Bad Intentions

9. I love you

When I pick Bella up she's wide awake. "You know it's way passed your bedtime. Why are you up?" I ask her looking through the mirror. "I was waiting for you" she smiles at me. I shake my head "Bella, you still have to listen. I told you I was coming back right?" I ask her and she nods "That means you just have to trust that I'm coming back and go to bed when you're supposed to" I tell her. "But what if you don't come back?" She asks as we pull into our yard. I turn to face her. "Haven't I always came back?" I ask her and she nods. "I always will." I promise her. I hate how scared she is. I get out the car and take her out of her car seat. She sees Shawn standing up at our door and runs to him. "What are you still doing up?" He asks picking her up. "She said she was waiting for me to come back" I tell him. We go into the house and I take Bella up to bed. "I'll be downstairs in my office, got to sleep." I tell her laying her in my bed. She nods "goodnight daddy" she says. "Goodnight baby" I tell her.

When I came downstairs Shawn was already going through Mr. Hudsons emails. He smiles "what?" I ask him "she's definitely alive" he says scooting over so I can see the screen. She's been sending him emails of all the work that needed to be done. I felt like a huge load had been taken off my chest as I smile at the emails. "Maybe she is on a business trip" I tell him and he shakes his no. "She not reporting anything back to him. He sends work and she does it. Maybe he found out she was going to leave the company and has her trapped somewhere." He says clicking through the emails. "How are we going to find out where?" I ask him and he shrugs. "Here use your laptop and go through hers, I'm going to start looking at Cedrics." He says handing me one of the flash drives. There was nothing on it besides the recent emails she has been sending her dad. Everything else was empty. It's like they completely wiped her computer. "This guy and Milo have a shit load of emails" Shawn says. "They seem a little closer than friends if you ask me." I tell him and he laughs. He starts reading the emails. Now it just feels like we're being nosy. I sit my laptop on the desk and take the flash drive out. "Jaxson..." he says. "What?" I was starting to get tired. "Look" he says gesturing for me to come behind the desk. "Oh my god." I say looking at a file full of pictures of Ava. They aren't even regular pictures of her. It's pictures they took of her from a distance. He scrolls through what looks like thousands of pictures. "It says the last one was added yesterday." He scrolls down to the very bottom where there's at least 50 pictures of Ava. "She looks sick" he says. I agree with him. Her face somehow looks drained of blood and her body was small. It looks like she's in a hotel room. "That can't be recently" I say. "It has to be, look at her. Do you think they have something to do with it?" he asks me. "They have to have something to do with it. We have to figure out where they're keeping her." I tell him and he nods. "Maybe they emailed each other an address or something." He says going back to the emails. "I didn't ever expect this from Milo, he seems like a regular person" Shawn says. I always thought there was something off about him. "They have something to do with it for sure" he says reading one of the recent email. "I'm going down there tomorrow. Jaxson thought it'd be smart to try and one up me. He wouldn't be grinning if he knew what I was doing to her."" Shawn reads the email out loud. "What'd Cedric say?" I ask him. He opens the next email ""Okay, but I'm coming with you. Don't be too hard on her she already looks like she's one hit away from dying"" his eyes widen. "They're just treating her like her father does. We have to get her out of there." I repeat myself for the third time tonight. We go through every email they've sent to each other trying to find an address. "It's all just them laughing at her misery" Shawn points at. "I hate that I'm so calm reading about how they've tortured and starved her" I tell him. "Me too, I feel like I need to go find them both now but all I can think about is how relieved I am that she's even alive." I agree with him. The hope of her ever coming back left me awhile ago. "Now we know we can actually help her" I tell him. "I think I have something" he says copying a phone number. "What if it's one of their numbers?" I ask him. "It says it's the phone he had sat up" he tell me. "I guess we can try" I tell him typing the number into my phone. "It seems pretty sketchy" I tell him looking at the weird number and pressing dial. It doesn't ring for a while it just stays silent. I put the phone on speaker. "Hello" her sleepy voice answers. My eyes widen "Ava?" I say. "Jaxson, oh my god Jaxson" "Ava where are you?" I ask her. "I don't know Jaxson. Are you okay? Is Bella okay?" She rushes her sentences. "Ava we're fine. Where are you?" "Jaxson I don't know. They have me locked in here" she says. "In where?" "A hotel room I think. How did you get the number?" she asks me. "We hacked Cedrics computer" Shawn says. "Shawn, I've never been so happy to hear your voice" she tells him. "Yours too" he tells her. "Ava we can't come get you if we don't know where you are" I tell her. "You can't come get me. They'll kill you and Bella" she says. "What?" "They've been following you around Jaxson. If I try to escape they're going to kill you two." It was one thing to break into my house, but threatening to kill my daughter? That crosses the line. "Ava, no one is going to hurt Bella" I reassure her. "They're crazy Jaxson" she wasn't wrong. "Jaxson... I don't think I'm going to make it out." She says with a serious tone. "Don't say that, I'm going to get you out" I tell her. "Jaxson listen to me. I'm already so weak and sick. They're coming back in two days. There's no way I'm going to survive that." She says sounding defeated. I felt a tear drop roll down my face. "They really put you through a lot huh?" I ask her and she sighs "yeah" "We'll get you out of there okay. I promise Ava, you just got to fight a little bit longer" I tell her. "I don't think I can Jaxson" she tells me. "You can Ava, I know you can" I tell her. "Please, just tell Bella I love her" she says. It sounds like she's the one crying. "Do you want to talk to her?" I ask her standing up. "No!" She answers quickly. "She misses you Ava" I tell her. "I miss her too, but I don't want to get her hopes up" she says. I couldn't even argue. She's right, there's a possibility we won't be able to save her. "Okay" I tell her sitting back down. "Ava can you dial back?" Shawn asks her when the phone beeps. "No, it only lets people call in. Calls can't be more than five minutes" she adds the last part. "I'll call right back when it ends" I tell her. I'm afraid that if I hang up it'll be another six months before I hear her voice again. "I need to sleep Jaxson. My body is so exhausted, especially after the past two days" she says. "Okay, I'll call back tomorrow" I tell her. "Please do" she says. "I will" "Jaxson, I love you" she tells me. "I love you too Ava" I say meaning every word. The call cuts itself off. "We have to find her before they go back" Shawn says. "Come back tomorrow morning. I'll keep going through the emails to see if I can find something" I tell him. He nods "you go to sleep soon" he tells me leaving.

I spent the whole night going through every single email Cedric and Milo have ever sent to each other during the course of Ava being away. There was nothing. I went through the file full of pictures of Ava in hopes of seeing more clear where they had her but it was useless. I found another file full of images of Bella and me. Most of these pictures were taken recently. It scares me how they've been following Bella and I around and I hadn't even noticed. It pisses me off how they threaten to kill Bella just to make Ava cooperate with them. The more time that passed by the more I got over the relief of Ava being alive and the more I wanted kill the both of them for the things they've been doing to her. I found out through the emails that they've done more than hit her, they've been raping her and doing a lot of messed up things that they justify by saying that Ava wasn't listening. However, I'm happy we found her, I'm happy I know I can call her in the morning. and I'm happy we found out the truth.