Page 84 of Angel

Ollie popped his head out from under Aaron’s cheek. “You mean it?”

Aaron nodded. “My pops and I have a project this weekend to build another bathroom, but I was thinking next Friday. I have my first game on Thursday, so I thought Friday would work better. I mean, if you want to?—”

“Yes!” Ollie exclaimed. A little too loudly.

Movement in the distance caught their attention. All three of them pausing, looking back. They could hear footsteps but couldn’t see who they belonged to.

Aaron nodded his chin forward. His voice low and rushed, he said, “We got to make it to next Friday, Ollie. Can you keep going?”

Ollie pushed off of the tree trunk like he’d just taken a shot of adrenaline to the heart. “No way am I dying in these woods. I’m going to survive and I’m going to go on my first date and I am going to look fabulous.” He started marching off in the same direction they’d been walking before their break.

Bree leaned down to whisper into her brother’s ear. “Great motivation,” she told him, “but, if you only asked him out to get him to move, I will castrate you myself.”

Aaron turned his head enough to look at her over his shoulder. “I was a hundred-percent serious. The only reason I hadn’t before was because of the custody battle, but I suddenly realize that I don’t care. I’m going to take that boy out on a date and I can’t wait to see how fabulous he is going to look.”

Bree squeezed him tightly. “Good. But we really do need to find a place to hunker down for the night.”

Aaron nodded in agreement before hurrying after Ollie.

The hollowed-out tree they found wasn’t much. Ollie had made a disgusted face, but Bree’s logical ultimatum of “bugs or homophobic asshole” made Ollie get down on his hands and knees to crawl inside. Aaron placed Bree on her butt and then Ollie helped pull her back into the hole at the base of the tree.

Aaron then walked around to try and hide any evidence that they had been there. He moved a fallen branch in front of the hole. It was large enough to obscure the hole, but still gave them a gap to be able to see out of.

The hole was very cramped. Aaron was sitting with Ollie between his legs and Bree pressed up against his shoulder. Adrenaline kept them awake for a while, listening intently to the sounds of the woods outside. Only a few creepy-crawlies decided to join them but thankfully no snakes or anything with sharp teeth.

Eventually, Bree started to doze. None of them had watches and their phones had been lost or taken, so she didn’t know what time it was. Probably earlier than she thought, but the stress of their situation made it hard to decipher how much time had passed.

Something moved outside their tree. Bree sat upright. Aaron quickly placed a hand over Ollie’s mouth to stifle his gasp. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest.

Then the branch Aaron had placed in front of the hole started to move. As it was slide out of the way, Aaron placed Ollie on the ground next to Bree. He put himself fully between them and whomever was outside the tree trunk.

The beam of a flashlight blinded her for a second, forcing her to blink and look away.

“Got ‘em,” a female voice softly said.

Bree knew immediately it wasn’t her mom’s voice. Her vision cleared just as a face was illuminated in the hole, looking in on their hiding spot.

Aaron tensed, but Bree let out a sigh of relief. She put a hand on Aaron’s shoulder, who had been about to spring into action. “It’s okay.”

Aaron looked back at her in confusion. “You know him?”

Bree nodded and then threw a wide smile at the man crouched down by the entrance to the tree. “Aaron, Ollie, meet your Uncle Scar.”

It took some doing. Aaron had to exit first and then had to drag Bree out of the hole. Ollie crawled out next. The small flashlight held by a woman Bree didn’t know helped guide them.

Aaron placed Bree up against a large root of the tree they’d been hiding inside. Ollie pressed himself into her side and Bree put an arm around his shoulders. “That’s Scar?” he asked her in a low, almost squeaky, voice.

Scar and the woman were standing a couple of feet away from them. Aaron was standing in front of Bree and Ollie, as if he was still trying to decide if he needed to protect them. Over his shoulder, he asked softly, “Who is Scar?”

Bree didn’t keep her voice down. It didn’t matter who heard them now. They were the safest they ever would be in their predicament. “Uncle Scar used to be a member of the club. He left last February—because he’s a butthead,” she said even louder. “Uncle Bulldog says that he’s been traveling, trying to find himself or some line of bull. I don’t believe it though, because Uncle Scar would only leave us if he thought he was protecting us.”

The woman with Scar cracked a smile down at Bree. To Scar, she said, “Girl’s got your number.”

Aaron looked down at Bree and then back up at Scar. “But…we’re safe with him, right?” There was skepticism in his voice.

“The safest,” Bree assured him.

“I saw him at the funeral, but I didn’t know that was Scar. I never asked Steel or Jenna who he was.” Though Steel and Jenna were adopting Ollie, he still used their names. Bree wasn’t sure if he was going to eventually call them ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ or if he planned on sticking with their names. That was his choice and none of her business.

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