Vanished

Brian

"Ellie," my sister said and gave my arm an innocent squeeze to get my attention. But my body was on high alert. I was so wound from everything that had been happening that her touch made me jump. The basket of chips I'd been carrying fell out of my hand and dropped to the floor with a loud clatter.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," I apologized.

"It's fine, no big deal."

Luckily, the basket didn't break. I bent down to pick it up and the chips which had spread out all over the kitchen floor. Aubrey kneeled next to me. 

"Ellie," she urged, her eyebrows pulled together in concern, "what's going on with you? You're very jumpy."

Um, yeah. That was one way to put it. Terrified and borderline hysterical was another. I knew I probably needed to talk to someone because I had no idea how to handle it, but Austin hadn't responded to any of my calls or text messages. And that made me even more worried.

"Mama, what happened?" Brielle asked from where she stopped short at the entrance to the kitchen. She'd just changed because she'd spilled pink icing on the dress she wore when we "baked."

I was at their house for our usual dinner night, and Brielle and I had made bright pink cupcakes.

"We had a little accident. Can you help us pick up the chips?" my sister asked her instead of ratting me out, which was kind of nice. When we were younger, she would've pointed to me and said, "she did it, she gets to clean it up."

Brielle wrinkled her little nose but, after some kind of internal decision making, bent down and helped.

"Are there any more chips?" she asked when we dumped all the ones from the floor into the trash can.

"Yes, there are some more in the bag." Aubrey reached over the kitchen island and handed it to Brielle. "You can take those outside with you."

"Yay," Brielle shouted with a huge smile and then she turned around and disappeared outside. As soon as the sliding glass door closed behind her, my sister eyed me suspiciously.

"Please don't," I told Aubrey before she had a chance to ask me, once again, what was wrong.

"But..."

I shook my head. "I can't, Aubrey."

She cocked a hip and glared at me.

"Ellie, something is going on and you're making me worried. Please tell me how I can help."

I hesitated to answer, which she took as a chance to continue. "You don't have to tell me about what it is that's bothering you, but you should talk to someone."

She was right, as usual, and that gave me an idea. "Do you think I could talk to Brian for a few minutes?"

My sister's eyebrows shot up on her forehead. Clearly, that was not what she'd expected me to say. She opened her mouth like she was going to argue, but closed it again as she thought better of it and gave me a quick nod. "I'll get him."

Brian looked just as surprised as my sister had been when he came into the kitchen a couple of minutes later. "What's going on, Ellie?" he asked.

"Can we go to the office?"

His already concerned eyes widened in alarm, but nodded and led the way upstairs. He gestured for me to go inside the spare bedroom they used as a home office ahead of him.

"Are you in trouble?" was the first thing he asked as soon as the door closed behind us.

"I don't know," I admitted truthfully. "But it's not what you think," I hurriedly continued when his mouth fell open in surprise. "I didn't do anything wrong. I'm not about to get arrested or anything."

"Okay." He swallowed hard, but kept his eyes on me. "Then what is it?"

I let out a long exhale.

"Brian, if I tell you about it, you have to promise not to tell anyone else."

He frowned. "I'm not sure I can do that. Not if it's illegal, El."

I didn't respond. At least not with words. I just kept looking into the familiar brown eyes, wondering if I was about to make a huge mistake? I trusted Brian with my life and with the lives of my sister and niece. But I wasn't sure how he would react to the bomb I was about to drop on him.

He sighed. "Start from the beginning," he said and gestured for me to sit down in the office chair.

So I did. We sat down across from each other and I told him as much as I could about what I'd learned about Austin and his brother. When I got to the point about the man hunting them, Brian got up and began to pace the floor.

He was quiet for a very long time after I finished.

"What do I do?" I asked.