Beautiful Innocence (22 page)

I want to cry. I want to run back and jump into that car and drive away with Josh and go somewhere where no one knows our name and make love the rest of our lives and have babies. I don’t. How can I? The only thing that I can focus on is his stank breath from his lunch as he hovers too close for comfort. He butts the gun deeper into my back, shoving me along. “Do you think you can take a step back? The stench of your breath is making me want to throw up.”

He laughs, but I notice David shaking his head. In hindsight maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it, because now he’s more than happy to get closer, snaking his tongue out to lick the side of my face. I flinch and try to hold in the vomit that wants desperately to be let out. “There it is,” he whispers in my ear. “Your future.”

I look up to see a large sailboat docked with the words Lucky 7 scrolled on the sides and big white sails attached to the mast. If it were any other time I would take a moment to admire it, but I don’t. “From what I understand he’s taking you somewhere real nice, he’s to screw you every which way he can and then sell you off the next highest bidder when he tires of you. Your mother died knowing this.”

I freeze at his words. Without thinking, I turn and kick him in the balls hard, since my hands are still tied. “I hate you, you piece of shit.” I spit on him. Roger is heaving over clenching his stomach with his one hand, while the other shakily points his gun at me. “Keep moving,” he barks out his orders and Alex and David pull me alongside them.

“That was fucking stupid, Ava,” David forces his words. “He’s going to make you pay.”

I laugh, unable to ignore the stupidity of his statement. “I think he already has, asshole.”

The dock sways from the slight waves from the Chesapeake as we step onto the metal dock. I don’t see anyone on the boat, but am assured he’s on it. And I’m frightened now more than before, not knowing and wondering if the supposed sharp shooter, aka Dane, and the other agents will be able to see us once I am on board.

With shaky legs and practically numb hands I step on board with the assistance of the barrel of a gun as it once again presses against my back. A man steps out and glances all around for several minutes before his eyes fall on me.

“Why is her lip bleeding?”

“I hit her,” Roger admits freely.

“I said I wanted her untouched.”

“She is. I owed her that. The rest is as green as a fucking newborn.” I want to shout that’s not true, wishing this would all stop. If I do there’s a good chance Roger will shoot me, so I keep my lips sealed. David is the only one on this ship who knows the truth, and the only reason he hasn’t mentioned it is because he’ll lose his brother and most likely his own life in the process.

George grabs my shoulder and spins me around a few times, taking me in, little by little, letting tiny groans of approval seep out every few seconds, making that queasy feeling in my stomach come back. “You,” he points to Alex. “Take her inside. There’s a room down below. Tie her up to the post so the doctor can do a quick check–up. She’s as beautiful as the picture you sent all those months ago. But I’m going to need reassurance she is untouched before I hand over such a large sum of money.”

“But of course.”

I grant one hasty look at David, trying to figure out what’s going to happen, but he refuses to meet my eyes. Fucking coward. Once that doctor takes one look he’ll know immediately and then what? I know Josh won’t let anything happen to me. I have to trust him more than I ever have trusted anyone before to save me.

JOSH

“We got a problem,” Dane spouts into my earpiece. I placed a plug in my ear and a small microphone onto my collar once I got out of the car and took my position to listen in.

“What is it?”

“He’s ordering a doctor to check her out before he drops the money.” We know all this because David and Ava are both wearing wires and the FBI and Dane are listening in.

“Can someone take out the doc beforehand?”

“No. We haven’t had a clean shot since I first saw this George guy. Alex is already pushing her inside and down the stairs to what we assume is a bedroom. There’s a window, but again, no clean shot. We might have enough to get him, but now they want the fucking exchange to happen before doing anything.”

“I’m not waiting, man. Once he finds out, she’s dead.”

“Not necessarily. We picked up something Roger told Ava. This George doesn’t plan on keeping her. He plans on selling her after. He has no reason to kill her.”

“But Roger does. He won’t get his money.”

I take the corner of the building, hugging my body to each little crevice. “Man, stop. I can see you.”

“You’re supposed to be focusing on taking out Roger, not me, Dane. I’m moving in as close as I can. I have to cut you off now.”

