Modern Love {A Cinderella Retelling}

Chapter Eight

The black SUV stood across the street from the house. The people inside were not shown due to the tint. It made things all the easier, they'd learned from outside sources that the day they were told to kill the boy only the mother died and the boy had survived. Now this was something that they did not like. Their job was to kill everyone via a car wreck. But how could they do that if now the boy was in his early twenties and living with the steps. Their boss would not be too fond of it. So now they had to figure out another way to get rid of the boy.

Things were going to be harder than they thought as now the boy had a girl he liked. They constantly circled the neighborhood at every given chance. Although there wasn't much that had happened. Hell, even the neighbors weren't that close to each other, so Brock and his mother were easy pickings. The people watched as the trio from Greensboro left the house, from a distance, they'd been watching Brock interact with Amelia. It was easy to know that the two had a thing for each other. The man lowered the binoculars and ran his fingers through his Raven-Black hair. A plot unfolding in his head. Next to him, his girlfriend, a spunky girl with Dark-Blonde hair was scrolling through Brock's social media posts. He'd post many things about his interactions in Greensboro. Some of them she was so ready to scratch his eyes out.

"Why do we need to do this sweetheart," the twenty-three-year-old girl asked. "What's so special about Brock, he's nothing but a worthless piece of trash,"

The man stared at her.

"My love, it's so easy," the man responded. "We've been paid to get rid of both mother and son, but as you can tell it didn't go like we had planned."

"You know this is our one-year anniversary, right?" the girl responded. "We should have been out there celebrating it but no! You want to be here, stalking this boy so you can finish the damn job!"

"You know how I feel about incomplete jobs!" shouted the man. "Now either keep an eye on him or we won't have our anniversary date,"

"That's just cold!" the girl shouted back.

Rather than arguing, the girl simply did like she was told but as soon as the Greensboro trio left, they drove away from the house and began to follow the Mazda3.

*~*~*~*

Brock decided that it would have been best not to push things, simply because Amelia had already invited him to the book release party. The only issue was that his stepfather was going to be there. He thought about ways that would help him sneak in but nothing really jumped out at him. All he had to do was wait for the deeds to see what happened. He walked back into the kitchen where, sure enough, the dishes were there piled high enough that it almost looked as if it was going to fall over on him.

Brock sighed and grabbed a pair of rubber gloves before making his way over to the sink and washing the dishes. This went on for a while now but at least he could focus on one thing at a time. The dishes were eventually finished and as Brock was about to do the rest of his chores, his eyes landed on the black SUV which was now following the Mazda. He paused and raced over to the window. The SUV looked familiar, and it began to worry him. Something didn't sit right with it.

He remembered that same SUV had smashed into his and his mother's car as they were on their way home. Brock never thought that it wouldn't have any significance, but then again, he barely remembered seeing the SUV stop after the collision. Brock raced out the house and watched the retreating cars leave the property. His stomach was in knots and he didn't know what to do. The license plate was already too far away so he couldn't have gotten the numbers. A feeling of uneasiness came over him as he ran back into the house. His steps had long gone back upstairs to do their own thing while his stepfather was most likely counting the numbers.

The first thing he thought about was grabbing his cellphone from his room. He ran to the barn and grabbed the phone taking it off the charger. Pulling up the numbers that Amelia had given him he dialed the first thing that came up. And that was Noah's number.

*~*~*~

Noah, Petra, and Amelia were about ten minutes into the drive out of Burlington when Noah's phone went off. Catching everyone in the car off guard. Noah pulled out his iphone and saw an unknown caller. It had a North Carolina ID though.

"Do either of you guys know this number?" Noah questioned. "It's (336) 5**-0***?"

Amelia focused her eyes on the road.

"That sounds like Brock's number," Amelia announced.

Noah wasted no time to answer the phone and put it on speaker.

"Guys?!" Brock exclaimed on the other end. "Are you still in Burlington?"

"Yeah?" Petra said. "Why?"

"There's a black SUV following you," he warned.

Noah turned and saw that there had been an SUV following them. It was the same one that Noah had seen while they were still at Brock's place. The entire car had gone silent. This was worrisome as whoever was driving that car had been following them for the last ten minutes.

"It's the same one that was outside your house Brock!" Amelia exclaimed. "What do you want us to do?"

"Find a safe place to get away from it," Brock warned determined to save them. "Or ditch them, that's the same car that rammed into my mother and I years ago!"

Not taking any chances, the trio turned down the road to head into town. They drove fast enough in hopes of avoiding the car but no matter what they did, the car continued to follow them.

"They're still following!" Petra exclaimed. "Anyone have any better ideas?!"

"Brock! Now would be a good time to tell us!" Noah exclaimed.

Brock instantly described a farmers market and how there were a bunch of people there and it would make things easier to hide from. The farmers market was nearby on Garden Rd.

"We'll call you once we get away from them," Amelia responded.

Amelia wanted to keep everyone safe. So, if the only way was to ditch into the Farmers Market, then that's what she was going to do. Noah hung up and guided Amelia toward the right location. They'd eventually came across the farmers market, but the SUV wouldn't leave them alone. Amelia turned into the parking lot as a whole stream of cars started to come out. They pulled into the parking lot right in between two larger cars. The SUV followed them into the parking lot, but they circled once and seemingly left the parking lot. Sighs of relief escaped from all three of them.

"Okay what the hell was that all about?" Amelia demanded.

"I don't know but maybe you should call Brock back, he seemed pretty worried," Petra suggested.

Amelia dialed his number and put it on speaker allowing it to ring once before someone picking up on the other end.

"Brock, what's going on?" Amelia asked.

"I don't know but if that SUV is back then there's something about my mother's death that isn't adding up," Brock responded. "And I'm determined to find out,"