by Hondo Jinx
So Nina ran. Not away, as her father had implored, but toward.
Toward someone.
David.
Even if Nina surrendered herself, Junior and his thugs would torture David for the simple pleasure of hearing him scream. And they would make her listen. Because brutal assholes like Junior understood and delighted in suffering. And Junior would know, the way a mean dog smells fear on a frightened child, that nothing would hurt Nina more than knowing she had caused her brother pain.
She had to reach David before Junior did.
Where was her father? Was he all right?
No, he wasn’t all right. His telepathic scream had rung with terror—and then cut off abruptly. The man was clearly incapacitated. Psi-hobbled or knocked unconscious.
Or worse.
Please don’t let it be that, she thought. She loved her father despite his many shortcomings, and even after all these years, some part of her still believed in him, still believed that he could change, that they could still establish the healthy, happy father-daughter relationship she had always dreamed of.
But now…
No.
She cut off that line of thinking. Yes, she hoped that her father was all right. But she couldn’t do anything for him now. Yes, it was her fault that she hadn’t warned him, but chastising herself further would only cloud her thoughts and hurt her chances of helping the one person she still might save.
She raced across the intersection, shouting apologies to the driver who almost hit her before slamming on the brakes and laying into the horn.
There, up ahead, she saw the lackluster brick building that had once been a school and now served as a community center meant to help kids like her brother to stick to the straight and narrow. Seeing a pack of kids loitering on the front steps, she felt a spike of hope. But then her head cleared, and she realized that these kids were much smaller than her brother.
He’s always smaller in your head. Always younger.
Reaching the steps, she slowed to a fast walk. She was gasping for breath and soaked with sweat. She knew that she looked ridiculous in her disheveled and mismatched disguise but decided that she gave zero fucks.
The kids backed away, parting for her, and she raced up the steps and into the building. To the right, a cluster of parents stood inside the main office, talking.
From down the hall, she heard squeaking sneakers, the hollow thump of a basketball, and children’s voices shouting. Then a whistle.
She hurried in that direction.
Please be okay, David. Please, oh please, oh please.
She rushed through the open doors of the lofty gymnasium. Her eyes whipped past the spirited game of half-court basketball, raced over a cluster of kids cartwheeling across gymnastic mats, and found the ping pong tables, two in total, looking somehow lost and pitiful shoved up against the shut-up bleachers.
Only two kids were playing ping pong.
Panic pierced her heart when she realized that neither of them was David.
Oh please, oh please, oh please…
But then one of the players, a short kid in a purple shirt, missed the table, and a third kid appeared, popping up from where he’d been sitting on the other side of the game, hidden from her view.
David snagged the errant ball, grinning like a madman, and her heart nearly broke in two.
Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you.
“David,” she called, surprised to feel the burn of seeping tears at the corners of her eyes.
David looked like somebody had goosed him. Then he smiled uncertainly. “Nina? What are you doing here? Is everything all right?”
The other kids turned around and stared at her. Not just the ping pong players, either. The aspiring gymnasts had paused their tumbling and stood now in a whispering huddle, watching her.
Were they staring because she looked so crazy in her rumpled sweats, combat boots, and purple hair? Or were they staring because everyone knew that poor David’s older sister was an ex-con?
She didn’t give a shit one way or the other. Not now, anyway. Right now, all she cared about was David’s safety.
“Yes,” she lied. “Come on. I need to talk to you for a minute. Alone.”
David hesitated, and she saw something in his green eyes that nearly broke her heart.
Fear.
Her kid brother, whom she loved more than anything in the world, and who loved her just as fiercely, was nonetheless frightened to go someplace alone with her.
Fucking Beverly.
“I’m supposed to stay here,” he said, blushing.
“Okay,” she said, and turned to the other two players. “You two get lost. Now.”
The kids dropped their paddles and hurried away.
Her brother watched them go, looking confused and uncomfortable.
“Give me a hug,” she said, and pulled him into a sweaty embrace. When she let him go, she saw that his face was red.
So I don’t just scare him. I embarrass him, too.
But none of that mattered now.
“Are you all right?” David asked again. “You’re not in trouble again, are you?”
“No,” she said, wishing it were true, wishing she could be the older sister he deserved. “Not really.”
