One Good Reason (12 page)

“Hang
on a-”

Stevenson
continued, “You are to call this number back in four days for the meeting point
location and time. If you don’t call or show for the meeting… well you can take
a guess on what we will do to her.”

“But
what about until then! You can’t just expect me to turn myself in without any
proof of life?”

“You’ll
get your proof of life at the meeting. This is your first and only chance to
save your daughter’s life.”

“So
she’s going to stay locked up wherever you have her until then?” Paul yelled
into the phone, furious.

“No
harm will come to her if you do exactly what I say.”

“You
fucking bastard! You can’t do this!”

“Goodbye,
Paul,” Stevenson said, hanging up the phone and handing it back to Riley.

“What
happens if they don’t find her by then?” Riley asked Stevenson.

“You
said they had found her hiding place? I assume Price has captured her since
then?”

“Yes,
but, what happens if he hasn’t? The men said he hasn’t returned to the house
with her yet?”

“Price
will get her again, I can promise you that. In the meantime, we need to find a
meeting place with Harris. A discreet one, if you know what I mean?”

Riley
nodded. “I’ll try and get in contact with Price to get an update for you as
well.”

“Good,”
Stevenson replied. “We can’t let this get any more out of hand than it has.”

Riley
nodded once again and took his leave, leaving Stevenson to contemplate his next
move. He couldn’t just get the files now and be done with it. He needed to bury
the story and everyone involved in it fast.

***

Ava
walked slowly to her front door, hoping it wasn’t another ‘friendly neighbour’
checking up on her. Apparently, they all felt it was their responsibility after
her mother’s death three months ago to cheer Ava up and get her ‘back into the
real world.’ At the beginning, they all wanted her to mourn her mother’s death,
telling her it was part of grieving and letting go. But three months of
grieving was not a good sign in their eyes. Ava could care less. She didn’t
want to move on. She didn’t want to have to say goodbye to her mum. If grieving
and holding on allowed her to still feel like she was with her, then that’s
exactly what she planned on doing.

When
Ava reached the door, wearing her mother’s old flannelette pyjamas, she never
expected for the first time in three months to feel something when she saw
who’d come to visit. She’d been numb to everything, expect the emotion that brewed
inside of her when she stood staring across at her visitor.

“Ava,”
her father, Paul, said softly to her.

 He
stepped forward with his arms out, like he was about to hug her, but Ava
stepped backwards from his embrace. “What are you doing here?”

“I
didn’t hear about what happened until a couple of days ago. I’m sorry-”

“Don’t.
Just don’t,” Ava said waving him off.

“I
am sorry, Ava, if I had of known…”

“It
doesn’t matter,” Ava said coolly. “She’s dead now. You don’t have to act like
you care.”

“I
do care, Ava. Of course I care. She was my wife, and you are my daughter. I’m
here to take care of you.”

“I
‘was’ your daughter. I’m not anymore. You lost the role of a father years ago.
I’m an orphan now.”

“Don’t
say that, Ava. Don’t you ever say that,” her dad said, trying once again to get
closer to her.

 “Seriously,
Paul. If you so much as step one step closer to me or put your hands on me, I’m
calling the police.”

“Don’t
be so dramatic, Ava.”

“Dramatic?”
Ava sarcastically laughed. “Dramatic would be doing this,” she said, and then
stepped forward and slapped him hard across the face. “That’s dramatic. Now if
you would kindly get the fuck out of my life, that would be greatly
appreciated.”

Ava
didn’t wait for a reply as she slammed the door in his face, locking it so he
wouldn’t try and come after her.

“Ava!
Ava, please!” Her dad yelled through the door. “Ava!”

“Ava!
Ava, wake up!”

Ava
opened her eyes to Olivia standing over her, shaking her shoulders. Hayden was
also close by, sitting on the dining chair.

“Are
you okay?” Olivia asked while helping Ava sit up on the bed.

“Yeah,
I’m fine. Just a bad dream,” she replied.

“About
your mum?”

“No…about
Paul.”

“Oh.”

“Yes.
Oh,” Ava replied.

Ava
barely thought about her dad anymore. After their confrontation years ago, he
never tried to get in contact with her again and she was thankful. Talking
about her past earlier must have stirred up some old emotions.

“Are
you sure you’re okay?”

