A Liberated Decision - COMPLETED!

Chapter 6

Ashley was nervous to know the damage that had been done to her body, but knew that it couldn't be too bad since she didn't feel any pain that reminded her of broken bones. She slowly pushed her sore body up into a sitting position and eyed up her ripped clothes and the bits of blood seeping through. Slowly, she inched her pant legs up and eyed up her new, bright red, gravel burns that still contained flecks of dirt and rock in them. "Well ain't that just dandy." She sighed and pulled herself up off of the ground. It didn't take long to feel the pain gushing throughout her body. There was no time to check the rest of her injuries though. She had wasted enough time in this unwarranted failure and they had a meeting to get to. Slowly, she dragged herself up the hill and near the uninviting train tracks.

The train had been going fast enough to drag Ashley well over a mile away from Cam, maybe even further, but due to the trauma of being dragged by a train, she hadn't kept track of how long the whole process had taken. The only way to make the meeting on time was to trek her way back to Cam. She wouldn't have blamed him if he had left her to finish the business deal then came back looking for her. She wished that she had paid better attention to where he had jumped off. There was a chance that she could be marching miles looking for him and not find a single trace of where he had jumped, all because she hadn't paid attention to where he had directed her to take her own leap. "Stupid!" She mumbled under her breath.

Each step Ashley took was slow. It didn't look like she would be making it very far very fast. That was life. It sucked. This would not look good for their meeting. "You better have went to that meeting without me, Cam." She bit the words off under her breath sharply. There was enough hot water with Trent because of her, she didn't need Cam to be in that hot water too. Especially if Trent was looking at thinning out his people. Things wouldn't go well if this shipment was missed. Not for Cam, and definitely not for her and her debt. She needed to pay back Cam, it was important to her.

Nearly an hour passed by faster than Ashley cared to admit. Her body ached from the fall and her arms burned from the initial feat of climbing onto the train. Time was going by too fast and there was still no sign of Cam. Maybe she had fallen off farther away then she had thought. She pulled her gaze from the ground in front of her and looked around for any sign of life. A branch cracked nearby her. With barely any hesitation, she grabbed her gun and swung around.

"Whoa, Ash! I'd like to not get shot today." Cam's face was tight with concern etched all over.

Ashley sighed, but her eyes remained wide. "Why are you still here? The meet... Why aren't you at the meet?"

"You're more important, Ash. I wouldn't leave you here. You're my baby sister. I said that I'd always protect you." He pushed her hair away from her face.

"Cameo, we're not related by blood. You should have went on without me. You can't put yourself in danger because of my mistakes." She shot back at him. Her brows were knitted together in frustration. The idea that he had just put the future of his life at risk was more than what she'd be able to bear if something happened.

"Ash, you're as much my sister as someone who was related by blood. I made a promise to you that I'd always protect you. Even when we were separated and jumping home to home. I always found a way to protect you. I will continue to do so, whether you're happy with me or not. Now come on. Maybe the shipment's still there." He began walking away from her.

"You and I both know that it's not still there. Trent's going to have our heads for this; I already owed him once, Cam!" She grabbed his shoulder to turn him around. Anger was filling her face, turning her eyes spiteful instead of scared.

He pulled his shoulder out of her grip and grabbed her shoulders. "Ash, I told you not to get involved with all of this. You didn't listen; remember? Now you need to trust me to get us out of this. Okay? Can you do that?"

Ashley nodded her head and let her expression loosen up a little bit. She followed silently behind him, carefully placing her gun in the small of her back. Before she had just been worried about herself, knowing how valuable an asset Cam was. Now, she wasn't so sure how valuable he really would be anymore.

The thought after thought made time go by quickly, but didn't give her a peace. The thoughts made Ashley antsy and more scared than she'd been before. Part of her had half a mind to convince Cam into running away with her. They failed their mission and it would cost Trent a lot of money. Money that she doubted either of them had – especially her.

They looked around the junkyard near the railroad tracks for any sign of anyone that had waited for them. There was nobody. Not a surprise though. Sticking around with a shipment of drugs was stupid. Even a dumb dealer knew that. She watched Cam kick a rock hard.

There was no doubt that he was frustrated. He stretched his neck from side to side and looked at her. "Let's go home. Let me deal with Trent."

Ashley nodded, but refused to take her eyes away from his eyes. She made it clear she was nervous. There was no way that she couldn't wipe that feeling from her face.

"Don't worry, Ash, everything will be alright. He'll chide me for it, but we'll be fine." He rubbed her shoulder to comfort her and pulled her into a hug.

Ashley was too numb with the possibilities that were hanging over there head. She barely reached her arms up to hug him back. "If anything happens to you, Cam..."

"Nothing's going to happen to me. I said that I'd watch out for you, Ash. Nothing's going to go wrong. I love you!" He pulled away from her.

Ashley could see the confidence in his expression, but his eyes also gave away very slight uncertainty. He was good at hiding things, but even that was hard for him to fully make disappear from his expression.

Cam began walking away. " Let's find a ride home."

She quickly wiped away a tear that was threatening to fall. All she could do right now was trust him. Trust was a funny thing though. It wasn't a term that could be thrown around easily and tended to be something that took time to acquire. She'd always trust him, but when something so fragile like this was in his hands, Ash wasn't sure if she could trust Trent to do the right thing. That would be a whole other story that she wasn't sure if she was ready to face.

"Cam, let's run. There's nothing back there keeping us there. We could find a new place to call home. We could get out." The thought stumbled out of her mouth before she could stop it. She stood still waiting for him to turn around.

Cameo sighed and turned to face her. "Ash..."

"No, listen Cam, just listen. We could start over. We'd have a new life. We could get hooked up with new identities. We'd never have to come back. We won't have to risk what Trent's reaction's going to be. We'd be safe." Once again the words tumbled out faster than they could be taken back.

"Ashley, if I'm not worried about it then you shouldn't be." He gently, but firmly told her. "We don't need to run."

"Cam..." She began.

"Ashley, no." His brows were raised as he spoke. "That's enough.

"But Cam, your scared. You can't tell me your not. I can see it." She reached out to touch his arm.

"That's enough. We need to get back." He said calmly, but pulled away from her and continued down his path home. It'd be another long journey back; he didn't have time to listen to her thoughts that just added to his own doubts.

Ashley silently followed. It bothered her that he wasn't willing to admit what was already there. They had a major risk because of her clumsiness. If anything happened to him, it'd be her fault.

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I don't know guys. I'm pretty sure if a drug run like that for someone like Trent went wrong... well... I think I'd be high-tailing it out of there and disappearing. Just saying.

I don't know. What do you guys think? Do you think Cam was right to shut down Ashley's fears? Or do you think he should have listened to her and allowed this story to take a very different turn?

Hmmmm... Questions, questions, questions.

Like, Comment, Vote.

Love you guys! <3