Hide and Seek

Two days had gone by since their encounter with Christina, the news reporter, and Victoria still hadn’t found the courage to tell Zacky the truth. Now that today was her birthday, she couldn’t think of a better day to tell him. After all, we would never get mad at her on her birthday.
Victoria was turning nineteen, although her new id said she was turning twenty-two, and she was okay with it. She didn’t feel like being eighteen or nineteen anymore, falling in love with Zacky and being expecting a baby had made her grow up more than she thought she would.

“Hey, what are you thinking about?” She heard Zacky’s voice next to her, not realizing that he was already awake.

“Nothing in particular,” she smiled at the way he looked her, his lazy smile making her want to kiss him.

“And how is my birthday girl doing today?” He leaned towards her and slowly kissed her nose and then her lips. The insides of her stomach fluttered, but she didn’t know if it was from being kissed so tenderly by the man she loved or if it was just another episode of morning sickness.

“I’m okay, just a little tired from all the fun we had last night.”
That’s what she loved the most about Zacky. He could be a bit short tempered sometimes and even too controlling, but he was a passionate lover. And he knew exactly how to love her.

He kissed her hard this time, pulling her naked body underneath the covers closer to him. “We can stay in bed all day if you want to.”

She smiled against his lips and broke the kiss. “I think we should get some fresh air and eat a nice meal,” she got up and headed to the bathroom.

“And get you a present?” There was a hint of amusement in his question.

“You know me,” she winked at him before disappearing into the bathroom.

Victoria watched Zacky finishing getting ready. Her stomach churned with hunger and her heart twinged when she saw him putting his contacts, changing his eye color from the green that she loved to brown. It was just another step that he had to take in order to blend in and not being recognized, but she hated having to hide in plain sight. She couldn’t wait for the time when everything would calm down and they would be able to leave the country. All she wanted was a normal life for the three of them.

There was a cool breeze outside. Zacky unlocked the silver suv’s door, the third car they had gotten since they had been on the run, and both got in. Like changing cities to sleep in, Zacky also kept on changing cars, always paying everything with cash. This time they had spent the night in a motel, near a small town close to Phoenix, and they wouldn’t probably spend another night in there.
As Victoria closed her door, the motel owner – a bearded guy in his late forties – got out of the reception area with an unlit cigarette between his lips. She instantly knew that that was the right time to tell him the truth. They were outside and there was a witness, someone who would see Zacky snap out if he did. She took a long breath and faced him.

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you,” she started, and it didn’t take any more words to make Zacky’s expression turn dark.

“What did you do, Victoria?” She watched the way he scouted the parking lot and how his eyes stopped on the motel owner.

“It's more of what I didn’t do -”

“Just say it,” he kept his tone quiet, although the way his knuckles turned white as he grabbed the driving wheel, told her that that would be her neck if they were still inside the room.

“I didn’t kill the news reporter.”

“Why?” His eyes were still on the bearded guy and his knuckles were still white. “Couldn’t you do it? You should have called me.”

“How many times do I have to explain you this? It’s not about killing or not killing, you know I could have done it if I wanted to, it’s about sending a message.” For the first time his eyes moved from the man to her. “I don’t want to be the victim anymore, it’s not the truth. I’m your partner now.”

“Don’t you see that’s for your own protection?” Zacky’s body had relaxed a fraction, being now more focused on their conversation than on the surroundings. “How am I supposed to protect you if we get caught? Before all this, you could go on and live your life, go back to your parents while I died in prison. But now -”

“But I don’t want that,” Victoria laid her hand on top of his, trying to calm the rage that was starting to build up inside of him again. “I don’t want to live a life where you don’t exist. I don’t want to raise this baby without you,” she smiled down to her belly. “If anything happens to us, we’ll all go down. As a family.”

***

The soft beeping sound made her eyes slowly open up. She was surrounded by machines, in a small room bathed by an almost antiseptic light. Her eyelids fluttered as she tried to adjust to it, when a large body at the end of the room suddenly caught her attention.

“Miss Rivera?” The raspy male voice asked and as she opened her mouth to speak, she realized she couldn’t. She instinctively covered her throat with her hand. It felt incredibly sore.
“It’s okay, you don’t need to speak. Just nod or shake your head to my questions, alright?” The tall man got closer as her sight got less blurred. “You are at the hospital. Do you remember what happened to you?”
She blinked several times before looking away from him. Why did her throat feel so sore every time she swallowed? She lifted her hand to her throat and once again, her whole body cringed.
“You really shouldn’t force yourself to speak. You were strangled several times and left on the edge of death,” The man pulled out his badge and showed her, as he took a seat on the chair next to her. “The paramedics said that just before you lost consciousness, you asked them to call me. I’m detective Sanders.”
Her eyes narrowed, but quickly widened as the memories came rushing into her mind. The room felt hotter, as the flashbacks of the way Victoria cut her face and strangled her until she lost consciousness became present, and she found herself feeling out of breath once again.
“Miss Rivera, try to relax. Everything is okay now, you’re safe.” She looked at the detective’s concerned face and slowly nodded.
“Do you remember what happened?” Her shaky fingers slowly touched her face and she nodded again. She could feel all the bruises and wounds Victoria had inflicted on her, and wondered how awful her face looked like. She would probably never be able to work as a news reporter again.
“I know you covered Zachary Baker’s story, so I must assume that’s why you asked for me.” Christina nodded. “Was he the one who did this to you?” Christina shook her head, which caught Matt by surprise. “Are you sure?” She nodded again, looking right into his hazel eyes. There was fear in hers, he could see that perfectly, but if it wasn’t Baker, then who had caused her such pain?
He saw the way her eyes drifted to the notepad in his hands and it almost looked like if both had the same idea at the same time. “Do you want to try writing on it?” He handed it along with his pen. Matt watched her blink her eyes a couple of times, taking a deep breath, and then a shaky letter was formed in the piece of paper.
Once she was finished and although the writing was bad, he could completely understand it, but he couldn’t believe in it.
“Are you sure?” He took another look at the uneven letters that formed the word Victoria.
Christina nodded more than once and exhale deeply, ripping of the page and proceeding to write something else on the new one. She handed him the notepad, tears starting to form in her eyes, and what he read was something that he didn’t expect.
She told me to tell you that’s she’s coming after you.

Notes

Okay, first of all I'm very, very, very sorry for taking so long to update. I'm not going to excuse myself by saying I've been too busy, but you all know that real life comes first and sometimes I even forget it's been so long since I've posted the last chapter. With that being said, I promise the next, and final chapter, will be out in a week or two, tops!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you've liked the chapter. :)