Page 4 of Kidnapped

For some reason, this time, it’s taking me longer than I would like to delete the parts of the footage that show me going down the same corridor as my father's office; the system just seems to be slower than usual. I also have to make it seem like one of the cameras that lead to my half of the house went down. Fortunately, there’s been a known problem with that camera for a couple of years now; every time they fix it, I break it again, so there won’t be any suspicions about where I was or what I was doing, just in case they do suddenly become interested in what I’m doing.

The longer that I’m in the room, the more worried I become about how long it's taking, and my leg starts to bounce nervously. Finally, I get the last piece of footage deleted, and everything is as it should be; if you looked really closely, you’d probably be able to tell that someone has messed with it, but there’s no way that I know of or that I’ve been able to find online, of getting the footage back. As far as I know, once I’ve deleted it, that’s it; it’s gone forever.

I’m really hoping I’m not wrong.

Fortunately, since I’m in the security room, I have access to all the cameras in the house, which means I can check the ones outside of the security room to make sure that I’m not going to run into anyone out there. I did think about using them to watch my father, but they don’t have audio, and I’m pretty shit at reading lips, plus if I were caught, it would be a lot more challenging to explain why I was in here than it would be to explain why I was in the hallway.

Chapter Four

Luc

Once I’m out in the hallway, I quickly make my way back to the main part of the house so I can head up the stairs to my room, and then shut and lock the door behind me. I’d like to get some sleep tonight, and it’s always safer to lock the door than leave it open. My parent's room is on the opposite side of the house, and they have no need to be on this side; the only reason they come over here is to take their frustrations out on me.

After I’ve had a quick shower, I send Trick a message with everything that I’ve heard; he’s keeping all the information together and secure so that we’ve got it if we ever need it. It wouldn’t be safe for me to keep it here as I have no way to secure my room when I’m at school or elsewhere, and they would find it.

In an ideal world, we’d turn all the information that we have over to the cops, and there is a lot of it; there’s definitely enough that my father would be convicted, rather selfishly though, because of the nature of the crimes and my certainty that if given the chance my mother would take off, we all decided not to do anything yet and to gather up as much information as we could instead. I would be put into care and most likely moved away from the guys even if one of their parents offered to take me in.

As I've said before, the police would consider it too dangerous for me to remain because of what my father was involved in and because I was the one who gave them the information that would have put my father in prison and got countless other people in trouble. So, I’m being selfish, and I’m refusing to allow myself to be taken away from my only true family, I wouldn’t handle that very well at all. When I’m eighteen, we’ll revisit the situation and see if we can hand the information over in a way that would mean that I can stay, or we’ll time it so that it coincides with college, and I can maybe swing it in a way that means since I’m not going to be living in town anymore, they won't need to make sure that I’m safe by separating me from the guys.

I mean, they’d find me, but it would take them a while without Atlas' many connections.

Trick: Got it. Be careful, please. Do you need me to come and get you?

I think about his offer a moment as I check the time, it is really late, and although Trick is awake, his parents aren’t likely to be, and I don’t want to risk waking them or risk them wanting to look into the reason why I always tend to show up really late at night, for the same reason as not wanting to turn my father in, I don’t want to get lost in the system and end up leaving my family.

My real one.

Me: No, it’s okay. The doors are locked, and I’m pretty sure they’re just drinking. I’ll let you know if I need you, though.

Trick: Okay, if you’re sure. For the record, I would much rather have you here.

Me: I know, man. I’m good.

I plug my phone in on my bedside table and grab my remote as I get into bed, putting on a show that I’ve seen before, but that still makes me laugh. Thankfully, I don’t have to put up with anyone trying to get into my room, and I actually manage to get to sleep.

**********

The following day, Trick picks me up like usual, and I’m unsurprised to see that the truck is empty. He usually gets Jensen and Cash before he gets me, and then we go and get Rafe and Riot, just because that’s the easiest route to drive without doubling back, and Cash and Jensen live closer to Trick than the rest of us. It’s not unusual for him to do this when he wants to talk with me.

“Hey man,” I say as I get into the front of the truck.

“Are you okay?” he asks immediately, no hello or anything.

I study him closer and realize that he looks tired, he must have been up most of the night worrying about me, and now I feel like a right asshole for sleeping so well.

I nod, “Yeah, man, I’m good. Like I’ve said before, ever since I had that conversation with my dad and I actually stood up to him, he doesn’t start in on me nearly as often as he did before.”

“I know you’ve said that, man, but I worry.” He replies as he starts the truck and heads in the direction of Riot and Rafe’splaces. He glances at me out of the side of his eye as he adds, “Would you tell us if something happened?”

There’s an underlying meaning to that question, which I choose to pretend that I haven’t picked up on as I answer, “I have before.”

“Hmm,” Trick hums and I get the feeling that he somehow suspects that I haven’t always been honest with them all about what’s been going on.

He’s right, but I didn’t realize that they suspected any differently before now. The thing is, I wasn’t lying when I replied before. My father really has backed off a lot since I beat the shit out of him and put him in the hospital. He insults, belittles, and curses at me still, but he won’t raise his fists to me anymore, and the verbal abuse has cut back. I’m sure that’s only a temporary thing that will pick back up fairly soon, but I can cope with that; he’s said it all before, and it pretty much goes in one ear and out of the other now.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the things he says still have a sting to them, but it doesn’t affect me as much as it did when I was little. I’ve gotten used to it. The thing that affected me the most was the beatings, which was something that the guys didn’t know about. I don’t think he’s going to try that again. I ended that fight incredibly easily, and I’ll do it again. All of the previous hang-ups that I had about standing up to my father have gone. If he raises his fists to me again, then I’ll raise mine with absolutely no hesitation, and I will end it.

Even if it means putting him in the hospital every time.

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