The Shadows Between the Lines

Chapter 2

Samantha Evans POV

After Fiona came and picked me up from the police station I had already fabricated a lie of why I was there and why I didn't have my car. Fiona and her family had become my found family of sorts. I couldn't drag her into this mess, she was safer not knowing, especially with her ruthless protectiveness.

My only choice was to create a well crafted lie for why I was there and why I was going away. I told her that someone carjacked my car from my work's parking garage. I called the police to report it missing, they came and picked me up, and I gave my statement and filed it as missing. After I got off the phone with her, I called a tow-truck company and paid them to haul my car off to their impound lot. By the time she picked me up I had rehearsed this lie, and I told it smoothly without any weird pauses. She asked me questions about what they were doing to find it, what I was going to drive for now, and if I contacted my insurance already.

On the rest of our way home I listened to her tell me about her day, she ranted about her fast paced day, and some asshole who came in with two dobermans. I listened trying to memorize her voice, knowing that I would most likely never see her again after tomorrow. Even if I pulled this off I could never go back to living with Fiona, for her own protection.

These thoughts made it difficult to act like nothing was wrong as we ate dinner together and watched our dumb reality tv show. After we made plans to go to breakfast tomorrow Fiona turned in for the night leaving me to start making preparations.

I started with planting the information that would be my way back into my family's lives. I needed something that would cause them to accept me back with almost open arms. I picked something that I knew would most likely cause some sort of odd proudness from my father, with enough of a risk for my brother to want to protect me. I took out my computer quickly setting up a new firewall sourcing my computer through multiple different routers to hide my real location. I almost too easily hacked into Philip Beckett's accounts, a well known human trafficker. Using an offshore account that would be easily tracked to my real name I transferred all of Beckett's money.

I also went back a few years in his finances and made it look like it wasn't the first time I had transferred money from him. Just to add to the crime, because my father needed to believe that this was something I had been doing for some time. Once I was happy with it I just waited for Beckett to contact me using the information on the account demanding retribution. Because men in these businesses could never just go in for the silent kill, they want to be boisterous and let you graphically know what's coming.

While I waited for their response, I started to pack up a single suitcase. Packing just the necessities and nothing personal from my current life. I figure after I completed or didn't complete this "mission" I would be pronounced dead and take on another new identity. It was painful to shred the polaroids of Fiona and I. I had always refused to take pictures with her digitally, telling her polaroids took better pictures.

It took less time then I had thought for Beckett to reach out to me. Like I predicted he was very colorful with his threat about making my inners outers. That painted quite the picture. I didn't respond, but figured that them issuing the threat was the perfect time for me to reach out to my family. I typed in the phone number I had memorized since childhood, hoping that he hadn't got a new phone number. I took a sharp breath in trying to calm my racing heart as it rang.

"This is Calvin Evans." My brother's voice poured out of my phone. I froze, I hadn't heard his voice in years, I had always refused to let myself think too much about him or my mom. "Hello?" He spoke again, my focus snapped back, I had waited too long to respond.

"Cal?" I whisper, clutching my phone tightly. I didn't think about how hard this was going to be.

"Sammy?" He whispered unsure.