Alessio
The bank had nothingh helpful to say about Ross not even when I offered to safe them from the finacial problems they are starting to have. The last information I have about Ross is that he hired a private plane that has now landed in Virginia. But according to the security feed there was no one else than the crew on the plane so that means that there was an unrecored stop somewhere along the way.
I pace around the floor of the penhouse of my hotel in New York.
If only I could find a list of all the fuel filling stops on the east coast and then track the outlet over the last few months but no one is answering my calls with anything useful. The file about the murder of Naitee's parents came an hour ago and it looked just like I expected. Suspiciously little information about a double homicide and the case went cold in no time at all. Everything was superwised by SSA Ross and even though he helped the killer was never found. The case was ruled a home invasion but even I could see that that was not the case.
I pour myself a glass of liquer from the bar and down it in one gulp. It burns but I savor it. Anything is better than feeling right now. I have to find a way to track the selling of oil, fuel or methane. Whatever. The idea hits me after my third glass and I pick up my phone.
"Hi Dean. I am going to need you to buy the biggest oil corporation in America." Dean is quiet for a few seconds.
"Brother have you gone insane?" I scoff.
"No. With fathers assets we could buy America. Buy it now and tell them I want the records of any sold or transported fuel before the end of the day."
"Brother--" Deans starts but I end the call. I will talk with him when I get back to Italia.
I make my way to the bed but after hours of not being able to sleep I resort to staring at my phone willing it to ring with news from Dean. It does not and in the end I simply put it in the mini freezer.
It does not help.
My body is restless in a way it has not been since I was a teenager and I do not know how to handle it. After pacing until it is late into the night I finally give up on any kind of rest and make my way down to the gym. Since the clock is three in the morning no one else is up and I have the entire modern gym to myself. The punching bag becomes my greatest enemy and I attack it relentlessly until my knuckles are split open and bleeding.
Somehow I do not even feel the pain. Like that part of my brain has shut itself off.
I make myself sweat for two hours before I make my way up to the pent house again. I force myself to shower before I look at my phone. 3 missed calls from Dean.
I call immediatly, he picks up on the first ring.
"Finally Brother!! You harass me for answers and then do not even pick up?? I--" I bite my lip.
"So do you have any answers?" I interrupt him.
"Yes. They are willing to sell stock and records of sales for the last few months but--" I interrupt him again because that is all I wanted to hear.
"I will take it." Deans sighs over the line.
"I was afriad that you would say that... Are you okay Sio, this is not like you? " I do not answer for a second before replying.
"I will be alright when he is dead and I have her again." I end the call and for some reason a pang goes through my heart. Sometimes I question if I am too hard on my brother but I am simply the way my father was to me and I turned out fine.
The papers arrive with a courier at eight fourteen in the morning along with a contract. I sign the contract without looking through it and when I go to read I discover an absoloutley ridicoulous amount of sales. Fifty pages, lines and lines of sales and with a sigh I realise that I will have to read every single one.
I take a cigarette out of the packet that I picked up earlier and light it. I drag on it gratefully and brace myself.
Naitee
I push the food around my plate slowly. I forced myself to eat for the first fifteen minutes even though I have been feeling ill since I woke up. Ross made pasta with tomato sauce and I simply sat, watching him and fantasising about killing him with the knife he was holding. But Ross has decades of experience on me and if I want to get out this alive I'll have to play the long game. So I force myself to eat the food of the parents murderer and my stalker, if you could call it that.
"Are you full?" Ross asks and his voice is back to normal, the one I've known for five years.
"Yeah I guess." I put my fork and knife down on the plate and make myself look into his eyes. The warmth in them just showes me how deranged he is instead of comforting me like it used to. The way my body feels comfortable with him instictanly from all the years of knowing him creeps me out now that I know what monster he's been hiding.
"Well then, I'll do the dishes Hann--Naitee. Go relax, you probably need some sleep." Hannah. He was about to call me Hannah. He's obsessed with me because he transferred his feelings for Hannah to me when she died.
"Ok." I rise from the rough wooden chair and let myself eye the knife on the desk for only a second but I don't go for it. I need to make a plan and very carefully follow through on it without actually alerting Ross on what I'm doing. I wonder what exactly it was that made Ross snap. Before he was content letting me live my own life but now something has changed. He has to control me and that is not a good sign.
