Shackles on the heart (Book #1)

36. Injuring her spirit

(Graphic content)

(RaeAnna's POV)

A couple of days have passed since I have seen Lincoln's mom Audrey. I finally got the chance to meet Chester. He is a very understanding, sweet man. He came back into town the morning after Lincoln called him. He drove a long 11 hour drive to get back here. We have told him everything up to the last detail, even the things about his sister. He became infuriated after we told him, but he promised not to tell anyone, I believe him. He reminds me a lot of Lincoln, how you just know he is an honest person who you can trust. "I knew my sister was shady, but I never figured she would stoop this low, to threaten a child. I never knew she was capable of anything like this, including murder. I can't believe your own father would be the cause of all of this. This is a lot to take in." He inhales and exhales a sharp breath. "So what is the plan?" Chester asks us. We explain to him what me and Lincoln have been working on.

We made sure to have this conversation at his house, not knowing if it was safe to speak of this anywhere else. Like Lincoln's father, he also has a bunch of guns in his house. Lincoln told him how good of a shot I was, this made my pride beam. Chester told us he was going to be there if we decided to go back to the warehouse. He left no room for an argument, we didn't question him and agreed. Chester has been going to Felix's shooting range for a while now, he has perfected his shot. I explained to him how I've been taking self-defense classes, today he is going to test how good my skills actually are. He has been in a bunch of fights over the years, he knows everything there is about fighting. We all head to his exercise room, it is humongous, with several different kinds of punching bags, a treadmill, medicine balls, elliptical trainers, exercise mats, dumbbells, barbells and a fighting ring right in the middle of the room.

He gives me some boxing gloves, while putting on his own, along with some protective headgear. "Okay RaeAnna, get into a fighting stance." I do as I'm told. "Good posture, perfect. Now I want you to try and hit me in the face as hard as you can. Use all of your force. Don't hold back any, I want to test your skill and strength." I nod and launch at him, he dodges it, just barely. He works with me for a little while until I finally managed to get a punch in. "Good. Now do it again." Chester tells me. He practices with me until I no longer miss and get him every time.

"Okay now let's try something else." He grabs some kind of object from a shelf in the room, it resembles a gun. "Pretend this is an actual gun, I want you to try and take it from my hands." I try several times with no luck, he works with me for an hour until I finally manage to seize it from his grip. We do this for a little while longer until I'm too tired to practice any further. I almost fall over, but Lincoln's quick-acting saves me. He catches me and holds me in his arms. "That's enough uncle chess. Shes tired." Chester looks pained like he didn't mean to push me that hard. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean t-" I hold up my hand to stop him, shaking my head. "I need to learn this stuff, it's the only way I'm going to be able to survive them. They're ruthless." This makes both Lincoln and Chester visibly angry. Chester sighs. "When is the mission?" He asks. "8 days." I tell him. "I want to practice every day no matter how tired I get. I will push through it, I have to. I have to protect my family." He reluctantly agrees then we go into the kitchen so I can drink some water and eat.

I pull out the phone to look at the 'track for you' app, seeing their whereabouts. "They are at the warehouse, but it looks like they have been to several other places today. The good news is that they have never been here." I tell them. "Can I see that?" Chester asks. "Ofcourse." I hand the phone over to him. He stares at it blankly for a few minutes. "Can I hold on to this for a day so I can get all the information possible? I need to know about the places they have been. I want to write it all down then you could have it back."