“So, what’s the likelihood that she was just being figurative?”
“None.”
“You know this because this is part of a bigger pattern of behavior?”
“Correct.” I was not about to tell Wren how Alison was raped and went with her mom to severely beat the perpetrator. Her mom was just as guilty because she did nothing to stop her daughter from possibly ruining her life. Seemed like the cycle was about to repeat itself. I was hoping to make a difference if I could find her in time.
Wren sighed. “What’s the plan then?”
“I was hoping to make it to her parents’ house before she leaves.”
“Do you think she’ll stay put?”
“No.”
Wren increased the speed at which we were travelling. “I hope you appreciate I’m risking points on my license for your psycho girlfriend.”
“I promise I’ll pay the difference if your insurance rates go up, okay?”
Wren took a moment to stare at me disapprovingly. “I couldn’t care less about that. I’m worried about wrapping the car around a pole, or better yet, a person.”
“Then keep your eyes on the road.” I was trying to be calm, watching objects blur by while I was secretly pushing my imaginary brake pedal through the floor. “I’m glad you’re really good at this. How does one safely develop this skill?” I asked, trying to keep my mind off the truly dangerous ride.
“West coast traffic brings out the best in all of us. When are you getting your license?”
I laughed. “I’m hoping my sister’s kids will teach me some day. That is, of course, if I live that long.”
Since we were already downtown, it was easy to get on the right streets and arrive at Alison’s parents’ house within fifteen minutes. Wren stopped out front of the house and told me to get out while she parked. I took the steps two at a time and was knocking on the front door within seconds.
“Alison, open the door please.”
The door opened a little, and I could see her mom peeking through with the chain still secure. “What do you want?” she demanded. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough already?” she asked cruelly.
“We both know she needs help right now. Let me in please.” “You’re too late anyway. She left a couple of minutes ago.” “Where did she go?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you seriously going to waste time playing this game? She called me and told me she was going to kill someone.”
The door abruptly closed and opened up fully, and her mom urged me to come in quickly. Wren would have to wait outside since the entrance was quickly again locked tight. “When did she tell you that?”
I looked at my phone. “Eighteen minutes ago.”
She pushed me into the living room where the rest of the family was seated. “She’s going after him. She told Derrick she was going to kill him.”
“Is it that guy she was seeing on Tuesdays? The one you forced on her?” I didn’t feel like being nice. I wanted to find Alison.
“I guess. She told us he threatened to get her grandparents deported.” Her mother pointed at them and continued, “They’re not citizens. It could happen.”
I clapped my hands loudly. “He’s bluffing. Do you know what that means? Why would she believe that?”
“He also has been calling the boss of your company and telling him that she’s been allowing members to break antitrust rules and discuss things they shouldn’t. He said she was encouraging it too.” Her mom’s eyes began to fill up. “What is she supposed to do?”
“Not threaten to kill him. This is so stupid. Where does he live?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
“You were the one that convinced her to go out with him. You don’t know where he lives?” I pounded on the wall. “Call her,” I demanded.
“She won’t answer.”
I laughed. “It won’t matter. Unless she turned it off, I can track her phone using mine. Call her,” I repeated, pushing icons to start the process.
“It’s ringing. Don’t you think doing this is an invasion of her privacy?” she asked while waiting to connect.
“She lost her rights the minute she told me a person was going to die. Don’t you want me to get her out of this?”
“Alison doesn’t need your help.” She looked at her phone. “She was fine until you came into her life, telling her you love her.”
I sighed. “You’re going to be my mother-in-law some day soon. I will give you grandchildren too. How’s that make you feel? Get used to it,” I said, heading for the door. “I found her. Let’s hope I’m not too late.”
“She took one of my guns,” her grandfather blurted out.
I looked at her mother. “Did you know that?”
“We couldn’t stop her.”
“You could have told me that when I got here.”
“It doesn’t work,” he added.
“Does she know that?”
“Yes. She liked playing with it as a kid.”
“Fine, that’s good to know she’s not armed and dangerous. Does anyone else want to tell me anything else that can help me talk her off this ledge she’s gotten on?” They either looked down to avoid my eye contact or shook their heads slowly. “Good. He’s bluffing. You have to believe me. If she calls, tell her to get in touch with me right away.”
Her mother stood in my way. “You have to trust her.”
I leaned close and whispered, “Like you did when you allowed her to run someone over and then beat them? Did you trust her then? Did you know she would do it? Did you want her to do it to make you feel better about what happened to her? She needs help—my kind of help. You need to get out of the way now before we both regret that I missed saving her by seconds.” Pushing past her, I stormed out the door.
Wren started waving when see saw me from down the block. The car was double-parked and running. “What’s going on?”
We hopped in and took off after putting on our seatbelts. “I have a general idea where she is. She went to find a guy who must really not like her dumping him. Funny thing, she went there with a nonworking gun. Probably hoping to scare him, but I have a bad feeling that it’s not going to end with her easily walking away after shoving it in his face.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Nope. He’s been threatening the family and her job with the stuff he’s been saying. They’re all buying into it. Makes no sense.”
“How do you know where she is?” she asked, looking at my phone.
“The other day she told me her password. I put it in my laptop to look at some pictures. It was a difficult one, and I didn’t understand the pattern until she called. When she told me she loved me, it clicked, and I remembered it. She’s never said that to me before.”
“So you are abusing her trust in you to track her down?”
“I hope you are joking.”
Wren shrugged. “At least now you know she loves you. Too little too late, but hey, at least she told you.”
“I should walk away now?”
“Not right now but right after you know she’s safe.”
I sighed. “We’ll see.”
“Even her family isn’t doing anything. Would your sister drive you around trying to stop her?”
“Yes.”
“That’s because she really loves you.”
“And you?”
