“I’ll go,” Bella said.
I was back at her house and she and Alex were at the dining room table, their chairs pulled close together. Her eyes were red and her shoulders sagged with exhaustion, but she spoke clearly.
“With Jackson,” she corrected. “I’ll go with Jackson.”
I looked at Alex and he nodded.
“Okay,” I said. “So you’re packed? Ready?”
She shook her head. “He tried to get me to.”
“Took me awhile to convince her,” Alex said. “One battle at a time.”
“That’s fine,” I said. “Two hours enough time?”
“Two hours?” she asked, her eyes widening. “Are you serious?”
“I wanna get you moved before we go get Jax,” I said. “Anything goes wrong, we need to make sure you’re safe.”
Her shoulders rose up, panic in her face. “What could go wrong?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m being cautious. So we need to make sure you’re safe and protected. I don’t want anyone to be able to find you but us.”
She glanced at Alex.
“It’ll be fine,” he assured her. “We’ll move you somewhere for just a bit while we go get him and bring him back. Then we’re outta here.”
“A hotel would be good,” I said. “Someplace that needs keycards to access elevators. And it wouldn’t draw any attention bringing in whatever you’re taking with you.”
“Are we staying here another night?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “As soon as we have him, we’re gone. Hotel is simply to keep you safe and make you tough to find.”
“We can put you there, go get him, come back and get you and be on our way,” Alex said. “Out of here.”
She sighed and folded her arms across her chest, digesting all of our words. She glanced between me and Alex several times.
“We’ll drive to San Diego?” she said.
“No,” I said. “You, Alex and Jax will fly. I’ll drive with your stuff.”
“Really?” Alex asked, surprised.
“Yeah,” I said. “We need to get them out of here and on their way. I don’t want them going alone, so you need to go with them. Don’t worry about tickets. I’ve got it covered.”
“But you won’t fly with us,” Bella said.
I shook my head.
“Because you can’t,” she said.
I shrugged. “It’ll take me a couple days, but I’ll get there.”
“You’re gonna go back?” Alex asked. “For sure?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m going back.”
It was the first time I’d said it out loud and it sounded strange coming out of my mouth. I wasn’t saying it just to say it, though. I was going back. To face everything.
I didn’t know what would happen. But I was going back.
“So we need to get moving,” I said. “You need to figure out what you need to take and what you can leave. I’ll have a decent amount of space to take your things, but if there’s stuff you can leave, then leave it.”
“We don’t need much,” she said. “Clothes. Toys. Some pictures and stuff.” She glanced around the room. “The rest can stay.”
“Furniture’s yours?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll get it sold and we’ll get you the money,” I said, thinking of another task for Ike. “What about rent? You on a lease?”
She shook her head. “No. Month to month.”
“Good.” I added that to Ike's list. “We'll get your deposit back.”
“I don’t care,” she said. “I just want Jackson back. Then we can go. I just wanna be gone and done with all of this.”
“Soon,” I said. “We’ll be gone soon.”