Ava
looked over to see Hayden at the table watching her closely. “Why would you
care anyway?” Ava snapped.

“Ava,”
Olivia said softly.

“No,
Olivia,” she said snapping at her friend as well. “Just because you know him,
doesn’t change what he did to me. Am I suddenly meant to be okay with it? Be
okay with everything he did to me?”

“You
know he only did it because he had to. If he had of known…”

Ava
coughed, “Yeah, like that would have stopped him.”

“Ava,
I never intentionally meant to do those things to you. I never physically hurt
you.”

“No,
you never physically hurt me, but you mind fucked the shit out of me! How would
you like it, if that had happened to you? You’re not a good guy, Hayden. You
never were.”

Hayden
stood abruptly, sending the dining chair to the ground. “You don’t know a thing
about me,” he said harshly, and stormed out of the hotel room, leaving Olivia
and Ava alone once again.

“I
know what he did to you, wasn’t okay, Ava, and you don’t have to listen to me
if you don’t want to. But Hayden is right when he says you don’t know anything
about him,” Olivia said calmly. “He knows more about what you went through than
what you think. Jaime told me about what happened to him on a mission he was on
one time. Apparently, he was taken and help captive for months, the captors
trying to get information out of him about the army.”

“Who
took him?”

“Jaime
wouldn’t tell me,” Olivia replied, “but apparently, when he was finally
rescued, he was in pretty bad shape. He’d been starved and beaten daily.”

“That
still doesn’t change what he did to me.”

“Maybe
not, but you can’t only blame him. It wasn’t just his doing. He knows more
about what you went through than anyone.”

Ava
knew that Hayden was only following orders, she could understand that. She also
knew that what his job entailed meant he was saving thousands of innocent
lives. But she still couldn’t shake what had happened to her. It was true when
Hayden said he never physically hurt her. He never caused her any pain, but the
emotional and mental turmoil she went through was enough for her not to
‘forgive and forget’ so easily.

“Anyway,”
Olivia said, changing the subject. “Hayden brought you back some food.”

Olivia
reached for the plastic bag, pulling out takeaway containers of hot Thai food.

Ava
didn’t hesitate, as she started taking mouthfuls of the food, not even stopping
to check what she was eating. Halfway through her meal, however, she was
interrupted when Hayden stormed through the room. She wasn’t expecting him to
come back soon until he calmed down, and the look on his face told her he
hadn’t calmed down one bit.

“We’ve
got a problem,” Hayden said seriously.

Ava
and Olivia both stopped eating.

“I’ve
just spoken to
Aun
. He has been trying to call for
hours and I haven’t picked up. I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t want to
tell him I’d found you again until I had a plan. I knew he’d send a search
party out soon if I didn’t make contact. But when I called him to let him know
I had you and was bringing you in-”

“What?”
Ava and Olivia yelled in unison.

“What
else was I meant to tell him? That I didn’t find you, or that I had you and was
letting you go? I told you,
Aun
will never stop until
he finds you. My plan was to tell him I’d found you and was bringing you back,
but really, I was trying to figure out a way to get you out of the country.”

“So
what’s the problem?” Ava asked.

“The
problem is, he’s taken his own preventative measures to ensure you don’t leave
the country. He’s made sure every way out of this damn country is watched by
his men. If you make any move to leave, they will get you. But that’s not the
only problem. He’s just sent out a request for them to find Olivia and bring
her in as well.”

“Me?”
Olivia squealed. “Why me?”

“He
wants to hurt Ava as much as he possibly can. If he takes you too, he knows Ava
won’t fight him. She’ll do whatever he wants her to do to save her friend’s
life.”

Ava
grabbed Olivia’s hand. “I won’t let them take you,
Liv
.
Don’t worry about that.”

Olivia’s
frightened face looked at Ava and back to Hayden. “What are we going to do?”

“I’ve
got you booked on the next flight out of here. You have to leave now.”

“Okay,
let’s go now. The quicker we get home, the better,” Ava said jumping up from
the bed.

“Not
you, Ava. Only Olivia can go.”

“What?
What do you mean? I can’t leave Ava,” Olivia said, tears forming in her eyes.

