Yours Forever Book 3

26..

“Now that is settled, can I go?” Dagon asked, standing from his seat on the floor.

“You’re not going back to my daughters’ room.”

“I will take him to the spare bedroom,” I replied; Dad nodded. “Why did you lie to people saying I went on a trip? Dean could have helped you come up with five thousand or helped you get me out of there.”

“Because it was my problem to solve. I didn’t need help.”

I was angry but decided not to respond. Dad let me go through everything Dagon did to me because his own pride got the best of him.

I walked out of the room with Dagon. Dean stayed back to talk to my father. The crowd didn’t move for me as they did for Dagon when we walked through. He came up beside me and wrapped his arm around my waist. I was going to protest until I could make it easier through the mass of people. Once on the stairs, I removed his hand and continued down the hall to the room.

I opened the door, “There you go. Don’t do anything stupid.”

He nodded. I closed the door and rushed to my room. I was worried about Ryan going to the place alone. After pacing the room for 30 minutes, I realized I needed to help him somehow. I quickly changed my clothes and climbed out of the window and down to the ground. Once outside, I took out my phone and called my stalker.

“Hello, Baby.”

“I need you... now.”

“You’re lucky I’m feeling better. What do you need?”

“I need you to come to pick me up, follow someone to their destination, and then help me keep them alive.”

“You make it sound like we’re going on a top-secret mission. It’s kind of exciting. But if there is a chance of death, I would rather not help you get there.”

“I don’t have time to argue with you. Ryan will be leaving here soon, and I need to help him. I know you’re close by. I need you to show yourself and help me.”

He hung up on me, and then I saw him step out from behind a few trees with his yellow eyes. I walked over to him, and he smiled.

“Let’s go, but just know, if it comes down to saving you or him, I will push him in front of the bullet.”

I followed him as he started walking away. “Who said anything about guns?”

“I have realized that I get shot whenever I try to help you.”

We walked for some time until I saw a black Honda. He had changed cars for me, and I smiled. He pulled in between a few trees, and we waited until we saw Ryan leave the house and start following him.

“You changed cars,” I noted.

“You said you didn’t like the other one.”

I watched as my stalker followed Ryan. It was dark outside, and he wasn’t even using his headlights. Because the car was so dark, we could stay hidden in the night, even when we were so close behind. My stalker didn’t stop unless Ryan did, and he made sure not to get too close so that the taillights from Ryan’s car wouldn’t give us away. He didn’t stop for his turn at the stop signs; he looked to see if headlights were coming from the other direction and then ran the stop sign.

“You are very good at the following thing,” I noted.

“Chances are this isn’t the first time I have done this,” he replied, smiling at me.

“What’s your name?”

“Are you really ready to know who I am?”

His question left me speechless. I wasn’t sure if I was ready. He watched my face and then started laughing when I said nothing.

“I didn’t think so,” he said, turning his attention back to the road.

We pulled over when Ryan stopped his car, making sure not to be seen by him. I watched as Ryan geared up for a fight, if there would be one. We were in the middle of nowhere, but I knew Ryan would want to go on foot the rest of the way. Cars are easy to notice and hear. He took off through the woods, and my stalker and I followed. I used the tools Ryan showed me and stayed light on my feet so he wouldn’t hear.

I missed my footing, tripping over a root sticking from the ground. I fell as silently as I could, but it didn’t matter. Ryan was soon standing over me. He lifted me from the ground effortlessly. He didn’t say anything and started dragging me back to the cars.

“Let her go, Ryan. Don’t touch her like that,” My stalker said, walking straight up to Ryan.

“I don’t have time for you right now. Ivy shouldn’t be here.”

“I wanted to help you,” I replied, ripping my arm out of his grip.

“Oh, now you want me to work with the stalker. I would rather kill him. In fact, I think I will,” he replied while pulling a gun out of nowhere and pointing at my stalker’s head.

“Ryan, we are here, and we are not leaving. So, we can stand around and argue about it all night or get moving.”

Ryan started to pace around a bit, but soon he agreed.

“Ivy, you are to stay outside. Deadman, you, and I will look around the house. We need to find anything to help us determine where Jackson has run off to.”

