Dear Alana (Interracial Romance)

Chapter Nineteen; Signal

Chapter Nineteen; Signal

The next entry started off the same way.

Dear Alana,

By the time you read this, I'll be dead. Your father knows I know, and he knows my loyalty to Crystal and Lucian. I overheard him and Nathan talking last night.

"I'll give you Boston Bank, but you know how I operate. You give, I give." Those had been Nathan's words yesterday. I couldn't see their faces and they couldn't see me but if Nathan is as skilled as he claims he is, I'm sure he knew I was listening in.

"What's my next move?" Came James's calmed words. He was laid-back, but a greedy man resided in the space where his heart should be.

He would become Nathan's killer for a bank to call his own. For the money that would flood in with it, and the publicity. . .

"Do you have to ask?" Were Nathan's last words.

You're a sophomore in highschool, you and Isaac.

I would have used you, but I cannot offer them that much of me. Not to say that you aren't strong enough, but you're my baby. I love Isaac as my own, but I'm selfish and measures as wide as the ones I have to take must be acted upon. Isaac is my sacrifice, I can only pray he doesn't die.

I was going to use Hayden to supervise him but Vivian wanted to do it. She'd seen the snake in her father when everyone else saw an haloed angel.

I sent her to the Kenzie pond where Isaac liked to hang out.

Oh, and I'm pregnant.

* * *

A buzzing sound startled Alana from her readings. Tears collected and fell from the brim of her eyes and ever so often Marie would reach up and wipe them away.

The buzzing continued, but Alana was puzzled for only a moment before she realized. He eyes widened as she pushed her mother's notebook aside, and quickly crawled to a far away corner of the basement.

She'd hid the phone Hayden had given her in a hole of the corner, frightened that James would find it and take it. She had been sure there was no signal, but that phone was her last bit of hope, her last bit of Hayden.

And now it was buzzing in the hiding space she had for it.

She forced her hand inside, grunting and pushing until she felt it's cold body graze her fingertips. It buzzed again, and she effortlessly wrapped her hands around it, pulling it out to look at the message on the screen.

From Hayden: Where are you babygirl?

Another text was sent exactly an hour from the last.

From Hayden: Baby all I need is for you to text me one time and I'll be able to find you.

And just a minute ago...

From Hayden: I need you Alana. Please.

Hesitation wasn't an option. While her heart pumped at an unusual pace, she couldn't afford to waste time.

Her fingers shook as she pressed down on the screen to reply.

To Hayden: Baby I'm fine.

She shivered again as she sent the message.

Marie sneezed from the other end of the basement, hugging onto Samantha's teddy.

Alana crawled beside her baby sister and cradled her in her arms, holding tight to the phone in her hands. It wasn't like the phone Ty had gotten her. It was smaller, thinner.

It hummed between her fingers moments later.

From Hayden: I'm so sorry I let this happen to you and Marie but i need you to help me keep this signal babygirl. If that phone dies I lose your location. Shut the screen off, don't reply back.

The battery at a 52% was decreasing steadily. . . 51%.

This time when Hayden asked her to do something, she would comply. Shivering once more, she shut the screen off and waited for the loaf of bread that James's men would throw down the steps for them.

* * *

The next entry of Samantha's journal was written 5 months later after her last.

Dear Alana,

Crystal knows, but she doesn't want to believe it. Does she think she was sent to Chicago for Hayden to further her career? Of course she doesn't. She's too smart for that.

Does she truly think that those millions of dollars she brings home is because of the work she does with Danielle?

Nathan wants me dead.

That's what he meant when he said 'you give, I give'.

I'm the target.

James was always abusive, but this new corruption is beyond even him. He's going to kill me.

Why do they teach them? Why train them to kill?

To finish what was never finished, of course. There is a war Alana. One much, much bigger than all of us. They were chosen, and they cannot run from what is to be their destiny.

... I'm sorry If I jump around and confuse you. Try to keep up please. I'm a wreck these days. I know too much. Isaac knows too much. And Viv knows too much.