Patience has never been my strong suit. This is going to be the ultimate test. The only thing I can see through the binoculars is David and two men waiting for the next move. Roger slips his gun into his briefcase, while David looks uneasy about what’s happening. It doesn’t make me feel any better.

She’s been down for over five minutes when Alex comes back and joins the party. All four are exposed. All four can be taken down simultaneously now. There’s no question the good doctor below isn’t going to fight back. He’s probably being threatened to even be here and doing this for this SOB. The only problem is we don’t know his name. After rounding the corner and slipping onto a boat, I make my way from one to the next, thankful the first few are close enough together that I can jump my way closer.

“Back off, Josh. We’re taking them down. We just need two more minutes.”

I sneak inside a boat four down from where the Lucky 7 is docked and peer out the window, waiting for it to go down.

Nothing happens after I count the full one hundred and twenty seconds, so I creep out and jump to the next boat. This is my last stop. I can’t risk being heard or seen. “One, two, three…” I hear through my earpiece. Instead of seeing anyone of them drop, the distinct thump-thump sound of a helicopter comes from out of nowhere. Once I hear them ordering everyone to freeze and Dane breaking his position, I jump down and rush to Lucky 7, training my gun on Roger. David immediately goes down and has his hands behind his head. Smart. Alex is yelling for answers from his father, but the good banker disappears before I jump on.

“Move, move, move…” The agents rush aboard. I motion to Dane to go around to the window to the bedroom as I take the steps to reach Ava. I kick open the only door to find a very scared woman wearing a doctor coat. Ava is spread eagle on a cold metal table, tied down with a sheet pushed up. A gun points at her head. I crack my neck trying to gain composure, because seeing Ava is the only thing keeping me above the water at this point.

Ava is gagged and trying to scream, but the sound is muffled. I don’t spare her a glance. I’ll come undone and he’ll get the upper edge. “I’m here, baby. Don’t worry. I’m here.”

His sinister laugh chills my blood. “So you’re the one? I had big plans for her.”

“Plans change, asshole.” My gun points directly at his forehead.

“I’ll kill her,” he threatens before I fire a round.

Bang!

“Fuck!” he screams, dropping his gun as I shoot him in his hand. I take aim for another body part as he falls to the ground. There was no way I was waiting to see if he was telling the truth. I know I can’t kill him, but I can harm him.

“Don’t move, Motherfucker, or I won’t think twice about putting the next one in your balls,” I snarl as I quickly yank the sheet down to cover her exposed body.

Dane swings down, followed by Agent McCourt.

Agent McCourt cuffs the doctor who is crying, and pleading that she had no idea what was going on, but she is still read her Miranda rights as he pushes her up the stairs.

Dane cuffs the banker, kicking him in his nuts with the toe of his boot, instead my preferred method of shooting him, but it makes him squeal like a little girl, which is probably what Dane’s going for. I see a small smile break as Dane hauls him up to his feet.

“Hey, baby, you all right?” I remove the gag and untie her hands from the gurney.

Her arms come around me and she breaks down hard, so hard I break down with her. My hand smoothes her hair out over and over again, trying to settle her. “Did they hurt you?”

“No,” she cries. “She examined me and knew. I was so afraid.”

“I know, baby, I know. I’m so sorry we didn’t get here sooner.”

She nods several times as the tears continue to fall. I pick her up and adjust her in my arms and cradle her to my chest. She grabs on to my neck like I’m a lifeline keeping her alive. The only thing I want to do is get her out of here and keep her safe for the rest of her life. “C’mon, baby, let’s go home.” I keep my mouth close to her ear, whispering every word that I can think of to make her understand that she’s not in danger. She’s finally safe.

When my feet hit the deck all heads swivel around to us. “Nice shot,” McCourt says with a big smile.

Dane clips my shoulder. “It was nice. I taught you well, baby brother.”

“I couldn’t risk his carrying out his threat.” I curl her into me a little more tightly, needing to feel her heartbeat.

Dane peers down and touches her arm when he notices how she’s shaking but trying to keep it together. “Put her in the Suburban. We’ll head home as soon I finish up here.”

Ava’s tears settle, but her body is still trembling as I carry her from the dock out to the truck in the parking lot. Once I get the door open, I place her in the backseat, brushing back her hair to cup her face. “Ava, you with me, baby?”

