Aislynn

Cutter gave another look back over his shoulder to where Laken and his uncle had sat down, but then turned his attention back to her. "You wouldn't ever have to deal with your menstruation again if you had it all removed," he persisted.

"Does it bother you that much?" she asked him.

"To know you are in pain and bleeding and miserable? Yes, that bothers me. I do not like the thought of it."

"I promise you it is worse to go through the things I will go through if I have it all removed. It's a small price to pay and I don't mind it, I promise you. The cramps aren't even that bad. If it icks you out, I will just go on that patch that makes you stop having them or something."

"You will?"

"Sure. Now that I'm getting to know what a great guy you are, I want to do things for you to see you happy, baby. If you're happy, I'm happy and vice versa I love that dynamic, two people working to see each other happy." She smiled at him and went up on her knees to kiss him and hug him close. "I want to see you happy," she whispered into his neck. "I loved seeing you smile, it was amazing. I want to see it again, and often. I want to do that for you."

He was almost smiling as he turned enough to take her face in his hands. "I... want you happy too but I don't know what to do for you. What do you want?"

"I told you, baby. I don't want things, just you. You doing what you're doing is perfect. Being nice to me, not yelling, caring about me. It's all I want. It's... DADDY!" she squealed happily as her father came in the door.

Cutter moved her across him and let her go to her father and hug him as he stood to look down at her father menacingly. "Have a seat," Cutter demanded. "We waited to order."

"Ace, sweetheart, are you alright?"

"Perfect Daddy, really," she promised, smiling at him as she sat back down, Cutter blocking her in again. "He's treating me well, good even."

"I brought your things."

"I will show you where my car is once we are done eating," Cutter told him, his glare still malevolent as he looked at him.

"Those cuts and bruises?" her father asked, heartbreak in his tone.

"He killed the man who hurt me," she whispered softly. "Then took care of me after, even taking the weekend off to be with me so I wouldn't be alone at all. You don't have to worry for me, Daddy, he is kind and gentle at least with me. He cares for me."

"Enough," Cutter said gruffly. "Did you bring her meds in with you?"

"No, they are in the car. I can go get them."

"Sit," Cutter hissed quietly, his eyes on the door and the two uniformed police officers who came in.

Aislynn felt terror washing over her now. "They eat too," she tried to say lightly, but the two men were looking around, obviously looking for someone.

Cutter yanked her close, his arm painfully tight as she whimpered. The two officers walked right up to their table.

"Hello. We were wondering if we could have a word with the young lady?"

"What is this about?" Cutter demanded.

"A manager from the store called us and said he saw her shoplifting, then come over here. Gave us her description."

"It wasn't her!"

"Then you won't mind if we speak to her a moment and search her?"

"You've no right to interrupt our meal!"

"It's ok baby," Aislynn said, her voice shaking. "It's a mistake, but they'll see that soon enough. I will let them search me then we can go home."

"I'll go with you," Cutter growled, standing.

"Sir, I need you to step back," the closer officer said as Cutter loomed over him. Both of them put their hands on their weapons.

"This is a mistake," Cutter sneered. "I am getting my wallet," he told them, reaching in his back pocket to pull it out. He unfolded it and held it out and they both looked at it. They both went pale and stepped back, taking their hands off their weapons.

"We're sorry to trouble you, sir, we obviously have a case of mistaken identity," the closer one said, "You all have a nice meal." He tipped his hat and turned to leave.

Aislynn was terrified and spoke before she thought about it. "Please! You have to help me, he kidnapped me! You can't just leave!"

They both paused and looked back at her, then at Cutter who was looking at Aislynn in shock. They looked around the crowded restaurant, at everyone watching.

She knew she had made a mistake, but they were stuck now. Whoever Cutter worked for, they had the police in their pockets and he had shown them some sort of proof of it. Now there was a restaurant full of witnesses who had heard her ask for help.

They turned back to her. "You sure about this ma'am?" one of them asked as Cutter grit his teeth and glared down at her in a fury. "If this is a game, you will be prosecuted for wasting our valuable time."

Her father stood up then. "I will take her home. Talk to her, get this all sorted."

