Their Style

Chapter 21

Jaiden's POV

This is it. We were being transported to Duluth jail and we were going to spend the rest of our natural lives in here. All because we had to protect ourselves.

We were put into a large, steel, secure jail haul. It was pulled by a truck with bars on the windows.

For the first fifteen minutes, we remained silent. Everyone was worrying about their children or (like me) questioning their own existence.

I thought to myself what would happen if I had died instead of Bobby. I wouldn't have my children, I wouldn't have Jack, I wouldn't have my friends either. But maybe I wouldn't be putting our kids through the same hell we went through, I wouldn't be going to jail, and maybe Adam would have gave up when I died and my friends could've lived the rest of their lives peacefully.

"Wouldn't things have been easier if Adam killed me instead of Bobby that night?" I blurted out.

They all looked at me. They were not impressed the slightest bit.

"Don't talk like that!" Meghan snapped.

"I'm just saying-"

"Things may be hard right now, but at least we have each other. And you can wish all you want that you died that night, but it won't change anything. We're still going to jail, we're still worrying about our kids, and we're all dealing with the same shit you are, so suck it up!" Ava ranted.

I was quiet.

"We almost lost you the last summer we were together, and we don't want that to happen again" Olivia added.

I thought back to that summer. It was all a blur of pain, grief, drugs, and near death experiences. I remember the night I couldn't bear it anymore. I convinced them I was fine but when they weren't looking, I walked out into the ocean. And with every wave, a wave of memories rushed through like the warm water on my waist. I remember looking up at the stars with Bobby's last words echoing in my thoughts. After that- it was all a blank blur.

"I would never do that to you guys" I promised, "not again"

Ava's eyes welled up in tears, "We can't loose you!" She cried. Shawn wrapped her up in his long muscular arms.

Meghan and Dean held each other's hands through the steel cuffs on their wrists. Rianna sobbed into Keegan's broad shoulders. And He played with her hair to comfort her. Olivia rested her head on Matt and they both put their hands on Olivia's stomach, that contained a small portion of Olivia's first born child.

I knew I had put them all through hell that summer. Ava promised to watch me. She felt like I was her responsibility, and when she came back and found me unconscious on the beach, she was mad. Not at me- but at herself. She thought that through all the shit I put her through, she was finally done chasing after me. She was wrong.

I still feel guilty about doing what I did. She didn't deserve to feel responsible for something I did. I couldn't imagine the guilt and grief she would've went through if I had actually succeeded in drowning myself.  Not only Ava-but all of them.

"I never did thank you guys for not giving up on me after all I did to you that summer" I said.

They all looked around at each other.

"You wouldn't have given up on us" Meghan smiled.

I smiled back.

"I love you guys!" I sobbed.

We all hugged each other.

"We're going to get out of this!" Meghan promised.

"Yeah! We've broke Jaiden out of the detention centre!" Olivia added.

"We were able to brake Jaiden out of the detention centre because we had people on the outside, this time we're all on the inside" Ava pointed out.

"And the kids aren't getting involved" Meghan added, "Cameron nearly died because of us"

"I can't help but think that this has something to do with Nash" Shawn muttered to himself.

"Nash?" Dean and Meghan looked up.

I remember on Olivia's jet, Ava had told us Nash escaped from jail. I wanted to turn around so badly but I couldn't leave Meghan in jail.

"He escaped from jail a week ago" Shawn explained.

Dean and Meghan looked at each other like they were putting pieces of a puzzle together.

"That's exactly who we were looking for when we were in the area" Meghan explained, "we were hunting Nash, and just when we thought we had him cornered, we found police cars instead. We assumed they caught him, but they were there looking for us"

"What?" I sat up intrigued.

"You know what that means?" Dean questioned.

Everyone tensed up.

"This was all a set up" I said, "They wanted you to look for Nash, so that they could bring you back to Fort Frances. Next they set Meghan up as bait for the rest of us. And then they took their chance to lock us up"

"That doesn't sound like Adam?" Keegan shook his head, "He would've took that opportunity to do something worse"

"Something that involved lots of death" Matt added.

"Maybe who ever this is, isn't done?" Meghan wondered.

"Like there's something worse coming?" Rianna concluded.

A very loud screeching noise came from the breaks, as the car jerked forward to a close stop. We all almost fell out of our seats. I heard a gun shot bang in the front of the car. The doors of the steel haul whipped open.

My heart was on the verge of beating out of my chest, my breathing was loud and my palms were sweaty.

"Show yourself, you bitch!" Dean yelled.

We heard slow, hard footsteps get closer to us. I prayed it was Jack coming to save me and take me and the kids back to Florida.

And like everything else I hoped would happen, it wasn't Jack. Instead it was another familiar face.

"Miss me bitches"

"Liam?"