looked
determined as he stared at the camera. His surroundings looked
familiar, with the backdrop being an electronics store. Televisions
in the window played various shows.

It was
the site where an assassin by the name of Danny had tried to kill
us with a truck, and the place we had been framed for his
suicide.

‘
Almost three months ago, this site was where a man was
supposedly murdered,’ the reporter read from the cue. ‘For three
months, Lucas Bishop, Anna Gordon, and Christopher Ritchie, the
three main suspects of the crime, have been relentlessly pursued.
After much police investigation however, our sources have reported
that these three individuals have been unduly
suspected.’

We held
our breaths as our faces filled the screen. There wasn’t the
previous shot of us covered in blood and fleeing the scene, but the
pictures they’d managed to scrape up from various places flashed
by. Our hope was palpable.

‘
The recent connection and police interest in them for the
bombing of the highland town Greystone has also been disproved. The
police today arrested countless individuals from a gunfight that
happened around two days ago at a company by the name of Digilock.
Sources close to the investigation informed us that these men and
women, many of whom were killed in the shootout, are domestic
terrorists, and were operating under the name
New Dawn.
’

I shook
my head incredulous.

‘
From what’s been gathered, we’ve concluded that their group’s
mission was to cause instability within the government, and cause
civil distress. Authorities are keen to trace down the three
falsely accused individuals and offer them their deepest apologies,
but as of now, there are no leads to their whereabouts.’

Brian
stopped the video, but none of us moved or averted our eyes. It had
worked. Daniel had come through. Whoever had pulled the strings
from their place in power had backed off. It had worked.

As if in
unison, the four of us broke out into laughter. We whooped and
cheered, danced and hugged. Even Brian’s new attitude was
overwhelmed as he broke into a huge grin, a welcome reprieve from
his face’s usual snarl. Alex began to cry from his crib, and Anna
rushed over to lift him. I joined her and laughed and tickled our
startled baby. Eventually he couldn’t keep up his cries, and Alex
joined us in confused euphoria.

‘
We did,’ Brian gasped. ‘We actually did it.’

We all
nodded.

‘
So what do we do?’ he followed up.

I had
that answer. I kissed Alex on the forehead and turned.

‘
We bury the ones we love,’ I smiled.

The Wish

The next
day we got to work. Blessed with our new freedom, we decided to
celebrate, to pull on our almost forgotten sense of fun, and make
it our new goal. Chris enlisted Brian to help him with Paul’s body.
There was a place a few miles outside of town, a cabin of sorts,
buried in the woods. It was a retreat that belonged to Chris and
his wife before things went to hell, and he’d contemplated taking
us there once we had escaped Greystone. He’d deemed it too risky;
it in all likelihood being one of the first places people would
look for us. Paul’s body would be buried in a clearing not far from
the cabin, and we would hold a service once things were guaranteed
to have settled.

We
hadn’t forgotten Jessica’s final wish, but moving one body would be
difficult enough without having to move another elsewhere. We might
have regained our freedom, but that just meant we couldn’t afford
to make a stupid mistake.

‘
You ready?’ Anna asked as she finished strapping Alex into the
harness around her torso.

I smiled
as he grabbed for her hair and she squealed in mock shock that sent
our son into fits of laughter.

‘
I guess we should go before any more powerful organisations
turn their sights on us,’ I chuckled.