Deception (8 page)

I was about to roll over when a noise boomed through the speakers on either side of the bed, making Aiden and me jerk to a sitting position. We both looked at each other, hoping for an explanation of the creepy music blasting through the speakers. Aiden slowly averted his eyes to look down the length of the room. His eyes widened, and he drew in a sharp breath.

I slowly turned my gaze to follow Aiden’s, and then I stopped breathing.

The TV above the bed was on, showing footage of the very bedroom we were in. The camera moved unsteadily towards the bed, until we could see ourselves sleeping. Aiden was sprawled on his back with the sheet covering him from his hips down, and I was lying on my stomach, my face towards Aiden.

The camera moved to my side of the bed, stopping just inches from my face. We could hear heavy breathing as a gloved hand reached out and brushed my hair away from my face. It then stroked my cheek before pulling back out of the camera’s view. The camera receded slowly.

Then, keeping the camera trained on us, the cameraman went around to Aiden’s side of the bed and zoomed in on his face. A second later, the shiny blade of a hunter’s knife appeared. He slowly swiped the tip of the blade from one side of Aiden’s neck to the other.

I nearly emptied my stomach contents while watching the display of how easy it would be for him to gut Aiden like a fish. But the blade always stopped just short of slicing his skin.

Instinctively, I reached out and patted his stomach, making sure he was still in one piece. Aiden grabbed my hand and squeezed tightly. Neither of us was able to speak. The screen suddenly went blank, then a message appeared.

It would be wise for you to remember who is in control.

How easy it would be to end the lives of those you care about the most… DD

A woman’s scream blasted through the speakers, then the TV screen went blank.

Neither of us moved straightaway. The implications of what we had just seen rendered us speechless. I was sure it was him. I was sure the cameraman had been my father. He had been right beside us, and we hadn’t even known. Vulnerability consumed me completely. He had touched us, not just physically, but mentally, as well. How were we supposed to ever sleep again?

Anna and Dave burst into the room. “What’s happened?” Dave asked as they both rushed to our bed.

Anna phased out and reappeared in the middle of the bed, her legs bent under her as she faced Aiden and me. She reached out and placed one hand on each of us, trying to drain the fear we were both so clearly feeling. She had to be worried if Aiden wasn’t able to do it himself.

Once we were both breathing at a regular pace, she placed her hands in her lap. “Now, can one of you tell us what happened?”

Dave continued to look around the room, trying to find the source of our fear.

I slowly turned to Aiden. His face was still pale, and I could only imagine that mine was, too. I didn’t think either of us would be able to
tell
them, so I opened my mind up to let them see for themselves.

Aiden put his arm around my waist.
“Put it back up. I’ve already let them into my mind. They know what happened.”

I quickly put up my mind shields. The expressions on Anna’s and Dave’s faces confirmed they had definitely seen everything. Anna looked as though she were going to puke, and Dave paced the room, looking as if he wanted to smash something.

“That’s it, we’re going back to round-the-clock watching over them two.” He pointed at Aiden and me.

I didn’t like the idea of being babysat again, but I preferred it to the alternative—allowing him access to us while we were at our most vulnerable.

“Or we can just go somewhere nobody knows about,” Aiden said, giving us another choice. “A place nobody but the two of us knows about.”

“That could work,” Anna said, sounding hopeful.

“I don’t know,” Dave said, crossing his arms across his chest. “I still like the idea of one of us watching them around the clock.”

“But if we found somewhere nobody knows about, then wouldn’t we be safe?”

Dave looked like he was going to protest, but Aiden added, “How could he find out when we don’t even know about the place ourselves, and when we do figure it out, then there would be no way he could find out now that Jade has figured out how to block her thoughts.”

But Chelsea couldn’t block her thoughts. “Chelsea,” I said, letting them know where I was going before disappearing. I phased into her room, where I found her lying in bed, breathing steadily as she slept.

A moment later, Aiden appeared in the room. “You can’t just wait for one of us to come with you, can you?” He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind. He rested his chin against the top of my head.
“She’s okay, he hasn’t done anything to her.”