“Did
you listen to anything I just said?
Aun
has men
everywhere. I can’t let you try and board a plane. I don’t know who his men are
or how many there are. As much as I would like to think I could take them on, I
don’t know what kind of weapons they have, who they are, and what they might do
if they find out I was trying to get you home. They might not know what Olivia
looks like yet. You on the other hand,” Hayden said to Ava. “Your picture has
been shown across the world. His men know what you look like, everyone knows
what you look like. You’d be spotted in two seconds. We could try to disguise
you and get a fake passport, but I need time to do that. Olivia’s only chance
at getting home safely is right now.”

“But
what are you going to do? What about Ava?”

“After
my phone call with
Aun
, I talked to Mason. He’s the
one that got me all the information about Ava’s past. He is SAS like me. He is
organising new passports and transport out of the country. He’s arranged a safe
house on an island for us to go to until it’s safe for us to leave. It’s the
only option we have. I don’t have the connections in this country like I do
elsewhere.”

Olivia
hugged Ava as she sobbed into her shoulder. “I don’t want to leave you,” Olivia
said.

“But
you have to,” Ava replied, knowing the only way her friend would be safe is if
she got out of the country right now. She couldn’t risk her being captured too,
now that
Aun’s
men were out to find her.

“I’ve
already wasted enough time explaining everything to you, we need to go now,
Olivia,” Hayden said sternly.

Ava
hugged her friend tightly, never wanting to let go, but knowing she had to.

“You
know I would never leave you if I didn’t trust him, Ava,” Olivia whispered
softly. “I know what he did was wrong, but I also know the kind of guy he is.
He can protect you, Ava.”

Ava
kissed Olivia’s cheek as she said goodbye, knowing every second they wasted,
her life could be in danger.

“I’ll
see you when you get home, okay?” Olivia said sobbing as she walked out of the
room with Hayden, trying her best to smile to reassure Ava. But even Ava knew
they were both scared out of their minds. They had no clue what was waiting
behind the corner, or even if their lives would ever be safe again. The only
thing they could do was pray that everything would work itself out, and they
would be back to their boring everyday lives as soon as possible.

11 PROTECTION

Hayden spent the car trip home from the airport replaying Olivia’s last
words over and over in his head.

“Don’t
let anything happen to her Hayden. I’m trusting you with her life. Don’t make
me regret the decision to leave her here with you. This is your chance to make
things right,”
she’d
said to him before she left him in the car alone at the airport.

On
arrival to the airport, they’d spotted a small group of backpackers leaving for
Australia on the same flight. Olivia and Hayden both agreed to the plan of
Olivia going with the group and blend in with them, making it look less
noticeable that she was by herself. She’d left Hayden in the car, just in case
any of
Aun’s
men were there and they would identify
him and know he was working against them.

Hayden
waited in the car until he got the all clear from Olivia that she’d boarded the
plane safely and they were taking off.

When
he got back to the hotel, he was somewhat nervous as to how Ava would interact
with him now. Everything had changed. She no longer was his captive. He needed
to protect her in every way he could. He needed her to trust him. But how was
she going to trust him after everything that had happened? He hated himself for
what he’d done. How he’d made Ava feel. He wished he could go back and change
it, but he knew he couldn’t. He went on orders he was given, orders that had
never been wrong before. He had done years of obeying and trusting his
superiors.

He
had to figure out a plan and fast. He needed to figure out what they wanted
with Ava. What connection she had with them. If he took her back to the house,
he couldn’t protect her with
Aun
there. He was too
proud and stubborn to let what Ava did to him slide. No, he would make her pay.
But if he didn’t take her back there soon,
Aun
would
send his men to look for them and assume Hayden had betrayed them.

Hayden
stopped dead in his tracks when he reached their hotel door. It was ajar.
Either Ava had left, or someone else forced their way in. His instincts kicked
in as he pulled his gun from his holster and pushed the door open quietly.

He
held his gun steady as he scanned the room, instantly spotting the intruder,
and Ava against the far wall. The Thai man was holding a knife to Ava’s throat,
the fear in her eyes haunted Hayden.

“Put
the knife down,” Hayden demanded, keeping his gun aimed at the man.

The
Thai man and Ava both turned their head towards Hayden.

Hayden
didn’t recognise the man from the house, but he didn’t doubt he was one of
Aun’s
men. He wasn’t as small as some of the other men. He
was Hayden’s height and build, with tattoo’s covering most of his body.