She barely nods. I go to shut the door, but she yells out for me not to leave her. I jump in and pull her onto my lap. “I wasn’t leaving babe. I’m never leaving.”

~~~

It’s been two weeks, two weeks of Ava trying to get her life back together. She’s having an extremely hard time coming to grips that we found her mama’s body where Roger said it was. Those few weeks she was back in Maryland waiting for her mama to come get her, the poor woman was buried in the backyard of the house that they shared. We had a proper burial for her yesterday. Although she insisted on being there, she really wasn’t. Those beautiful eyes that shine when she smiles have been gone, replaced by complete emptiness. It’s painful and frightening to watch her crumble.

I don’t know what to do or what to say to snap her out of it. My family keeps telling me to give her time, that she’ll come around. I know she will, but it’s killing me day by day to see her so distressed. If I could take all her suffering away and take it for her I would. She lets me hold her at night and only at night when she closes her eyes. She has nightmares of that day on the docks. She wakes up sweating and panting heavily until she realizes she’s in bed with me. Safe.

She’s lying on her side of our bed, watching some food network show when I come in to go to sleep. I go to her side and squat. “Hey, can I get you anything.”

“No, thanks,” she mumbles.

“Baby, please, you gotta snap out of this. I can’t take much more.”

Her eyes focus on mine. “Do you want me to leave?”

“What? No, Ava, that’s not what I meant. I just…I hate seeing you like this.”

“My mom’s gone,” she says matter-of-factly.

I rub her cheek with the back of my hand. “I know.”

“She’s dead because of me.”

“No, she’s not, baby. Don’t say that.”

“If I’d been a slut, she’d still be alive.”

“You don’t know that, Ava. Roger is a bad man. If he hadn’t targeted you, he would have chosen someone else. She would have still found out. Baby, you didn’t choose him—she did. People make mistakes.”

“How can I get past all this?”

“I don’t have a magic answer to that. I think you just need to forgive yourself and get up every day and force yourself to live.” I pause to kiss her lips. “I never knew her, but if she’s anything like you, I know she wouldn’t be happy seeing you like this, baby.”

“I know.” She closes her eyes, leaving me to worry another night.

AVA

I know he means well, and more importantly, I know he’s right. But it’s always been my mom and me getting through this life together. Not once, did I ever imagine her not being a part of the equation. It’s even harder for me to not find the fault in my actions. Josh has held me in his arms, talking to me every night since the docks, explaining how much it is not my fault, but I don’t believe him. I want to. But how can I?

My mother’s final letter to me was never from her. I know this now. It was all a ploy to keep me in Maryland, not questioning her up and leaving me. I knew in my heart she wouldn’t have done that to me, so why didn’t I have the strength to do something about it? I hate that I didn’t. I hate that I waited at the empty promise that she was coming back, when I knew all along that she wasn’t. She would never have typed her good bye to me, I know this, but even back months ago I forced myself to believe it. Because, if I didn’t have trust in those words, it meant that she was really gone and never coming back.

Josh is sleeping when I wake for the day. I round the bed to his side and stare down at my hero. He doesn’t believe that he is. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here. And I love him more for it. He has been so patient and good to me over the last couple weeks. Deciding to let him be and sleep in, I head to the bathroom to take a much needed shower. I’ve only managed two since the funeral, since lying in bed has been my only defense mechanism to avoid people. I know they come and check on me, because I can hear them out talking to Josh when they arrive, but usually they’re gone before too long. I’m tired of hearing him explain that I’m not ready for visitors.

The heat of the water runs down over my head, my shoulders, my body as I stand under the shower letting every warm drop wash away my pain. It’s always going to be there, but it no longer can consume me. I need to move on. That thought scares me now. I want my mom here with me, with her sister, with my new family that I’ve grown to love. She’ll never see me in love. She’ll never meet Josh. She’ll never see me get married or have grandbabies. I slip down to the ground, pulling my knees to my chest and cry one last time for everything she’s going to miss. I ask myself on a daily basis why we didn’t come down here a hell of a lot sooner, but I never came up with an answer. She’d still be here. I probably wouldn’t have Josh, but I’d have her. Who knows, maybe Josh and I would’ve found each other. Our love feels like an anchor that keeps me afloat, keeps me going.