Unfiltered & Unsaved (12 page)

Solomon might even believe that she’d been given the phone number, and this was all part of Elijah’s plan. Ironic that it was just the opposite—that he’d tried to break all ties with her and leave her behind to protect her, and his friends.

Hope put the car in gear and headed for I-17.

###

She was about an hour into the drive when her phone rang. She checked the number, afraid it would be Elijah’s, but that Solomon would be on the other end … but it wasn’t him at all.

Hope hit speaker. “Brittany? What’s wrong?”

“A lot,” Brittany said. “Look, I was down with the whole wait-twenty-four thing, especially for cash, but the fact is you didn’t pay me to lie to the cops.”

“I wouldn’t do that. Wait, police? The police are there?”

“They’re looking for you,” Brittany said.

Hope’s heart fluttered, and she had to take in a deep breath. “Why?” she managed to ask, although she thought she already knew.
Drug money. Murder money. Oh, God, it was all coming apart.

“Apparently, they’re worried about you, because after that
Breaking Bad
extra broke down my door, he broke down yours, and you’ve been reported missing, I guess. I told them I saw you, and you were freaked out by the whole thing but okay. They want you to call, I guess, just to be sure you still have a pulse or something. I’m going to text you the number; it’s a Detective Perez.”

“Okay,” Hope said. Some of the panic eased. Nobody was looking for her for The Coffee Cave incident, at least; that was something, if not everything. “I’ll call and tell him I’m all right. You didn’t tell him—”

“Honey, where I’m from, you don’t tell the cops anything you don’t have to, and if you do, you get your ass witness-protectioned out of there. You’re covered for now. But if somebody comes asking about money—”

“I know,” Hope said. “I wouldn’t ask you to get involved.”

“Did you find him yet? What’s his name, anyway?”

“Elijah.”

“Of course it is. Religious girl goes for Bible-named guy. You couldn’t have fallen for somebody named Trent or something?”

“If it helps, Elijah’s a criminal.”

“It helps a
lot
. Thank you for throwing me a bone. Not, you know, a
bone
…”

Hope found herself smiling, and she really knew she shouldn’t be. “Goodbye, Brittany.”

“See ya. Or not. But you watch your back.”

“God has my back,” Hope said. “And so do you.”

“You’re weird. But … yeah. I do.”

Hope hesitated for a second, then said, “One last thing. I don’t want you to think I’m meddling, but … stop drinking so much, okay? I worry.”

“Yes, Mom.”

“I mean it.”

“I know.”

Brittany clicked off, and after a few more seconds, the tone rang for a text message. The detective’s number had come through. Hope picked up her phone and started to hit the link to dial, but then she hesitated. If she got on the phone with him, he could trace the call, couldn’t he? Did she want him to?

Maybe she did.

She thumbed the link, and the phone dialed just as she passed a road sign that read
Flagstaff, 70 miles.
It rang three times, then went to voicemail, which was something of a relief. She cleared her throat when the tone sounded for her to leave a message. “Hi, this is Hope Adams. I think you were looking for me? I just wanted to let you know that I’m okay, but that incident at my dorm scared me pretty badly. I’m heading back home to my folks, I think. I’m going to find another school where I’ll feel safe again. But you don’t have to worry about me. I’m not hurt or anything. I’m not missing, I’m just … moving.”

That was, she decided, good enough. She hung up, and put on some more speed.

Next stop, Flagstaff. She knew enough now about how Solomon worked to know the kind of place he’d pick to house his slave labor, and where he’d send them to work.

She was going to find Elijah.

And then she was going to set him free, however that needed to happen.

It didn’t turn out to be quite as easy as she’d hoped, because despite all her good intentions, she couldn’t find Solomon’s hideout. None of the cheap no-tell motels that she checked had the tell-tale white van in the lot, and her cruise around the local university campus told her nothing. Maybe this time they were canvassing door-to-door in neighborhoods, or maybe Solomon had decided to change destinations when he’d caught Elijah on the phone. When she tried to call the number again, out of desperation, a recording told her it was out of service.

She’d lost her only lead to him.

