Read The Rules for Breaking Online

Authors: Ashley Elston

Tags: #Fiction

The Rules for Breaking (3 page)

BOOK: The Rules for Breaking
5.5Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Rules for disappearing
by Witness Protection prisoner #18A7R04M:

Most mistakes are made when you think no one is watching. And someone is always watching.

New rule by Anna Boyd:

If someone is always watching, don’t bother hiding. You’re just going to a lot of trouble for nothing.

did exactly what I thought he would do when we told him about the journal—he got pissed then called Agent Williams, the lead suit on our case.

The journal and note are in a plastic bag, as instructed, sitting on the coffee table. Agent Williams is coming to Natchitoches to get the journal.

Ethan paces around the room while Dad stews in his chair by the window. Thankfully, Teeny is still asleep.

“You need to make a list of everyone you know who touched your journal,” Dad says in a quiet voice.

“Why?” I squeak out.

“Because Agent Williams is going to run the cover and pages for prints, hoping to find some trace of…Thomas. There are other prints there—mine, yours, Ethan’s, and whoever else touched it—and he needs to weed those prints out.”

I’m curled up on the couch, trying not to be totally depressed. And scared. Agent Williams is coming back and I don’t know what that means. “Teeny may have touched it at some point,” I add.

“When will he be here?” Ethan asks.

“In a day or so. That’s the soonest he can manage. Until then, I want both of you to be extremely careful.” Dad holds up his hand, stopping me before I can interrupt him. “And I know what you’re going to say, Anna. I don’t care that it’s been a week and nothing else has happened. This guy is a killer. I want you staying close to home. Maybe even stay home from school until Agent Williams gets here.”

I burst up from the couch, pissed, and run to my room. It’s already started. My freedom is slipping away and the suits haven’t even gotten here yet. Throwing myself across my bed, I bury my face in my pillow.

It’s only a few minutes later when Ethan knocks on the door and pokes his head inside. “Can I come in?”

I nod and turn my head away from the door. I feel the bed dip when he sits down beside me.

The silence is heavy.

I glance around the room, absorbing each little piece of my time here. Photos cover a corkboard next to my dressing table showing new friends from Natchitoches next to the old ones from Scottsdale that I don’t have to hide anymore. A poster from a concert in Shreveport cozies up next to one promoting the Mardi Gras Ball I snagged from school. Mementos litter the dresser: a napkin from our favorite restaurant, tickets from the chick flick I dragged Ethan to, and a flyer from Pearl’s Pizzeria. It’s the room of a girl savoring every moment of freedom she has.

“I’m done running away.”

Ethan lies down next to me, linking his fingers with mine. “You don’t know that they’ll make you leave.” He pauses a moment before saying, “Would you have ever told me about the note?”

I turn around and face him, our noses just inches apart. “I’m not sure. I’d be lying if I said this doesn’t scare me. It does. It scares me to death. I don’t know what the suits are going to do. I don’t know if this warrants putting us back in protection. But if that’s what they want, I don’t think hiding is the answer. He found us before, and he’d find us again.”

Ethan whispers, “You have to promise me something. Don’t do anything risky. Promise me you’ll play this safe. We’ll figure it all out later but you have to be safe now.”

I want to give my word that I’ll do everything he’s asking for right now. But I can’t. I don’t know what the next few days hold, but I won’t sit back and be a victim of my own life. I couldn’t do it before and I sure as hell won’t do it now.

“Okay. I’ll try.”

Dad is true to his word; he’s not letting me out of his sight this morning. Even when I move from the kitchen to the den, he’s right behind me.

Teeny watches him pace back and forth around the room, looking out of the window every five minutes. “Dad, you’re acting like a freak this morning.” She’s lying across the couch, the book in her hand forgotten for the moment.

We haven’t told her what’s going on. She’ll find out soon enough and she might as well enjoy the last day of freedom. For her, I want reality to wait.

I gesture for him to knock it off—act normal—but he ignores me.

“Sissy, can we stop by Georgia’s house on the way to the store today? She’s letting me borrow a book and I want to start it tonight.”

Since today is Sunday, it’s also grocery store day. On Sundays, I always make a menu for the week and shop for what we need. I found out really quickly that having a plan is better than winging it. I’ve been playing Mom for longer than I like to think about and this was a hard-learned lesson.

“The shopping can wait,” Dad says from the corner of the room. “I thought, maybe, you both would like to come to work with me today.”

We try not to look at him like that’s the dumbest thing in the world he could have said. Dad still works at the factory where the suits stuck him when he first moved to Natchitoches. He’s not on the assembly line floor anymore, he’s in the accounting office, but I’m still really surprised he stayed since he could have easily gotten a better job. Maybe he felt uneasy working for another CPA firm after he found out his old firm was laundering money for drug dealers right under his nose.

“Are you serious?” Teeny screeches. “I only have two days off from school each week and there is no way I’m spending them hanging out in your little office at the factory. Please.”

Even though Teeny sounds like a complete brat, Dad and I smile. She hid in her shell for the majority of last year and any emotion—even bratty—is welcome. It means she’s back to her regular self.

I just pray she doesn’t relapse when Agent Williams shows.

Teeny goes back to her book and Dad motions for me to follow him to the kitchen. I’m barely through the door when he says, “I need to take care of some work so I’m free when Agent Williams gets here. He just called and said he’d be here just before noon tomorrow.”

“Dad, we can stay here. I’ll lock the door.”

He’s shaking his head before I finish. “No. That is not acceptable.”

“What if we hang out at Ethan’s while you’re gone?”

His face is unreadable while he considers this. “You go to Ethan’s and you come straight back here when I call you and tell you I’m home. Nowhere else. Do I have your word?”

