Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

  The next day, Ana was sure that Jonas was doing well enough and that there wasn’t any internal issues with him that we needed to worry about. So, she decided that she could leave to go back to Washington as planned. Although, when Jonas wasn’t around to hear, she went over a list of signs with Alaric, Kara, and I to watch out for in case he did start to develop belated signs of internal injury.

  It was a sad parting all around when Alaric and Kara took Ana to the airport. Kara was going with Ana to Washington since she had to take care of some things that she and Alaric said needed to be taken care of in person, although both remained extremely vague on the entire subject, refusing to give out any particulars.

  “Take care of him Britt,” Ana instructed me as she hugged me. She let go of me and moved over to Jonas, who was managing to prop himself up standing against a wall since he still couldn’t stand for long periods of time. She hugged him too, being careful not to hurt any still tender places.

  “You two should consider coming to Washington when you’re up to relocating,” I heard her whisper. “There’s nothing keeping either of you here anymore and you’re both more than welcome with us.”

  “We’ll definitely consider it,” answered Jonas gravely. “You’re right.” She pulled away from him, waved to us both, and followed Alaric and Kara out.  As soon as their footsteps could be heard going down the stairs, Jonas retreated back to our sofa.

  Eventually, much to Jonas’ aggravation, both Kara and Alaric had found out about his dizzy spell and fall. Although no one had said it aloud as far as I knew, though Ana might have said something to Alaric and Kara, we all believed that Jonas had worsened his ribs falling that day. We knew that he had at least reopened two of the three wounds that Alaric had carefully stitched up, causing Ana to have to put in new stitches. We also knew that his general condition, though hadn’t worsened, had stopped getting better so rapidly. Still, Ana was fairly certain that he had nothing to really worry about, and would be itching to get out of the loft and out doing something no later than a week from now, which was something that Alaric and I had agreed we weren’t particularly looking forward to. Because although he would probably be mostly healed by then, he would be in no shape to risk going out and getting ambushed again. He wouldn’t have any kind of a chance, and he would risk having his ribs, which would take quite a substantial bit of more time to heal according to Ana, actually broken.

  I walked over and sat down next to Jonas and he lifted up his arm from his side closest to me. Taking the movement as an invitation, I scooted closer to him and nestled up against his side. He dropped his arm back down and around me.

  “I suppose now would be as good a time as any to talk,” Jonas began, “I don’t know if Ana talked to you or not, but she talked to me about going to live in Washington. At this point, she’s right; there isn’t any reason to stay in LA any longer. We are virtually prisoners here. Although we may be safe if we stay right here in the loft all the time, we can’t truly be sure of that even for much longer, they may figure it out soon since DeRuise knows about Ana being my sister. Eventually, they’re going to trace her to having been here, and find us.

  “Alaric and Kara are only staying here because of us. If we went to Washington, they’d go back with us, and they’re our only friends still around in LA at this point. I know we’d be farther from Steve, and I’m sorry about that, but I think he’d understand,” Jonas met my gaze. “Of course, if you wanted to go to San Francisco to be closer to him, I’d understand. I know he’s the closest thing you’ve ever had to a brother.”

  I shook my head sadly.  “I’d like to be near him again, but I don’t want to involve him any more than he already is. If anything, I want to distance myself from him. From everyone for that matter,” I said in a quiet voice not much above a whisper.

  “Well, there’s always plan B,” Jonas suggested.

  “What’s plan B?” I asked him, wondering what he was talking about.

  “We could leave together, Britney. We could just leave a note for the others to explain that we don’t want to involve them anymore for their own safety’s sake, and then go away to somewhere where no one would ever be able to find us,” explained Jonas, completely serious, brushing my shoulder furthest from him with his fingertips.

  “But they would worry about us, not knowing if we were safe or if we’d been caught,” I argued, though I secretly would’ve loved nothing more than to just run away with Jonas, without actually telling anyone, and just disappearing.

  “Well, we would contact them again eventually, of course,” Jonas amended hastily. “We could go to Australia, just liked you wanted to,” he suggested as he began to nuzzle his face into the side of my neck and my hair. I closed my eyes, allowing myself to really consider Jonas’ plan B. I smiled as he started giving me little whispers of kisses on my neck and running his fingers through my hair, and I was able to easily envision us on some lonely stretch of beach somewhere in Australia together. Then it clicked.

  “No,” I whispered softly, opening my eyes. Jonas pulled away slowly, as if he wasn’t sure he had heard me correctly. He had probably figured he’d be able to convince me to go with plan B with very little difficulty, and he almost had.

  “No?”

  No,” I confirmed resolutely. He pulled far enough away to look into my eyes, and I could see the puzzlement in his clear, deep pools of sea green.

  “Why not?” he asked me.

