Evelyn's POV
"Don't forget to wear sunscreen, okay?"
"Will do!" I hung up the phone, dropping the phone on the couch, next to me. Catherine had called, asking if I knew where Aiden was, as he hadn't gone home for the last couple of days. I assured her he was okay, and that we decided to take a trip to the beach to visit my relatives for a few days; he simply forgot to let her know before we left.
Similar lie was told to my mother. When we realised Aiden wasn't coming home with news from Jason, Cole called her to say we're going away for a few days, because Jason was getting bored at home. Thank God for the holidays.
I hoped the two women didn't speak to each other, or else the entire plan would blow up in our faces.
The phone rested on my hand, my fingers shaky. I'd called Aiden a million times since the last time I saw him. At first, he wasn't picking up, but after this morning it appeared his phone was turned off. A thousand scenarios ran through my mind in the speed of light; The more hours that went by, the more my heart raced. There was only one person that could help me track down both Aiden and my brother, and that person was currently going through a mental breakdown.
But why is he taking this so harshly?
I left the couch in a hurry, skipping up the stairs. His door was closed, as always. I knocked, but go no response, just like before. "Cole, you better not be naked, 'cause I'm coming in" I announced, and walked inside.
On the floor, in front of the bed, next to the empty beer bottles, I saw Cole. His hands gripped on his hair. "Listen, I know you know something about this and whatever that is, you need to tell me; we have two people missing now, and we don't know who the next will be"
I might as well start talking to the walls, if i want any communication in this house, because humans don't do so well.
Cole ignored me completely, and continued rocking back and forth, murmuring incoherently. "She promised she'd call" i heard, and frowned. "Who, promised, Cole?" i asked, my tone demanding. "She said he'd be dafe, she said everything would go according to plan" i froze. Aiden was right.
Violent images went through my mind, and they all involved me beating my brother to death. I inhaled deeply through my nose. "What plan" i raised my voice dangerously. He didn't answer, he just shook his head. My patience was shot at its very core.
In a swift move, i lowered myself in front of him. i grabbed his hands, and dragged him out of his hair. "Who else knows about this?" i asked, forcing him to look at me. His eyes were bloodshot and his skin pale. In other words, he looked a mess. As he should .
He gulped, reluctant to give me the answer. With a dry mouth, he whispered "Axel". Once Cole gave me his address, I decided to pay him a little visit. I knew that if I called him he probably wouldn't answer anyway.
Axel's house was twenty minutes way; those twenty minutes felt like hours. They were just enough time to try and call Aiden again, and feel my heart crumble when I realized that if Axel doesn't help me, I might never hear from him again.
I knocked on the door, my phone in hand. In seconds, the door opened and in front of me, stood a very tired Axel. When his eyes landed on me, he froze, his hand pushing the door shut. Unfortunately for him, my shoe blocked the door, as I had slipped it through. I let myself in and closed the door. "Listen, if you don't help me, we're both going down" I told him, and he chuckled. "Both? Thinking ahead of yourself there, I see" he teased me.
"Am i?" i asked and pressed play on the recording i had ready on my phone. "On this recording you are heard exposing all of Linday's dirty laundry. If i give this to the cops, they'll have her arrested, and you'll be dead within the same day" i stated, and watched his Adam's apple bob as he gulped nervously.
"You've got no choice Axel. Once she's done with all this, what do you think she's gonna do? Thank you for your help? She'll want to get you out of the way to make sure no one hears about this" His eyes snapped shut and he rubbed his temples, unable to process what I was telling him.
I didn't speak, I simply watched as he fell apart in front of me. He shook his head, as if that would shake the truth out of his head. "It was Cole's idea, I just needed the money" he finally confessed. I kept my reactions to myself, I wanted to gather as much Informathion as possible. Under any other circumstances, I would've already freaked out and would be in worse condition than the boy in front of me. But now, i only had one target. Lindsay. And I would do anything to reach that.
"Go on" I urged him. He took a deep breath and sat down. "He wanted to scare you away; to show you nothing could come out of being with Aiden, only dangers"
"So you're telling me all this is happening because of Cole" I said in disbelief. "I think it's pretty clear" he said, shrugging his shoulders. "So he willingly helped in the abduction of his little brother just to make Aiden seem like the villain of our fairytale?" I asked. On one hand, taking into account everything I had found out about my brother in the last few weeks, it didn't seem that crazy that he'd think that.
