Deceit. [COMPLETED.]

Chapter 65

"The abduction."

'So you are still going to go through with it then?'

'I have to.'

Tina Laroche sat in her car away from any nearby street lamps. The time was three in the morning and she had been waiting for her friend to call for nearly two hours.

'We'll be fugitives,' she said, her voice wavering a little and betraying her French accent. 'We'll be open to scrutiny. We'll be on a police database. We'll have no family or friends we can turn to.'

But Jenny Stamford had lost her family a long time ago and any running away now hardly ranked high on her list of worries.

'They still have to prove we did it,' she said calmly down the phone. 'If you are careful enough then who would know?'

Who indeed. At this time of night who would be walking around and what even were the chances of seeing a passing car?

And so it came down to the risk. Was, what they were about to do, worth the risk.

'Can you still do it?'

'Yes,' answered Tina. 'If this is what you want and you think we can get away with it then yes. I'll wait a little while longer but it should be okay.'

It helped that the little girl knew Tina. It helped that Tina had already made her laugh and just as important, it helped that the gate was unlocked to the garden where the girl and her friend were camping out in their little tent.

'Apart from a few cats around I haven't heard a thing.'

'I've told him about Adam.' 

It was a matter of fact statement but Tina knew that would have been a hard thing to have done.

'I told him how he hurt me, how he laughed in my face.'

The words came in quick succession as though saying them any faster would lessen the pain but Tina doubted her friend would ever be able to ever erase such a memory. After all, hurt laid in every corner of the mind and there was nothing you could do about it.

'I think he loves me,' said Jenny. 'His wife has received the photos. She wants a divorce. They argued. He doesn't want to go back. He gave me a kiss and told me that everything was going to be alright. I think he is going to make him pay.'

And then with a real passion in her voice. 

'I am actually going to have someone fight for me. Do you know how that feels?'

Tina didn't. Not really. She had never had a man who cared about her. Not in the way her friend had wanted. Maybe one day, once this was all over; once the running had stopped. Then yes, maybe but not now.

Sat on the other side of the world and with the warm humid air touching her tired skin, Jenny Stamford then informed her friend about the shares and that Kirk had a gun.

'Do you think he will use it?' asked Tina suddenly aware of a light in one of the upstairs rooms of the house she was near. Probably the bathroom she thought.

'He said that he would.'

'To actually kill your brother?'

But on that question only static came down the line.

Tina had hated the plan right from the start. She had been amazed to be honest that they had even managed to get this far with all the opportunities for it to fail and yet here they were just a heart beat away from its conclusion. It just didn't seem possible.

The light upstairs had been turned off. She breathed a sigh.

'But you and I know the shares are fake.'

Tina had to say it. There had been times during the last few years when Tina had serious doubts as to her friend's mental well being and there were times even when she worried that Jenny could wander too far away from what was real.

'Of course I do!'

'Then you accept that it will only take a hint of uncertainty and this whole plan of yours could fall apart?'

But Jenny Stamford didn't see it that way. Truth or lies it all amounted to one thing.

Love.

Love knew no bounds.

Love conquered all.

Love would always triumph and it was love that made life worth while.

'He loves me.'

It was all she could think of saying.

'But will it be enough?'

Tina tried to reason with her friend, making sure that she knew what the consequences of failure would be.

'What if he turns on you?'

'He won't.'

'What if he fights to get Amy back?'

'He won't.'

'You sound so sure of yourself.'

'He's all but told me he won't be going back to his wife. It's over. I've seen to that. I know he will kill Adam. He all but said it. I know we can disappear. Start again. Erase the past. We can be a family just how I had imagined. It's all I have ever wanted.'

Kirk might not have said it, Jenny knew that, but it had been written in his eyes as clearly as if he had printed it himself in bold letters in the sky.

He was in love with her and he was prepared to risk everything for her sake and that for Jenny Stamford meant helping her avenge a deep wrong that had been eating away inside of her for many years and to fight for her like her Isaac had tried to do.

Jenny thought back to when it had all began and yes fate might not have been there on the first day. No. That encounter had been organised deliberately. She knew that. She accepted that. No. Their fate had been sealed with their first kiss, something she had not planned for but once it had been taken then and only then had their paths merged and now, just like her Issac, Jenny couldn't think of anyone else she would rather be with.

'Are you ready?' she asked her friend.

'As ready as I can be,' said Tina.

'Then god be with you and phone me as soon as you are safe. They have already left. I shall wait for him to return. I'll go with him to the airport. Only then will I tell him the truth and what we have done.'

And with that the call ended and Tina Laroche was left alone once more with just the silence and the darkness of the night as company.

On the other side of the world a killing was about to be carried out.

In England a young girl slept with her friend in a small tent.

It had been an exciting day. She had gone swimming and then after they had both eaten cakes.

By the time the sun would start to rise both her life and that of her mother Cheryl would have changed forever.

+   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +   +

Two plans running side by side.

One run by Max and another secretive one run by Uri Takiyoma.

And it is always the innocent who suffer.

The next few hours will make a huge difference for everyone.

Your comments as always make my day :)

Thank you so much.
JU