“Who
are you?” the man asked Hayden, still keeping the knife at Ava’s throat.

“I
think the better question is, who are you?” Hayden replied. “Who do you work
for?”

“What’s
it to you?”

“Well,
since you’ve got a knife to my hostage’s throat and I’ve got a gun aimed at
your head, I think it’s a justified question to ask.”

The
man looked Hayden up and down. “She’s a hostage of yours?”

“Yes,”
Hayden replied.

“Then
you work for
Aun
too?”

Hayden
smiled. “I work with
Aun
, not for him.”

“Then
you must be Hayden,” the Thai man said as he lowered his knife and took a step
back from Ava.

Hayden
lowered his gun as well. “I was about to call
Aun
and
tell him we were on our way back to the house.”

“Why
has it taken you so long to get there?” The man asked curiously.

“I
knew as soon as I took her back, there was no way I would get the information I
needed from her, after
Aun
had his way with her,” he
said casually, trying to avoid Ava’s eye contact.

The
Thai man relaxed and laughed. “You are right about that one.”

Hayden
sat on the dining chair and stretched his feet out. “So how did you find out
where we were anyway?”

“I
got a call from my cousin, saying she had just seen the Australian woman who
had been kidnapped in the hotel she worked at. She was going to call the
police, until I talked her out of it, saying it would be safer if I came and
took her to safety, just in case any dirty police got wind of where she was and
would try and kidnap her for themselves.”

“Your
cousin obviously doesn’t know what you do then?”

The
man laughed again. “No, no. It wouldn’t be safe if she did.”

Hayden
nodded.

“So
anyway, when I got here, my cousin told me which room, and when I came in here
she wasn’t tied up and was on the bed watching TV. So I sent my cousin away and
then you walked in. I didn’t know you were with her. I assumed she’d escaped
again.”

Hayden
nodded again. “Does
Aun
know you are here?”

“No,
no body does. I thought I would wait until I knew for certain it was her, and
then I would tell him.”

“Good
idea,” Hayden said, standing from his chair. “Well, now that you can see I have
everything under control here, you can go.”

The
man shook his head. “No. I didn’t come all the way here to leave with nothing.”

“What
do you want then?”

The
man smiled and walked back towards Ava with the knife still firmly in his hand.
“I’m sure
Aun
wouldn’t mind if we had a little fun
with her before we take her back.”

Ava
flinched as the man touched her cheek with the back of his free hand.

“You
know he would,” Hayden replied.

The
man kept stroking Ava’s cheek. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“No,”
Hayden warned, “you’re not going to do anything to her.”

“I
don’t take orders from you,” the man said sternly and grabbed Ava’s breast
forcefully.

Hayden
quickly pulled his gun to face the man again. The anger inside him burning with
rage. “I’m warning you, take your hands off her now and leave.”

The
man barely took any notice of Hayden as he traced the top of Ava’s breast with
the knife. Ava was terrified, and for good reason.

“Leave
now!” Hayden yelled.

The
man turned towards Hayden slowly. “I don’t take orders from you.”

“I
don’t care! I’m giving you three seconds to get the fuck out of here. One.
Two,” Hayden counted but the man didn’t move, “Three.”

Hayden
cocked the gun, ready to shoot when the man suddenly threw his knife straight
at Hayden, hitting him in the arm and causing him to drop his gun. Hayden
barely had time to respond when he heard Ava’s screams as the man leapt towards
him. Without thinking or taking notice of the knife hanging out from Hayden’s
arm, he threw a punch into the man’s jaw.

This
wasn’t Hayden’s first fight. He was trained by the best. He knew every kind of
defence fighting there was. It didn’t matter how big his opponent was, he could
bring them down in a few moves, and that’s exactly what he planned on doing.

He
stayed centred as he punched and kicked the man in exactly the right spots. He
didn’t hold back as he put all his power into each movement. Three moves later,
and the man was on the ground.

Hayden
was barely out of breath as he quickly picked up his gun and went to Ava, who
was in tears.

“Are
you okay?” she asked him, looking at the knife protruding out of him.

Hayden
barely glanced at his arm; instead, he held his hand up and touched the side of
Ava’s head. “Are you okay?” he asked softly.