“I know. But I’m not leaving her alone, and I don’t want her hearing about what happened. I don’t want her to have to worry about something else on top of her mum, and Ben…”
I turned around and buried my face in his chest.

“Don’t ever think this is your fault.”
He rubbed my back.

“How can I not think it’s my fault, ’cause it is. It is my fault.”
I started to sob quietly.
“If it wasn’t for me, none of this would be happening. Ben would still be alive. Marie wouldn’t be in hospital. And you… You’d be safer if I wasn’t in your life.”
I choked on my words even though I wasn’t actually speaking them.

He pulled back and tilted my chin with his finger so I had to look into his eyes.
“Don’t you ever say that. Don’t you ever even think that. You are my life, and I’m never going to be anywhere but by your side.”

Tears slipped from my eyes, and Aiden brushed them away with his thumbs.
“Look, we’re in this together, and there is no place I’d rather be. Okay?”

“You guys are friggin’ weird,” Chelsea said, interrupting our silent conversation.

I quickly wiped away the rest of my tears before turning to her. “Sorry, we didn’t mean to wake you.”

Chelsea yawned. “So, what were you guys doing here?” she asked, rubbing her eyes. “You better not have been watching me sleep, ’cause that’s a little creepy.” She didn’t know the half of it.

“No, Chels,” Aiden said with a laugh. “We were just coming to tell you Lucas asked us to ask you if you’re still up for Disneyland?”

“Say what?”
I said silently to Aiden at the same time as Chelsea jumped out of bed.

“Are you serious?” she asked.

“Come on, it’s the perfect solution to keeping her safe while giving us some time to process what has just happened,”
Aiden said.

Knowing Aiden was right didn’t make letting her out of my sight any easier, but it was for the best. Putting a big smile on my face, I slowly turned to Chelsea. “Yes, we’re serious.”

“Oh, my God. I can’t believe it. I’m going to Disneyland,” she squealed as she did a little happy dance beside us as if she were ten, not eighteen. “This is so awesome. You guys are coming, right?”

I shook my head.

“Nope, sorry,” Aiden said before I had a chance to open my mouth. “I’ve finally managed to convince Jade to go talk to her mum—”

“Say what?”

Ignoring me, Aiden continued, “We thought you’d much rather go have some fun with Lucas than have to listen to the two of them trying to work things out.”

“I would, but…” The smile on her face dropped. “I can come with you if you want my support. You know, someone who isn’t afraid to stand by you and tell your mum when she’s full of it,” she said, giving Aiden the evils. She was thinking about how he had tried to make me listen to what my mum had to say instead of being pissed at her for lying to me.

Thankful I had such a great friend, I pulled Chelsea into a hug. I didn’t know what I would do without her, and that was a big part of the reason I was so hesitant to let her go with Lucas. But she deserved to have fun. She certainly didn’t deserve to be caught up in all my mess.

Keeping one arm around her shoulders, I stepped to her side. “Nah, you go and have fun. I’m sure Aiden will be a lot more supportive this time, won’t you, Aiden?”

“Yep. I’ll be all Team Jade.” Aiden flicked his wrists in a pathetic attempt at a cheer.

“See?” I said, turning to Chelsea. “We’ve got it covered.”

She raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say any more.

***

Right after we left Chelsea in her bedroom to get changed, Aiden called Lucas to fill him in on where he was supposed to be going as we
walked
downstairs to the lounge room. Luckily, Lucas didn’t have any plans and was more than happy to pop over to the US for a bit.

“What do you think about going to see your mum again?” Aiden asked, putting the phone in his pocket.

“I don’t see why we need to speak with her,” I said, being my usual stubborn self.

Aiden turned me around to face him. He tilted his head to the side and sighed.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I said, hating the way I felt when he thought I was being childish. I kind of was, but I didn’t want him to point it out.

“You know it’s the best thing to do. We need answers, and your mum may be the only person who can give them to us.”

I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right—again. I so wasn’t ready to face my mum again. And who was to say she was going to start telling me the truth, anyway? I looked down at my feet. “I don’t know if I can trust her,” I said softly.

