Page 79 of Mine, Forever

The gun moved away, and the door swung open to reveal a woman with black hair piled atop her head in a messy bun wearing black pants and a khaki tank top. She moved outside, the gun still raised.

“Aubrey?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Aren’t you meant to be serving multiple life sentences without the chance of seeing daylight again?”

“Yep… surprise.”

“Who’s in the car?”

Her aim moved to where York and I remained in the car. Aubrey moved to block her shot. “You don’t want to do that.”

“Oh yeah,” Ronni spat. “Why not?”

Aubrey turned to us, motioning for us to get out.

“Ronni, you remember my nephew… York.”

“Ain’t he supposed to be in Iraq or something?”

“Got released,” he quickly said.

She moved the aim to my chest. For a moment, she frowned, finally paling as she turned to Aubrey.

“That’s him, isn’t it?”

Aubrey nodded. She lowered the gun, and moved to the door. “Come in.”

She disappeared inside. I followed York and Aubrey inside the cabin to find it was decked out much like mine was with modern furniture gracing the hardwood floors. She kept her gun raised at all of us, her instinct to react before trusting. I could understand that but just wasn’t used to having a gun aimed at me.

“She knows about me?” I whispered to Aubrey.

“Yeah, she saw you once, at your mother’s funeral.”

I didn’t recognize her at all. Then again, I didn’t remember a lot of my life from back then. It was possible I’d seen her before, just didn’t remember her.

We sat down on a modern black leather sofa, Ronni cautiously watching me. Her gun was still cocked toward us all, but Aubrey didn’t seem concerned. She had a large scar going across her face starting from her ear on one side and reaching over the bridge of her nose and to her cheek on the other side. Underneath it, I could see she was quite a pretty woman, but with the scar, she looked intimidating.

“What brings you out here?” she asked Aubrey.

“We need information.”

“Of course you do.”

“John has my daughter.”

Her expression changed, something in her eyes softened. There was a recognition in her expression that triggered something in me.

Something I didn’t like.

“Can you help?” I asked.

She turned to me but said nothing before turning back to Aubrey. “You understand what you are asking of me?”

“I do.”

“Very well,” she said. “I’ll tell you where the boat is, but I want you to promise you’ll leave me out of it.”

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