CHAPTER HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN
***TESSA’S POV***
Twenty-four hours later and there was still no news from Corbin about my father.
I had finally called him, and he'd apologized for letting us nearly get killed because he'd miscalculated the distance.
***FLASHBACK***
“Then why didn't you pick my calls? I kept calling you and those hoodlums held a gun to my head while Xavier was knocked out!” I exclaimed in outrage.
I didn't deal with my feelings about that day and with the conversation we were having alongside my father's situation, I was hot red angry.
“My phone dropped somewhere and I didn't see until I had gotten Xavier back home and then retraced my steps. Turned out it fell into the car I switched from to avoid getting caught,”
I breathed deeply, my frustration mixing with my pain. This was the first time he had disappointed me so with these excuses, it was quite easy to forgive him and finding out he'd been helping the resistance made it easier to forgive him.
But I still didn't trust him and my instincts, when they're not clouded by love, were always right.
“It's fine. Have you found him?”
“Not yet but I'm going to. He hasn't said anything about sending that video and I can't go straight up and ask him –”
“Because he'd wonder how you got the information.”
“Exactly. Also, you'll need to stop calling me directly so he doesn't find out we've been communicating. He's got me busy chasing after trails of you and leaving me very little time to figure out where your Dad is but don't worry, I've got this under control,” he said, his voice sounding strained as though he was running up a flight of stairs.
“Okay, I hope you find him. My mom would go crazy if anything happened to her,”
“I wish all of this hadn't been happening,”
“Why is he even in such a hurry?” I wondered out loud. I mean, if I was to actually leave here on foot, it'll take me more than 24 hours to get back to him so that ultimatum didn't make any sense.
“Oh, um..”
“You're hiding something from me,” I said as I adjusted the wood in the fire as I'd been instructed to. “That's unusual”
“It's complicated, okay? But it's all got something to do with his father who also has an ultimatum on him,”
“What is that man's obsession with me?” I groaned.
“He's always gotten any woman he wanted, you slipped through his fingers and pulled his only real investment with you,”
“Not my fault his son has a bit of a conscience,” I moved away from the searing heat, “although now that I know his true colors, maybe he's not so different from him after all,”
“I've gotta go now, love,” I frowned at his choice of words, “but don't worry, I've got all of this under control, okay?”
“Okay. Thank you so much,” I said before ending the call.
“Oi! That's too hot!” Tom screamed in my direction and rushed over to reduce the fire that I'd stoked too much while in my thoughts. “Do you want to set the forest ablaze?”
“I'm sorry, I didn't know it'd be that much.”
I'd been doing a lot of apologizing since morning and yet, the hostility was still pouring from everyone except Tricia, Jamal and Katie.
It was disheartening, to say the least, and as the timer for Xavier's ultimatum drew nearer, I just wanted someone to wake me up from this nightmare.
“When next you want to do this, put just one at a time and make sure the smoke is not too much, alright?” Tom instructed.
***END OF FLASHBACK***
I woke up that morning with tears in my eyes.
The thought of his betrayal still hurt and my body's betrayal at the way he made love to me last night hurt way more. It was like he was trying to apologize for his actions and made me cum so many times and came just once.
How was I to reconcile the person who whispered words of love and passion to my ears in my dreams to the man who was about to murder my father in cold blood?
I cleaned my face and went out to Jamal's tree.
It was taller than everyone else’s and there was a a red ribbon tied around it. He said it triggered an alarm system for the entire village.
I thought about using it, I wanted to give them a good reason to actually be pissed at me since they were doing it for nothing but I took calming breaths and shouted for Jamal instead.
“Girl, ain't it too early for that volume?” I heard one of the guys on night guard duty, Kane, ask me.
“It's kind of urgent, sorry,”
I screamed for Jamal again and this time, I'm sure I woke more than a few people up from sleep as I heard noises coming from the different trees.
“I'm coming, I'm coming!” Jamal responded as I shouted for him again.
It was a few minutes after the timer had ended and I hadn't heard anything from either Xavier or Corbin.
I was going crazy.
Anna had figured out the tree climbing thing halfway and had to spend the night with Taiwan, the geek guy. They were working on the app together and she didn't know how to come down without going headfirst.
But I saw her crawling down the tree at the same time Jamal stuck his head out of his window to tell me he'd be down in a minute.
I rushed over to where Anna was coming down, my heart in my throat.
“You're really cute, your highness,” Kane joked as he came to stand beside me, “what makes you think you can catch her if she falls?”
I gave him the stink eye I perfected from Roe’s African Mom.
It was withering.
“Sorry, sorry,” he chuckled with his hands raised up. “Forgive me. Allow me to help, would you?”
“Yea sure but take that stupid smirk off your face,” I grumbled.
Thankfully, Anna made it down with only a few scratches on her hands and stomach.
“What's up, has he been found?” She asked immediately she caught her breath.
“No, I'm waiting for Jamal to get down so he can call Corbin,” I answered and turned around to his direction, “JAMAL!!”
“Calm down woman, do you want to see me naked?”
“It's been over five minutes!”
Then I saw him barrel down from the tree like a monkey and he walked over to me.
“You have to call him this instant!” I began, my hands shaking from the nerves, “he said he'll kill him if I'm not there and as you can see, I'm not there!”
“I'm calling him already but the problem is that he doesn't really pick calls except it's convenient for him. It's for safety reasons,”
“Well then I'll have to call him myself,” I grumbled and brought out my phone to do that only to see a notification. “I..I think there's another video,” I whispered, terrified of what would be in it.
I guess everyone was too as they all gathered around me, their eyes set on the small screen.
Then I pressed play.
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