One Good Reason (6 page)

He
made his way for the door, turning only once to look at her again, but she had
already turned her body away from him.

He
closed the door behind him and locked it, taking the key with him this time so
no one else would bring any harm to her. Then he walked towards the front door,
ready to give the Thai men all that he had. They needed to know that behaviour
like that was unacceptable. Any harm against Ava would be punishable.

5 PASSING MOMENTS

Day 13

Two weeks had nearly passed since Ava’s kidnapping. As everyday passed,
her hope for being rescued faded a little bit more.

  After the incident with Aran and Daw, Hayden was the only one
allowed in and out of Ava’s room. He was the only one to take her to the toilet
and shower as well. She never saw Aran and Daw again, but judging by the looks
that the Thai men gave Hayden, he must have done something bad to them.
Although she could tell they had respect for Hayden before, they were now
terrified to disappoint him.

Hayden
hadn’t asked her again about
Thornakorn
, but she
could tell he was warming up to ask. He had given her the luxury of a brush,
shampoo, and conditioner. He had even given her hair removal cream in the
shower, a shaver was too much of a risk apparently.

It
didn’t take much for Ava to figure out Hayden’s interrogation technique. He
made you rely on him to live. He provided food, water, and safety. He’d also
given her treats like the toiletries and food snacks as a way of making her
feel good. He wanted her to feel safe with him. That he was her protector, but
she’d become numb to it all. He wasn’t her protector. He’d put her here. It was
going to take a lot more than shampoo and a hairbrush to make her feel any
different.

She
didn’t want to become used to life living as a captive in a dark, dirty room,
but she was. Nothing since the day she had gotten here had changed. No one had
come to seek her out. She had listened day and night to the voices outside her
door, trying to figure out a way of escaping, but nothing.

Hayden
guarded her as if his life depended on in it. How was she going to escape from
him? He was twice her size and was constantly on alert, as if he was waiting
for her to make a move against him.

She
knew before Hayden approached her in the room that it was he entering. She
could hear it in his footsteps and smell his scent.

“I
bought you something,” Hayden said.

Ava
turned on her mattress to Hayden walking over to her with a chocolate bar in
his hand. Her mouth watered at the sight of it.

He
casually sat down next to her on the mattress, as if they were two friends
about to have a casual chat. He handed her the bar and she took it quickly,
unwrapping it and biting down before Hayden decided to take it from her.

“You
know, I don’t want you to be here anymore than you want to be here. It doesn’t
have to be like this, Ava,” Hayden said, an assertion in his voice.

Ava
continued to stare at the ground, taking as many bites of the chocolate as she
could manage in one mouthful.

“All
you have to tell me is what you know about
Thornakorn
.
I promise you, no harm will come to you. If you tell me what I need to know,
you will be free from here. Free from this room. I’ll provide you safe passage
back to your home. No harm from anyone, including
Thornakorn
,
will come to you. This has gone on long enough. You don’t need to protect him
any longer.”

Ava
finished the last bite of the chocolate, savouring the taste. Then she handed
the wrapper back to him.

“I’m
not protecting anyone,” she said simply.

“Then
why aren’t you telling me where
Thornakorn
is?”

She
looked up at his blue eyes. He was wearing the same outfit he always did. White
shirt and khaki coloured long pants. He must have owned a whole suitcase full
of them.

She
found herself staring at him sometimes. Wondering what kind of guy he would be
outside of this hellhole. He was handsome, fit, and mysterious. He had this thing
about him that made you want to listen to him, obey him. He wasn’t like any of
the men in her home town. There was something about him… Then, she would knock
herself back to reality and blame cabin fever for her thoughts. Memories and
thoughts were the only thing that occupied her mind during the hundreds of
hours she was left alone in the darkness.

But
during those moments, she was reminded of where she was. She may have been
going numb, but she wasn’t about to lose her mind. She only had to look at
herself and the realization of what had happened to her came through.

Ava
still wore the blue dress that he gave her. It was dirty and in desperate need
of a wash, but the only thing Hayden gave her when she had a shower, was a
fresh pair of underwear.

How
considerate.

His
treats wouldn’t work on her. She wouldn’t let them.

“You
just don’t get it do you,” she said looking into his eyes. “I’m just a small
town girl from Australia. The only people I know are the people in my town. I’d
barely even left the state before I came here. You only have to check my
passport and background to see this was the first time I’d been overseas.”

 “I’m
sick of this game you’re playing. No matter what you do to me, I’m not going to
tell you what you need to know because I don’t know. Even if I did know this,
Thornakorn
guy you keep talking about, there is no way in
hell I would give you the satisfaction of telling you where he was.”

Hayden’s
jaw tensed at Ava’s words. She could tell by the veins in his neck, she had
pissed him off, but she didn’t care anymore. Nothing she said would convince
him she didn’t know who
Thornakorn
was. She was sick
of the games. Sick of everything.

Hayden
stood. Ava half expected him to yell at her, punish her in some way, but he
didn’t. Instead, he walked out of the room and locked it behind him, leaving
her alone, once again.

***

Hayden
sat on the couch going over and over in his head what Ava had said hours ago.
Something about this operation just didn’t sit right with him. Since day one,
Ava had shown no knowledge of
Thornakorn
. He had been
convinced it was all an act, but after nearly two weeks of holding her captive,
he still had no information from her. She was scared, frightened, and
defenseless
. All attributes that came across real, not faked.
Yet she never caved and told him anything. She was either an extremely good
actress like
Aun
had said, or she really had no idea,
and he’d just been holding an innocent girl captive for thirteen days. He
prayed that wasn’t the case.

