The Way to Eden

"So when am I gonna see ya 'gain?" Jeff asked.

Eden smiled to herself on the other end of the phone line. She'd wisely decided to refrain from calling him for a few days so that he'd worry about whether or not he'd annoyed her with his defense of Rio. The tactic paid off as his voice was slightly raised with concern.

"I don't know," she replied coolly. "My schedule has me working twice a week and, as we both know, my club doesn't move around."

"Do ya really like workin' there?"

"We're going to go through this again?" she sighed dramatically. "I like what I do."

"No, ya don'!"

"You're a mind reader now?"

"Witchew? Yes!"

"Look, Jeff," she tried to infuse a note of wariness into her tone. "I appreciate your concern. Really, I do. But I'm where I belong. It's what I was trained to do and what I intend to continue doing."

"Till when? Yo' dead?"

"I thought you said I was excellent at what I do," she said after a moment of poignant silence.

"Ya are."

"Well? Why do you insist that this business will be the death of me?"

"'Cause it will be if ya don' leave."

"I'm not her."

Jeff gasped in surprise but remained mute. Eden smiled again to herself. She knew that playing the 'Rio' card would put him on the defense and entice him into making rash decisions.

"I kno' yo' not," he muttered darkly. "But she was vera good at what she did, too. An' th' job still almos' killed 'er."

"I'm better."

"Tha's debatable," he hissed. "But no matta 'ow good ya are, yo' not invincible. Yo' makin' enemies by th' truckload out there an' one o' them is gonna come back fo' ya."

"Like they did to Rio?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not like her."

"Ya sure?"

Eden scrunched her forehead in consternation. How the hell did he continue to do that? Again he'd turned the tables on her. She was going to have to work harder at keeping him in line. She put a hand over the receiver and inhaled deeply letting the air go down into the pit of her stomach, which was doing flips at the moment. Then she slowly released her breath before taking her hand off and responding.

"And that would mean . . .?"

"Tha' would mean she thought th' same yo' thinkin' jus' befo' th' shit hit th' fan," he pounced. "No one could touch 'er. She was unstoppable. Then Henry threatened one o' th' people she cared about."

"You?"

"Me," he said unapologetically. "Maybe ya don' 'ave th' same weaknesses, butcha gotta 'ave some chinks in yo' armor. I's jus' a matta o' time befo' someone fin's it."

"Look, like I said, I appreciate your concern but it's unnecessary," she sighed again. "I've been trained to take care of myself."

"An' tha's anotha thin'!" he continued the tirade. "Jus' where is this traina ya keep talkin' 'bout?"

That threw her for another loop. What the hell did Samuel have to do with this?

"A-around, I'm sure," she stammered. "Why?"

"When's th' las' time ya seen 'im?"

"I don't know," she said raising her own voice. He had a knack for getting her temper to flare. Most annoying, she decided. "Probably a few weeks ago."

"Tha' don' soun' like a responsible traina ta me."

Eden was about to go off on her own diatribe when she stopped herself. Why not use this angle to her won advantage? It would be the perfect way for Jeff to believe he'd raised enough doubt to convince her to come to him. That would solve that problem, she thought with another malicious smile.

"He wants me to prove myself," she said attempting to sound as sad as she could. "The last time I saw him was the night I met you."

"THAT long ago?" Jeff sounded incensed.

"It hasn't been that long a time."

"Two weeks is a lon' time," he said hotly. "So lemme git this straight. 'E raises ya an' trains ya ta fight, literally strippin' ya of a normal chil'hood. Then when 'e decides ya need ta prove yo'self inna sport 'E chose for ya befo' ya could forma plan o' yo' own, 'e kicks ya out an' says 'Sink o' swim'. That about right?"

Eden reeled from shock at his summation. She didn't want to have to admit that it hit close to home, but really it did. Suddenly all of the things she'd missed out on as a child . . . the tea parties, the dolls, the friends . . . came crashing back with a sting of clarity. She put the phone down for a moment to get a hold of herself. She pictured the money again, Samuel's happy face as she delivered it to him, their new life in a far away place. Anything but Jeff was trying to force upon her. But no matter which way she turned her thoughts they always came back to the truth of her life. A tear slid down her cheek and she wiped it away in anger. Finally, she managed to regulate her breathing with a simple exercise that Samuel had taught her. She had to keep her mission in perspective, but that didn't mean she couldn't use her emotions to aide her into trapping Jeff Hardy. Sniffling softly she picked the phone back up.

