Loving Ashlynn (#Wattys2016)

Chapter 48 - The Other Side of Right is Wrong (Samson POV) Pt.5

        

Chapter 48 – The Other Side of Right is Wrong (Samson POV) Pt.5

I had put this off too long already. I knew there was a small chance that dad hadn't gotten the letter we left at Nova's place but at the same time, I also knew just by looking at the clock as I finished eating that my parents were probably overly worried.

Without speaking to Imogen, Luca or Fatima, I reach for my duffel bag, pulling out the case for the satellite phones. Assembling it, I dial my father's number, as the other rise from the circular table, washing their dishes.

Fatima reaches for mine as she leaves, and the phone rings just twice before I hear my father's frantic voice. "Samson?" I shake my head wondering who would be calling him if not me.

"Yeah dad," – "it's him Lenah," I hear him mutter.

Sighing, dad exhales right over the speaker because the static on the line just for a few seconds grows. "What were you thinking?" he asks me.

Instead of answering, "Did you get the note from Nova-"

"Samson! You tell us where you are right now!" My mom shouts. Wincing, my head lulls back, "mom I'm fine. Fatima is as well, we're with Luca and Imogen, but really, get out of Bend mom," I whisper at the end.

"Don't stick around or take Cynthia with you!" that part comes out with full urgency. "Dad-" I'm just going to say more when Imogen dips forward, grabbing the phone from my hands and shuts it off, removing the components.

"What the hell?" I ask pushing away from the table, "satellite phones can be tracked," she shrugs, before reaching into one of the bags she hadn't opened before our showers.

"I got ten of these," she dumps out packaged phones, all various types but on the cardboard holding them together I see the common link is that they are prepaid phones.

Burner phones.

"These can be legally traced, but I doubt your family has access to the means to track them," she says leaving them at my disposal, returning to Luca's side.

The word how comes to mind as I glance between Imogen and the phones she dumped on the table. It only lingers for seconds. The next thought is replaced with a memory. In front of me sits an Android touch cell phone. Black and could easily fit in my palms. The four buttons on the, edged out in white, are awfully familiar. 

Sure, I might have seen these phones when out shopping. The pay as you go phones in Bend were near the video games in stores that carried them. I'm certain I've also seen them at a few gas stations. However that is not the memory that comes forth.

It's the same phone I've seen Taylor with. The identical one that she said was old and it had pictures and songs she liked on it, despite having a newer phone. I never questioned it. Yet, now as I stare at the selections Imogen made, and why... what I thought was one thing now has a whole new possible narrative.

Especially when Talia told us that Javier found ten grand in her suitcase. Could the old phone and the money be related?

Exhausted and losing the battle to fight sleep, I reach forward, grabbing the phone closest to me. Within minutes I'm calling my parents back, first blocking my number, "Samson Conrad! Don't you ever do that!" Mom shouts, still, I hear the pain in her voice.

"Look, mom, you cannot know where we are going, but I'm just calling to let you know I'm alright. I'll call again, and one more thing. I think Taylor has a burner phone; it's an Android LG model. She says that it's old and broken, but has pictures and music on it."