Even more awkward.

“Hi, Mr. Murphy,” Jaci said. “Finn’s taking me on a tour tomorrow. It should be really awesome. I’ll send you guys pictures.”

“Jaci.” His voice was extremely calm, a little too calm. Jaci bit her lip, hating to put him through this. “Why don’t you bring Finn back here? He can even stay at our hotel with us.”

“You guys could join us on the tour,” Jaci said, crossing her fingers. “I’ll send you the info. I’m totally safe, I promise.”

“What’s the secret word?” he demanded.

“Secret word? Oh.” She’d almost forgotten the safe words their parents established after the kidnapping. She had not once in the two years since then had to use them. But they would save her now. One code word was meant to indicate danger without letting the listener know, while the other to reassure that there was no danger. “Hopscotch.” And then she played her trump card. “I’m eighteen now. I’m an adult, and I want to go with him.” She put an icy edge to her voice. “You really don’t have to worry.”

“Now listen to me, honey. I think you’re making a very rash decision, and it’s not like you.”

Jaci interrupted, a flash of genuine anger fueling her words. “How do you know what I’m like? How do any of you know? You all think I’m this perfect, straight-A student, quiet, hard-working. You don’t know me. You have no idea what’s going on in my head! I’m sick of it! I want to break free! This is my chance. I’m taking it.” She choked back a sob, worried he might misunderstand her tears. “I’m not who any of you think I am. This is me.”

“Jaci,” he said, and she knew from his tone that he believed her. “I’ll have to call your mom.”

“That’s fine. She can’t do anything, either. Even if you guys call the police, the most they can do is call me a runaway. And I really wish you guys would just let me take this moment.” She wasn’t even talking about Finn anymore, but about her father, about this opportunity to get to know him, the one she’d had to sneak off to take. “I’m sorry. You guys can call me anytime on this number, it’s his phone. I’ll call my mom later. But I’m not coming back.”

“Now, Jaci—”

“Bye.” Jaci snapped the phone shut and tossed it on the bed. When she looked up, her father was leaning against the doorframe. “That was awful. Like extremely painful.”

“I thought you did a good job,” he said, his eyes probing her face. As if he knew the emotional outburst wasn’t a lie.

Jaci opened her mouth to say something more, but then her phone rang. Not her real phone, but the burner her dad had given her. She stared at it, face down on the bed, afraid of who it might be.

“Is that for you?” she asked, hoping.

He shook his head. “I never used it before I gave it to you.”

Jaci grabbed the phone off the bed. Her heart lurched when she recognized the number. Mr. Murphy must have called her as soon as they hung up. “It’s Mom.”

“Answer it,” her father said softly.

Jaci flipped the phone open and put on her perkiest voice. “Mom!”

“Jaci?” There was a sob in her mother’s voice, but it was tempered by confusion, even relief that Jaci had answered. She launched into Spanish, throwing out words at a much quicker pace in her native tongue. “Where are you? Why did you leave Amanda? What is this about a boy?”

Jaci closed her eyes briefly and then launched into her rehearsed story. “I know, Mom. I know it’s crazy, but I can’t even explain it to you. I feel so happy! I feel lighter than I have in weeks, months! It’s like everything that happened isn’t real, this is real, and I can just forget it all. I’m having a wonderful time.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“You are supposed to be with Amanda and her father! You need to go back to them right now.”

Jaci set her jaw and put on her best independent rebellious teen tone. “Mom, I’m not going back. Finn is wonderful.” She ground her teeth together, realizing it was the second time she’d used that word. She needed another adjective. “He’s keeping me safe, you don’t have to worry. We’re just having fun. And I’ll come home just like I’m supposed to.”

“Are you crazy, daughter? Running off with some boy!”

Jaci couldn’t help but smile now. Reassured that she was safe, her mother was launching into angry mode. She could handle that.

“Mother, you’re overreacting. He’s a wonderful—” dang it, she’d said it again— “young man.”

“But you don’t love him!” her mother screeched. “You need to come home right now!”

“It’s not about love,” Jaci said. “It’s about the way he makes me feel. And I feel happy. Don’t you want me to be happy? Just let me be. I’ll call you later.”

Jaci hung up the phone and dropped it on the bed, her hands shaking. Even though she knew the whole argument was fake, her mother didn’t. She hated fighting with her, even over a fabricated issue. And this was a doozy. Good girls didn’t run off with a strange boy in a foreign country. There was no doubt her mother would assume the worst was going on between the two of them.

“Are you all right?” Mr. Rivera asked.

“Fine,” Jaci said shortly, waving off his concern. She didn’t even know what to feel. Anger at him churned in her chest, as if she blamed him for this predicament. But she’d accepted willingly, eagerly. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m fine,” she said again. She changed the subject, turning it back on him. “Where are you guys going tonight?”

His eyes didn’t leave her face. “We are going to practice self-defense. I would like you to come with us. I want you to become skilled in this art.”

“Oh,” Jaci said, a bit caught off guard. But she couldn’t argue with the logic. “Sure. I didn’t bring anything to wear.”

“Check your dresser. I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.” He left the room, closing the door behind him.

Jaci stood and opened the top drawer. She found different variations of black pants and slick black tank tops and shirts. “Black it is,” she murmured to herself. She changed quickly, glad that the only shoes she owned were practical and suited for running. Not that she could run right now. Her ankle already smarted from the long walk today.

“I have to be careful,” she warned her father when she rejoined him. Finn and his father also waited, dressed in the appropriate black attire. “My ankle still hurts. I can’t run on it and even walking hurts sometimes.”

“It’s not a problem.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “I will show you how to use your whole body. Even if one part is incapacitated, you can make use of the rest.”

She remembered how helpless she’d felt when Sid’s men had taken her a few weeks’ prior. She knew how to fight; she’d excelled at kick-boxing and loved it. But besides her ankle injury, she also froze up. Terror and fear paralyzed her, crippled her mind, and none of her training came to her. Even if she had been in full health, she doubted she would have been able to defend herself.

She kept that thought to herself, though.

Finn’s father got behind the wheel, but her father climbed into the passenger seat beside him, leaving Jaci with Finn in the back. Silence reigned in the car. Finn stared out the window at the flickering city lights. When their two fathers began to murmur in another language, Jaci leaned toward him and whispered, “Where are we going?”

“To the gym,” he whispered back, inclining his head her direction. “We practice every evening. Unless we have a mission.”

Curiosity surged upward in spite of being appalled by this lifestyle. “What kind of missions?”

Finn shrugged, looking uncertain. “I’m not sure how much I can talk about.”

She swirled her hand. “Give me vague answers, then.”

“Sometimes we have rescue missions. Other times we, uh, stop people from hurting others.”

She squinted at him. “How do you do that?”

“Get them out of the way. Permanently.” He gave a short laugh.

She shuddered, feeling goosebumps on her arms. “How do you handle that?”

Finn lifted his chin. “I am very proud of what we do.”

“But you’ve—” killed people, she started to say. And then she leaned back in her seat and stared out her own window. Because she had, also. When she and her friends escaped from their kidnapper, he sent his goons after them. And Jaci had killed their attacker in the woods without a second thought just to save Sara. She hadn’t consciously thought, I’m going to kill him, but when the moment came, she didn’t back down until the threat was gone.

How was what Finn and her father did any worse, except they were defending strangers instead of loved ones?

She didn’t have much time to mull the thought over before they arrived.

image [https://cdn-gcs.inkitt.com/story_images/big_168bc3172165d684b1be1b37e818fc11.jpeg]