"You touch her, you die," Cutter hissed. "She belongs to me!"

"Sir, ma'am, let's all step outside and talk about this," the second officer spoke up.

"No!" Aislynn cried. "No! Everyone record this with your phones!" she yelled, though there were already people pointing phones at them.

"Shut your mouth, girl," Cutter hissed, his fingers digging into her arm painfully.

"Let me go! He kidnapped me and the police won't help me because his boss is bribing them or something!"

Cutter yanked her up and clamped a hand over her mouth painfully, then started towards the door.

"Let her go!" someone yelled.

"LET HER GO" more people yelled.

The officers looked torn, but they looked at the cameras and they only had one course of action. They drew their weapons. "Sir, put her down. Put her down and step back. Now, sir!"

Cutter turned to them, his eyes psychotic with rage. "You better get those guns off me or you KNOW what will happen to you. I'll do it myself. Back off," he demanded, backing to the door with her in his arm as his other hand pulled his own gun.

"Ace!" her father wailed.

Aislynn's eyes fell on Laken and he looked horrified too as his uncle stood filming.

"That's far enough, boy," an older man spat from right behind Cutter, pressing the barrel of a gun to his head. "Not a god damn twitch or I pull the trigger. I don't care who your people are but I have an idea with all them tattoos. They don't scare me, haven't since the sixties. Give me a god damn reason, boy."

"Call me 'boy' one more time," Cutter hissed, his entire body going calm.

Aislynn knew the old man was about to die, she knew it.

"Don't move!" a woman yelled, pointing a small handgun at Cutter that she had pulled out of her purse.

"Everyone holster your weapons!" the officer yelled. "Everyone! We are taking them into the station!"

"The hell you are," the old man scowled. "You let her go by herself. Call whoever she needs to to get out of here, then you can all go to the police station."

"I am live streaming this!" a man called.

"Me too!"

"I have channel 4 news on the phone and streaming straight to them!"

"I have channel 9!"

"Let the little girl go," the old man demanded. "Or I blow your redneck brain all over the place. BOY."

Aislynn closed her eyes, knowing people were about to die. Cutter dropped her the same time he spun. She hadn't hit the floor before she heard a sickening crunch, then a shot rang out and everything seemed to freeze in place.

Aislynn tried to roll and crawl away, but caught a glimpse of the old black man on the floor wiping his bloody nose. Cutter was on his hand and knees, the other hand clutching his side as he snarled at the woman who had shot him.

Hands grabbed her shoulders and dragged her back, away from Cutter.

The police went to him as they radioed for backup and an ambulance and Aislynn looked up at her father.

"Are you ok?" he asked desperately.

"Ace?" Laken asked, moving closer. "I knew something was up!" he half wailed, hugging her.

She hugged him back and broke down sobbing. "Lake, right?" her father asked.

"Laken."

"Laken, get her out of here. Run. Get her far away and don't ever look back. Or, just get her away and you come back. If you don't, she's dead. You have to go now, hurry!"

"Ma'am, you need to come with me," the second officer said, scowling at her father. "We will need to get your statement at the station."

"If you take her, you are sentencing her to death!" her father hissed. "You know you are! If they get a hold of her..."

"Sir, she will be fine. We need you to come with us too," he said more confidently as more cruisers pulled up, their sirens blaring.

Aislynn looked at the officer pleadingly. "Please, let me go with my friend? My father too? We are innocent in this, he kidnapped me and we will both be killed if they get their hands on us."

"We need your statement," he said confidently.

Laken stood. "Call everyone you know! Get everyone to the police station with cameras! They are taking her to where his people can get their hands on her! They will hand her over to them once people are no longer watching!"

"Do I need to arrest you for inciting a riot?" the officer demanded through clenched teeth.

"Let her go. She can give her statement to another precinct in another state. California where their kind have less of a foothold. This is going to be national news now, is this the side you want to be on?"

"I am taking her to the cruiser!" the officer told his partner, pulling her to her feet. He motioned her father and Laken to follow as he led her out through the officers and medics coming in. "I will be right in after securing this one," he told the man who stopped and looked at him questioningly. "Cox will tell you what to do, there's cameras everywhere in there."

