that. His reach and influence were unparalleled.
I turned on the television to keep me company. I just had to get my mind on something else while I waited. I was so tired, but I didn’t want to sleep. I was terrified that somehow Saul would come bursting through the door any second, but it was a long flight from Los Angeles to Anchorage. It was at least six hours if you were super-fast. It would take him a few hours to probably get on a flight.
I just had to sit tight until then.
At some point I did doze off. I woke up with the remains of the night slowly fading against the invading light outside. Tony still wasn’t home. It was getting too close. There was no way I could deal with Saul on my own. And I couldn’t bring myself to trust in the system Tony had set up.
The panic gripped me. It seized me until I was no longer thinking rationally. I was in total survival mode with fear governing every single decision I was making. I had to get out of there.
I was too wired to sit still anymore. I went upstairs to our bedroom and I put on some sweatpants, and a hoodie. Then I threw on some white socks and my best sneakers. I packed a couple small pistols into my small backpack and then I headed out of the house. I had to get away from there. I was too frightened to stay there alone. I had no idea when Saul would show up, or when Tony would show up. I believed that Tony was going to tell the local cops he had on his payroll to stay put until he gave the orders. He wanted this to be a trap. They most likely wouldn’t come for me. I was on my own until then.
This was the way Tony wanted it to be. He was done with this. He wanted to end it. So, did I. But I knew Saul. He didn’t. The man could not be contained through ordinary means. Tony had no idea who he was really going up against.
I left the house and began walking across the field. I figured I would go to one of the duck blinds and hide out there. Tony loved duck hunting and he’d actually turned me onto it a bit. But I was nowhere near as enthusiastic about it as he was. I would hide out there and wait until I knew who was going to be there first.
The night was dark and cold. I wished I’d bundled up a bit better, but it was too late to turn back now. No. I had to keep moving forward. I kept thinking about my parents. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to them or tell them that I love them. I just had to keep hoping that everything would be ok.
I moved across the field and into the edge of the woods. I edged into the early morning and took a deep breath as I made my way farther from the house. This might have been stupid, but I wasn’t going to take the chance that Saul got to me faster.
I just hoped I was doing the right thing.
17
Tony
I was awakened by the stewardess, Abbie. She’d flown on my private jet with me for a few years now. She shook me awake. I’d fallen asleep going over some contracts at my desk in my makeshift office on the plane. I could see that we were actually approaching daylight. It felt good to see the dawn of a new morning.
“Sir, we are about to enter Anchorage and will be landing in about five minutes,” she said.
I smiled. “Thanks, Abbie.”
I roused myself up and stretched my legs as I made my way to my actual seat where I buckled myself into the seatbelt to prepare for landing. As I sat there buckled in, I grabbed my phone. I saw immediately that my tracker was activated. Julie was on the move. I’d placed a tracker in her phone to let me know where she was just in case she was ever abducted. With Saul running around out there you couldn’t be too safe. I had neglected to tell her about it. If she didn’t know about it, then Saul wouldn’t either. That was the thinking behind it anyway.
Saul… that bastard. He had actually taken her parents hostage. What a piece of work. That was when I saw the