You'll Always Be Mine (17 page)

              I balled my hands into fists to attempt to suppress my anger. Not only would I have to get Elizabeth out of here as soon as possible, I would have to sedate her so that she wouldn’t give anything away. That would also make me have to take a trip down to the pharmacy to get the drugs I needed.

              I stood from my seat and walked outside of the house, the cold air smacking against my face. I strolled over to the side of the house where a handle rose from the ground. Grabbing the handle, I pulled it with all my strength and swung the door open. I jumped into the darkness and switched on the nearest light.

              I could hear Liza’s smallest cries from here, which made me frown. She didn’t understand that I didn’t want to hurt her but sometimes she gave me no choice.  Making my way down to the door at the end of the hallway, I pulled out a single key from my pocket. I jiggled the key into the lock of the door and swung the door open. “Elizabeth,” I said calmly, “Are you awake?”

              Her head hung down as she stared at the floor, refusing to bring her gaze to mine.

              “I have good news for you,”

              Her eyes shot up immediately with curiosity.

              “We’re going home!” I exclaimed.

              “We?”

              I nearly laughed, “Yes, we.” I walked over to her and ran my fingers through her hair. “I’ve bought us a house in Montana. I was originally planning to move next week, but things have been brought up and we’re going to make an earlier departure.”

              She shook her head in disbelief and turned away from me.

              “Is there something wrong, my love?” I asked her, stroking her cheek with the back of my hand.

              “If you honestly think I’m going to Colorado with you then you’ve officially gone crazy.” she spat, “The police are going to be here any minute now and they’re going to kill you. If they don’t, then I’ll do it myself.”

              I was taken aback by her comment before I hardened my expression. “Elizabeth, they’re not coming for you. They’ll never even get the chance because I’ll kill them all for trying to take you away from me.”

              “Why?” she asked, her voice cracking. “Why do you kill people?”

              “Why do I kill people?” I repeated, taking the time to think about the question. “I never wanted to hurt anybody, Liza. But when people get in my way and make things difficult for me then I have no other choice.”

              “You always have a choice,” she snapped back at me. “You just always choose the wrong ones.”

              I sighed heavily and walked back over to the door. “I’ll be back to get you ready to leave.” With those words, I exited the room and slammed the steel door behind me.

              Minutes later, I was sitting in my car with my full attention on the road ahead of me. So many things were running through my head and I didn’t like that at all. I was a very organized person and these unorganized thoughts were starting to get the best of me.

              I gripped the steering wheel tighter as I began to recover memories from five years ago.

▪▪▪▪▪

              “Jake, I think we should hire an interior designer to help us decorate this place,” Abby suggested as she glanced around the plain white room. “Don’t you think so?” She turned to me with an eager smile on her face.

              “Yeah, I think we could get one of those,” I agreed with her as I wrapped my strong muscular arms around her petite waist. “Or we could decorate it ourselves and make a few memories, eh?”

              “Maybe,” she smiled.

              Trevor came running through the living room, stomping his feet on the ground as he did so. He began to babble unrecognizable words as if he was actually saying something of importance. I glanced over to Abby and smiled, “We made a good looking kid, didn’t we?”

              She laughed in response and brought me closer to her, pulling me into a long endearing kiss. Even after being together so long, I could never get used to her kisses. They were so soft, gentle, and sweet just like her. She broke away and stared up into my eyes with her bright blue ones. “I love you,”

              “I love you too,”

              “Trevor, come here.” She called out. Trevor’s attention suddenly snapped to her and he came running over to her and wrapped his tiny arms around her leg. “What do you think of the new house?”

              “Pretty!”

              I laughed to myself and lifted the small boy up, “And you are the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.” I cooed.

              Abby turned to me, her lips now pressed into a thin line. “Jake, I told you that I’m going to be taking Trevor to see my mom, right?”

              I sighed, “Yes, you’ve told me before. And I can’t come.”

              “Baby,” she rested her hand on my chest. “You have to work and you know my parents aren’t really a big fan of you. I’m just being considerate of you.”

              “Yeah, I know.” I planted a chaste kiss on her cheek. “I know what you’re trying to do and I appreciate that. But it’ll get awfully lonely without you here.”

“I’ll be back in a few days, promise.” her lips stretched into a small smile. “Why don’t you go unpack the rest of the stuff and I’ll try to get my suitcase packed.”

              “Sure thing,” I made my way over to the mini van parked outside of the house and found myself smiling. I looked back up at the new house. It was everything we wanted. Far away from civilization and surrounded by tall trees.

