Born to Fight

Chapter 13

Celeste

Quietly sneaking back inside, I made my way up to my bedroom. I quickly got changed into a pair of dark grey cargo pants and a cream woolen sweater. I pulled on a pair of hiking boots and tied my hair up into a high ponytail. After I had finished getting ready, I grabbed my phone and slipped my key card into the case of my phone in case I should need it.

I grabbed Loki’s leash and indicated for Loki to be quiet before I slipped out of my bedroom and quietly made my way back downstairs with him on my heels. As I got to the bottom of the stairs, I could hear Jamie and the others in the kitchen talking quietly. I had no doubt they were talking about me. But, at that moment, I honestly didn't care.

Sneaking over to the bureau where Jamie left his keys, I grabbed the keys to his truck. Loki and I quietly made our way out of the house and went over to where Jamie’s Chevrolet truck was parked in the driveway. The truck looked like it was almost new, which made me feel a little guilty for what I was about to do. Jamie was probably going to be pissed at me for this. Loki and I quickly got into the truck closing the door as quietly as I could. I quickly started the truck, then putting the car into gear, I sped out of the driveway and onto the main road. I knew there was going to be hell to pay for my actions, but I had to do this.

I kept checking the rear view mirror to see if we were being followed. I couldn’t see anyone following us, so I started to breathe a little easier. After about ten minutes without seeing anyone in the rear view mirror, I figured we were in the clear for now. As I was driving, I put my phone on Bluetooth and played my mom’s favorite playlist that was saved onto my phone. When Eric Carmen’s Make Me Lose Control started playing, I cranked the volume up. Loki looked at me tilting his head from side to side from where he was sitting in the passenger seat, riding shotgun.

 I continued to check the rear view mirror throughout the trip to ensure no one was following us. Part of me wished that I could have spoken to Jamie about what I was doing and why. But it was too late now. What was done was done and I would just have to deal with the consequences later. Besides, Jamie probably wouldn't have let me leave the house anyways.

 Jamie

We were all still seated at the kitchen table talking over what had happened with Celeste when I heard my truck starting up out in the drive way. I jumped up and ran out the front door just in time to see my truck driving down the road. I couldn’t believe that Celeste would risk stealing my truck and going off on her own, especially knowing the fears I held for her safety.

"Did she even have a drivers license?" I thought realizing just how much trouble she could be getting herself into.

I ran back into the house and grabbed my phone yelling out to Josh to grab his keys. “Lilly, you stay here in case she comes back. If she does, call me immediately. I won’t take Freeze, so he will be here with you,” I yelled.

When we got into Josh’s SUV, Josh glanced over at me, “You know we will be following her, so why tell Lilly to call you if she comes home?  Why did you really leave Lilly at the house?” he asked.

“We don’t know where she is going or why. I didn’t want us to take Lilly into some unknown situation and have her end up getting hurt, okay? And, honestly, Lilly really pisses Celeste off. So I figured leaving Lilly at home was the best thing we could do,” I replied.

“Yeah, well, Lilly does have that effect on people. But I gotta tell ya, Celeste gives as good as she gets,” Josh replied laughing, which soon had Billy and I chuckling too.

I glanced at my phone looking at the blue dot on my phone screen which was showing the location of my truck. When I needed to, I gave Josh directions. I grabbed Josh’s phone and logged in to the surveillance website we used. I accessed our mobile devices and activated the cameras in my truck. Since the cameras had audio, we could hear Eric Carmen’s Make Me Lose Control playing in the truck.

“This was her mother’s favorite song,” said Billy with a sad smile, when he heard the song playing.

Celeste

I drove for about forty - five minutes along the isolated country road. There were no houses along here, just trees and pastures with horses and cattle in them. Every now and then I would throw a glance into the rear view mirror to make sure I was not being followed. There were no other people or cars in sight, so I kept driving until I came to the familiar concealed track that I had traveled more times than I could remember in my life.

The track was so well hidden, that if you didn’t know about it, you would just drive right on by without realizing it even existed. That’s what my grandfather had liked about it, the fact that it was so well hidden. Turning off the main highway, I was now on the five thousand acre block of land my family had owned for generations. I began following the track that would lead me to the cabin. I drove carefully along the old bumpy dirt track, so as not to cause any damage to Jamie’s truck. The last thing I wanted was to have to owe the guy a new car. Loki was keenly looking out the windscreen as we drove along heading further into the hills. He knew where we were going. He had been here many times before, but it had been a while since our last visit. I hadn't been up here since my grandfather had died.

We kept following the track, climbing higher and higher into the hills, until the track started to level out once more. We were driving among the thick timber of the forest, slowly making my way towards the small clearing that surrounded the hunting cabin that my mother had inherited from my grandfather. I had been here so many times in my life, ever since I could walk. This was the place where my grandfather had taught me all about guns and combat and survival skills, just like he had taught my mom when she had been a little girl.

I pulled up in front of the cabin and turned the truck off. Hopping out of the vehicle, I quickly glanced around the immediate area to make sure that everything was in order and nothing was out of place. The cabin was a lot more secure than your average hunting cabin. My grandfather had been big on security. His military career had made him savvy on security protocols. My mother had kept the security up after my grandfather's death. The windows and doors of the cabin had bars on them for added security, and there was a security system that had an up-link to my mother's phone to alert my mother if anyone had been near the cabin. Now my mother was gone and the cabin and land was mine. Grandpa had turned the cabin into a mini fortress. I went to the spot where for decades my family had hidden the keys to the cabin, and collected the keys.

