Are you okay?

Chapter 31

Evangeline

I needed to speak to my mother. She'd be able to answer every question I had... that we had.
The issue was that she refused to speak over the phone, clearly she had her suspicions that we were being listened to.
That's all I can put her radio silence on this whole topic down to, because usually she loves to talk.

I dialled her number, and it rang a few times before she picked up.
"Hello" she answered, sounding a little more upbeat than she had over the past few months.
I hated how I was about to ruin that for her.

"hi" I replied

"is everything alright?" her tone quickly changed

"not really mum" I sighed, "he's been listening this whole time, Nate found wires in Xavier's office"

"shit" she hissed,

"he's managed to turn Isaac, they've gone through all the paper work and both Xavier's planner and address book, he's knows everything mum" I was trying my best to hold it together.
Mila sat beside me, squeezing my hand tightly.

"what does he want with us?"

"I don't know hunny" she, like everyone else, sounded exhausted with this whole situation. 

"we need to know what happened... I heard the last phone call between Xavier and dad, they said they were going to tell us" I continued

"you heard the last phone call?..." she paused, "the one where...?"

"yes"

"oh God" I could picture her expression right now, I could see her pacing around.
"I can't tell you over the phone Eva, you know that"

"I know" I sniffed, "can't you come here?"

"Eva..." she began but I knew where it was leading. She was barely able to leave the house anymore and now I knew why.
The guilt of leaving that house and leaving him alone that night must be eating her alive.

"it's okay, i'm sorry I asked" I cut her off

"no, i'm sorry" she muttered, "I wish I could help you more than this, I really do"

"i'll try and see if we can get to London soon but..."
It was just as hard for me to travel there as it was for her to travel here.

"we'll work something out soon but right now you need to focus on staying safe... all of you"

"I know"

"put pressure on him, he cracks eventually... Xavier was always good at getting under his skin, if Nathaniel is anything like his father, he'll know how to do it"
That was the last thing she said before the line went quiet.

I shoved my phone back into my pocket and looked over at Mila.
"she say anything?" she questioned

"nothing we don't already know, she doesn't want to start saying things over the phone which I understand" I shrugged

"this is shit" she sighed as she leant against the car.

"mhm" I hummed, "it is"

Christian then walked over and quickly pulled Mila up to her feet.
He seemed a little flustered.

"what's wrong now?" I looked up

"i'm just hoping everyone's out of there, i'm not sure what Nate and Xander are about to do" he exhaled.

I sat back anxiously and waited for Nate to return. He was far from stupid and whatever he was doing, I knew it was for a reason.

I watched the orange glow take over everyone's faces and the loud cracking of fire filled my ears quickly.
I was happy to see that place burn. It was almost relieving.

As I suspected, Nate walked over and sat quietly beside me.
He waited for me to speak.

"I want him dead" was all I could bring myself to say.

"soon sunshine" he took my hand in his.
"we'll get him soon"

We sat for another couple minutes in silence and although we were surrounded by probably nearly 1000 people right now, it felt like we were completely alone.

Greyson eventually walked over with a weird expression on his face, "we need to deal with all these people" he sighed.

Nate silently got up and walked towards the front of the mass group of people.
They were all silent as he walked towards them, they all watched him, taking in every detail about him. 

Many of them had never seen him before. With the whole hierarchy scheme, it's rare that Nate would ever meet any of the people working for him.
He had an inner circle which he was cutting down by the day and they were the people that relayed the orders Nate gave.
To be able to stand face to face with him was probably quite a big deal to some of them.
He was essentially royalty in their eyes. They'd all die for him if necessary.

It's slightly fucked...

His voice was quiet as he began relaying orders to everyone. He didn't need to be loud, it was so quiet, you could hear a penny drop.
The only noise present was him and the crackling of the fire behind us all.

Their main task was to find Isaac alive. He was our key to William, we just needed to find him.

The crowd slowly began moving out which gave us our chance to finally leave this hell whole before that fire got worse.

Once in the car, we remained silent until we got back to the house.
And yes I said house.
We hadn't been here in the best part of two months and it felt weird but nice to be back.

I preferred it here.
There was no one around, just us.

I knew we wouldn't be here long just a few hours but Nate wanted to go through all the paper work and try and reorganise it himself.
He didn't trust anyone else to do it the way he liked it.

So me and him spent the remainder of the night reading boring ass pieces of paper.
It was mostly done in silence.
I don't think either of us currently had the right words to comfort the other.

Everything felt so messed up and I felt awful about not being able to fix any of it.

"are you feeling okay?" he glanced over at me

"i'm okay" I gave a small smile

"are you sure because you're really pale again" he walked towards me and sat down on the seat beside.

"i'm just tired, we've basically been up all night" I tried to reassure him.

I didn't feel great but I was okay to fight through it. We no longer had time to rest. We needed to end this sooner rather than later.

"you should go to bed, I don't want you getting any worse" he rubbed my hand a little.

"i'm fine... really!" I tried to convince him but it wasn't really working so I changed subject instead, "I called my mum"

"oh" he looked at me confused, "...what did she say?"

"she wasn't able to give me much except how your dad was always good at getting under William's skin, she said you'd know how to do it... if you were anything like him" I was hesitant to say that last sentence. He and his father had a rocky relationship and he has never really appreciated being compared to him in any way.

"I fear i'm becoming more like him day by day" he laughed sharply.

"your not him though" I ran my hands through his hair, "sure you've inherited some of his good traits but you're mother also took part in creating the person you are today"

He gave me a soft smile, "thank you"

"... do you know what to do?" I watched as a grin formed on his face.

"yep"