              Abby and I met in high school. She was a soccer player and I was on the football team. We never really got along at first but somewhere in the middle of bickering and throwing insults at each other, we fell in love. Since then, we had been together for seven years. I proposed to her a year and a half ago and we got married a few months ago. Her parents weren’t really a huge fan of me, for unknown reasons, but that didn’t matter. As long as I had my beautiful wife and my adorable son, I would be okay. With them in my life, my life was perfect.

▪▪▪▪▪

              My grip on the wheel grew tighter as I tried to shake my old life away from my mind. I brought my attention to a whirling noise behind of me. Looking in my rear view mirror, I saw a police car trailing behind of me. Sighing, I pulled my car over to the side of the road and leaned back in my seat.

              “Hello sir,” the officer greeted me as he approached the driver’s side of the car. “Good day isn’t it?”

              I rolled my eyes, “Did I do something wrong?”

              “Nothing worth noticing,” he said as he fished for a folded piece of paper in his back pocket. “I was wondering if you’ve seen this girl.” He opened up the paper and held it out for me to see.

              I analyzed the picture of Elizabeth and fought a smile. She looked so happy and care-free. Something that I never had the privilege of seeing. I shook my head as I brought my attention back to the officer, “No, I haven’t. Is there something wrong?”
 

             
“This girl is missing,” he informed me, “We’re looking for her.”

              I nodded respectively. “I hope you find her,”

              “Thanks for your time,” the officer flashed me a friendly smile as he patted the door of the car. He turned to leave but stopped, then turned back to me. “Wait,” his eyes roamed the interior of the car and loomed over the backseat of the car.

              I furrowed my brows at his gaze then glanced over my shoulder to see what he was looking at. There, on the backseat laid an unopened bottle of chloroform. I brought my gaze back to the officer’s to see that he was staring at me. “I’m going to have to ask you to get out of the car,”

              I nearly laughed if he thought that he was going to get rid of me that easily. In one swift move, I pulled out the switchblade that was positioned underneath my thigh. I jabbed it into his stomach, which caused him to recoil from the pain. Opening up the door, I grabbed a hold of the blade once more and jabbed him with it again. He fell to the floor, jerking uncontrollably and muttering incoherent sentences. I reached for the gun attached to his belt and shot him in the head, twice.

              Rolling my eyes, I retrieved the blade and the gun and threw it into my trunk. Getting back into the car, I sped off into the distance while my mind kept drifting off to the event that made all this happen.

▪▪▪▪▪

             
Abby interlaced her fingers behind of my neck and stared up into my pale gray eyes. Her brilliant smile spread across her flawless face and sent butterflies in my stomach. “It’ll just be a week, honey.”

              “A week is a long time.” I commented, “What am I going to do for a whole week without you?”

              “You’ll cope.” she giggled, planting a small kiss on my lips. She walked over to the backseat of the car and adjusted Trevor’s car seat.

              “I still don’t understand why you can’t just take a plane or something. It’s quicker.”
 

             
She sighed, “It might be but last time I took Trevor on a plane, he wouldn’t stop crying, remember? Plus, it’s been quite a while since I did a little road trip. I’m sure Trev and I will be fine.”
 

             
“I love you, Abby.” I blurted out. “I love you so much and you better not leave me here for longer than a week.”

              “I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to,” Abby shut the door and strolled over to the driver’s side. “I promise, Jake. I’ll be back to start our new life together. Just get started on the knicks and knacks of the house. You know how you like to do that.” She got into the car and started up the engine.

              “Forever and always, Abby.”

              She shut the door and rolled down the window, peering up at me through her dark lashes. “Forever and always, baby. Forever and always.” She rolled up the window and backed out of the driveway.

              Hours later, I was back in the house. I’ve always been a fan of doing a lot of handiwork around the house considering that my father was a constructor. So I’ve always been fond of building and fixing things. I placed a picture of Abby, Trevor and I on a nearby shelf and smiled to myself. We really were the perfect family.

              I went back to painting the walls of Trevor’s soon-to-be room a shade of baby blue that Abby saw fit. My lips upturned into a smile just at the thought of her. She made me happy, she really did. Not a lot of people had the power to do so, but she changed me for the better. After being raised in a abusive home, it was only Abby who pulled me from the dark depths of an all time low and made me see the positive in things. She was my life.

              My cell phone vibrated in my back pocket, turning my attention away from the task. I placed the roller down on the tray and wiped my hands on a piece of paper towel. I reached into my pocket for the phone and pressed it against my ear, not bothering to check the caller ID. “Hello?”

              “Is this Jacob Martin?” a male voice asked.

              “Speaking,” I absentmindedly said as I threw the paper towel into the trash.

              “And you are married to Abby Martin, correct?”

              “Yes,”

              “We’re sorry to inform you that your wife and son have gotten into a serious car accident.”

              My body froze as I clutched the phone tighter. “What do you mean they got into a serious car accident?” I questioned him, “You’re kidding.”