Hope spent a precious few hours making contingency plans. She didn’t like the options, but she knew better than to underestimate Solomon now; she could only hope that he’d underestimate
her
. She bought a new phone—disposable, of course—and a reloadable cash card. And a new duffel bag, this one with the Northern Arizona University logo screened on it.

Then she called Brittany, and made a plan. It wasn’t the
best
plan, in that it relied on Brittany doing something, but it was better than nothing.

One more stop at the rental car place, and she was finally ready.

Hope parked in the campus lot and walked to the University Center, which of course had a coffee shop in it; the smell of it still repulsed her, so she avoided the brew and bought a bottled water and a sandwich and took a seat with her ASU-RV duffel bag at her feet. There were plenty of students around, chatting and studying, texting, gaming; it felt safe and above all, normal. If Solomon or Skinner found her here, they wouldn’t dare a move openly.

But she didn’t think they would find her, and that was a double-edged sword, because it meant she wouldn’t find them, either. She was losing energy, and her optimism, fast. The sandwich helped, and so did the water, but she couldn’t for the life of her think of any other roads to explore. Make another round of the motels, maybe. And hope that Elijah found a way to get a message to her.

She was just finishing the last bite of her lunch when she saw a familiar face, and her whole body reacted with a flash of pure adrenaline. It wasn’t Elijah, though.

It was Avita.

The pregnant teen looked even more fragile and tentative in a school setting than she had in the motel parking lot. She’d showered and dressed in campus-friendly clothes, all neat and correct. She looked like a very young freshman, and Hope could understand why Solomon would want to keep her in his stable of workers; she had a certain vulnerability to her that made people want to help, and if helping meant buying a few magazines, well, sure. Who wouldn’t?

Hope tossed her lunch trash, grabbed the duffel bag, and tried to look casual as she followed the girl down the hall. It could be a trap, of course; she was hyper-aware of the people around her, but she didn’t see Skinner, the one she’d really be afraid of spotting. Avita didn’t seem to pay attention to her, but she paused at an intersection to tie her shoe. Hope slowed as she came near, and after a glance around revealed no threats, she studied a flyer on the wall for an upcoming student political rally. There were a few liberals around, apparently. And they promised cake.

“Are you Hope?” Avita whispered.

“I am.”

“Elijah said you’d come. But you need to be careful. Skinner’s looking for you too. He’ll kill you if he finds you.”

Hope stared at her, hard. Some strange, newborn instinct in her was stubbornly telling her to watch out. She’d fallen for so much already—starting with Elijah’s initial approach, all the way up through his ditching her at the hotel—and she fought an entirely foreign urge to be cynical.
What if she’s playing you, too? Are you willing to risk that?

Well … she had to be willing to risk it. Because the alternative was to distrust a pregnant teen in trouble, and she couldn’t do that. Even if she was wrong and got betrayed, it would be so much worse to let Avita get hurt because of her own selfishness.

So, with an effort, she shut up that nagging voice, and said, “Where’s Elijah?”

“At the van. They didn’t let him out this time. He’s the hostage for me to come back. They’ll hurt him if I don’t bring enough cash, and hurt him a lot worse if I try to run.” Avita hesitated. “But something’s different now. I think—I think Solomon’s ready to get rid of all of us and start over. Maybe we’re too much trouble now.”

“Get rid of you? What does that mean?”

“Dump us somewhere,” Avita said. “It doesn’t matter what we say after that. We’re the ones people file fraud charges against, not him. He just changes whatever name he’s using and hires new people and starts over. It’s easy for him.”

“He won’t …”

“Kill us? Why should he? He doesn’t need the cops coming after him that hard. He’ll just kick us out and keep going.”

“But not yet?”

“No,” she said. “I think he was hoping you’d show up. He didn’t believe Elijah brought all the money. He thinks you’ve got lots more, and he wants it.”

Solomon, Hope realized, was not a fool. He knew Elijah, and he knew that E.J. would try to protect her as much as he could. So of course there would be more to get.

She’d put herself just where Solomon wanted her … but it was also where she wanted to be.

Avita was looking at her now, still bent over and pretending to fuss with the lace on her sneaker. She seemed worried. And scared. And desperate.

