Abandoned but Not Alone (34 page)

Jason had no doubt that both men were now aware that
those of their group who had the money and connections to escape the jaws of
the law, had been losing all they had fought, connived and manipulated in order
to retain their positions as pillars of society, but he was going to take them
down, take them down hard. His plans for them had been years in the making and
were now coming to fruition, he just needed a little more time. Taking one more
look at the image of Farnsworth, Jason closed the files, removed the flash
drive and returned it to its hiding place with a reaffirmation that what he had
planned for them was only exactly what they deserved.

~~~~~~~~~~

Returning to the sitting room, Jason saw that someone had
brought in coffee and sandwiches. Accepting a cup from Aviva he sat down and
took a big gulp of the pungent liquid.  Looking around the room Jason saw
varying looks of concern. Choosing to ignore their concern, he instead
continued with his narrative as though he hadn't stormed from the room a
half-hour ago.
“
I
’
m only going to do this if none of you
interrupt me.
”
Receiving nods
of affirmation, he continued.

“
After I left the institute I went into a
foster home. I was placed with Steve
’
s parents, who were both leading child
psychiatrists. Steve was an only child and roughly the same age as me. After a
bumpy start, he and I began to see eye to eye. As the years went by we settled
into a friendship that will last a lifetime. He treated me like a brother,
looked out for me when I was too reckless to do it for myself and kicked my ass
when it needed a kicking, well until I got bigger than him, then we just nuked
it out. I got into a lot of trouble and the cops picked me up on more than one
occasion. I can
’
t tell you
the amount of times I got suspended from school but his parents never gave up
on me. When one of our fights got out of hand, his father enrolled Steve and me
in Karate and Aikido classes. Karate for self-defense and Aikido for the
spiritual aspects he said, but I think he just wanted us to learn some
self-discipline
…”

“
We
’
ll all have to spar sometime.
”

“
I thought I told you not to interrupt me if
you all wanted to hear what I had to say.
”

“
Sorry!
”
Josh said, making a zipping motion across his
lips.

Good, they were into martial arts or at least they knew
how to defend themselves, Jason thought, thinking he had just found the perfect
way to kick their asses. Smiling he began speaking. 
“
I had additional lessons throughout the time I
lived with the Blackman's with specialist aid in mathematics and the sciences
which seemed to be the areas in which I excelled.  I graduated high school with
Steve although I had completed the curriculum years before.  His parents wanted
to keep things as normal as they could for me.

The Blackman's died the summer we graduated. They were on
their way back from Sunday morning church service, Steve and I had faked some
kind of illness, I forget what the illness was, we had been out the night
before and had massive hangovers. I don
’
t think Mr B knew what was wrong with us and
spoke up for us when Mrs B started getting suspicious about our mysterious illness.
That was the last time I saw them alive. Their car exploded on their way back
from church.    It just went up in a ball of flames. The police investigation
reported a mechanical fault; but I didn
’
t buy it and I was right not to. Steve and I
stayed in the house after they died; we were due to go off to college at the
end of the summer, Steve
’
s parents
had set up a college fund for him and I had a full scholarship lined up; Steve
to study architecture at Cornell and I was going to Princeton to study pure and
applied mathematics.

Steve and I were still working through the senseless
death of his parents when I got a phone call that changed the course of my
life. I had been secretly been digging into the lives of the men that had run
the institute; the ones who had escaped prosecution. I thought I had completely
covered my tracks, but I was wrong. You see, Steve and I should also have been
in that car; those good people lost their lives and Steve his parents, because
of me. I walked out of that house the day of that telephone call, I couldn't
face my friend, couldn't tell him I was to blame for the death of his parents,
the people who had taken a broken, twisted child and nurtured him into a human
being who could function in society. I couldn't face Steve again for five
years. Those bastards may have got the jump on me, but now I knew what they
were prepared to do, what I was up against. That was their first mistake, only
by the time they realized it, it was way too late for them.
”

“
What did you do Jason?
”
Aviva asked, not caring that he didn
’
t want anyone to interrupt him. She had a
sinking feeling that the men who had hatched the plan that had killed the
Blackman's were no longer alive. It was suddenly clear to Aviva, she didn
’
t know who Jason was, not really and she was
beginning to suspect he had taken the law into his own hands on more than one
occasion.

“
Are you sure you really want to know the
answer to that question, Aviva? Be sure, very sure that you really want to know
because you are one of the only people in the world for whom I will answer that
question with total honesty.
”
Jason held Aviva
’
s eyes to express the gravity of what she was
asking him to explain. At the nod of her head Jason geared himself to tell her
what she wanted to know.