I nod. “I’ll call him and tell him to come pick us up.”

Ethan is more than happy for us to hang out. He’s as worried as I am about what tomorrow will bring and it’s hard not to think today could be our last day together for a while.

Teeny talks the entire way to Ethan’s. She’s sandwiched between us in the front seat and is going on and on about some drama in her class between her friend, Georgia, and the boy she likes named Jimmy.

It’s a good thing it doesn’t take long to get to Ethan’s.

Teeny runs in the house as soon as she jumps out of the truck but Ethan holds me back. “For today, let’s not talk about what’s going on or try to guess what will happen next.”

“Or act like this might be our last day together?” I ask.

“No matter what, this won’t be our last day together,” he answers, his voice full of emotion. “Let’s try for a normal day, okay?”

“Okay.”

I love the feeling I get when I’m at Ethan’s house. Homey. Relaxed. Safe. I want a normal day more than anything else and I know this is the perfect place to get it.

It’s not long before Teeny and Mrs. Landry are baking cookies while Ethan and I settle in for a movie marathon.

Later that afternoon, just after Mrs. Landry invites us to stay for dinner, my phone starts ringing. I have to dig past the plastic bag–covered journal in my bag to find my phone. I’m not sure why I brought it with me. Even though it makes me feel nervous and sick, I can’t let it go.

I find my phone just before the call went to voice mail.

“Hello.”

“Where are you?” Dad all but screams on the other end.

“At Ethan’s. Why?”

“Did you come home at all after you left with him this morning?”

He’s frantic on the phone and it’s terrifying to hear.

“No! We’ve been here all day. Just like you said! Why?”

“Stay there. Don’t move. Someone’s been here. In the house. I’m calling the cops,” Dad says.

“What?” I scream.

Ethan’s head is close to mine, listening to Dad, and Teeny sticks her head out from the kitchen. It’s obvious something is terribly wrong. And I can tell by her face, she’s heard more of this than I wanted her to know.

“It has to be him! Who else could it be?” Dad’s voice catches when he says, “And the journal’s gone. If there were any prints there to identify him, it’s gone now.”

My eyes dart to my bag. “No. It’s not. The journal is with me, in my bag.”

“Sissy, what’s happening?” Teeny asks.

I pull her close to me and tell her what’s happened in as few words as possible.

“I want to see Dad,” she says.

Even though Dad told us to wait, Ethan, Teeny, and I run from the Landry’s house to Ethan’s truck parked outside.

Expecting Ethan to crank the truck, I throw on my seat belt, but he sits still in his seat, staring at the cup holders.

“My remote to the farm is gone.”

“What?” I lift my bag from off the floorboard. “Maybe it fell, like before.” I search under the seat but it’s not there.

“No, I saw it in the cup holder right after we got out of the truck earlier.” He turns around and surveys the backseat, too. “My backpack is still there but it’s open and papers are hanging out.”

Ethan is meticulous with his things. His bag never looks that messy.

“Do you think…” Teeny starts but clamps her mouth shut. I can tell she is trying very hard not to burst into tears.

Ethan is pissed. “I think someone has been through my truck.”

He cranks his truck and we race to my house. Ethan calls his dad and tells him to change the code on the gate to the farm. By the time we pull into my driveway, cops are already there.

Teeny and I both run inside and launch ourselves at Dad the second we see him. He hugs us back, hard, and starts crying.

He mumbles the same sentence over and over. “What if you had been here? What if you had been here?”

“We think someone went through Ethan’s truck, too,” I tell him.

Dad leans closer and Ethan tells him everything that was out of place or missing in his truck.

I look around the house while they talk and it’s not completely obvious someone had been there. It’s the little things like drawers left open and the scattered stack of mail on the desk instead of the neat pile it was in this morning. It’s not like our house was ransacked, it’s just a little disturbed.

Just like Ethan’s truck.

An officer approaches us and Teeny grabs my hand so hard I almost yell out.

“I need to ask you just a few questions. When was the last time you were here today?”

I glance back at Ethan. My brain has turned to mush and I can’t even remember what the date is today.

“I picked them up around ten thirty this morning. Mr. Boyd was still here. We drove straight to my house where we stayed all day,” Ethan answers him. I wait for him to tell the officer about his truck, but he stays quiet.

The officer jots his reply in his little notebook then looks back at me. “Can you walk around the house with me and tell me what you think is different from this morning, or if you notice something missing?”

“Yes. Of course.” I follow behind him, feeling numb. There are officers everywhere. It reminds me of the house in Scottsdale after Thomas took the ledgers. Flashes pop and every surface is coated with a fine, black dust. If it was Thomas who broke in, my guess is they won’t find a single print of his anywhere. I reach behind me for Ethan’s hand and I feel better the second his fingers wrap around mine.

We’re in the kitchen and I make a full turn around the room. “Those cookbooks were in the cabinet, not out on the counter. I remember because I wiped down that counter after breakfast because it was sticky from the syrup Teeny spilled.”

I move near the phone and I can’t stop the chills that race through my body. “My school backpack was on the floor right here,” I say as I point to the ground. “It’s gone.”

BOOK: The Rules for Breaking
5.5Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

The Yellow Cat Mystery by Ellery Queen Jr.
Scotched by Kaitlyn Dunnett
Frogmouth by William Marshall
Dark of Night - Flesh and Fire by Jonathan Maberry, Rachael Lavin, Lucas Mangum
The Chosen by Celia Thomson
Garbo Laughs by Elizabeth Hay
The Marine's Queen by Susan Kelley
The Preachers Son by Carl Weber