  “It just wouldn’t be right, Jonas. We wouldn’t be able to safely contact them for a very long time, years even. All that time they’d be wondering if we were even still alive while we sat on some beach somewhere sipping Pina Coladas?” I asked him, trying to make my point.

  “I promise, as soon as we’re safely away I can find a way to contact Ana and Alaric, who can in turn contact everyone else who needs to know,” vowed Jonas with sincerity which I fully believed he meant, although I didn’t miss the fact that he spoke as if it were something we were going to do rather than just something we might do.

  “Even if you could, it still would be wrong,” I persisted.

  “But why?” he  demanded, returning to playing with my hair, but still staring into my eyes, willing me with his twin seas to voice my objections so that he could refute them all.

  “Because, we aren’t married, Jonas,” I finally disclosed.

  “Well we’d have to do that so that I could take you with me Britt,” Jonas laughed. “Is that your only other protestation to the plan then?”

  “Jonas, I’m not going to just have some quick wedding with a judge or whatever so that we can run off together to Australia,” I stated unwaveringly, pulling away from him. I tried not to flinch at the pained expression that stole across his face at my declaration and my moving away from him and out of his reach on the sofa. “How long have you been planning this thing anyway? Or do you mean to tell me that you just now came up with all this?”

   “I’ve been thinking about it for about two or three weeks now,” he admitted. “Britney, love, it would work,” he entreated me. I shook my head and stood up, though everything inside me screamed to cuddle right back up to his side.

  He looked as if he was ready to say more, but his phone rang. At first, it appeared as if he might simply ignore it, but then he seemed to think better of doing that, and answered it. I soon realized that it was Alaric, and took the moment to slip off to my room before Jonas could stop me.

  I ran up the steps and into my room, closing and locking the door behind me. I flung myself across my bed and burst into silent tears. I loved Jonas more than anyone else in the world, of that, I was certain. More than anything, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, but not like what he wanted to do. I didn’t want a hurried little wedding without any friends or family. I didn’t want to just run away and simply hope Hayden and my father never found us, while we separated ourselves from everyone we loved and trusted except for each other.

  Besides, my being married to Jonas wouldn’t stop Hayden and my father from taking me. In fact, it would only guarantee that they’d kill him; saving them time on divorce paperwork. That is, if Hayden still wanted me. My father might just want me back to punish me for messing up all his plans. Either way, Jonas was sure to die. If we wanted any chance of having a real life together, we had to end things with my father, one way, or another. 

  Several minutes later, Jonas came and knocked at my door gently, but I didn’t reply. When I didn’t answer his knocks after a few tries, he tried talking to me instead.

  “Britt,” he started in a coaxing tone, “please, come out so we can talk about this, love. I’m sure that we can work something out.”

  I remained silent, sure, that if I agreed to go out and talk to him that I wouldn’t be able to keep my resolve and would agree to whatever he wanted.

  “We don’t even have to talk if you don’t want to,” he attempted again, from a new angle, but still in a soothing, persuasive voice. “Just let me come in to be with you. I want to spend what little time we have left before Alaric gets back, together, not like this.”

  Again, though it was hard, I still remained silent. I knew what not talking would mean, and I wasn’t interested in that right now either. We’d already been spending too much time cuddling and things together. Every time we did, Jonas always seemed to take things yet another step further.

  “Britt, would you at least answer me, so I know that you’re ok?” he finally asked me as a final attempt before giving up.

  I wiped my eyes with my hand, got up from my bed, and crept to the door. I unlocked it and opened it a crack.

  “I’m alright, Jonas,” I told him, realizing that my make-up smeared face and still-damp cheeks called me a liar. By the look in his eyes, I knew his careful eyes had not missed a thing.

  “Are you sure, sweetheart?” he asked, reaching out and stroking my cheek. I closed my eyes and swallowed hard, nodding.

  “I’m fine, just worried and tired,” I replied. “I really just need some time alone for awhile.”

  “I understand,” he told me. He leaned forward and kissed my forehead gently before turning around and leaving me alone as I wanted him to. With a sad sigh, I closed my door and collapsed on my bed yet again.

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  Alaric knocked on the loft door in the way that he had designed to signal that it was just him, and then walked inside. When he went into the living room, he was surprised to see his brother alone and gloomily staring from his place on a chair, not his and Britt’s sofa he noted, out the window. All bad signs, Alaric thought to himself, approaching the love seat, cautiously.

  “So...where’s Britt?” he asked carefully. He figured something had happened between the two while he was gone, he just wasn’t sure what or how they were feeling about each other. Kara was pretty easy in situations like this. They would fight and get everything out in the open and then have a long make-up/make-out period. He wasn’t sure what to do or say about his brother and Britney though, they were different; their relationship was different.