She grinned. “I’m curious.”
“What are we going to do when we get into the general area?” I wondered aloud.
“Hopefully, we’ll catch a break and see her car.”
“Right, that would make sense.”
We rode quickly to the spot, which was a little ways outside the city. Missing her by minutes at her parents’ house meant we had to make up some time if we hoped to intercept Alison. The neighborhood was single houses surrounded with nice yards and inground pools behind high wooden fences. “She’s going to be hard to spot unless she parked on the street.”
“According to this”—I looked at the screen—“we should be almost on top of her. Why don’t you pull over? I’ll get out, look around, and you can keep going.”
“I have no idea what her car looks like, or the guy either.”
I explained them the best I could and hopped out, watching Wren disappear into the distance. It was pretty easy for me to see over and into the yards. The area was probably filled with upper-middle-class families, judging from the cars and good conditions of the lawns. Even the toys left out looked high- end. Alison’s mother probably valued these things and wanted her daughter to have them too. A relationship with a loser was not a fair tradeoff for having stuff.
Just as I was losing hope, I saw Wren flashing the lights on the car further down the street. She got out and waved for me to come to her. Running is not something I often do, but today I made the best exception I could. Arriving slightly out of breath, I saw Alison’s car parked on the street.
“That’s the right one, I hope,” Wren said, pointing. “The hood is still warm. Not sure which house she’s in. You’ll have to do that part,” she said, indicating that I was much taller than her.
Jumping up while looking over the fences yielded me a positive sighting of Alison. I called out to her as I ran into the yard, and she turned in my direction. Moving away from the front door and toward me, I could tell she was not pleased. “You’re going to ruin everything. Did my mother tell you where to find me?”
“Your mother did everything possible to keep me away. Give me the gun, Alison.” I put my hand out as I towered over her. “This all ends here and now.”
“That was my plan too.”
“I’m not going to walk away and let you get hurt.”
“Hurt, no one’s going to get hurt.”
“Not with that gun, I know. Still, I’d like you to voluntarily hand it over and come home with me.”
“Coming to rescue me?”
“I’m not in the mood. This is serious. There’s got to be at least one law or two that you’ve broken. If you leave now, no one will know.”
She laughed. “He’s blackmailing me.”
“He’s blackmailing your whole family. I don’t see any of them breaking down his door ready to kill him.”
“I wasn’t going to break down the door.”
“No, you were going to ring the bell and stick a gun in his face.”
“Maybe.”
I shook my head. “I love you. You finally told me that too. Can we walk away from this and move on with our lives together?”
“I’m going to lose my job. Actually I’m pretty sure it’s gone already.”
“Because he told the man from Nevada you were breaking the law with your members? Please, he’s not stupid. It’s not hard to prove he’s lying.” I reached to give her a hug, and she pushed me away. “What’s your problem? He’s bluffing. Walk away.”
“What if he was telling the truth?”
“Come on, it’s not funny. We need to go.”
“What if I’ve been letting it happen to get a piece of the action? They make the deals to fix prices, and I help facilitate the process at the association meetings for a cut of what they’ll make or a stock tip. It’s very easy, and no one gets hurt. I’m getting tired of working so hard while these greedy perverts are willing to do whatever it takes to get richer.”
I wanted to cry hearing her talk this way. “Tell me he’s the bad guy.”
“I can’t do that,” she said, handing me the gun.
I looked down and watched my fingers wrap around the grip. It felt good in my hand as I appreciated the responsibility that came with holding such a fine gun. “Your grandfather told me it doesn’t work.”
“Did he?”
“Does it?”
“There’s something inside the house that will make all this go away if you help me get it,” she said, rubbing my shoulder. “We can be together as a real couple after that. Is that what you want?”
“I want you to tell me you’re simply messing with my head, some kind of test of my trust. Laugh at me and call me silly, go ahead, you’ve made your point.”
Wren came up behind us, making enough noise to let us know she was there. “Are we ready to go?”
“Alison gave me the gun, so I think we’ll be leaving now. Isn’t that right, dear?” I smiled at her and knew she had not planned for Wren’s presence. “Ready?”
“If I leave now, you’ll never see me again,” she said quietly in my ear. “I will lose everything, and you will lose me.”
“Seems like I never had you to begin with. Has any of this been real?” I was still hoping that somehow this was all a big joke, or better yet, a dream. Maybe this was the dream I was expecting after downing two sodas and lying in bed watching a spinning fan.
“I can see you both need a minute.” Wren said with a huff. “I’ll meet you at the car.”
I looked back, and she was gone.
Alison waited until Wren was gone before unleashing her verbal wrath on me. “Real? Fake? What’s the difference? You have a beautiful woman willing to let you marry her if you complete one very important task. Don’t rock the boat, help me, and I’ll make sure it’ll be worth your while.” Again she smiled seductively, and I felt my self-worth plummet, getting lost in her lusty charms.
“You knew you would need someone like me to eventually help you get out of your own pit. Well, I think we’re done here.” I slowly placed the gun on the ground and turned away from her, walking toward the car.
“It’ll be a shame when they find the gun that killed him with your fingerprints on it,” she called just loud enough for me to hear.
“It doesn’t work,” I said, continuing to walk away.
“You were told that, yes.”
I stopped and turned toward her. “Are you going to tell me your whole family is in on this too?”
“No, I’ve been playing them for years too.” She frowned. “Don’t feel so bad.”
I closed the distance and stood over her, wanting to strangle and kiss her almost equally. “It’s over. You have my word. I won’t do or say anything to get you into any more trouble. I also promise I will not participate in anything that would get you out of this. Good-bye, Alison. I did love you.”
I turned away and took four steps before I heard the front door open. Turning, I saw the guy in her pictures pointing a gun at me. “What are you two doing on my property?”