6

11

"Are you sure you'll be fine while I'm gone?" Aubrey looked at me seriously. He had just put his jacket and shoes on and was about to head out. "I want you to come."

"I'm sure, you'll only be gone for an hour anyway." He was going my the clubhouse to pick up a few clothes and speak with Jace about a few things that were going on.

"I know, but you haven't been home alone all week. I don't need you falling and having to go back to the hospital." I rolled my eyes at him.

"I'm not handicap, the doctor said I was fine so I'm fine. It's only an hour and people are watching the house, right? Just go." He sighed and began making his way out. He turned his head before he felt. I sensed something in his eyes; was is caring? Concern? Worry? No it couldn't be, Aubrey didn't care that much about me. He turned back and walked out of the house.

I pulled the blankets back over my body and focused back on the Television. Being home for a week had been difficult. Because I didn't have access to the strong pain killers that I'd become dependent on, I was struggling. I got extreme headaches and my body was still adjusting to moving around so much and not having the medicine. Aubrey had been there to fetch me everything I needed and had actually been helpful in my recovery. He still had those snarky comments that I'd grown used to.

About forty-five minutes after Aubrey left, I heard a noise from one of the rooms in the house. My eyes flicked to the dark hallway. I'd been even more on edge since I'd been back, thinking Lucas was coming at any moment to finish the job.

I had decided it was just my imagination, when I heard it again.

I sighed and threw the blankets off of me and stood. I peaked into all the rooms down the hallway until I came to the last. When I opened it my eyes grew wide. The window to the guest room was wide open. I wouldn't have left it open because it was the middle of winter and it was freezing outside. I walked over and latched it shut. As I turned back around my eyes landed on a note on the bed. My heartrate picked up and I opened the envelope. My eyes scanned over the three words and my heart beat wildly.

"Oh my fucking God." My hand covered my mouth. I looked around the room, examining everything slowly. Finding nothing but the note I quickly made my way back into the hallway. As I shut the door to the room, I heard the front door open. I froze. What if Lucas came back right now to kill me.

"Emerson?" A familiar voice yelled. I let out a sigh of relief, it was just Aubrey. "Em? Where are you?" He turned down the hall I was standing in and I saw his shoulders relax. "I thought you were passed out somewhere, damn. Why didn't you answer me?" When he came close enough, I passed the note and he read it. "Where did this come from?"

"I heard a noise and got up to check it out." I lightly pushed past him and made my way back to the living room. "The window was wide open and the note was just sitting on the bed." Once I sat down on the couch, I began messaging my temples feeling a headache coming on.

"It just doesn't make sense." Aubrey plopped down beside me. "How the hell did they get on the tenth floor? I mean did they climb up ten balconies? I don't get it."

"I don't either." I looked up at him. "Have you found any leads?"

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about." He relaxed back into the leather cushions. "I talked with Jace and Alex, the girl that's doing the research, I think we have a lead..."

"And?" I urged.

"We need to go to Settle." He sighed.

"What? You want to go to the States? My passport is expired, I can't go!"

"I know, don't worry about that." He didn't seemed phased at all. Maybe he didn't realize he was asking me to leave the country. "We think we found the guy, but I don't know. We have to go check it out and see where it leads."

"Aubrey it doesn't make sense anyway. The man I talked to had a foreign accent. When I say foreign I mean Russian or European, not American. How do you even know this is the right guy?"

"Alex did some extensive research into this one guy and your parents took a lot. And I mean a lot." He said. "We're not completely sure if it is him but some things point to him and we need to go investigate."

"By we you mean..." I trailed off.

"Me and you."

"You want me to face a serial killer? I couldn't even walk in that shady ass neighborhood with you." I pointed out.

"Jace is coming too." He explained. "He doesn't want to leave but I need someone with me that can handle it."

I should've been offended by that comment, but I knew myself that I wasn't up for that type of challenge.

"When do we leave?"

"Two days." He said flatly.

"Two fucking days?" I raised my voice. "You're giving me two days to prepare for a trip to another county?"

"Well no," He grabbed the remote off the couch and turned on the Tv. "I'm not giving you time to prepare,if it was up to me it'd be tonight. Alex needs time to access the passports."

"Okay, well if he's in Seattle then how did he leave the note here?" I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms.

"The note said 'I'll be back', meaning he could be coming back after Seattle or he could've had someone else leave the note." Aubrey said thoughtfully.

"Well, how do you know he'll be there when we're there." He had his eyes glued to the television, talking as if he wasn't suggesting we leave the country in two fucking days.

"He has some stuff going on in Seattle that'll keep him there for a little while." He didn't seem to be taking this as serious as I was.

"Aubrey," I sighed. "I'm not supposed to be on a plane anyway, dotor's orders."

"That's why we're driving." My mouth dropped open. "Well that, but mostly because I don't need this guy looking and seeing that you're going to Seattle, that would be bad."

"I'm not sure about this." I leaned back into the couch.

"We're just going to get information, we shouldn't be getting into trouble." He glanced over at me. "Em, I need you to chill out though. We're just going to the states, nothing crazy."

"I'm just not sure about this guy." I mumbled and crossed my arms.

I guess this was my start to being wild and living unpredictably, going to the states for a few days. I'm sure everything would be fine and we'd be back in no time.