“Have you had something to eat?” Hope asked. Avita shook her head. “Come on. Let’s get you something.”

“I shouldn’t …”

“It’s okay,” she told her. “It’s all going to be okay.”

Into your hands, O Lord
… though it was probably blasphemy to consider the words of Jesus on the cross at a time like this. She wasn’t sure how Jesus would feel about the pregnant unwed teen criminal, or the sex she’d had with Elijah, or the murder money in her bag.

Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.
The words of a dying man.

She hoped that wasn’t her fate, but she was willing to let go, and trust.

###

Avita ate like she was starving, which she could have been; Solomon used food as a weapon, and a reward. He probably wasn’t big on prenatal care, either, which worried Hope. At least there were healthy options in the dining hall, thank God; the girl loaded up on portions and tucked it away as if she was afraid someone would steal it out from under her.

In between bites, she told a horror story that was all the more chilling for being so matter-of-fact. Threats, beatings, so many terrible things. Skinner was strictly professional, but not Solomon. He enjoyed his power too much.

“Is the baby …” Hope was afraid to ask, but she felt she had to. Avita put a hand on the swell of her stomach.

“It’s Solomon’s,” she said. “I—I don’t want to talk about that.”

She seemed, in that moment, such a very young girl. Hope felt ancient next to her, and she had an idea of how Elijah must have felt, too. He was loyal, and he was caring, and he would defend this girl and her baby with his life if he could.

She loved that about him.

“Where is Solomon staying?” she asked Avita, as the girl crammed the last bites of salad into her mouth.

Avita chewed, taking more time with it than was strictly necessary, then finally said, “He isn’t. We’re in the van, hitting the campus and then taking off. He had us shower at a truck stop so we’d look okay, but he doesn’t want to hang around.”

“How is he planning on finding me?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “But he seemed pretty sure he would.”

That was worrying, and Hope turned it over in her mind as Avita dug into a bowl of pudding—full of calcium, at least. The girl had a sweet tooth, but then she probably needed the calories, given that the knobby bones of her wrist were visible under the skin. Scary, to think what that might have already done to the baby. Hope sent a prayer up for that tiny, unborn life; she prayed that it wouldn’t be blighted by the bad beginnings it had already suffered. She dreamed of a family someday—a husband, children to make the future bright. She’d never really questioned that it would happen; it did, didn’t it? It had always been a given in her family. You married, you had children, you were happy.

It wasn’t until she was outside of the shelter of that happy family home that she’d really begun to understand, in terrifying ways, how much of a fiction that dream could be. So many people, like Avita, had never known the promise of it, much less the reality. It made Hope sad, and it also made her determined—determined to find ways to make her own happiness, and to give it to someone else.

That was why she’d accepted the dirty money … to help make that determination into reality. Here, sitting across from her, was the reason she’d compromised her own integrity and beliefs.

Someone who needed it more.

“I need you to promise me something,” she told Avita, who paused in the act of spooning up pudding. “It’s important.”

“Maybe,” Avita said. “Depends.”

“I want you to promise me that you will let me put you on a bus right now. You can go home, you can go somewhere else you want to go, but Avita, you can’t stay here. You can’t stay with Solomon.”

“I can’t just
go.
I don’t have anything. And Elijah—”

“Elijah will be okay. What he most wanted me to do was to make sure
you
got away. You know that, don’t you?”

Avita unwillingly nodded and finished her mouthful of pudding, then put the spoon down as if she’d lost her appetite. “I can’t go home. My dad—let’s just say that’s not an option.”

“Do you have anywhere else?”

“My mom, I guess. She lives in DC. She and my dad divorced after I left. But I told you, I can’t … I don’t have any money. Solomon never gives us more than enough to feed ourselves, if he gives us that much.”

“If I buy you a ticket to go home, get you a phone, and call your mom to pick you up, will you go? I’ll give you cash for the trip, and some money for the baby, too. You need to see a doctor and make sure he’s healthy.”

“She,” Avita said. She got a faraway look in her eyes, and the smile that formed on her lips was genuinely delighted. “Definitely a she.” The momentary sweetness faded quickly, and her reserve slipped back in its place. “Why would you give me money? Buy me stuff? What’s in it for you?”