  “Up in her room,” Jonas stated emotionlessly as he continued staring out the window.

 Great, Alaric groaned inwardly. Couldn’t they have had whatever this was out before Ana left? Surely, she would have known how to handle this, whatever this was.

  “Did something happen between you two,” he asked. “I mean, I kinda figured I’d find you two making out on the sofa, not in different rooms and on separate floors,” Alaric joked. Unfortunately, he quickly realized by the look on Jonas’ face that he’d been the only one to see it as humorous.

  “Actually, I don’t want to talk about it,” answered Jonas stiffly, getting up from his seat a bit too suddenly, holding his side briefly before straightening up and preparing to walk out. At first, Alaric continued to sit, clueless as to what he could say or do. However, when he realized Jonas’ intent to go outside, he leapt from his seat and grabbed hold of his brother’s arm.

  “You can’t just go out there by yourself,” he informed Jonas. At least he was smart enough to know that much, Alaric told himself. Even if he didn’t know how to get to the bottom of what had happened between the “lovebirds” while he was gone.

  Jonas yanked his arm out of Alaric’s hand. “I’m not going far, just getting some fresh air,” he let Alaric know, his voice holding an edge that Alaric couldn’t ignore. It was the signature Matthews “don’t try to get in my way” tone.

  “Yeah, like you could even make it down the steps,” Alaric scoffed, but released his brother anyway.

  “I’ll be back soon,” Jonas said, ignoring Alaric’s words completely. Alaric stared, dumb-founded, as his brother walked out without another word, leaving him to simply stare helplessly after him. Alaric shook his head and closed the door.

  Alright, I’ll see if I can get anything out of Britt, he assured himself. Surely she’ll be more forthcoming about what happened. Jonas had never really accepted him in the first place, that was probably why he didn’t share his troubles with him now, he hoped.

  Britt, on the other hand, was a girl, and everyone knew girls were supposed to love talking about how they felt. She was sure to explain everything to him.

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  Hearing a knock at my door that I knew by the sound was not Jonas, I took a second to wipe my face and glance in the mirror before answering it, assuming it had to be Alaric. Sure enough, when I opened the door, Alaric was standing just outside.

  “Hey, I was just wondering what’s up between you and Jonas,” he explained to me. “I just talked to him and he seemed distracted to say the least. He wouldn’t talk about it though, so I thought you might elaborate a little for me.”

  I bit my lip trying to decide what I should do. If Jonas hadn’t told him, I wasn’t sure if I should either. After all, it really didn’t have anything to do with Alaric, not really anyway.

  “It’s nothing,” I finally lied, deciding not to tell him. “I’m just tired and need some time alone.” Alaric nodded as if he believed me, but his eyes told me he wasn’t convinced by a long shot. I gave him a shaky smile.

  “Ok then, if you guys don’t want to tell me about whatever it is that’s your choice. However, don’t think that either of you have fooled me. Something happened while I took Kara and Ana to the airport, whether the two of you want to admit it or not doesn’t matter.”

  “I just don’t want to share any of it with you if Jonas doesn’t want to tell you about it,” I explained to him apologetically. “We’ll work it out though, so don’t worry.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I have no intent of worrying about my little brother acting all moody and going outside in the rain alone,” he commented with a hint of sarcasm. My eyes shot to the window and I looked out at the storm outside.

  “Jonas went out in that?” I asked him. “Why didn’t you keep him inside?” I demanded in a fierce tone as I rushed past him to get downstairs and go to the door.

  “Well to be fair, it wasn’t storming at that point,” he told me. “It was just barely drizzling. Besides, he was dead set on going out there.”

  “Please, you’d have a harder time keeping a golden retriever indoors than Jonas in his condition,” I shot back, rolling my eyes.

  “I figured it wouldn’t hurt him to get some exercise and let out a bit of steam from whatever happened,” he called after me as I opened the door to leave in search of Jonas. “You’re going out too?” he asked me.

  “Of course I am! I’m going to drag his sorry butt back in here before he gets a cold on top of everything else,” I shot back over my shoulder as I went out.

  I hurried down the steps and looked around until I spotted Jonas sitting out on a bench by the pond. Wishing I’d remembered to grab my coat, I wrapped my arms around myself and ran out to where he was sitting. When I got there, he looked up at me in surprise.

  “Britt, what are you doing out here in the pouring rain without a coat?” he demanded.

  “What are you doing out here period?” I countered.

  “I needed to get out and think. I was just resting a moment before going back inside,” he replied.

  “Well come on, we can both go back in together now,” I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him to his feet. We turned around, and I gasped involuntarily, not because Jonas had suddenly thrust me behind him, but because a gun was pointed directly at Jonas’ chest from only a few yards away from us.

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Is Anna Jealous???????????????