“Deadman, that’s a nice name,” my stalker said sarcastically.

Ryan and I ignored his comment and started walking through the woods again. We soon came to a small house hidden behind trees and a few big rocks.

“Ivy, stay behind me,” Ryan ordered. I did as I was told. Ryan knew what he was doing, and I wasn’t about to question him. I didn’t want to push him after he agreed to let me come along.

We walked out into a small opening. Ryan and my stalker worked well together. Ryan watched the left side, and my stalker kept his eyes to the right, making sure there were no people waiting around to take us out.

“There is no one here. That means if this is a trap, everything will be inside, and we must be extra careful. Don’t flip any switches and step high in case there are any tripwires,” Ryan ordered.

“I know what to do!” my stalker said, sounding offended.

“I wasn’t talking to you. I’m sure Ivy will follow us in even when I asked her to stay outside. I was informing her, not you, you can die for all I care.”

He was right; I was going to follow them in. We all walked into the small house, and everyone was following Ryan. Once we knew no one was in the house, Ryan took out a flashlight. Ryan took off into the living room. He was light on his feet, and I couldn’t hear his footsteps. My stalker took off towards the bedroom, and I was content staying in the kitchen to look around. I started going through the kitchen cabinets and drawers, but as expected, I found nothing.

I walked a little further into the hall leading to the living room. I saw Ryan going through a file near the house's front door. He looked over at me, “It’s nothing that will help,” he said.

“Hey, Baby, I found something,” my stalker called out from the bedroom.

Ryan and I went to the bedroom, and my stalker handed Ryan a piece of paper.

“It looks like Jackson bought himself a house,” he said, pointing out the address on the paper.

“This will work. Let’s get going. Walk the same way as we came in,” Ryan said.

My stalker started walking, and I followed, and Ryan was behind me. We got back to the door, and as soon as we stepped outside, my stalker took off, running into the woods and despairing into the shadows.

“Your stalker is smart,” Ryan said from behind me. I turned around and saw Ryan holding his gun. “Do you remember your way back to the car?”

“Yes, why?”

He took off after my stalker, and I ran after him. “Ryan, stop it,” I shouted, but he didn’t listen. I heard a few gunshots but saw nothing. I kept running and soon returned to where we parked the cars. The black Honda was gone, and Ryan leaned against his car.

“I almost had him,” he said, disappointed.

“He was helping us, you know. He might come in handy as well. Like Dagon, he is brilliant and can hide well. He knows things, important things, that we may need.”

“Get in the car, Ivy.”

I got in the car, and Ryan peeled the tires, taking off back to the house. My phone started ringing, and I answered it.

“That Ryan guy needs to work on his anger issues.”

“Did he hit you?”

“No, he sure tried like hell, though. I can’t believe I made this stupid mistake for you. The next time, I will not be helping you unless it is just you. He could have caught me and unmasked me, and I would have been screwed. Unless you are in danger, don’t ask for my help.”

“Thank you for helping,” I replied, trying to calm him down.

“You owe me one.”

“It isn’t like you did all that much.”

“I picked you up, drove you to a place that I could have died at, then I walked into the place, found what you guys were looking for, and then got shot at while walking out, again almost getting killed.”

“Okay, maybe you did a lot, but that doesn’t mean I owe you.”

“You haven’t done as you said, and I’m quite angry about it. I would like to spend some time with you.”

“I will think about it. I have to go,” I replied, hanging up.

“You know I could hear that conversation,” Ryan said, staring daggers at me.

“Leave it alone, please, Ryan.”

“I will not,” he replied, looking back at the road. “How has he even been getting to you?”

“The same way Dagon could slip into my bedroom without you all knowing. Did you guys ever turn the cameras back on?”

Ryan’s eyes went wide, “s**t, no.”

“Well, there you go.”

“Ivy, I feel like you and I have gotten closer since this all started. I would even say we are friends now.”

“Yeah, we’re friends.”

“That's good because, as your friend, I feel obligated to tell you that you are being stupid. Letting the two men who have caused the most hurt in your life into your room and not telling anyone about it is stupid.”