‹ Prequel: Bound to You

Blanket of Fear

Chapter Thirty-Two

The next few days started moving quickly, and a lot of things about their original plan changed. The only ones that were going to the cabin in Canada were Benji, Nicole, the kids, Tobin, Kelly, Johnny, Leigh, Leana, and Jimmy. Everyone else was staying behind, though Matt was still trying to push the issue of having Val go to the cabin. She insisted that she stay behind. Zack became even more suspicious of the blonde woman when he realized why she didn’t want to go to the cabin, and he started trying to come up with more ways to keep Eliza safe.

He knew that he couldn’t keep her with him while they got into this battle with Sean. She would be in even more danger if both Val and Sean were after her, along with whoever else was going to try and hurt her. He knew there were only two people he could trust to keep her safe other than himself, one of whom he hadn’t trusted until recently.

He was going to have Eliza go somewhere further away from the rest of them, and there were only going to be four people that knew about it. He was going to tell Eliza, of course, since she needed to know where she was going to be. He would have Jimmy go with her, because the taller man was someone he knew that he could trust beyond a shadow of a doubt when it came to Eliza. The other person he was going to send with her was someone he would kill in a second if something happened to her.

Along with Jimmy, he was going to send his brother, Matthew. He wanted to make damn sure that nothing happened with Eliza, and lately, he’d seen some look of protection in his elder brother’s eyes. He was beginning to wonder if Eliza wasn’t right that his brother had changed. And if Eliza trusted him, that was good enough for him.

He wasn’t going to tell anyone else where Eliza was going to be because he knew that all of them trusted Val, and if she asked them, they would tell her. He’d been as serious as he ever had been when he promised Eliza that nothing was going to happen to her. He knew she didn’t like hearing it, but he would die to protect her.

Now that he had figured out that he was going to keep Eliza safe by taking her away from both this place and the cabin in Canada, he needed to think of another safe location to put the three of them. He wasn’t sure of where Sean had scouts, so he knew he had to be creative. He needed to find someplace that was far away from both Canada and the United States. And he had an idea.

He knew that he had an old family cottage in Germany, in a small village a few hours outside of Munich. He wasn’t sure how intact the place was, since he hadn’t been there in twenty or so years. He only went there when he was trying to get away from everything. But he knew that the place was still there, and he knew that he still had the deed. He would get Matthew, Jimmy, and Eliza there, and everything would be alright. He still had to figure out what to do about Val, however, and that was what had him worried.

He knew Matt would never believe him about Val. He knew that the larger vampire would love the blonde woman until the day he died, and he knew he’d stay loyal to her until the end. But he also knew that Matt was a loyal member of Avenged Sevenfold. He knew that he could trust the larger man; he just needed to figure out a way to break it to him that his wife was consorting with Sean Castro.

He also needed to figure out how he was going to strategize this fight with Castro. He didn’t know what the other man was up to, and he didn’t know where he was going to strike. All he did know was that Val was somehow tied up in the middle of all of that, and he didn’t like that one bit. He didn’t want to hurt her, because he had come to see Laura as an amazing friend since he had met her when Matt brought her home.

“Zack?” Johnny’s voice asked from the hallway, peeking his head into the room. Zack gave the smaller man a wary look, but he smiled anyway before letting the other man walk inside. He cleared his throat and sat down on the couch before frowning, already able to sense that the youngest member of Avenged Sevenfold was hiding something.

“What’s up, Short Shit?” Zack asked. He realized that he hadn’t been very trusting of the smaller man lately, and he wanted to extend an olive branch of peace. He knew that he shouldn’t trust Leigh, but he knew that he never would have allowed Johnny to become a part of Avenged Sevenfold.

“I….nothing,” he shook his head before clearing his throat. “I just wanted to know if Leigh is going to be ambushed if she goes outside or anything. She hasn’t really left the room since….well….and I don’t like her being inside all the time. I’d feel better if I could take her outside and know that no one’s going to try and hurt her or something.”

“I won’t do anything to her,” Zack shrugged before looking over towards the window. “And I’ll make sure the others leave her alone too. Just make sure she doesn’t go towards the property lines, and make sure that she stays with you. I don’t want her off by herself. Not just because we don’t trust her, but for her own safety,” he muttered.

Johnny nodded and then walked away, leaving Zack alone once again. He had no idea what to do with his time now that he was alone, and he sighed before laying back on the couch, deciding that maybe a nap would do him good.

-x-

When he woke up a few hours later, he saw Eliza sitting on the floor in front of him, a frown on her face and her arms crossed over her chest. He let a loud yawn leave his lips before he stretched, pushing his hand back through his hair as he looked down at her.

“Baby, why are you frowning? What’s wrong?” He asked her, grabbing her hand in his before she pulled it away, obviously angry with him over something. He sighed, and then sat up, keeping his eyes on hers the entire time. “Tell me what I did, Eliza.”

“Why are you sending me there without you?” She hissed at him, keeping her voice low before she narrowed her eyes at him. “You know I don’t want to be away from you, Zack. You can keep me safer if I’m here with you.”

Zack’s eyes widened when he realized that she must have found out somehow about his plan to send her to Germany, but he couldn’t understand how she had heard about it. He hadn’t said anything to Jimmy or Matthew yet, and he knew that he couldn’t say anything to Eliza until the last possible day.

“How…do you know about that?” He asked her, instantly becoming worried. Not angry; not with her. He didn’t understand how she had figured it out. If she had, she was in danger, and that wasn’t something she would like.

She bit her bottom lip and turned to look to the side before she shrugged. “While you were sleeping, I got Jimmy to…Well, I could tell that you were hiding something from me, and I hate it when you do that, and…”

Zack groaned, and then turned away from her. He knew that she worried, but he couldn’t believe she’d gotten Jimmy to look into his mind while he’d been at his most vulnerable—when he was sleeping. He knew he should consider himself lucky that she hadn’t gotten someone else, like Matt or Johnny, since one of them would have narked on his plans and everyone would have found out. That would have made Eliza unsafe, and he knew that it was good that, at least she had only picked Jimmy.

As if on cue, the taller man walked into the room, a frown on his face. “I actually have to side with her on this one, Zack. When were you planning on telling us of the change in routine?” He asked smoothly.

“Eliza, can you leave the room, please?” Zack asked, giving her a look that told her she had no choice in the matter. She sighed and rolled her eyes before she stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her. Zack knew that, once again, he had upset her, but he also knew that he had upset her, but he needed to not do this. He was couldn’t concentrate on how worried she was; he needed to worry about her safety.