"Ya there, baby?" he asked frantically. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay," she replied. "I just haven't dwelled on it for a while and you took me by surprise."

"Ya'll right?"

"Yes."

"Ya shouldn' be in there, ya kno'," he said more calmly. "Yo' old enough ta leave it an' explore yo' soul."

"There you go with that soul thing again."

"I mean it," he insisted. "I can help ya."

"How can you help me?" she choked out between sniffles.

"You can stay wit' me till yo' ready ta make yo' own way."

"I have money," she spat. "I can make my own way now."

"Tha's no' what I meant," he said kindly. "Ya neva knew anythin' outside that traina's world, right? You were home-schooled?"

"How'd you know?"

"'E soun's like a control freak," he returned. "They rarely let their 'possessions' outta their sight unless their sure o' th' outcome."

That intrigued her. She'd often wondered why Samuel wouldn't let her go to school with the other children. And he was very strict about her schedules and training. He did like to be in control of her every move. She'd never considered herself his property, but he did act proprietary about her. In fact, it wasn't unlike the attitude Henry had displayed towards Rio. This was very disconcerting.

"I don't think he sees me as his."

"Oh, 'e does," Jeff assured her. "'E mos' certainly does. Ya neva 'ad any frien's growin' up, didja?"

"I . . ." Eden stammered trying to think of something to say to defend her trainer. She came up dry. "No, actually."

"'E didn' wan' outside influences."

"I guess you're about to say I grew up just like Rio, huh?"

"Nope," he said smoothly. "She WAS an orphan, bu' she grew up inna lotta fosta 'omes. She went ta public school, too."

"So she had friends," Eden said through gritted teeth.

"Don' jump ta conclusions," he responded warningly. "She 'ad few frien's an' a lotta hang-ups."

"Look, I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Sin, don' go," he pleaded.

"Why?"

"I need ya ta see where I'm comin' from."

"Why?" she asked again.

"Yo' important ta me."

"Why?"

"Stop askin' that."

"Stop prompting me to."

"Please jus' promise me ya'll think about meetin' me."

"Okay."

"Ya'll think about it?"

"Yes," she agreed. "I'll call you sometime soon."

"Fair 'nough," he breathed in relief. 'Night, baby."

"Goodnight, Jeff."

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Jeff placed his phone down on the nightstand and blew out the breath he was holding. Sin was being so very difficult, but she wasn't impenetrable. He knew he'd made an enormous amount of progress tonight. He hated that he had to practically storm her emotional barricade to do it, but she left him no choice. And a woman like Sin wouldn't willingly capitulate to just any man.

He'd like to have a few minutes alone with that son of a bitch who thought she was his personal canvas to design in any way he saw fit. The fact that the man wasn't her biological father made the whole situation that much worse in his own mind. The man had literally taken a child away from the rest of word and kept her in confinement, training her to be a bitter fighting machine, which he then unleashed on the fighting world before walked away from her. If that wasn't a reason to have his ass royally kicked, Jeff didn't know what was. That man was definitely in the same category as Henry Bender, as far the younger Hardy was concerned.

And thinking of that bastard, Jeff gripped the blanket beneath him angrily. He would pay someday for what he'd done to Jeff's friends. Tara had informed him that Henry was back on the loose and seen in Florida. She'd also mentioned that Sin's boss was one of his friends. Jeff was determined to keep Sin away from him if he could. He didn't want any other evil touching the young woman's life.

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Eden paced her bedroom in turmoil. Jeff had hit home on every one of his observations. Shit, he was perceptive. Too perceptive. How the hell was she supposed to keep control of the situation now? He'd completely obliterated her concentration. Samuel would be so disappointed in her.

Samuel. Jeff had been right about him, she admitted to herself. Now that she thought about it, he did treat her like an object to be molded and shaped by his own hands. But she couldn't deny the debt she still felt she owed him for saving her from the drug lord. Without his interference, who knows where she would have ended up? Yes, she may have been sold to a wealthy, loving couple. But she could also have been sold to a less than desirable group. Samuel had shown her the information on the white slavery trade, particularly the child trade. She could have easily been sold to one of those people and used for sick games. No, there was no denying the debt she owed him.

She knew it would difficult when the time came to complete her mission, but she couldn't see how she could disappoint her mentor. As much as Jeff was making sense to her, she had to listen to the instincts that Samuel had instilled in her. She would have to kill the young man that was coming to mean something to her. There was no other outcome for this assignment. She just didn't know how she would be able to go through with it yet.