All That You Can't leave Behind by ...

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All THAT YOU CAN’T LEAVE BEHIND BY PURPLEDRAGONFLY74
PROLOUGE
EPOV
We had talked about this before. I knew that the time would come…not
might
come, but
would
come; when our luck
would run out and we would be caught. She never was as pessimistic as I, but I felt it was inevitable in our line of
work. Someday, one of us was sure to get messy, or to talk too much, or have a customer turn us in, or we‟d
inadvertently work with an undercover agent.
Or, we would just have the rotten luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When I was done talking with the guys behind the counter, who reminded me eerily of Jay and Silent Bob, I made my
way towards the door. What I saw through the cloudy glass windows made my blood run cold. Parked right next to
our Jeep was a state trooper. Not only was he parked there, but he was standing outside of his car, hands on his hips,
talking to Bella. My Bella, who had her sunglasses perched on the top of her head.
She was a vision of perfection, in my not-so-humble opinion. Her small frame complimented my own well, even with
our significant height difference. Her eyes were like melted milk chocolate, reflecting within them a depth that was
often not seen with that color. Her hair was dark brown as well, sparkling with auburn accents when highlighted
properly by the sun. Her skin was pale, making her blushes all that more noticeable and endearing.
I quietly dropped my 6-pack on the display to my right and closed my eyes, running my hands through my hair out of
frustration. This was going to take every single ounce of my concentration to pull off, to make sure that we‟d get out of
this with minimal damage. I couldn‟t…no, make that I wouldn‟t…let myself think what exactly “minimal damage”
meant, because if I did I‟d never be able to follow through with our plans.
I took one final deep breath and walked out the door to face my new fate. “Officer, how can I help you today?” I said
with my best, most congenial smile.
“Do you own this Jeep?”
“Yes sir, I do.”
“May I see your license please?”
I nodded and started to walk towards the car. He quickly stepped into my path. “Just what do you think you are
doing?”
“Getting my wallet, sir.”
“You went into a gas station without a wallet?”
“I was using the washroom sir, not making a purchase. You are welcome to check my pockets, but I think you‟ll find
it‟s not there.”
I held my hands away from my body, hopefully in a non-threatening manner. He walked around me and can tell it‟s
just as I have stated - my wallet is not in my back pocket. Of course what he doesn‟t know is that it‟s not in the car,
either. Neither one of us has any identification on us right now for it‟s all part of the master plan. After a minute or so
he reluctantly nodded towards me again. “Okay then. Go get it.”
I flashed my eyes towards Bella, trying to say in a millisecond everything that I needed to say to her. To make sure she
remembered the plan. To reassure her. To tell her how much I love her, and that we will find each other once again.
She quietly fell into the role we‟d planned for her. She was to become the stereotypical young woman, kidnapped at
gunpoint from an ATM machine several states away. I forced her to withdraw all her money from her bank account,
threw her purse out of the window, and have been taking her on a cross-country joyride ever since. Before I walked
over to the Jeep I reached out, running my hand up her arm as she flinched away. It was all part of the act as well, but
I could tell it just about killed her to move away when all she wanted was my reassurance.
I had made it over to the door of the Jeep and I was pretending to rummage under the seat. The officer hadn‟t thought
to ask Bella to turn the car off, thankfully. That‟ll make it even easier to get in and just go, when he‟s distracted
enough. As I was poking around I wedged the heavy rock I keep under the driver‟s seat on to the brake pedal. This let
me quietly shift the Jeep into drive without anyone noticing. I sat down inside, pretending to look under the sun
visors for pieces of paper when I was really looking in the rearview mirrors. When I saw her reach up and scratch her
nose I took that as my cue. I kicked the rock over to the gas pedal and the Jeep lurched, taking off with the door still
open. I didn‟t let it bother me since I‟ve driven with worse distractions.
I had been so focused on getting away as quickly as possible that my brain didn‟t see the flashing lights at the railroad
crossing. When I finally realized what the lights meant, the thundering approach of a train engine, it was too late for
me to do anything about it. I kicked the rock out of the way with my foot and stomped down as hard as I could on the
accelerator. I half expected the locomotive engine to catch my tail end and spin me around, but somehow or another I
made it to the other side of the tracks.
