No Strings Attached

Chapter Twenty Six

They’d wasted so much time ... and she was still pushing him away ... she was still making him feel like he had to run off and do foolish heroic things just to make up the last five years.

“It’s all my fault,” she kept murmuring into Tori’s chest quietly, “It’s my fault, what if he doesn’t come home?”

Jay watched bleakly as Tori ran her hands over Shannon’s dark hair – quietly murmuring words of comfort. Nate had to be okay, for her sake. Jay actually doubted her ability to cope with any more tragedy – especially losing Nate, it would kill her. Staring down at the screen as it loaded the satellite position – Jay furrowed his brow. What the fuck?

“Not what I was expecting,” he muttered quietly, watching the stagnant mark on the map – no way was the vehicle moving, but there didn’t seem any reason or rhyme to stop where he was, “Lock the doors – the windows – everything. Don’t move out of here for the fucking apocalypse, you understand me?” His voice was not the cool, restrained orders that both of the girls were used to seeing – Jay’s voice had an underlying desperation – a guttural despair that seeped through into his commands.

Tori just nodded meekly, fear kicking in at the pit of her stomach, while Shannon froze – all of her tears misting her pristine skin.

“What was on that screen?” she asked in a voice that was ice cold and brooked no argument.

He hesitated for less than a second, “He’s at the side of one of the roads into Cheshire county – I see no reason for him to be there, I’m going to see what’s happening.” Jay was fiddling with his keys for two minutes, before he looked up and nodded for Shannon to follow him, “Two seconds Shan.”

He led her outside the back door, and into the adjoining garage that he’d had built when they first moved in. Stepping aside to let her go in before him, he shut the door behind them quietly.

“What’s this about,” she said nervously looking around the dark and gloomy space – it wasn’t intentional , she supposed, wasn’t everybody’s garage just dank and depressing? “I want to go with you, I want to know he’s okay ...”

Rising panic was taking her over – she didn’t really have any clue as to her own responses right now – she was just praying to every God she could think of that he would come home safe.

So that she could give him those words that he was killing himself to earn, so that she could give him all the hopes and dreams that they’d planned for – before their destinies were torn apart, and she was broken and cold. Her arms were wrapped around her middle so tightly that she could probably have cut off her own circulation – and she didn’t care – she had no will if he was gone – she couldn’t do this without him, any of it.

They needed the chance to make up for the last five years, and any God that could take that from them would be beyond cruel. She couldn’t lose him – not without saying the words – even just once.

“I need you here,” Jay said grimly, pulling aside a mat on the floor to reveal a small four foot square cut in to the concrete. Lifting aside the lid, he pulled out a charred metal box and handed it to her, “I’ve deduced enough to know that you’ve seen him use this, or another, but it’s the same model.”

Pulling the lid, she recognised the small pistol, and nodded – hysteric sobs rising in her chest, what was he asking of her?

“So, if you had to – if I loaded it, and the time came when you had to – you could use it?” His words were rushed, desperate – she knew he was holding in just as much panic as what was threatening to break out from her, he wanted to know that she could do this, and as soon as he did, he’d be gone.

For Nate.

Whatever that meant right now.

“If I had to, then I guess I wouldn’t have a choice,” she steeled herself – her voice cold and detached as she looked up at one of her best friends, whose pale eyes were drenched with fear in a way she’d never – ever - seen before, “Yeah, I’d do it.”

He sighed heavily, closing his eyes for a fraction of a second before expertly loading the small bullets into the metal chambers.

“I meant it, though,” he said warningly, handing over the pistol, and closing her shaking fingers around it, “You lock everything. The slightest noise you call me.” She nodded dumbly, “If you use it, then wipe it off with a porous towel, and bag it. Bring it straight back into here, and I’ll get rid of it – it’s completely untraceable.”

“What if someone hears a gunshot, or the police find out, what then?” Why did they have to make everything so complicated by never being honest – there was obviously more to this – why would they need a gun? Unless, maybe Nate told them about the photos, but still – did they think he was so dangerous as to attack her here?

“Don’t worry about consequences, Shannon, that’s what I’m telling you. Just look after her ... them ... all of you. Please.”

Tears were not something that came easily for Jayden – and neither was pleading – but he managed both with those simple, and yet profoundly loving words, and she could only nod quietly in response, before he was out of the door.

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Jay gunned down the motorways at a breakneck speed, he’d heard Sebastienne’s last words – You come to me or I come for her. If Nate wasn’t at Tourniquet, then  whatever surveillance was all over Shannon would have her in seconds – the handgun eased him mind somewhat, but he mostly just wanted to get Nate, and get home.

But the dread in the pit of his stomach was gnawing away at that theory – he knew Sebastienne was capable of anything right now – and once Shannon was thrown into the mix...

Jay’s fists clenched around the steering wheel – his knuckles white.

And what if Seb had taken the hit himself? What if it was a trap – how much of a dumbass could Nate be to fall for it? No, he couldn’t.

He was about five minutes away from where the marker had pointed, he surmised grimly – keeping out an eye for the sleek red R8.

Cutting back on his speed, he saw it, pulling over the second his stomach dropped into nausea at the sight of the gnarled and twisted metal that was lurched into a steep ditch at the side of the road.