Vigilante For Hire

Chapter 4: You used to be a stranger, now I can't live without you

Afraid to venture out the following day, now that she was being tracked, or so Nikoli and Sydney claimed, Zara sprawled out across a beach towel. She'd walked a ways to find a quiet spot on Santa Monica beach, hoping to relax and sunbath away her anxieties. The continuous swish, swish, swish of the ocean waves carried the tension from her muscles.

Better than walking around the city aimlessly until Gavin arrived.

She wished Brooke was here. Her best friend would know what to do, or at least how to make her laugh.

Zara replayed the events at her mother's house and the implications of those events. Agreeing to work for and with the twins, and with Liam. Parker, felt like a dream. A crazy, horrible, dream. She grazed her thumb across the scabbing wound at the base of her neck, a reminder that it had actually all happened. That she said yes, although her only option was to say yes.

Once she returned to Seattle, she was determined to escape their agreement and move the implanted tracker. Her father was a lawyer, Gavin worked for...well she wasn't sure, but he would protect her.

She had life goals she was unwilling to give up; graduate, join a reputable dance company, break records for becoming a principle dancer at a young age. How would she balance it all, along with her new questionably moral job?

Zara sighed, removing the stress battering her brain. For the next few glorious hours, the sole focus of her mind would be the swiissshhhh of the water breaking across the sand.

***

She woke to the deep blue horizon slicing across swirling orange and yellow ribbons of deep pink clouds. The top of the sun hovered slightly above the ocean, reflecting at a chopped angle.

Zara shook the sand out of her towel, gathered her belongings, and made her way back to the rental car.

Her phone rang.

"Hey, Gavin."

"Are you still at the beach?"

Zara frowned. Sometimes, she thought that her father talked to Gavin more than with his own daughter.

"I'm getting ready to leave. Why?"

"Meet me at the end of the Pier."

Zara twirled to face the boardwalk, her heart pounding in her chest. "Wait, you're here? Like, here, here?"

The original plan was to meet Gavin and her father for dinner.

"See you in a few minutes, bunhead."

Zara ran to her car, tossed everything in, and hurried to the boardwalk. Excitement, and even...dare she say, nervousness, crept through her. She smashed down her salt-water frizzed hair as she pushed through the tourists clamoring for space on the Pier. When she broke free, she saw a figure at the end, resting his forearms on the wood rail.

The blue short sleeved button-up, opened over a white shirt, complimented his light features. Gavin wasn't a short's kind of guy, wearing dark blue pants that almost matched the lapping ocean water below.

She tapped him on the shoulder. Gavin turned around, holding a cup of ice cream. His hair almost shone like gold in the setting sun's light, the ocean breeze blowing it every which way.

"Chocolate chip cookie dough. Your favorite, right?"

A wide smile cracked across her face. "Oh my god, you are my hero right now. Where's your ice cream?"

"Already ate mine." He grinned, pushing his aviators atop his head. "You're lucky I didn't finish yours, too." He handed her the cup.

"Shouldn't I be treating you for flying out here? And what about dinner?"