He led them out into the parking lot and opened a notepad like he was about to take their statements. "You have a car close?" he asked the paper as he pretended to write.

"That one there, the black BMW," her father answered softly.

"Girl, this boy your friend?"

"Yes? My good friend."

"Give the boy your keys, get her to another precinct right away. Sir, you will need to come with me."

"They will kill him!" Aislynn pleaded, holding on to her father.

"He will be fine, they won't kill him," the officer said blandly. "We both know I know who he is and who the man in there is. There may be bad blood, but no one will be killing him. Now go, get across the border and straight to the first police officer you can find."

Laken didn't wait for her to argue, pulling her to her fathers car after her father had handed him the keys.

Aislynn watched in fear as they pulled away and was surprised to realize that she hoped Cutter wasn't hurt too badly. She knew her father would be all right, his men would see him out of it soon enough.

Laken looked over at her, still in shock. "What the hell just happened?" he asked, ignoring his ringing phone.

"Give me a minute," she panted, climbing into the back seat to go through her things and find her medication.

He answered his phone. "Hey Derrick... Yeah, I left with her, I am getting her to Oregon to the police there, but if anyone asks, tell them Cali... Yeah, exactly... No, I don't know yet, you called as soon as we pulled away, how did I have time to ask anything yet? Taking pills? Ace? You ok?"

"Yeah, unless you want me throwing up all over you, these are my regular meds. I know it seems like a lot, but I have stomach issues and other things. Just keep going."

"I'll call you when I can, Uncle Derrick, just try and make sure no one tries to follow us to try and get the story or something stupid. All those youtubers don't give a fuck if they endanger her if they can get more likes. Talk to you soon."

He hung up and moved the rearview mirror to look at Aislynn.

"I'm ok," she managed, wiping her face. She climbed back to the front with her Nonas blanket and put on her seatbelt. She told him what happened, a condensed version, then went back over it, telling him details. He held her hand as she cried and they drove into the night. It was almost dawn before he finally pulled into a sheriff's office in a larger city. He'd said a small town cop would be more likely to take a bribe and take her back. They sat in the parking lot and he called his uncle and told him where they were and to call all the news stations to tell them where they were.

He took her in and Aislynn breathed a small sigh of relief.

It was over.

She gave her statement to some very confused officers who got irritated when the news people showed up with cameras and wanting interviews and answers. Another officer brought his phone over and showed the officers footage of what happened.

"So you took off and came here so his people couldn't get their hands on you?" the sheriff asked, crossing his arms.

Aislynn nodded tiredly.

"Good idea, though we will have to take you back. Don't worry, we will have a protection detail on you. Not us. Someone higher up that deals with... their organization. Either ATF or FBI depending on who these guys are. Maybe both. Once it's all said and done, you will be moved, you and your father both and put into wit-prot. That all sound good? I will make the calls and get your detail here so we can fly you back.

Aislynn spent the next month testifying and hiding away with half a dozen armed guards on her when she left the safe house. Finally, they moved her alone, her father opting to stay where he was. He knew his own men would protect him, as well as his own organization. He understood her wanting to leave, though, and find a new life.

Cutter was sentenced to only one year and a lot of people were outraged, but it was argued that all he had done was ask her out, lost his temper and took her, then took care of her when she got sick. It was also argued that he wasn't mentally competent. Aislynn knew that while he was a sociopath, he was definitely competent and very cunning. She'd refused to look at him both times she was on the stand, knowing that if she did, her fear would make her nerve break.

He'd asked twice to speak to her alone, but she ignored it and shook her head no when his lawyer asked.

She left and they hid her away in a small town in Wyoming. She didn't work at the school, but she did work in the little library in town and she even started a once a week children's story hour.

Three years later, she still wouldn't date, though more than one single father had asked her out after coming up with their kids for story time.

"Sarah! You almost ready?" Brian, her lone coworker asked.

"Almost!" Aislynn called. She had grown used to the fake name enough that she answered to it every time now.

"Bout to lock up!"

"Be right there!" she yelled quickly. She didn't like being there alone, or anywhere alone.