On the other though, I like to think there's at least some compassion and humanity left within him.
"You don't exactly say no to Lindsay, you know that by now. Plus he wasn't exactly alone" he said and I rolled my eyes "You want credit for that?" I teased. "I don't mean myself" he paused. "Has Ivory been acting a bit weird lately?" I frowned.
"Okay now I think you're taking this way too far" I said chuckling. "You don't believe me? How do you think Cole found out about you and Aiden when he had no other way of knowing?" he said but I shook my head. "You're just throwing blame around on other people now and it's getting ridiculous."
"Is it ridiculous or are you just in denial? You didn't believe Cole was involved but he is so why is Ivory any different?" he scoffed, almost offended. "Do you seriously think these two people are up for comparison? One of them is a manipulative liar and the other one is-"
"-also a manipulative liar" he cut me off. "She was the only friend I had for a while I'm not gonna listen to you bash her like this because you don't want to take responsibility for what you and Cole did."
"Oh, come on you can't be that blind" he laughed in disbelief. "Excuse me?"
"You're little friend has been obsessed with Aiden since I met her, she doesn't give a shit about you" he spat out. "Honestly, you seem more obsessed with him that her" I replied, making him roll his eyes.
"You can ignore reality as long as you need to but the truth is if Ivory hadn't been involved all this wouldn't have happened"he stated.
"Which reality am I ignoring exactly? The one in which everyone around me has gone nuts? Listen, you can stall this all you want but you're gonna help me sooner or later soy might as well get it together now before I lose my shit even more" I took a seat, crossing my arms.
"I'm trying to help you but you're calling me a liar"
"Okay fine, please enlighten me on how Ivory has turned into Cruella" I said, patience running thin.
"Alright, miss know- it all, explain this. How did Lindsay find out Aiden was at your house the night everyone was at the bar and he disappeared to come over at your house" he continued "First of all how do you know, second,Ivory didn't know either, so this doesn't prove anything"
He laughed "You and your damn proof" he shook his head, going through his phone. "Is this enough proof?" he turned the screen around, showing me the texts he had exchanged with Ivory.
Axel: How will they get in?
Ivory: Evelyn will be at school, too focused on Aiden. We don't have to worry about her, Cole will do what we talked about and then go act dumb.
"What difference does this make now?" I said, surprising myself with how calm I was. "Let me enlighten you detective. You're blackmailing the wrong person" he said, and I frowned. "Look, I've got nothing to lose here, my life's already shit. But Golden girl, now she has a lot to lose if you take this to the cops."
"I don't give a shit about the cops right now Axel, Lindsay has my brother and probably Aiden too. If someone knows what the plan is, that's you" my tone was no longer the sturdy demanding one I hoped for. I was practically begging at this point. He sighed, looking reluctant. "There's gotta be a way to get them back, you can't be okay with this" I yelled, my hands starting to shake.
"First, you need to chill okay, she's not going to hurt the little one" he tried to calm me down. "And Aiden?" I asked. "I'm not so sure" he scratched the back of his head nervously. "I understand that's not what you wanted to hear now but-"
"-Get to the point Axel" I cut him off.
"My family has an old house in Westchester that they turned into a warehouse and she was supposed to take him there, it would be like a little trip for him, so chances are that's where Jason is" he explained.
My eyes widened "You knew where he was all along and let me ramble all this time? What are we still doing here get up!" I yelled, a mix of adrenaline and relief rushing through me. I was in no way the right person to go, quite the opposite to be honest; I was sure, the second I stepped foot in there Lindsay would try to rip out my eyes from their sockets and I'd be useless, but it needed to be done.
"Easy there, detective I don't think that's a very good idea" he chuckled. "Got a better one, smirky?" I raised my brows, crossing my arms over my chest. "What do you think will happen if you and I show up at a warehouse full of armed men and a crazy bitch bossing them around? You'd be dead within seconds" he tried to resonate with me and frankly, it was working.
Think, think, think. I started pacing back and forth in the living room, the comfortable space now seeming small. Too small. I wrecked my brain trying to think of something, using the much needed silence Axel had created. Everyone knows I'm not made to be in situations like this, let alone figure my way out.
My pulse was getting dangerously higher. Every second that passed by felt like I was moving further and further away from seeing Jason or Aiden again, as nothing came to mind.
