My Kidnapper's Mistake

Chapter 26: Celebrating too soon

Anya's P.O.V,

Brian stormed into the house, with Julian and I hot on his heals and immediately charged upstairs. I walked in more calmly and closed the door behind us.
"Why is he so anxious to get upstairs?" Nicolette appeared from the living room, looking puzzled.
"He doesn't trust anybody and we all kind of thought that you would take the pages back to your father." I explained.
"My father didn't even care that I was kidnapped. Why would I do that?"
I merely shrugged, I couldn't deny that I had also thought that she would make off with the pages. I had known her for a little over a month, but I still didn't trust her. I guess this life was starting to change me. I just hoped that I would recognize myself when all this was done, but I doubted it.
"It's all still there. But I moved it." Brian came back to inform us.
"I am insulted that you think so lowly of me. If you can't even trust me then who can you trust?" Nicolette blurted out, her face contorted into a look of disgust.
"That is just the point, you can never trust anybody too much." Brian didn't look at Nicolette when he had answered, but had locked eyes with me.
I got his message. He still didn't approve of my presence and he would most likely never trust me. I tried to tell myself that it was the near death experience he had slipped out of, but I couldn't fully convince myself.
"Let's go put some champagne on ice, we have something to celebrate." Julian put his arm protectively around my shoulder and guided me to the kitchen.
"Don't worry about him so much. He'll get around." I highly doubted it, but I didn't have the energy to argue.

***

Three hours later everybody had returned from the vet and the various other places they had been. We all crowded into the kitchen. Julian handed out cups of champagne, we couldn't find anything resembling champagne glasses.
"A toast to our first successful job. Anya we couldn't have done it without you." Julian held his cup in the air and all of us followed.
"Cheers." We cheered.
I lowered the cup to my lips, but before I could take a sip, nausea overtook me. I plopped the cup down on the countertop and ran for the bathroom, taking the stairs two at a time. I barely made it to the sink. I had been too nervous to eat anything this morning, my stomach had been knotted together and even the thought of food had made me nauseous. I guess my actions were finally catching up with me. I rinsed out my mouth, rinsed my face and cleaned the sink.  I turned back to the door and almost jumped through the roof from fright. Dexter was standing in the doorway, looking at me with a funny expression.
"Have you had any alcohol lately?"
It was an odd question in itself, but coming out of the blue from a guy who hadn't spoken three words to me the entire almost three months I had been here made it exponentially weirder.
"I couldn't stomach the thought of evening even a bit out of control since Richard had taken me. Why?" I answered truthfully.
Dexter nodded in thought, but made no move to indicate that he would let me out of the bathroom any time soon.
"This will help." Dexter extended his arm and I had to look closely to see what he was holding out to me.
"Do you really think... It was just... I'm not..." I couldn't string together a coherent sentence through my laughing fit.
"Just take it." Dexter prompted.
"There is no way..." I laughed some more at the awkward situation.
"I'm far older than the rest of you. Believe me I know what I'm doing. If I wasn't sure I wouldn't do it." Dexter put the object down and left.
My laughter died down as soon as Dexter had retreated down the hallway. I eyed the object as if it would bite me if I went any closer. The prospect loomed ever closer and it no longer felt like a joke or misunderstanding. I inched closer, more scared of picking up this small object than I had been of picking up a gun. I stretched out my arm and picked up the small rectangular box. I was about to close the bathroom door when I heard shouting.
"You never checked that it was the right pages?" Julian roared and I heard a car speeding out of the driveway. I buried the box in an empty toothpaste box and hurried downstairs.
"What happened?"
"Nicolette took the car and she has the pages." Jason explained limping past me.
"Where is Julian?"
"Getting the car keys."
In the confusion nobody heard the doorbell ringing. I went to the door and had my hand on the knob when Julian came running down the stairs, yelling at me not to open. He looked through the peephole.
"It's the Boss." Julian warned. He cursed and dragged his fingers through his hair. If Dexter hadn't shocked me to numbness with his odd gift I suppose I'd have been frantic too by now.
"He shouldn't see me. Let's go out the back door and follow Nicolette." I grabbed Julian by the shoulders and shook him lightly.
"Brian! Tell the Boss Julian is out celebrating." I shouted and dragged Julian away from the door, away from the Boss.

Julian and I snuck out the backdoor like thieves in the night, which we actually were. We watched from around the corner of the house as the Boss stepped through the front door. We sped away from the house, guessing where Nicolette might have chosen to go. I didn't share Julian's haste, my mind was still with that little box buried in the bathroom where I hoped nobody would look. I prayed that Dexter's suspicion was wrong, but the more I thought about it the more I doubted that it was and the faster we drove the more I dreaded the future. For the first time since meeting Julian I felt a pang of loathing towards him for pulling me into this life of crime. By the time we saw red tail lights that loathing had blossomed into something more wicked.