I was now driving completely blind. I couldn‟t see Bella behind me. I didn‟t know where to go ahead of me. I wanted
to stop, I wanted time to think. I needed to find a way to get back to her, but I couldn‟t stop. I needed, more than ever,
to get these jewels to the man who paid our contract. After that, I could allow myself the luxury of thinking, of finding
my way back. I continued to drive straight down the road, as fast as I could go, trying to kick up as little dust as
possible so no one could guess the direction I had gone.
BPOV
I never thought it would actually come to this.
We had talked about it before. What would happen, what we would do, if the time ever came for us to part. To go our
separate ways, to sacrifice one for the other. I just never thought I would live to see it happen. I never wanted to think
it of it happening, and certainly not in this way.
I knew he‟d been taking too long in that store. Why he‟d felt the need to stop for a 6-pack of beer I will never know. It
wasn‟t like him, and yet I didn‟t have the energy to protest. I still felt like hell from my unexpected swim the other
night. I didn‟t think my extremities had recovered yet from the cold, and my head was starting to feel like it was
stuffed with cotton. This was just what I needed, a cold on top of everything else we were trying to coordinate.
I guess I must have nodded off at some point because I was startled into wakefulness by a knocking at my window. I
started to curse, totally wired from the two second adrenaline surge I had just experienced, but then I saw exactly who
was thumping on the window.
A police officer.
As soon as I made eye contact he reached down and opened the door, motioning for me to step out. I did without
saying a thing, my mind racing with different scenarios. The first thirty seconds of interaction with this officer will
help me to decide our fate. He had to be a rookie, because he never asked me to turn the engine off.
Mistake number one.
“How are you doing today, ma‟am?”
“Just fine, officer. Yourself?”
“Not too bad. It‟s a fine day outside today.” He walked slowly around the Jeep, peering inside. “Going camping, I see?”
“Yes, we are.”
“Where were you thinking of stopping?”
I shrugged my shoulders, not knowing how to answer since I wasn‟t even sure what state we were in. All I knew was
we were somewhere warm and flat, in between Chicago and San Diego. “I think we were just going to stop when the
spirit hit us.”
He nodded without saying anything else. He looked over towards the newspaper box that was sitting near the from
entryway of the convenience store and pointed out the headline to me. “You read about that?”
“What?”
“The jewel heist. Absolutely amazing. They have no clue how the thieves got in and out of the museum. And you want
to know what is even more amazing?”
“What?”
“The article said there was one lone security camera that caught the getaway vehicle on tape. And oddly enough, it was
a 1997 Jeep. Much like the one you have sitting right over there.”
That was my cue, right there. This wasn‟t a casual “How are you doing today?” stop. This was the real deal, some
rookie cop that‟s thinking he just caught the biggest break of his career. I tried to keep him engaged, trying to shift his
thoughts away from the jewel heist and back onto something a little less threatening.
I casually reached up and removed my sunglasses, placing them on top of my head. It was one of our silent signals,
the one that means, above all other tasks, to abort our mission. Not more than a minute later, Edward came outside
and started talking to the officer himself. He asked Edward for his wallet which was not unusual, but then he allowed
Edward to walk over to the Jeep by himself to get the identification, instead of asking where to find it and making
Edward stay right where he was.
Mistake number two.
As he passed me by he reached out for me. I knew how I needed to react, to keep up the act, but I almost blew our
plan right there. I wanted to feel him touch me one more time, to see his gorgeous green eyes look at me with a
reverence that I knew was reserved solely for me. I needed to be comforted, to be reassured this had to be done, that
things would be right once again when it was all over. At the last second I did manage to cringe away, a move which
was just enough to be noted as odd by the officer.
“Everything okay between you two?”
“Yes, just fine, why do you ask?”
“You seemed to flinch a little bit there.”
“I did?” I answered, deliberately scuffing my feet and looking down at the ground. “No I didn‟t. You must have been
imagining things.”
“How did you two meet?”
I didn‟t answer right away, instead looking back up and casually inspecting Edward‟s progress inside the cab of the
vehicle. I could see he‟d settled in the driver‟s seat, so at any point now I could give him the final signal.
“Ma‟am?”
“I‟m…I‟m sorry officer. What were you saying?”
“I was asking how you two know each other. How you met.”
“We met a few days ago. A bit abruptly, I suppose you could say.”