I lay down on the uncomfortable couch and wish away the world while I listen to Ross working in the kitchen and imagine myself back in Italy.
How did the one prison I didn't want become what I miss?
I close my eyes to stop the tears. I haven't cried in five years and I will not let Ross be the one to make me cry when the last time I cried was because of my parents. The parents he killed. Anger rises in me again and I let it roam for only a second before I push it back down. In my head I create a new personality and I don't let myself be ashamed.
I'm Naitee Joshi. I'm staying in a cabin with my adoptive father, because Ross thinks I'm his daughter, for winterbreak. I create situations and reaction in my head until I'm no longer myself and no longor harbor the resentment and feelings of the other Naitee Joshi. When I open my eyes and smile at Ross it's a real smile and by the happiness in his eyes I can see that he bought it.
"Want to watch a movie? I have all your favorites." I drag my legs of the couch so he can sit down next to me. I suspect that I won't actually know any of the movies, Ross is that deep into his delusion. The couch dips beside me and my body doesn't even stiffen at the arm that he throws around my shoulder and uses to pull me into him.
I let my head rest on his shoulder and ignore the way goose skin breaks out across my entire body. He smells vaguely of body wash and mint. The most basic smell of all and yet it still drags me back five years.
It's the first day of lectures at the academy and I've totally given up on trying to make a good impression. I'm wearing sweats and my hair is in a messy braid. I'm pretty sure I haven't washed it in a week.
I trail behind all the other enthusiastic students into the lecture hall and regret not simply getting a job and living on the money from my parents. Ofcourse I had to enroll myself in the FBI academy instead. I take a seat as far back in the hall as I can and settle into the seat.
At the front of the class a middle aged man wearing a FBI sweatshirt enters and immediatly commands all the attention. The entire class quiets and stares at him.
"Welcome to your first day of classes here at the FBI Academy. I will be teaching the classes on stratergy and technical." Someone claps and forces everyone else to join in. I clap slowly.
After class I drop everything on the floor and am forced to stay after class. When I look up with everything gathered in my arms I come face to face with the creepy professor.
"Hi." I say and laugh nervously.
"Hello, did you want to ask anything?" Did he look nervous?
"I-- no. I just dropped my things." I look pointedly at the books in my arms and a slight blush covers the professors cheeks.
"I understand, sorry... I'm SSA Ross." He reaches out a hand but I can't shake it. My arms are a little preoccupied.
"Right." He laughs and I nodd. His scent hits me, it's a mix of soap and mint gum. I almost recognise it but not really.
"Well it was nice to meet you." I say and push past him.
Ross clicks the TV on and picks, like I thought, a movie I've never seen before. It's a romcom about some girl with parkinsons and a weird drug seller. I don't miss the way Ross arm pulls me just a little closer at every scene when they're naked. Was I wrong about Ross seeing me as his dead daughter? Every cell in body is screaming at me, wanting to get as far away from him as possible but I couldn't. Breaking his fantasy would only antagonise him and that would only make everything more dangerous for me. The only problem with that is I don't know his endgame. What is his ultimate fantasy?
Because if the way his hand is moving right now is an indicate of whatever his fantasy is I really, really don't like it.
The movie ends with a cliche pop song and a collage of New York City and I stand up. Stretching my arms over my head as an excuse to get away from him when infact my entire body was screaming. And not in a good way.
"Well I think I'm going to sleep." Ross looks at his watch.
"It's only seven." I shrug.
"Movies make me tired." I say as an explenation but he still looks slightly suspicious.
"Good night then." He says and my skin almost crawls of my body when he traces it with his eyes.
"Goodnight--" I take the chance and pray to god that I'm right and it'll only make him easier to escape. "Dad." A smile tugs at the corners of Ross's lips and I know I'm right.
"Good night baby, sleep tight. I'll make you your favorite breakfast in the morning." I give him a bright thankful smile and then leave as fast as physically possible without looking weird.
When I make it back to 'my bedroom' I look for a lock on the door but ofcourse there's none. I rip a thread loose from the weird linen clothes I'm wearing and put it carefully on the door. If anyone, Ross, enters. I'll know. It's no lock but atleast it'll let me know more about Ross. The way he acted tonight made me scared in a whole other way.
One thing is clearer than ever tonight. I have to get out of here. Soon.