Chapter 43 - Lachy's POV

Chapter 43 - Lachy's POV

Hearing the grunting and the yelling up ahead, I take off at a sprint as I round the last corner. I see Alba pinning Ms Carter to the ground, hitting her, and then holding her under the water. I fear that my sister-in-law is going to make a mistake and go too far.

“Alba, Alba, stop,” I call, but it's almost as if Alba can’t hear me or doesn’t want to. I race towards them as I splash through the water. I am sure that Alba will turn and look, but she doesn’t. Once again, Alba pushes Ms Carter under the water and holds her down. Ms Carter is thrashing and splashing, desperate for air. I reach out, touching distance, and place my hand on her shoulder.

“Alba, enough, don’t go too far,” I yell again as I wrench Alba off Ms Carter and pull her from the water. I watch out of the corner of my eye as Alba huffs and puffs trying to regain her control and breath.

Not wasting any time, I grab the zip ties and secure Ms Carter’s hands and then move to her feet. I watch as Alba pushes to her feet and takes off in what appears to be a jog, but more like a drunk man crossing between an older adult stumbling around.

“Tristan already has Senna,” I call. I watch as the tension that you can see in Alba’s shoulders finally relaxes. As I rip a large piece of tape from the roll that Tristan tossed me before we split up, I cover Ms Carter’s mouth. I hear a sound and look over at Alba, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

“What tell me I am wrong? Do you seriously want to listen to her whining?” I ask as I look at Alba.

Alba shakes her head and motions to continue. Once I have Ms Carter tied up, I drag her to the shore and go to Alba, seeing a few slices and dices.

“You need to move quicker,” I say as I take a look at her cuts.

Alba laughs and grunts before moving out of the way of Ms Carter.

“We can head back to the house, Tristan took Senna back there,” I say as I throw Ms Carter over my shoulder and point in the direction of the house. As we set off, Alba walks a step ahead of me and Ms Carter. It’s not like I can blame her; Ms Carter kidnapped her daughter and then tried to kill her. I wouldn’t want to be near this piece of trash either, but there was no way I was going to trust her to walk with us back to the house. By the time that we get there Tristan should have the police there ready to take this bitch to jail.

For fifteen minutes straight, Ms Carter has been muttering, and while it was muffled, the bloody woman wouldn’t shut up. A couple of times, I managed to jostle her just enough to get her to stop muttering. Alba didn’t want to talk, and I didn’t blame her as she didn’t want Ms Carter to overhear anything that might be said.

“STOP!” Alba calls as she turns to look back at me and Ms Carter. I watch as Alba walks behind me, and then the sound of flesh as Alba punches Ms Carter in the face and knocks her out.

“Nice, see that ridge up ahead? Just over that and down the other side, and we are back at the house,” I say as we take off towards the ridge. It must have been an unwritten comment, but we both pick up our pace as we make our way towards Tristan and Senna.

As we finally reach the top, Alba lets out a big sigh as she looks down and sees the house through the thicket of trees.

I watch Alba as she starts moving down the uneven ground like a bloody mountain goat. I follow not as quickly but at a decent pace. I am about thirty meters behind her when I watch her stop and turn slightly to the left first before turning towards me. I clock the left but don’t see anything. Moving faster now, I am within ten meters when I dump Ms Carter to the ground and watch as a blade is pressed against Alba’s neck.

All I can think is that Tristan is going to kill me.  I finally managed to find her, and now she has a knife against her throat.

“What the hell do you want?” Lachy calls to the person behind me.

“What was promised, either the first or the last?” the person responds.

“What was promised?” Lachy calls again

“One of the other doesn’t matter which. While one has more value than the other, we are not picky.” The person calls back while pressing the blade tightly against my throat.

“And if we refuse?” Lachy calls.

“Then we take”

I watch as Alba makes a motion with her eyes, and I respond in kind, knowing that she is going to do something that is going to get me killed. I watch like a proud father as Alba slams her head back into the person behind her, while I rush forward and take the person to the ground. I punch the person twice before flipping them over and quickly zip-tie their hands and feet together. Just as I turned and looked at Alba, I noticed she was no longer standing but had collapsed on the ground.  Punching the person one more time to make sure that they remain out, I rush to Alba, but all I can see is blood, and Alba is deathly white.

“Alba, Alba, wake up. Come on, Sis, if you don’t wake up, Tristan is going to kill me, not to mention what Dana and Dad, oh, and Mom, she will skin me alive. Come on, you need to get back to Senna.” Alba remains still but breathing. Taking my phone from my pocket, I dial Tristan.

“About time you called, where are you?” Tristan barks into the phone.

“In the thicket behind the house, bring police and the ambulance,” I mutter back while trying to stop the bleeding on Alba’s neck.

“Inbound,” Tristan replies before the phone goes silent.