***Chapter 40***

**Jason's POV**

I couldn't say which was worse, waiting for Charlie to make contact or waiting for whatever girl was coming to be brought with me to meet him. Needless to say, I didn't get any more work done after I had received the note from Charlie. And despite my exhaustion, my mind was whirring too much to even seriously consider that nap. Instead, I paced in the office wanting the day to go by faster but not wanting any time to pass at the same time. Maybe I shouldn't bring whatever girl he wanted. I could have her stay here where it would be safer. Then he and I could talk and I could make him turn himself in. It would just be the two of us. But I was also concerned that he wouldn't actually meet me if I didn't bring the girl. And I needed this chance to get him to turn himself in. How else was I ever going to know my brother?

I raked my fingers through my hair for what had to be the hundredth time. I still had about forty-five minutes before when I needed to leave to meet Charlie. The address had seemed familiar, on a road that I knew fairly well, afterall Rosewood wasn't exactly a big town. I had decided that I would wait to look up the address of the arcade that I was supposed to meet him at, afraid that the cops would realize what I was doing. I guess that was being paranoid, but maybe I hadn't managed to behave normally enough during my interaction with Lorenzo that they were monitoring what I was doing. My stomach was in knots with the anticipation. There was a pounding on my front door, along with the doorbell being pushed in rapid succession.

That must be the girl.

I pulled the door open without looking at who was behind the glass. I was suddenly ploughed into by a tornado of a brunette. It had to be Mona, I begged internally slamming my eyes shut so I didn't have to look at the girl who just came in. She was the only one it could be who was that size, my mind ignoring the obvious.

"Get rid of it." Her voice cut through my silent pleas. "I can't look at it."

"What?" I turned around, barely comprehending that it was actually Aria standing in my entryway. "What are you talking about?"

A white box was shoved at me, I barely had a chance to grab it she let go of it that fast. She was literally shaking with anger and what I thought could be fear. I moved to open the box but she shut me down too fast. Her hands slamming down on the lid and her eyes fiercely meeting mine.

"Don't open it." She ordered and I couldn't help but back down.

I had never seen Aria like this before. She was all fury radiating outward and though it was incredibly beautiful I was scared that she was like this right now. Why was she here? Why was she the one that he chose for me to bring along? Why would she agree to it in the first place? I silenced those questions as quickly as I could, not wanting to fall into those thoughts right now. Not wanting to consider what implications her being here had on her reactions to some things. I needed to talk him into turning himself in; that was still the plan.

"Aria, what's in the box?" I asked hesitantly, not wanting to provoke her anger any more. But my curiosity was burning. Why had she brought this with her today? I couldn't help the feeling that it had to be related to why she was the one that was here.

"Don't worry about it." She said, turning away from me.

I felt my heart twinge in pain when she turned away. It hurt to see her turn her back on me, even though I knew she didn't mean it. Today might just ruin any friendship I could have with her. It was so important to me that I have this chance to meet my brother, someone who I had been told for years that he didn't exist. But at the same time, it was meeting her tormentor again, someone who had done who knows what to her while she was down in that bunker. Someone who had made her consider killing herself. And he was drawing me into it again, making me deliver her to him on a silver platter. I remembered the game she had told me that he made her play, who do you love more. She had always chosen me, but it sickened me that Charles had tried to pit us against each other. Maybe this was just more of the same. It burned that all those moments recently where Aria had turned to me for comfort might all get washed down the drain with one day. I wondered at the cost of meeting Charles today, and if he had even thought it through.

"Do you know where we're going?" she broke the silence after a moment while I set the closed box down on the table, her composure seeming to come back, though it was still clear how angry she was. Her words were clipped, but at least she was talking.

"Yeah, I have the address. We still have a few minutes before we need to leave. Got to figure out how we're getting past the cops though, since you're here they're going to be more on us when we leave."

"Just tell them we're going to a movie in Philly. You're good at dealing with them." She commented harshly.

I turned to her, trying to figure out what she meant by that. I knew that she didn't want to be here with me, that she didn't want to go meet with Charlie. But I didn't understand why she was turning her anger on me. I took a step closer to her, reaching out slowly so she wouldn't flinch away from me. Gently, I lifted her chin so that she was looking me in the eyes. It was faint but I could just barely make out the red-rimming around her eyes that indicated that she was near tears. She wasn't angry at me, at least I didn't think she was. But she was so close to losing control that she was using her anger to cover up any weakness.

"I'm sorry you got dragged into this, Aria." It was the most sincere that I could get, feeling terrible that she was being hauled into my family mess. But I couldn't offer to not make her come along to meet him today, worried either she would fight me on it despite her obvious reluctance, or he wouldn't show without her there.

Her lips were just barely parted and though we were so entrenched in the drama with my family, I couldn't help the feeling that I wanted to kiss her. I remembered the soft feeling of her lips pressed against my cheek last night. And even longer back how it felt to kiss her and have her kiss me back. Subconsciously, I licked my lips barely pressing back the want to kiss her and take all the pain and fear from her face.

She turned her eyes away from me, looking down at the floor instead of meeting my eyes. My gaze slipped down to her throat, where the slowly healing marks on her neck still showed on her pale skin. She was still wearing makeup on her neck, but the tiny marks from where fingernails had dug into her skin were still visible. Anger burned in my stomach that he had hurt her like this. I let go of her chin, closing my eyes against the anger that I felt seeing how he had marked her.

"We should get going." I told her, grabbing my jacket from beside the door. I needed something else to fixate on, or the plan for today was not going to go well.

'Get him to turn himself in.' I repeated the plan like a mantra in my head, while I grabbed my keys from the bowl next to the door and pulled on a light jacket.

She wrapped her arms around herself, hugging tightly to keep her warm. She was wearing one of her jackets today and I was almost sad that she wasn't wearing mine. But I knew that was stupid of me, no matter how much I liked seeing her in my clothing. She walked straight to my car, ignoring the look from the officer who was watching the house. He got out of the car, heading towards her.

"We're heading into Philly, gonna catch a movie." I intercepted, stopping him from getting to her.

"Tanner won't like that you're leaving the city." The cop told me, a slight warning in his tone as he flicked his eyes meaningfully in Aria's direction.

"We'll be back in a few hours. It's good for her to get out of Rosewood." I replied before heading to my car, leaving no room for discussion.

Aria was sitting stiffly in her seat when I climbed in, looking straightforward and avoiding eye contact. I started the car with a sigh, knowing that tonight was not going to be good. The ride was silent, except for the sound of the GPS guiding us to our destination. And music just didn't feel like it would help anything, so instead we let the silence sit around us. This would be the easiest way to prevent anyone from knowing where we were going until we were already on our way. It was only about a ten minute drive, just barely outside of town. A little arcade that I had probably driven past fifty times, which did explain why I had recognized the street address so quickly. There were no other cars in the parking lot when I pulled in, driving around to the back so that the cops wouldn't see my car. Aria was still in her seat when I turned the car off, frozen as I walked around the car to open her door. Her movements were rigid when she unbuckled the belt. I held out my hand.

***End Chapter***