She got home and her roommate was already in bed, her bedroom door shut but the light on. Aislynn was used to that, she holed away in her room to binge watch awful reality TV that Aislynn teased her about.

She went to her own room and got ready for bed, ready to curl up with a book for a while.

"You were surprisingly easy to find."

Aislynn spun to the deep voice as Cutter moved in front of the door.

"Don't yell, your roommate won't wake up until tomorrow. Why, Aislynn? Why? You said you were happy, you said you cared and I was doing everything right. Why did you betray me?"

"I was afraid of you," she whispered, backing to the wall and sliding down it.

"I TOLD you that you didn't have to be afraid of me! I told you all you had to do was be good! I LOVED you and you had me arrested! I went to jail!"

"You were there less than a month! Your organization had you out in weeks! It wasn't justice, it was a travesty! How did you find me?"

"You were easy to find, we have people everywhere. Organization and brotherhood over job every time."

"If it was so easy, then why did you wait so long?"

"I have been watching you. Giving you time. Seeing what you would do."

"And?"

"You do nothing. You work, you read, you go to the coffeehouse, drink tea and read some more. You read to kids. You don't date though. You don't date because you know you belong to me and you have been waiting on me to come for you. Haven't you? You've been saving yourself for me."

"I was so afraid of you, Cutter, so terrified, all I wanted was to get away, but I never realized I was falling for you. I didn't know it until you were gone and I was gone. It has taken me time to realize how much I truly came to care for you and how much I miss you. I knew you were out and I thought about going back, but I was afraid you hated me now. I couldn't bear that, so I stayed here and hoped. Hoped that if you still loved me too you would find a way to me. We could be together again and do it right this time. Without the fear and the deception and the anger. Just me and you and trying for real this time. I... I have thought of you in other ways too, Cutter. The way you made me feel when you took me to your bed? I have thought about that a lot," he half whispered as he moved slowly closer, watching her face.

She eased over to the bed and sat down, pulling her shirt off as she did. He paused and looked her over. "You are still so beautiful," he whispered.

"Take your shirt off and come lay down with me?" she asked.

He took hold of his shirt and started to lift and as soon as he did she yanked the gun out from under her pillow and hardly aimed before pulling the trigger.

He went down, his shirt still over his face as he went limp.

Aislynn dropped the gun as she broke down sobbing and scrambled to the other side of the bed for her phone.

The police arrived in minutes and told her he was gone. She'd hit him in the throat and nicked his spine, paralyzing him as he bled out.

It was really over now, she hoped. If his people didn't come after her. They moved her again, then she moved herself, taking on a different identity. She was a nobody working in a restaurant now, not a library. She refused to allow her picture to be taken and she had no online presence. She was as anonymous as she could possibly be.

Another year passed, then two. She watched online for news about her father and the other people in Cutters organization, but there was little to be seen. Not until four years later when his old boss had been killed and it was front page news all over the place.

'White Nationalist Leader slain in front of his family on vacation.'

Aislynn stared at his picture for a long time, then closed the web page and felt more at peace than she had in a long time. No one would be looking for her anymore, no one. She was a distant memory to anyone left, no one to bother with.

She moved again, just to be sure and took on another new identity. She eventually stopped being afraid to make friends and get to know people, though she was still on the fence about dating.

It was an older man who changed her mind.

She was working in the library, a larger one this time and a very confused man approached her with a book in his hand. "Excuse me, miss?"

"Yes?" she asked politely, looking up at him and glancing at the book.

"My daughter wants to read this, but I'm not sure. It says young adult and says it has adult themes. Is it appropriate for a 14 year old?"

Aislynn smiled at the earnest man who was trying so hard. "It's a good book, that whole series is good, but what were you wanting to avoid specifically? There isn't a lot of violence in it, just intrigue and drama. It's not scary. The sexual content is all fade to black."

"So there is sexual content?" he half whispered, blushing furiously. "What is fade to black? Is that like that 50 shades stuff?"

Aislynn only just managed not to giggle. "No sir, it means they gloss over it, there's no description of the act. It's clear it happened, but it's only hinted at and no details. You know, like, 'they fell into bed in each other's arms and woke up satisfied in the morning' type of thing."