“No,”
she cried, “I haven’t been okay in a long time.”

“I’m
sorry,” Hayden said. He didn’t know how many times he would have to say it, he
didn’t think any amount would be enough to make it right again, but he was
going to try.

“What
are we going to do now? They are going to know we are here.” Ava asked.  

“Well,
first off-” Hayden didn’t have time to finish his sentence as Ava’s eyes
flashed wide at what was behind him.

Hayden
quickly turned as the Thai man hit him hard in the chest with his fist. This
time the man had found another knife, and was about to try to stab Hayden
again, when Hayden got to him first, punching him hard in the stomach. 
The man stumbled on the chair behind him, unable to keep his feet steady.

Hayden
did not intend to kill the man. He may have been a criminal, but it wasn’t in
Hayden’s nature to kill someone, even if they were trying to kill him. He’d
planned on knocking him out for long enough that they could get out of the
hotel safely, before he tried to stop them once again. But his plan quickly
disappeared as the man stumbled backwards and went crashing through the window,
falling to his death.

Ava
held her hand to her mouth, muffling the cries of horror, as she watched the
man fall, knowing there was no way he could survive a fall that high. Hayden
looked out of the window quickly to see the man on the pavement below them,
people around them screaming.

He
grabbed Ava and their belongings quickly. “We need to get out of here now!” he
said as they rushed out the hotel’s room.

Ava
didn’t object or question him as they ran down the steps as fast as they could.
Just when Hayden thought nothing else could go wrong, it did. He needed to get
out of the city fast; if there was any chance they were going to make it
through the night.

***

Ava
held her knees into her chest as she sat on the small boat watching as it
glided through the water.

Hayden
and Ava had barely said a word to each other since they left the hotel. They’d
jumped into a car and drove for over an hour before reaching a small village on
the coast. They stopped only long enough to get food, water, and supplies to
bandage Hayden’s arm up properly. He’d pulled it out and wrapped it in an old
shirt before they drove off from the hotel. Ava was sure he would bleed to
death, but he reassured her it was barely a scratch. She’d watched him closely
as he fixed the wound up at the village. His army training seemed to pay off,
as he knew exactly what to do.

They
left the village on a small boat, only Hayden and Ava. She’d waited until they
were far out to sea before she asked him where they were going.

“There’s
a safe house on a small island off this coastline. We can stay there until I
figure out what we need to do next. I’ll call
Aun
when we get there with the satellite phone, and see if he knows about what
happened.”

“What
if he does?”

“Then
we can only hope that he thinks I had no involvement in it, and that you’d run
away or something. If he thinks I’m involved, he will likely tell my superiors
and then I can’t promise that either of us will be safe anymore.”

Ava
inhaled deeply and nodded.

“Hopefully,
Mason has more information for us soon. We need to figure out why they wanted
you in the first place, when we know that, we can find out who it is that is
responsible and how we can stop them.”

“But
if you said it was your superior that gave you the order, then it must be
someone pretty high up who wanted me kidnapped.”

“More
than likely.”

“What
will happen to you though? If they find out you’re helping me?”

“Then
they will know I’ve disobeyed a direct order. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t just
stop at discharging me. If they think I’m a threat, then they will most likely
want to get rid of me.”

“How-”
Ava stopped herself from asking as she watched Hayden bow his head.

She
knew what it meant. They would probably kill him. Have men like
Aun
kill him. His life was at risk now.

She
couldn’t even believe herself when she said, “Thank you,” to Hayden. She never
thought she’d feel any kind of sympathy of thanks towards a man that had
captured her. But she was starting to realize that this didn’t just affect her
now. Hayden’s life was at stake too, and only because he promised to save her.

“Don’t,”
Hayden said to her. “You’re in this mess because of me.”

“Someone
was willingly enough to go to all the effort to kidnap me and possibly have me
killed. If you didn’t do it, they would have just got someone else. You were
only following orders.”

“It
still doesn’t change what I did.”

“No,
it doesn’t. But it helps.”

Hayden
shook his head in confusion. “This morning you hated me, and now you’re
forgiving what I did.”

“I
wouldn’t say forgiving you,” Ava said smiling. “Olivia told me to trust you,
and I trust Olivia. It doesn’t mean I didn’t want to hate you for all eternity
for what you did, because believe me, I did.”