“
I did to them exactly what they did to the
Blackmans'. I didn
’
t go to
college; I disappeared after warning them that if Steve even caught a cold I
would come for them. They didn
’
t take me at my word. They tried to hurt him, they should
have listened to my warning. For years I had been using my spare playing the
stock market and I was very good at it, I had quite a lot of money stashed
away. I hired two guys to watch out for Steve without him knowing. I spent my
time and money watching the perverts and planning how and when I would take
them out. They liked boats, they went sailing a lot; they didn
’
t come back from one of their sailing trips.
”

Aviva didn
’
t know what to say, so she said nothing. How would she
have reacted if she had been in his place
–
she honestly didn
’
t know? She didn
’
t think she was capable of killing someone but
again she couldn
’
t be certain;
given the right set of circumstances maybe she could take a life. Again she was
reminded that she had only known Jason for a few days, yet her heart felt as though
she had known him a lifetime. But with Jason
’
s admission she had to take stock of who and
what type of man he really was. Throughout her musing Jason had refused to
release Aviva
’
s gaze, certain
his honesty had changed the way she would now see him. He wanted to see the
exact moment he lost her. There it was, that subtle shifting of a look behind
her eyes. Jason held his breath; when it was obvious she would remain silent he
asked the question he needed answered.

“
I asked you if you really wanted your question
answered, so now you know the truth, is it a deal breaker?
”

“
Honestly Jason...I don
’
t know. This is a lot to deal with and I need
time to process what you just told me
–
us.
”

“
I don
’
t care what they think of me
–
I only care what you think.  What
–
do
–
you
–
think
–
Aviva?
”

“
Stop pushing me Jason, I told you already, I
don
’
t know!
”

Jason knew he should back off but that devil on his
shoulder was pushing him, whispering that he should force an answer out of her.
As he was about to give in to his inner voice Jackson broke into his thoughts,
stopping him from making a mistake from which he might not recover.

“
Leave it Jason, she needs time, at least give
her that; your admission is too big to form an immediate impression
–
give her some time.
”

Jason didn
’
t bother to look in Jackson
’
s direction, he knew he was right but he
couldn
’
t take his eyes
off Aviva, irrationally thinking that if he took his eyes off her she would
disappear from his life.  Nodding in acceptance of Jackson
’
s words of advice, he continued his regard of
Aviva as she sat immobile on the couch, her uncertainty reflected on her face.

“
Well Aviva, while you
’
re making up your mind, you all might as well
hear the rest of it.
I have two more men on my list, and it is my
intention to ruin them both. Don
’
t worry, my plans don
’
t include killing them, although they deserve
it, death would mean they didn
’
t suffer the way
they deserve to.

As I mentioned before, I didn
’
t make it to college but I did begin building
my business. I moved from the east coast and ended up here. Before I left I
sent the two remaining pedophiles a warning that if anything happened to Steve
or me; eight copies of a letter containing very specific information with names
and dates had been deposited with eight different lawyers in eight different
states. One move against me or Steve and not even their powerful families could
save their rotten hides. On the surface they
’
ve left us alone but they and I know that this
is just a stand
-
off. 
Someone will have to make a move soon and that someone is going to be me. You
see, it has come to my attention that those men, after all these years are now
feeling comfortable enough, with the death of their fathers to begin the steps
of putting plans in place to start up another ring of abuse
–
it
’
s not going to happen. But they
’
re desperate, they got sloppy and I was able
to get to them before harm came to any children. I might not be so lucky next
time so I
’
m going to
take them down to a point where there will be no recovery.
”

Jason gave Aviva the complete truth of who he was and
what he was capable of doing. It was now up to her, she either accepted him as
he was warts and all or she could try to leave him. He knew he could be a hard
man, the circumstances of his life had shaped him into what he had become, he
also knew he would give her anything she wanted, allow her anything, apart from
leaving him
–
that one thing
he would not allow. His decision was made; Jason gave Aviva a slight nod and
turned back to the men who also occupied the room.

“
When Steve completed college we hooked up
again. He is the face of the company and I do my part behind the scenes. So far
we
’
ve been
extremely successful.
I
’
m sure I don
’
t need to tell you gentlemen about our
company, how long did it take you to find out all about Blackman-King? You don
’
t need to answer that, you probably know as
much about my business dealings as I know about yours.
”

Jake dipped his head in acknowledgment of Jason
’
s statement, not bothering to vocalize what
they all knew to be the truth. He was still curious about one fact that Jason
had left out of his story. 
“
Thank you for
sharing your story with us, I understand it
’
s not been easy for you, but it seems to me
that you left out one vital component
–
how did you end up in care, did anyone ever tell you how
that came about?
”

“
Oh, I
’
m so sorry gentlemen, how remiss of me. Well this part is
pure speculation you must understand, but from my summation of the situation,
Diana for some reason didn
’
t want two babies
so she decided to throw one away. I was found in a dumpster in a back alleyway
with rats nibbling on my flesh.
”