Jack In The Box novel Chapter 42

Riley

“Do you think I’m scared of your threats?” Ezra asked. “You can try pulling the trigger, and forget about saving your brother or mine.”

My fingers on the gun faltered for just a fraction of a second and then tightened around it again. I pressed the gun to his side. “Keep driving to the location.”

Ezra opened his mouth to say something, and then thought better of it and pressed his lips together. His eyes straight ahead of himself. And then I noticed as he slowly reached for his phone that was wedged between the seat and his thigh.

“What the hell are you doing?” I demanded.

“We need backup, we don’t know how far this guy has gone to set us up for a trap in that abandoned place so unless you want us all to be toast, you would let me call Agent Flint.”

I thought of that for a moment. Was Ezra telling the truth? What if he called Flint just so he could hand me over to the agent so he could be free to go there alone?

“You’re lying.” I said.

“Think what you want to.”

“Call Agent Flint and put him on speakers.” I said because I wasn’t confident that Ezra wouldn’t act smart.

Ezra pressed speed-dial. Flint answered the call on the first ring. “Ezra.”

“I want you to come to Boulder Street, Garden Avenue. It’s a ghost town. Take position outside of house number zero-seven-two. And be discreet about it. Park your car at a distance and walk the rest of the way. No one should see you.” Ezra explained.

“And why exactly am I taking orders from you?” Flint asked.

“Because you need the promotion and you wanna go to Washington D.C, which I don’t.”

Flint was quite on the other line for a second because Ezra had pointed out his weakness. “Care to fill me in on what’s going on?”

Ezra told Flint about the message I received and that he was going to help me end this.

“I’ll ask Scott to accompany me.” Flint said.

“No, don’t bring your partner. You have to come alone. And bring a gun with you.”

“Roger that.”

The call ended and I lowered the gun from Ezra’s side. I had no choice but to believe him. My only shot at saving both my brother and Jack was to trust Ezra. After all, his brother’s life was in line too. A single mistake would cost us a lot and I knew Ezra would never risk Jack’s life. Then again, the brothers had competitive behaviors. Both of them at one point had suspected the other for the killings and I had no doubt in my mind that Ezra was fighting an inner battle of siding up with the law by doing his job and protecting his brother.

There was tension brewing in the atmosphere. “Do you think that Jack?”

Ezra gave me one sharp look and that told me I’d hit the bulls-eye. “Don’t even think about it for one second. My brother is innocent, and I hope yours is too.”

“I hope so.” I heard my voice tremble.

Ezra parked the car a few houses down. We argued in the car for five minutes, it was mostly him coaxing me into sitting in the car with all the doors locked but I reasoned that I wanted to be there to help him. He continued to glare at me until he finally gave up and told me to stay by his side.

“I can protect myself, you know.” I said as I jogged behind him to keep up with his pace. It was chilly for a summer night.

“I’m sure you can, considering how you threatened me with that gun. I have no doubt you can pull the trigger when you need to.”

I froze and Ezra kept walking. Realizing that I wasn’t following him, he stopped midway and turned. He walked back to me, placed his hands on either side of my shoulders and pulled me in a hug.

“It’s for the best. If either of them are the killers, we would do them a favor. Don’t you think killing them is better than you watching your brother or your boyfriend walking to court each day and having the media, the judge; the people take hits at them? Can you sit in the same court and face all the loved ones of the innocent people they killed? Can you shoulder the guilt? Can you live your entire life being judged for something you never did?”

My throat was clogged with emotion. Ezra patted my head. “I know you don’t want that either, and so I’m hoping we don’t face the situation when we walk into that house.”

We resumed walking. “When we were little…” I said, “We used to play house with the other kids. I used to dress up as a bride and pretend to marry a boy in our neighborhood. Ken used to always walk me down the aisle. It’s something we did for fun. And then one day, I saw him crying. We were just kids, he was six at that time and I was nine. I asked Ken why he was crying, and he said he was upset because I would leave him eventually and we wouldn’t be together after I got married. That made me sad, Ezra. I want him to see me get married and start my own family; I want to see him become a Vet that he’d dreamed to be. I don’t think I can bear to see my brother get killed.”

“I’m sorry about all this, Riley. I wish things were different too.”

The moon was full today; animal howls came from the forest that surrounded the area. The path we walked was lined up by abandoned houses. At one point there was a nuclear disaster in this town caused by a chemical factory. Several hundred people died, or were permanently disfigured, babies born prematurely. And eventually, people moved out. No one wanted to live in the town any longer. The houses that may have been filled with laughter and life now remained abandoned and empty.

We stopped outside an old little one-story house. Ezra had to wipe the dust off the number plate to see numerals zero-seven-two. I opened the rusted gate and walked inside. The lawn was overgrown, and all I could see was the dark windows of the house staring back at us like two accusing eyes. The French windows were almost broken from their hinges. Something rattled behind us and the gate made an eerie creaking sound. Ezra and I stood guard, pulling out our guns. We looked behind our backs, and realized it was just the wind making the gate rattle.

Ezra told me to stay behind him as he walked to the front porch of the house. He nudged at the door which gave away easily.