Barbed Boys

Chapter 10

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"Trust me Ainsley. As long as you're working for us, the only thing you have to fear is us."

Trust him. I'd be stupid to trust him. He'd even told me himself that I shouldn't. And yet somehow, I didn't think I could make it through this in one piece without placing some form of trust in someone other than myself.

I trusted the logic that deducted this: if the barbed boys didn't protect me long enough to get what they wanted, then they wouldn't get it.

Thus, it made sense that they would keep me safe for at least a while.

I could live with the nightmares, I could live with the constant state of dread that something bad was going to happen. What I couldn't live with, was being the reason everyone I cared about was dead. Every time I saw my mom and ran the other way, and witnessed her confused crestfallen expression, I had to remind myself of the reason I was hurting her. I couldn't face her. I couldn't lie to her. If I gave her the chance she'd ask me what was wrong and I wasn't sure how long it would take for her to break me.

Considering how quickly I broke down and told Lindsey, not long at all.

Then there was my father. He was a lawyer, he knew people in law enforcement and in the court system. There would be no way he wouldn't try and help me, try to get Bomber and Lethal arrested. I wouldn't be able to stop him or convince him otherwise and I wouldn't expect him to step aside and let me work with such dangerous men. I couldn't expect any father to do that and therefore I couldn't risk speaking to either one of them.

Then again, ignoring them was a red flag in itself. Still, in my mind it was the lesser of the two evils. My flimsy and somewhat pathetic plan was to be done with this whole thing before my parents resorted to locking my in a room with them until I explained my behavior. For now I was out of the house as much as possible.

Going to work still set me on edge and I had no doubt it was some form of PTSD. It was understandable since it was where I watched someone die. Which was why arriving to find the door unlocked one morning immediately had my heart racing.

My eyes shot to the side and saw that the sign still said 'closed'. I glanced up and down the street and then peeked through the glass window and looked inside. No one was there, it looked like everything was in order...

Had someone not locked up last night? I wasn't on the nightshift, that should have been Harry and Lola. I swallowed and tried to control my shaking hands. Taking my phone out of my bag I typed 911 into the keypad and hovered my thumb over the call button. Ever since I met Bomber and Lethal my paranoia had shot through the roof. Then again, was it paranoia if it was a real possibility there was an assassin inside that may want to kill me?

With sweaty, shaky hands I pushed the door open and called out, "Hello?"

Nothing greeted me in return; my heart hammered.

"Anybody there?"

More silence greeted me... The sound metal hitting the floor had me releasing a terrified shout as a head popped up from behind the counter.

My phone fell and dropped to the floor as my hand flew to my chest.

Bright, wide honey eyes met mine as the figure raised to it's full height, hands up in the air. Slowly he reached towards his ear and removed one wireless earbud.

He offered a sheepish though boyish smile, "Hey Ainsley,"

"Collin?" I gasped out his name in both relief and utter confusion.

What was he doing here? I would have been less surprised to see Bomber behind the counter helping himself to the sorbet.

Slowly my eyes scanned his form and I realized he was in The Scoop uniform. He had the apron around his neck and a name tag on his shirt.