To Slow a Treacherous Heart ✓

17| Tricky Planning

Chapter Seventeen: Tricky Planning

"Why the hell is there so much traffic?"

Jason shot him a skeptical look. "It's eight in the morning. Everyone's going to work. What did you expect?"

Ryan beeped the horn just to vent out his frustration. "Where are we heading again?"

"I didn't say," Jason replied, fidgeting with his belt buckle.

Jason loved the car.

When he'd first seen the sleek black vehicle that housed red leather seats he almost grinned with appreciation. He wished he could feel the engine purr beneath him, the engine rev as he pressed down on the accelerator, the car zoom past every other one-knowing that he commanded it.

He had quickly snapped out of it of course. He couldn't drive it. Of course not.

He was a paralysed imbecile.

Then he saw how it accommodated a wheelchair and fell even harder.

Ryan had opened the car door and stepped back. Jason had looked at the feat that had lain before him. Getting into the car seat.

"Wait." Ryan had said.

He had stridden over to the other end of the car and opened the driver's door. He pressed a small button at the edge of his seat. The passenger seat suddenly folded and disappeared into a gaping hole in the carpet below it and after the seat had completely submerged and the back of the old seat was the only thing visible.

"Innovative." Jason had murmured as the back as a small ramp slid down towards him.

He wheeled himself in. He was now facing the driver's seat. The floor beneath him shook and he slowly began moving to the right. The floor stopped moving and he was sitting as he ought to. He applied the brake like feature on his wheelchair and Ryan strapped him in. Then he'd turned and looked out into the cold night as a contemplative sigh slipping out of his mouth.

"Why did you think I asked?" came Ryan's voice, bringing him out of his reverie.

"I said I trust you enough to help me. Doesn't mean I'm revealing my entire plan to you,"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "At least tell me who it is," he said. "maybe I know him."

Jason shot him another look. "If you were the one who killed our parents you would know him,"

"Jason!"

"Fine." He folded his arms. "His name is Thorne. He was sold to the circus at the age of three. He found a family there. Grew up with the lot of them. Got famous doing magic tricks and making people believe in things he never did. Regular Merritt McKinney. Then he fell for an Italian trapeze artist. Adriana. God, he was head over heels in love. They got married, had a daughter. Then his wife left him, changed to a more lucrative business. Slowly he rose up the ranks of the circus staff until he was rich enough to buy it for himself and renamed it."

"Could you get to the part about why he hates your family,"

"Patient, padawan," he said, not even realizing that had come out if his mouth until after he'd said it. He pushed on, "He met my dad when he'd taken mom and May to the circus. I had been born yet," he fidgeted with his seatbelt again. "My dad had tried to get front row seats, but they'd already been booked. Thorne had offered him his private box when he saw his daughter Violet get along so well with May. A year after I was born there was a fire at the circus. I don't exactly know how or why, mainly because he never talks about it, but the entire circus began burning down," he sighed. "His daughter died in that fire. My dad had got to him just in time." He glared a hole through the glass window. "He should be thankful not-not try to go and kill him!"

Ryan's fingers gripped the wheel tighter. "People lose their minds when they lose a child. And some never recover,"

"Yeah, well. At least I had May." Jason replied. "She had no one,"

Ryan's throat closed up. He swallowed. It was hard. "I-I'm sorry,"

"For what?" Jason looked at him. "I thought you didn't kill them,"

"It's not that. I-I'm just sorry for what you're going through,"

"I don't need your pity," Jason sneered. "And neither does May,"

"Damnit it Jason," he shot back. "Why do you always have to make me the bad guy? I already feel horrible that I left her when I did. I-I just couldn't stomach the sight of someone I loved. It felt like everything I touched-just died."

Jason sighed, "Well, don't be. Highschool romances rarely last. May doesn't hold a grudge against you for leaving her. It's been ten years for God's sake."

He wouldn't tell Ryan about the sleepless nights.

Watching May cry herself to sleep in the early days.

Barely scraping by even though she had two jobs.

She hated being a charity case. That was the only thing about her that had stayed. She had a stubborn amount of pride.

And she didn't need Ryan. "But let me make one thing clear. After everything is over you need to leave her alone. She's had enough of toxicity in her life."

Ryan's knuckles were white.

After all these years of waiting. She hadn't waited?

What about last night?

Or was Jason trying to lure him away from her.

Was he that toxic?

He hadn't meant to be. He just wanted he back. Her love, her smiles, he sweet laughter. Her twinkling eyes.

He wanted to fall in love with her again.

And that was the one thing that scared him the most.

"That will be up to May," he replied. "Not you,"

***
Next Update: 14th April 2019