radicalducati 2.23
2.23
Lucas’s POV
The guys heard everything I said and were prepared to take him right away.
They booked the first flight back to Fairbanks; which was taking off in an hour, and were already waiting at the airport there. I instructed them not to answer any question he asks at all.
They alerted me to something that made my paranoia crack open to a maximum level. The ID he had and used to book the flight with didn’t have the name Ben Collins, but James Sandler. He explained himself by saying it was a fake ID because he has a lot of enemies looking for him.
It made sense, but it still didn’t sit right with me all the way.
I asked Dan to snap a clear headshot of him without raising his attention and send it to me.
I looked at the photo, inspecting it thoroughly, looking for any sort of resemblance to Angelina, but there were no similarities.
I sent it to the sheriff of our town, Charlie Dawson. While Charlie is not a Snow, he is very loyal to us and does everything we ask of him because he knows we have the best interest of this town and its people.
I called him and asked him to reach out to his police guys in Seattle and have the photo inspected through their facial recognition system.
He said he would get back to me but that it will take a very long time to do that because of the many strings and favors he’ll need to pull to make that happen. I told him to take his time. My men weren’t coming here for another six hours anyway, I’ll wait. And I have the perfect distraction to pass that time with.
Angelina.
Gosh, that girl does look like an angel, she’s even acing the white color pretty well, her hair like a halo around her head, and those eyes. Don’t even get me started on those blue, shiny gems because I’ll never be able to do them any justice if I start describing them.
I’m attracted to her, I’d be dumb not to admit that, the girl is super hot. But she’s also a liar. And like I said to her last night, I despise liars.
While messing with her is quite fun, I feel like I’m messing with fire, fire that can swallow me whole any second and spit me out with nothing left of me but bones and ashes.
And since I’m always attracted to anything dangerous, I find myself not minding that probable fate at all.
I go back towards the kitchen and find her gone, much to my disappointment.
My mom, Sara, and April were cleaning up after breakfast.
“Where is she?” I asked April firmly.
“She wanted to help us out, but mom pressed her to go rest in her room” she said casually.
“What do you want with her?” mom eyed me sharply.
I shrugged nonchalantly “Nothing, wanted to keep her company, that’s all”
“If she needs anyone’s company, it wouldn’t be yours” mom hinted.
“Come on, mom. I backed off, didn’t you notice? I even changed her name just so it doesn’t cause her any more pain! How much proof do you want that I’m being respectful towards her?” I complained.
“What about last night’s late dinner? You didn’t say anything that bothered her?” mom asked awfully confidently, like she knew something.
That little mouse, she went off ratting me out to my own mother!
“Don’t worry, whatever you did, she kept it to herself, but she couldn’t hide her fear of you which definitely tells me you said something again. Don’t go anywhere near her unless it’s necessary, I mean it Lucas” she said strictly before she turned around and left the kitchen.
I sighed and ran my hands through my already messed up hair.
My mom is always too observant, nothing gets passed by her without her noticing right away.
I got up to my room and decided to fill Alex in on everything.
“Did you catch any useful information from your end?” I asked him curiously after I was done explaining everything about Angelina’s house search last night and this morning’s phone call with her father.
“No, still catching low lives who know nothing. We need a bigger fish to catch and that will take a lot of time observing and planning so we don’t get burned out and exposed” he said tiredly.
“I have a hunch we’ll have our answers from her father once he arrives here. I’ll keep you posted” I said firmly.
“Don’t do something drastic to him before confirming his identity. He could really turn out to be her father” he warned.
“Sure, I’ll be on my best behavior, don’t you worry” I said mockingly.
“Doubt it, but I’ll take your word for it” he said dryly.
“Say hi to your red for me, I miss her, or I miss messing with her actually” I said genuinely.
He scoffed and said sarcastically “You have another one you can mess with now, and from what I heard so far, you’re already driving her crazy”
“Until mom started standing in my way. I swear, that woman is a once in a lifetime occurrence on this earth. I can’t believe how fast she takes other people’s sides over her own kids. She did it with Jenny and now she’s doing it with her. She made me promise not to bother her and get this as well, she wanted me to promise not to use her in any way to get to Zade even despite her multiple lies to us!” I complained to him.
He laughed under his breath and said longingly for I know how much he was missing her immensely “Don’t tell me about her, I know exactly how she can be when she opens her heart to someone. I take it you refused to make that last promise?”
“Hell yeah, we don’t know shit about the girl yet! She could be the whole key to bringing that bastard down! I’m not going to pass up any opportunity to end him as fast as possible. This shit already went too far” I said determinedly.
A stretch of silence came from the other end of the line until Alex filled it with a sober tone “If she was the key to bringing him down but it puts her life in danger, you’d really risk it and use her, Lucas?”
I sighed, and said forcibly “I don’t know, probably. She’s not entirely innocent Alex, I can fucking feel it”
I heard him sigh and say firmly “You’re the leader now. You need to take tough decisions sometimes, even if it ends up being at the cost of your own beliefs, as long as you’re taking them to save the family and the town. That’s about the last thing dad said to me that day. It’s about time I pass that advice over to you. Do what you have to but keep in mind that you have to consider every option and every outcome before doing anything drastic, it’s not always the obvious, easy option that you have to take. Sometimes the hardest one ends up being the right one”
“Thanks for the extremely confusing, vague, word of advice bro. I’m don’t feel lost at all anymore” I said sarcastically.
He chuckled and said softly “You’re very welcome, you can always come back for more, just give me a call”
“Sure, I’ll do that. Take care”
I hang up and lay back in my bed as I put my hands behind my head and stare at the white ceiling.
What was he saying exactly? That I should look for other options if the girl turned out to be the only way to bring Zade down?
I mean I don’t really want her to end up hurt, I do have a tiny little liking for her, but she’s not my fucking responsibility, my family is, my town is.
So why should I consider other options?
And didn’t he just say that sometimes I have to take tough decisions that go against my own interests if it ends up being for the greater good?
I knew what he was referring to when he said those things.
He was talking about his own forced marriage to his girl, the girl whose father was conspiring against us. He sacrificed his own happiness to stop the blood shed. To save the town.
But that ‘impossible, life ruining option’ ended up being the best decision of his damn life after he fell in love with her and she fell for him.
It was a life altering decision that he was forced to make against his well, but it turned out to be the best one he could ever make.
What are the odds of that happening to me when I make one that could threaten my own happiness and life?