After collecting the keys, Loki and I made our way into the cabin. As soon as I got inside, I locked the door behind me and disabled the security alarm, before making my way into Grandpas hidden room where the weapons safe was kept. Opening the safe, I grabbed two of the handguns along with a couple of boxes of ammo, and a couple of military tactical knives, before re-locking the weapons safe, and making my way back out of the hidden room, closing the hidden door way to conceal the room once more.

Making my way into one of the bedrooms, I rummaged through the closet where I found a backpack. Grabbing the backpack, I emptied it's contents onto the floor, before putting the two handguns and boxes of ammo and tactical knives into it. Then, backpack in hand, I started to make my way back out towards the front door. I had just gotten into the kitchen when I heard the unmistakable sound of a car approaching the cabin. Fearing for my safety, I quickly crouched down hiding behind the kitchen counter and holding on to Loki’s collar. The car pulled up out the front of the cabin and a moment later I heard the familiar sounds of car doors opening and closing.

Jamie

We had been driving for over an hour following the GPS locator on my truck. I was surprised when we turned off the highway and onto an old dirt track and began heading into the hills. We passed through thick timber as we continued to climb into the hills. Eventually, the ground leveled out and we soon drove out of the trees and into a clearing, where I saw my truck parked in front of a cabin.

When we pulled up, I got out of the car and looked around the clearing, checking for signs of anyone hanging around. Walking over to my truck, I looked inside. There were no keys in the ignition. Celeste must have them with her inside the cabin. I started walking towards the cabin, taking a glance around the outside of the cabin, seeing if I could see anything amiss. Not seeing anything of concern, I climbed the stairs up onto the front porch and knocked on the door.

“Celeste, its Jamie, open the door,” I called.

Celeste

Hearing Jamie's voice, I got up and slowly walked towards the door. As I approached the door, I realized that I was still holding on to the backpack. Knowing that Jamie would be suspicious and may decide to confiscate the backpack if he knew what was inside, I quickly grabbed a coat from the rack beside the door and wrapped the backpack inside of it. Once I was satisfied that no one would pay attention to what I was holding, I held the balled - up coat against my chest. I opened the door, expecting Jamie to be angry, but to my surprise, he only looked relieved when he saw me.

Jamie

When Celeste opened the door, I felt a wave of relief wash over me at the sight of her. She was safe. My relief was short-lived though, as I reminded myself of the way that she had recklessly put herself at risk by taking off on her own. Anything could have happened to her! She could have been killed. 

“I know you’re mad, and I am sorry I took your truck. I just really needed to come up here,” she said, not meeting my gaze.

“We should get going,” I replied, not wanting to have this conversation out in the open.

“Okay. I will just lock up,” she said, looking at me worriedly.

She carefully set her bundled up coat down on the front porch before grabbing the keys out of her pocket. Carefully stepping inside, Celeste quickly set the security alarm, before she locked the doors and re-pocketed the keys. Picking up her coat, she turned to walk down the stairs, and that was when she seemed to notice Billy and Josh who were leaning against my truck. Without a word to either of them, Celeste walked towards the truck and opened the back door for Loki to jump in. Once Loki was in the truck, she walked around to the passenger seat and placed her bundled up coat onto the floor, before climbing into the truck and putting her seat belt on.

I was standing with Billy and Josh, and the three of us peeked through the window of the truck to where Celeste was sitting. From where she was sitting, she refused to look at us. I knew she was probably worried about what was going to happen when I got into the truck. No doubt she was expecting me to go nuclear on her. 

“You are going to have an interesting drive back home, she doesn't look too happy,” remarked Josh, as he tried to hide a grin.

“I’m just glad she is okay” I replied.

“You and me both. She is strong-willed that one, takes after her mother,” said Billy.

“I think she gets it from both her parents,” I told him, smiling at him. “I will see you both at home,” I told them before climbing into the truck.

As I was getting into the truck, I though about the best way to make Celeste understand that I wasn’t angry with her. She needed to know that I had been worried sick about her. Anything could have happened to her while she had been out here all alone. If the men responsible for killing her mother had seen her, they could have hurt her or worse and I wouldn't have been able to do a damn thing to help her. She needed to understand that she couldn't just run off whenever she felt like it. Not without talking to me or Josh about her plans.

Celeste

On the drive home, I refused to look at Jamie. I kept looking out of my window. I knew that I needed to make the first move and apologize to him for stealing his truck. I looked at him and began to make amends, "I’m sorry I took your truck,”  I told him.

“I’m not mad,” Jamie replied.

“Why not? I mean, you should be. I would be pissed if I was you,” I told him.

“Would you?” he asked, looking over at me, and seeming genuinely surprised by what I had said.

“Yes,” I said, meeting his gaze.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because... it’s a nice truck,” I said.

“Oh okay, so, you think the only reason I should be mad, is because this is a nice truck and you took it without asking?” he asked, looking at me in disbelief.

I didn’t answer him. 'What could I have said at this moment to make things any better?'

“Celeste, I don’t care about the truck, honestly, it’s just a truck. It's insured and I could easily replace it if anything happened to it. I was worried about you. What if something had happened to you?” he asked, looking at me.

We made the rest of the trip back to Jamie's house in silence, as I sat and thought about what he had just said. When we got back to Jamie's house, I got my bundled up coat and bag, before making my way upstairs to my bedroom. Before anyone could discover what I had smuggled back here from my morning jailbreak, I quickly hid the coat and bag in the bottom of my closet.