Eyal leaned his head back against the bars of the cell he was currently sitting in. He sighed. When he declared to his ex-wife that he would rescue Avi he didn't think it would also involve him winding up in jail.
He thought back to what had landed him here and tried to discern what he had done wrong.
When he had pulled up at that house he was sure that this was it. He was going to save Avi and teach those sons of bitches a lesson. He was wrong, on all counts.
When he had entered the back yard with a loaded gun one of the men had immediately announced this revelation to the others but yelling, very subtly Eyal smiled slightly at the memory, "gun". Then the same man proceeded to jump him.
Although Eyal fought hard, five on one is no even fight, even for someone as highly trained as himself.
One of the neighbors saw the fight break out and called the police. All six of the men had been arrested.
Eyal had finished the fight with a dis-located shoulder and a black eye, along with an assortment of other bruises and scrapes. Nothing he hadn't suffered before.
Eyal just shook his head sadly. This boy, accompanied by five men on a flight to the US from Israel, was an orphan, and these men had just brought him to the US to be adopted by one of their families. They even showed Eyal the paperwork at the station. Not only did he feel bad for interpreting this well-meaning group, after all of his efforts he still didn't have Avi back.
Eyal just hoped that Annie was going to complete what she set out to do. He had faith in her but it seemed that when it came to each other they often made poor decisions to try and save the other. He hoped that in this case Annie would know that he would want her to choose Avi over him.
That was the other matter to deal with. He trusted Annie to get Avi and prayed for their safety but he also had to figure a way out of this mess he had gotten himself into. He had no agency backing and was a foreign citizen who just got in a fist fight on American soil with 5 American Military Personnel. His day was not looking good.
At least the men had felt the need to claim the he had been carrying as their own and forgo the additional problems it would have caused him.
Eyal's mind was racing. He couldn't stop thinking about Avi and how helpless he himself was to save his own son. He kept thinking about Annie and everything she was willing to put on the line for them and where their relationship was headed. He continued to try and figure a way out of his predicament. He was just working his brain in circles, and coming up empty in all regards.
He needed Annie. He needed her to be okay.
He needed Avi. He needed Annie to make sure Avi was saved.
He needed to find himself. He needed to discern where his life had led him and where that left him.
But Eyal was at a loss. What he needed, and what he could have, could not possibly coincide. He couldn't get to both have his son as a part of his life and get to have Annie too. He was a broken man. He couldn't possibly deserve him. He couldn't possibly deserve her.
Eyal struggled with everything he was supposed to be working through. It was too much. He needed someone to share it with. He knew who, but she was busy saving his son, who if Eyal had to admit it, he had failed to save. He had failed them both. Neither of them should have to deal with him in their lives.
Both Annie and Avi are good people Eyal decided, people who deserve carefree lives, free from him as a burden. They should be able to live without regrets.
Eyal decided that then and there he would let Annie take Avi back to Israel herself and he would disappear into the shadows. He couldn't let himself drag them through the mud. He loved them both enough for that.
Just as Eyal made up his mind a police officer came up to his cell. The officer asked, "Ready for your phone call?"
Eyal had been in prisons all over the world but he had forgotten that when you don't work for an intelligence agency and get thrown in some black hole when you get arrested that you get a phone call, at least on American soil.
He knew who he would call. He knew how to make things right. "Yes Sir, if you please," Eyal replied making up his mind once and for all. He knew it would break his heart but he also knew he should let them go. "If you love something, set it free" Eyal murmured stepping up to receive the phone the officer handed him.
"You have two minutes" the officer told him before walking away and instructing a lower ranking officer to watch him.
Eyal dialed the number as if he had known it all his life when he had really memorized it just this morning. "Hello, Auggie" Eyal said into the receiver, "I'm guessing you already know I'm in jail"…
And with that Eyal set his plan into action just as he tore his heart to shreds…