Aiden pulled me into his embrace. He kissed my cheek before whispering in my ear, “What choice do we have?”

I had only one answer to that question—none. “Fine,” I said begrudgingly.

He squeezed my sides. “Let’s go tell Anna and Dave about our plan.”

I wasn’t sure they were still in the bedroom, so I focused on the calmer of the two and transported us both to Anna.

We ended up in the main lounge room. Anna was on the couch, curled up under Dave’s arm. She was holding a cup of tea, and two cups of coffee that I guessed were waiting for Aiden and me sat on the coffee table in front of them.

We each picked up a cup, then sat down on the couch adjacent to them. “Thanks,” I said, before taking a sip of coffee.

Dave cleared his throat. “I know you’re probably not going to like this, but we were thinking…” He paused to look at Anna for a moment before turning back to us. “We were thinking it would be best for you to make amends with your mum.”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise at how much Aiden thought like his father, but he must have taken it the wrong way, because he quickly defended his suggestion. “I know you’re probably thinking it’s a bad idea, but she knows him better than any one of us, and right now, we need all the help we can get. And—”

“Ahh, Dad,” Aiden said.

“Mmm?”

“Jade’s already agreed to go see her.”

“Oh,” he said, sounding surprised.

“When are you going to go see her?” Anna asked, then took a sip of her tea.

“After we have something to eat.”

“Okay, well, you make sure you come straight back here after you’ve finished. I don’t want either of you being alone,” Dave said, sounding all parental, which was really weird of him. I guessed that until then, he had probably believed my father wouldn’t harm one of us, but when he saw what the bastard did to his son… A shiver ran down my spine. I couldn’t even bear to think about what he had almost done to Aiden. He could have easily taken him from me as he had taken my mother.

“We’ll come back as soon as we’ve finished,” I assured him.

“Good. We’ll probably still be up. I don’t think either of us can sleep after what happened tonight.”

I glanced up at the clock on the wall—10 p.m. God, I really needed to set my body clock to one continent. But I guess if I did, then we would’ve been buggered having to go to the US when we should have been sleeping.

Aiden stood up. “We’re just going down to the kitchen to get something to eat. Then we’ll be off in about fifteen.”

“Good luck,” Anna said to me with a smile, which I returned.

I managed a thanks just before Aiden whipped us away. We arrived in the kitchen, my back to the bench.

Aiden opened the fridge. “Want anything?”

“No thanks,” I said, leaning against the bench. I didn’t think I could stomach anything after our private little movie.

Aiden pulled out leftovers from dinner, put them on the bench, and then stood in front of me, with one arm on either side of me. “You’re worried, aren’t you?”

At moments like that, I hated that he couldn’t see what I was thinking for himself. I had so many mixed feelings that were hard to put it into words, but I couldn’t risk leaving my mind open, just in case my father was around. “I’m mostly worried she won’t tell me the truth. I mean, she hasn’t done a good job of it so far, so why would she start now?”

“Well, she did tell you that he
is
your father. She could have kept that from you and just made up some other story, so maybe she’s ready to start being honest with you.”

I smiled tightly. “I hope you’re right.”

“But?”

He knew me too well. Of course, there was a but. I just didn’t want to have to say what the but was. “I’ve got a funny feeling there’s a whole lot more she’s not telling me.”

He thought about it for a minute before answering. “You’re probably right. But wouldn’t you rather know what it is she is hiding instead of guessing?”

“How old are you, again?” I joked. He always sounded wise beyond his years.

He laughed. “I’m about to turn eighteen, or have you forgotten?”

Sadly, his birthday had slipped my mind. But I denied it. “Of course I haven’t.” I stood on my tippy toes and kissed him gently on the lips. He put his arm around my waist, pulling me against him, my body melting into his.

My phone rang, and I reluctantly tore my lips away from his to answer it. “Hello,” I said, a little short of breath.

“I hope I didn’t interrupt anything,” Chelsea said sarcastically.

Crap. I had been dreading going to see my mother so much that I’d forgotten Chelsea was even in the house.