"You know, your company is a whole lot better than your brother's," I admitted very blatantly.
Her chuckle filled the air. "Yeah, I feel that. My brother is a little different I guess."
Maybe she would know more than her mother would? The question repeated over in my head. I knew it was none of my business, but the curiosity ate me up. I had made this mystery a mission for myself to figure out. Or maybe I was just nosey.
"Do you know anything about his ex? Macy, I think her name was? The one who disappeared?"
Hazel looked at me after my questions, looking a little shocked. Curiosity sparkled in her eyes. "What about her?"
I shrugged. "Do you have any theories?" I reached out and gently patted the horse in front of me.
She looked away for a moment, lost in thought. Her gaze focused on the animal in front of her. "None that I'd like to believe," she answered quietly after a few minutes.
What was that supposed to mean? Did Sam actually do something to Macy? Did Hazel know? Was she just suspicious? A tension was suddenly filling the distance between me and the girl beside me. Maybe bringing up Sam and Macy was a mistake.
Sighing loudly, I stopped petting the horse and backed away from the fence, shoving my hands in the front pockets of my jeans. "I guess I better go find Gavin...I should talk to him about everything going on with Charles."
She just nodded, and for a moment we both stood in silence, me staring at her. As I turned and started walking away, she finally spoke up. "Delilah?" I paused and glanced at her over my shoulder, staying silent. "No matter what happens, follow your gut," she advised. "There have been times I should have followed my gut, didn't, and couldn't go back to make things right." Her sympathetic eyes raised to meet mine. "From what I've seen and heard, your gut feeling especially is never wrong." I thought about what said before slipping her a small smile and nodded. With that, I left her at the fence with the horses, while I headed back toward the house.
On my way, I pulled my cellphone out of my back pocket and dialed a familiar number. Anxiety swirled in my stomach as I remembered the argument I had had with Daniel just earlier this morning, but I pushed that out of my mind. This was important. "Hello? Delilah?" Daniel answered.
"Yeah, it's me." I took a deep breath. "I have a proposition...and before you say anything about how dangerous it is, or how reckless, or whatever, think about the chance of success." I clicked my tongue, thinking of what order to form my words. "There's one thing we can do to lure Charles out of hiding. There's one thing that he will take risks for, and that's me. I want to catch Charles, using myself as bait."
For a long moment, there was silence on the other end of the line. I was nearing the house. "Delilah..."
"Don't say it's a bad idea," I stopped him. "We both know that it would work. We can take all the precautions you want, but we need to do this. This is the only way we are going to stop Charles before he hurts more people." I breathed, ignoring my racing heart. "He's looking for me; so let's tell him where I am, or where I will be."
The sound of Daniel breathing through the speaker filled my ear. "And how to do you that he wouldn't just shoot you on sight?"
"Because you'll come up with a way to protect me," I assured him, knowing it was true. "I want to do this, Daniel. I'm tired of running and hiding. I want this over with." He was silent. "Please, Daniel...this is what I want."
He sighed again. "All right. Okay...when are you wanting to pull this off?"
I smiled and let out a breath of relief. "As soon as possible."
"All right, I'll figure something out. I'll stay in touch." With that, he hung up the call as I reached the front door of the house. I had to keep myself from cheering out with joy. I was going to end this. Charles was going down.
As soon as I opened the door, I spotted Gavin walking out of the kitchen. "Hey!" I smiled at him.
Furrowing my eyebrows at my spirt of happiness, he stopped until I joined him. "Daniel told me about the video from Charles...and you seem good? You're okay?"
My smile seemed impossible to fade. I had never felt more excited. All this anxiety, and worry, and pain, was going to be over. "I'm more than okay. I am fantastic." I hugged my brother to celebrate before remembering that he didn't know everything yet. I jumped back away from him. "I have a plan to catch Charles. I've talked to Daniel and he's going to figure it all out and make it happen."
His eyebrows remained scrunched up in confusion and his expression was nowhere near similar to mine. "And how do you plan on doing that?"
I kicked my shoes off by the door. "Using me as bait."
For a long moment, he just stared at me. It gave me the chance to smell the strong vanilla scent in the house and how weirdly quiet the building was. "...that's not the safest idea," my brother ended up saying.
Rolling my eyes at his disappointing reaction, I replied "obviously," before walking past him and into the living room. I wanted him to be as excited as I was.
His voice followed me into the room. "Delilah, I won't let you do that."
Grabbing the television remote, I plopped down on the couch, planning to just ignore him. "This is my decision, not yours."
Almost growling in frustration, he stood between me and the TV, preventing the remote from working. "Don't try to shut me out of this. I've been here since day one. I'm just as much of a part of this as you are."
He clearly wasn't going to let this go and let me be a big girl to make my own decisions. His chest rose and fell, and his fists clenched at his sides as he fought off his growing anger. Within a second I decided to actually defend my decision and feed into it. "I'm the one Charles wants dead now," I argued, standing up from the couch and throwing the remote behind me. "I am taking the responsibility to make this decision because I want to end all of this so I can protect everyone else." Shaking my head, I stepped closer to face the boy who held similar genes. "This isn't just between us and Charles anymore. Gavin, our friends are involved. Our family. And yes, he is o longer targeting them, but that doesn't mean he won't hurt them if given the opportunity." My eyes pleaded with him to be understanding of this and learn where I was coming from. "He's after me. And if I can prevent anyone else from getting hurt, I'm going to do it."
Wiping his hands down his face anxiously, he shook his head. "It's too big of a risk."
"My life isn't the only risk!" I yelled in his face. "More lives than my own are in danger. Our friends back in Florida are dead; and if I don't do this then our new friends could end up the same way." I was rambling now and I couldn't stop. "When we first ran from Charles and moved to Ohio, we had absolutely nothing and that's what made running so easy. We had nothing else to lose but each other. But now, he has us trapped in deep water! Now he is after us while we have so much more to lose!"
Movement caught the corner of my eye and I realized that Mr. and Mrs. Piper were standing in the doorway. I didn't care, but I knew that Gavin had noticed them too. "Yeah, maybe yell a little louder and we will be able to ignore how our lives are absolute chaos," he commented.
I gritted my teeth and glared at him. "You know using me as bait is the best way to catch Charles," I told him. "We finally are building a great idea to catch him. Daniel is working on it as we speak..." Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself down and once again pleaded with my eyes. "We can end this, Gavin. We can catch Charles before he catches us."
My brother's eyes softened. "And what if something goes wrong?" he asked carefully and quietly.
"Nothing is going to go wrong," I assured him. "Daniel is going to figure it all out."
He sighed and pushed his hair back out of his face. "I trust Daniel, it's just that with Charles involved, something always goes wrong."
I smiled at him sadly and shrugged. "Then we will cross that bridge when we get to it...We can't not try, Gavin."
For a long, few minutes, he just stared at me while I waited for his reply. We both seemed to forget that the Piper's were there listening in, probably hoping to prevent a fight if it broke out. "I hate that you're right," he finally admitted, pulling me into his arms.
***
Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
I've been spending most of last night and this morning, reading through comments. I absolutely love reading your guys' reactions and opinions. Please always feel free to comment! It makes my day and always puts a smile on my face! I love knowing that I can contribute to yall's happiness just by writing a book that you enjoy:)
Is everyone looking forward to Christmas? December is my favorite month because of how it is so festive and eventful! I always get to enjoy the beginning of the month by planning for Christmas, and then enjoy my birthday, and then celebrate Christmas just a week later!
I hope you guys are having a great season:) Let me know if I can make it better!
Love yall <3
~Emily