“And you‟re already going off on a camping trip together?”
“You could say that.”
“Well, that‟s what you told me.”
“No, that‟s what you assumed and I agreed.”
He looked at me once again, his brow furrowed. His face was so expressive I swore I could tell the instant the proper
synapses fired and he pieced together the completely fake story we had just laid out for him. His jaw went slack and
his eyes brightened up a little bit, his hand starting to twitch. “Are you saying that you don‟t really want to be on this,
shall we say, camping trip?”
I nodded quietly.
“Are you saying that you‟re here against your will?”
Now was the time, since the officer was fully distracted by my story.
Mistake number three.
I reached up and scratched my nose while nodding my head. I barely got the motion out before being pelted by dust
and rocks from spinning tires. The officer was so startled that he just stood dumbfounded, watching the Jeep speed
away.
Edward could have turned to the left, going back the way we came. It was what I would have done, even though the
one-eighty turn would have ultimately slowed him down. He instead chose to keep to the right, not needing to steer
the Jeep very much as he raced away.
He stayed on the straight-away, continuing to head right for the railroad crossing. I watched in numbing disbelief as
he raced towards the tracks, only slightly picking up speed. I had been feeling the vibrations of the approaching
freight train for a few minutes now, and it was getting close. We were out in the country with very little around us so
the crossing had no gates, just lights and warning bells. The Jeep lurched forward suddenly and I could barely
suppress the screams forming in the back of my throat. It felt to me like he was moving in slow motion even as he
accelerated, and as much as I wanted to tear my eyes away I couldn‟t. He finally made it across the tracks, the train
missing the back bumper by mere inches.
And then…he was gone.
It was a long freight train and by the time it passed us by there was no indication of which direction Edward would
have taken. He could have gone straight, he could have decided to drive off road, following along with the train, or he
could have turned down any of the roads I can see off in the distance. As the rumbling vibrations continued to fade
away all I knew was I would never see him again.
“Ma‟am?”
I ignored the police officer standing next to me, putting my hands to my face and sinking to the ground sobbing. It
played into the situation well although it was not an act anymore. I am not the innocent woman, free of her captor. I
have become the distraught partner, the heartbroken lover.
He walked over to his squad car and started putting out the APB for the Jeep. I hope Edward was smart and dumped
it quickly, if he hadn‟t done so already. At the very least, I hope he switched the license plates with the first car he saw
after leaving us behind.
After leaving me.
Behind.
CHAPTER 1
APOV
“Ms. Brandon?”
I picked up my pace, trying to ignore the voice calling out from behind me. I really needed to have a talk with Rachel
about her hiring tactics. The past few receptionists that we‟ve gotten have been either annoying, incompetent, or
downright nasty. I think this woman just fell into the clueless category. Clueless, because everyone knew not to bother
me after I had just spent a morning in court with Judge Wilson.
“Ms. Brandon?” she repeated again.
I finally turned on my heels and glared at Lily. “What?” I snapped. She didn‟t flinch which surprised me. Maybe I
hadn‟t given her enough of a chance yet.
“She came.”
“Who came?”
“The woman for the envelope. The one they tell me you‟ve been holding on to for years. She came.”
My laptop case slowly slipped off my shoulder and clattered to the floor. The disbelief had to be evident on my face.
“Show me.”
“Excuse me?”
“Show me the signatures. I need to see them. Were you absolutely certain they matched? And why the HELL didn‟t
anyone call me?”
“I tried, Ms. Brandon. Your phone is off.”
“No it‟s not,” I started to say while pulling it out of my pocket. And, she was right. It was off. “Fuck,” I yelled, throwing
it across the room so hard it bounced off the wall. “I hate when that happens. Doesn‟t matter, I couldn‟t have
answered it in court anyway.”
“I left the paperwork on your desk,” she said, continuing to follow me down the hall and into my office.
“You left it out in plain sight?”
“Of course not. It‟s in an envelope, under a pile of papers. That‟s why I‟m following you, because you‟d never know
where to find it.”
I paused slightly, realizing that perhaps I was not giving Lily enough credit. We continued to stride down the hall,
side-by-side. Watching us together was like looking at polar opposites. My hair was short and dark where hers was
long and blonde, I was petite where she was tall. Once you got below the surface, however, it seemed as though we
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