The
brief had seemed too basic. It wasn’t often that he wasn’t given much detail
about his captive’s, but it was never as simple as what it was in this case.

He
had been told Ava had connections with
Thornakorn
.
She knew information about him and his whereabouts. That was it. That was the
only information he had to go on.

Hayden
stood up, grabbing his handgun and shoving it into his holster under his arm.
He then went upstairs, changed into jeans quickly, and put on a leather jacket
to cover his concealed weapon.

He
was going to go and find out more information. They were too far into the
forest to get reception. They thankfully had running water from the rain tanks,
and electricity from the generators, but the isolation meant no cell service,
he would have to go for a drive into town and use the landline. 

He
ran down the stairs, stopping as he saw
Aun
at the
bottom.

“Where
are you going?”
Aun
asked.

 “I’m
heading into town for supplies. I thought while I was there I’d check in with
our progress,” Hayden replied casually.

Aun
grunted. “Or lack of.”

Hayden
didn’t want to give away that he was suspicious about the operation, in case
Aun
was in on something he didn’t know. He also didn’t want
Ava to lose her protection. At the moment, she was a captive with information,
without the information, she was invaluable to the Thai men, and he knew what
would happen to her then.

“I
think I’ve nearly cracked her. Give her a couple more days and we will have the
information we need. She’s a fighter, but from our talk before, she’s losing
the fight.”

“Good.
We need to finish this up. The men are going stir crazy.”

Hayden
agreed and then walked to the front door.

“I
shouldn’t be gone long. You, and only you,” Hayden said pointing to
Aun
, “are to watch over her. Nobody is to enter her room
for any reason unless she needs something. Understood?”

Aun
nodded.

Hayden
turned and walked out the door, praying Ava would be safe while he was away. He
knew in his gut something wasn’t right, and he was about to find out if his
instincts were right.

Ava
smiled for the first time in thirteen days.

This
is it
, she thought
to herself.
My chance of freedom
.

After
her conversation with Hayden, which again put them back to square one, Ava had sat
at the door hoping she would hear Hayden returning to talk to her, or talking
about her to the other men. She held onto the tiny bit of hope that what she
said might have made Hayden rethink the situation, believe her when she said
she didn’t know
Thornakorn
, and that it was all a big
mix-up.

After
two hours of sitting on the hard ground, she had finally overheard the
conversation she’d be yearning for; Hayden was leaving the house to go into
town.

Hayden
out of the picture meant that she might actually have a chance to escape. She
couldn’t hold onto the thought that Hayden might realize her innocence and let
her free. She had to act on what she knew now. Hayden still considered her his
captive, still believed she had the information he needed. As far as she knew,
this was the first time since her arrival that he was leaving the house, and
with the event that unfolded with Aran and Daw, he’d been watching and guarding
her like a hawk for the past week.

This
just might be her only chance of escape; she couldn’t let the chance pass her
by. She needed a plan, a bloody good one at that.

***

Paul
Harris sat down at his kitchen table and turned on the small television resting
on the kitchen bench.

For
four weeks, he’d been in hiding. Four weeks of living on the run, and staying
in places like this tiny one bedroom shack in the middle of the Australian
desert.

Paul
was used to staying in all sorts of living conditions. He had travelled the
world many times over, sometimes staying at five star hotels, sometimes
sleeping on the sidewalk. All in the name of journalism; his greatest passion
in life. He loved his job. He had sacrificed many things in his life for his
work. Some things he wasn’t proud of, but it wasn’t all for nothing. During his
time as a journalist for the last twenty years, he had uncovered news and
stories that changed the world and people’s lives. He would dig and dig to
uncover the most famous cover-ups of all time, and then release them for all
the world to see.

Paul
was good at his job, if not excellent at it. But being good at what you did,
didn’t always keep you out of trouble. Like right now, for instance, Paul had
spent the last two years working on a government cover-up that forced him into
hiding four months ago.

What
he’d found would crush the government in power. What he’d found would send
government personnel to jail.

He
had been about to break the story when all hell broke loose. A tip off from an
anonymous informant told him over the phone early one morning to watch his
back. ‘They’ had found out the story he was about to publish and ‘they’ were
going to make sure that it never hit the newsstands. He was told to get out and
leave as quickly as possible, and forget the story.

The
informant had been right, and had also saved his life. Paul had been staying in
a unit above a tattoo parlour at the time. He had known the owner for years and
he’d offered Paul cheap rent. When the informant called, he had been woken up
at three in the morning. His poor reception on his mobile phone made him have
to step out onto the back terrace to take the call. Just after the informant
had hung up, his unit and the tattoo parlour were fired on with guns and
homemade bombs.

Paul’s
bedroom was at the very front of the unit. The explosion was so powerful it
sent Paul flying off the terrace’s balcony and onto the garden bed below. If he
hadn’t received that call at that time, he would have still been sleeping in
his bedroom.  A bedroom that had now been blown to pieces.

Paul
had only moments to react. All his belongings were in that bedroom, along with
his laptop, which held a copy of the story he had been about to break, so he
took off before the emergency officers arrived. When he had gotten to his work
computer, it had been hacked. Every file erased from the hard drive. The only
file left was a blank word document titled
‘Explosive Story Breaking
Headlines
.’