My Kidnapper's Mistake

Chapter 20: Camping

Julian's P.O.V.

The only progress we'd made concerning our Nicolette problem was of her progressively working on our nerves and against our patience. During the week that she'd been here she hadn't left Anya and I alone for more than a few seconds, she photo bombed every single photo that Kevin had tried to take and she had demanded increasingly expensive meals and clothes. At the rate that she was spending, Brian's entire fortune would be non-existent by the end of the month. This all was the reason that I had called an emergency meeting by locking Nicolette in Anya's room.

A chorus of voices met me in the kitchen.
"We've got to do something about her." Kevin whined.
"If she sneaks up on me  in the basement one more time I swear that I'm going to shoot her." Jason threatened.
"She won't stop tying to get me to agree to doing her homework in the future." Stuart ranted.
"I vote we get rid of her." Tristan stuck his hand in the air.
"Then we're back to square one." Anya whacked him over the head.
"Guys listen up." I tried to quieten them, but it was all in vain, they kept on ranting and threatening.
"Shut up!" Dexter roared over everyone's heads.
"Thanks. Now I have a very spiteful solution."
"Do tell. O leader of us." Clive let his comment slip out loud enough for everybody to hear.
" Have you got a problem with the way he leads?" Anya jumped right to my defence.
"As a matter of fact I do."
This just restarted the chorus of voices threatening and throwing insults back and forth.
"We're going camping!" I yelled above the noise and it took no time at all for the room to quieten down again.
"Camping?" Stuart was the first to speak up.
"She has been demanding luxury since Anya let her out of the basement, so the best way, in my opinion, to get her back to earth is to reconnect with mother nature."
"Go camping? During a job? What if Richard tries something or you lose her? I'm sorry but I won't take part in this. I won't risk my life just so you guys can go reconnect with nature." Clive was the only one to object to the idea.
"Well then you can watch the house and if Richard comes or we mess up you can state our case." Anya replied.
"Either way you'll end up dead." Brian clarified Anya's hidden threat.

Two rented Jeeps and a hell of a lot of protest from Nicolette and Clive later, we were on our way to the state's nature reserve. We bought tents and supplies on the way, barely managing to cram everything in between the two vehicles. The ride wasn't as you'd expect a road trip to be, it was quiet safe for the occasional clicking of Kevin's newly bought camera. Anya sat in the passenger seat, staring at the passing landscape but I doubt that she saw any of the beauty flashing by. I was steering, stealing glances at Anya between trying to dodge most of the potholes. I badly wanted to reach out and take her hand, but was afraid of disturbing her thoughts or the divine tranquility that had settled between us. We arrived too soon to my liking, I'd have liked the drive to never end, to just be lost in that serene moment with Anya beside me until the end of time. With our arrival came the bustling of activity to set up camp. Two people per tent, a single sleeping bag per person. Dusk fell quickly and we started a fire to roast a few pieces of meat over. By the time the sky was filled with brilliantly bright stars all of us were fed and had retired to our tents.

I watched as Anya's shadow tossed around in her tent and finally got up. She sat down by the fire. Alone. Should I join her? I mulled the question over in my head. She didn't stay behind after everybody else left, she merely couldn't sleep and didn't want to disturb Nicolette's beauty sleep anymore. I got up and zipped open the tent as noisily as I could so that she would know someone was coming. She didn't make a move to leave as I crouched down and threw fresh wood on the dying embers of the fire. The fire blazed to life and engulfed us in a warm orange glow.
"Couldn't sleep?" I already knew the answer, but felt it necessary to ask.
"Something like that." Anya answered cryptically, shivering from the cool breeze that hung in the air despite it being in the middle of the summer. We sat in silence for a while until Anya spoke up again in a whisper so she wouldn't disturb the others.
"There seems to be no air in that small, blank canvassed tent,"Anya said absentmindedly staring into the fire, "does it ever get better?" Anya looked more vulnerable than I had ever seen her before, even compared to the night after her rescue that she broke down. It had been tears of relieve, of days of tension melting away not from fear.
"Does what get better?" I risked wrapping one arm around her waist but she didn't seem to notice, only continued to stare off into the flickering flames.
"Being in bare or smallish rooms?"
"I wish that I could say yes, but I have no idea."
"Can we sleep outside tonight?" Anya finally relaxed, leaning into me.
"Under the starry starry night we shall sleep." I whispered, again wishing that time would freeze. That we wouldn't have to return to reality. I wanted to assure her that she could let her worries drift off and fade like the sparks from the fire, that they were meaningless, but I couldn't lie to her. Guilt rose like bile in my throat as Anya snuggled into her sleeping bag beside me. She would never be safe from harm or free of worry again and it was all my fault. I realized in that moment, starring off into the abyss that I would give up meeting Anya if it meant that she would be save from this life of crime that I had introduced her into.
"I always dreamt of being a soccer mom, but I guess that wouldn't be possible now." Anya mused and I had the horrid suspicion that she could read my thoughts.
"You'd have to consult Stuart on that one."
"I'd rather get two dogs than condemn an innocent child."
"That sounds like a better plan. What would you name them?"
"The same as I was planning on naming my children. Alexei after my father or Quinn, my mother's maiden name for a boy and the girl would get a name of her father's choosing." Anya turned on her side to look at me, "What would you name your daughter?"
"Juliette."
"Julian's Juliette. It has a nice ring to it." Anya smiled and turned back onto her side.

Three days camping and we had made more progress than we had made in a week crammed into a house. Nicolette let slip that he father was old school. He didn't rely on computers for keeping accounts, he kept them in ledgers. A single ledger for every cash house locked away in a safe at his personal residence, even though her eldest daughter had warned him time and again not to. This was the start of a new plan and Anya seemed to return a bit more to her normal self with the distraction. Unfortunetaly this meant that we had to go back to the house to set this new plan in motion, which I dreaded. We couldn't hide Anya forever. I had to decide what we should do before this job was through, but getting rid of her in the sense we had suggested done to Nicolette wasn't an option. Anya had become too valuable.