Returning Red

#46: Unending Troubles.

the war is over, isn't it?

Isabella 

I let out a jittery laugh. "You're messing with me, aren't you?" 

His eyes don't change a shade. He costively blinks, without smiling or letting out any sign of humor. My laugh fades into quietness. Fear wraps around my neck and spreads across my chest, holding back a part of my heart, making it difficult for it to beat. 

"It was dumb of you to run away, but it was downright foolish of you to think I wouldn't keep an eye on you." Both his elbows raised and rested on the marble ends of the tub. He leaned back, studying my expressions, showing none of his. "You didn't want me around, I understood that. But just because I couldn't be in front of you, doesn't mean I couldn't protect you." 

The last thought about trouble settles in the back of my head again. With the words he's saying, we were far from the end of it. It was almost like he was beginning a new series and I was begging him to burst out any second and tell me he was pranking me. 

I gulp, moistening my throat because I feel every bit of my voice slipping down from my tongue. "Don't beat around the bush." 

His eyes close for a brief moment before his head falls back on the tub. When he looks at me, his face shows no trace of his attempts to scare me. I discern that his words are instilling fear, not his expressions. 

"You shot Rick Bryant," he said thinking of the fastest example. "Who do you think put him there? His kidnapping was a no-brainer. How do you think he was there at the right place at the right time so your heroic crew could capture him?" 

My tongue was numb. "You were--"

"When I was told he was shot, I didn't know who shot him. But apart from that, I pushed him to your plate." Austin shrugged. 

I move away from him, looking at the bubbles filling up the hot tub. I brush my soaking hand through my hair, dampening it so none of it falls on my face and distracts my thoughts. 

"Alright, that was just an instance," Austin said pulling his hand away from the tub to hold my palms. "I'll tell you a list of people you might be familiar with. They're all my informers. They signed the contract to be anonymous so even if you question them, they can deny it on the grounds of law." 

"Informers? You paid people to watch me?" I was scowling. He paid them to watch me but he didn't think of calling me instead. He didn't think of coming to me himself. 

"You didn't want me around you," his defense made me introspect my choices. "For starters, your grandmother, and then Layla, your head cook. Ruth Abernathy was in your economics class at Harvard. Professor George White was your teacher for two subjects whose names I'm unsure of. Will, Harvard's janitor." My breath hitched when he gazed at the sky thinking. "Mia Sanders, that's pretty self-explanatory. Cassie, the receptionist of the therapy building. Helen, Katherine's house manager. Jackson, your ex-driver who is now Lily's bodyguard. Carl, your current driver. And you're not going to like the last name." 

"You think?" I said glaring at him as my jaw clicked. He sealed his lips taking my face in. I was pissed, not only by the fact that he had me followed but also by the fact that I was watched everywhere. "Who is it?"

"Ryder Harvey," he leaned back expecting a scowl when I gasped. 

"Ryder was your informant? What is wrong with you?" I yelled at him as I pushed myself off his lap. 

I was holding my head, replaying all my encounters with the people he mentioned. Ryder was constantly been around me for the last two years and I can't believe Austin has been notified of things about me from such a close watch. I feel violated. I feel disgusted. I feel like all the layers of my skin are scraped and my muscles and bone lay exposed. I edge further away from him.