Until it did. Bingo.
"Did you say you needed the money from this?" I asked him, but he frowned. "Are you hearing voices, I didn't say anything" he said, making me slap my forehead and sigh in despair. "Not now, dumbass, earlier!" I yelled. I forgot to mention, it was much harder doing this, working with Axel's last remaining brain cell.
"Ooh" the point finally went though to him. How he has managed to stay alive this long remains a mystery. "Well yeah, It's not really my hobby to abduct kids" he said, still confused. "Very funny. Has she paid you yet?" I asked. "No" he replied, his frown deepening as he was struggling to make sense of this.
"Perfect!"
"Perfect?"
"Yes! Now we have a reason to go there without raising suspicion. You go in, distract her until I find a way to sneak in, find Aiden and my brother and get the hell away from there." I said, feeling confident in the plan I somehow came up with.
Axel on the other hand, not so much.
"I don't think so" he opposed. "Why not?" I grabbed on the head of the couch a little too abruptly. "It's a good plan, but it'll need some modifications if we want it to work. I won't be able to stall her for long before she realises something's off. We've never talked for more than 5 minutes and now I'm making small talk? There's no way you'll be able to sneak in and find them in time, and even if you could, I'm not letting you go alone" he explained, and I crossed my arms over my chest again "What, why?!"
"Which part of the armed men don't you get exactly? You've never done this before, there's no way you'll come out of there whole. You'll need help from someone who can" he looked at me implicatively but I shook my head. "If you mean who I think you do, forget it. I don't even want to look at him right now. If I see him again, I'm spitting right in his face" and now I'm pacing again.
He walked towards me warily, putting a hand on my shoulder. "I know you're angry and you have every right, but if you want to think about seeing them again, we'll need his help" he tried to convince me.
I took a deep breath, running a hand through my hair. "Okay, fine" I very reluctantly agreed. "Now we just need something to stall her. Well, someone. " he stated, and I nodded, smirking.
"I've got just the right person for you. If Ivory's god at one thing, that's coming up with endless bullshit to say. Even is she gets Lindsay all riled up it'll create the distraction we need to get them out. Worst case scenario she kills her" I shrugged, making Axel look at me in question. "What? Just because I'm focusing on what matters here doesn't mean I'm not mad" I explained. I was s nervous my throat was closing up. "Do you happen to have cigarettes?" I asked him, trying to focus on my breathing. He passed me a pack and I wasted no time in getting one out and lighting it with the candle that was next to me.
"How do we know she'll agree?" he asked. I took a long drag, enough to burn away all my worries, and exhaled. "Oh, she will"
Aiden's POV
"Lay him down over there" I heard a voice say before I felt two people grab me, putting me down on a wet hard floor. Whose voice is that? My head was buzzing so much that even opening my eyes felt too much. Last thing I remember is going to Lindsay's and then...
I moved my hand ever so slightly, feeling the blood coming out of the wound. Yeah, I still got a bullet in my fucking leg. I looked around the room, seeing nothing but old dusty furniture and a dripping ceiling.
I wasn't tied up, at least not yet, but I couldn't do much to help myself, anyway. The door in front of me opened, and I saw no other but her, holding a bunch of bandages and what looked like rubbing alcohol. I couldn't see a lot, but I still saw the devilish smile on her face. She didn't look evil though, se looked... a step away from insanity.
"There you are! Took a little nap, babe?" she said, pushing a few strands of hair away from my face, and caressing my cheek. I snapped my head away, blood boiling as I realised I was quite literally at the mercy of a lunatic.
"Where am I, what the fuck did you do" I demanded to know, my voice hoarse and barely above a ramble. "I didn't do anything, my love. You fell asleep on the way here" she said, tearing my jeans open to reveal the spot I was shot at, before pouring a generous amount of rubbing alcohol on it. I groaned, my head falling back as I felt my skin burn.
"But it's okay now" she murmured. "It's all okay" she wrapped the bandage over my leg, securing it tightly. "You're not gonna get away with this, Lindsay" I said, but my breath was running short and I struggled to keep my eyes open. "Shh, it's okay. None of that matters now." she rubbed my hair softly, but I didn't have the power to protest. "I'll take care of you now, don't you worry"
~~~
*not 100% edited but will do
Longer chap today but I think it'll be enough for y'all not to kill me for being gone. in my defence, uni got in the way i was abducted by finals okay