“Nina,” he said, his face collapsing with worry. “What’s going on? Is Dad okay?”
Her first instinct was to lie in yet another attempt to protect David from the ugly side of the world, but that was no longer possible.
Because the ugly side was coming for him now.
“I don’t know if Dad’s okay,” she said. “Listen, David, some bad people have taken him.”
“What do you mean?” David whined. He started rocking back and forth with his skinny arms crossed over his chest.
Nina didn’t have time to comfort the kid. She glanced nervously over one shoulder. Any second now, Junior might come racing through those doors. “You have to get out of here. Don’t look at me like that, David. You have to leave. Don’t go home. Go to a friend’s house, okay? And don’t leave a note. Call your mom instead and let her know. Both of you should stay someplace else for a few days, all right? And don’t go to school, either.”
“You’re not making any sense,” he said.
“I’m making total sense,” she said. “You just don’t want to hear it. Look, David, I’m sorry to put you through this. I’m sorry for a lot of things. But you have to believe me. These people, they will hurt you and your mom if they find you.”
All the color drained from her brother’s face. She hated to frighten him like this, but she had to.
“I don’t understand,” David said, his voice trembling now. “Who are these people? Why would they want to hurt us? What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she said. She wished she could stop time and explain everything. All of it.
Why hadn’t she just told him everything a long time ago? He was a smart kid. He could’ve dealt with it. And if he’d looked at her like she was crazy, she could have given him a demonstration. So why hadn’t she?
Because she’d been afraid, that was why. Afraid he might look at her like she was crazy. Afraid that he was fragile. Afraid that his love for her was fragile. Afraid that, by unveiling the secret world to which she belonged, she might somehow doom him to a similar fate.
So many fears and so much bullshit.
The facts were the facts, and she couldn’t hold back now. “Dad and I have powers, David.”
His eyes went wide. “Powers? Like super powers?”
“Yes,” Nina said, already regretting this detour. Why hadn’t she stuck to the basics? Why had she dropped this on him now?
Because she had to. Because she couldn’t hide the truth from him any longer. By trying to protect him, she had almost gotten him killed.
“We have powers, and there’s a good chance you have powers, too. If you do, they won’t show up for a couple of years. You’ll be able to—” But she slammed on the brakes. N
o sense going there now. “I’m not crazy, David. And I’m not kidding. But these bad people, they’re after me, and I think they have Dad, and they’re probably going to look for you next. And if they find you—”
“Stop,” David said, and burst into tears. “Please stop. You’re scaring me.”
Shit, she thought. Shit. Shit. Despite her best intentions, this was all going sideways at 110 miles per hour.
She hauled him into a hug. “I’m sorry, David. I’m really sorry. I hate to scare you, but I have to scare you, because if you don’t take me seriously or if you underestimate these people, they will do bad things to you. Worse things than you can even imagine.” She released him. “Stop crying now. Take a deep breath. That’s it. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“No it isn’t,” he said, whipping his head back and forth. “Things with you will never be okay, because you’re always in trouble, and now you got Dad into trouble, and—” His lament crumbled into a sobbing fit.
Nina cast another glance over her shoulder. No Junior, no thugs. Not yet, anyway.
The basketball game had broken up, and the teen counselor was leading the players out of the room. The gymnasts were nowhere to be seen.
She seized her brother by the arms. “We have to get out of here. Now.”
He shook free, surprising her with his strength. “No,” he said, and his voice broke, going high and tinny with terror. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
His look of terror made her feel like crying. But she couldn’t cry. Not now. There wasn’t time to cry. She had to get him out of here before it was too late.
“Listen to me, David,” she said. “I know I sound crazy, but I love you, and I need you to listen to me. I would never hurt you. You know that. But if you don’t come with me now, other people will hurt you. Badly. Do you understand?”
She reached for him, but he backed away and tripped over a bag and fell hard on his ass. He burst into fresh tears.
Oh, she had fucked this up so royally. It was fear that had done it. Fear, her old enemy, sticking it to her again. “Just forget what I said about super powers, okay? We can talk about that later.” Even as the words left her mouth, she knew they only made things worse, only made her seem crazier. “You just need to come with me now. That’s it. All right? We have to go someplace safe before it’s too late.”
He shook his head and sobbed.
For a second, all she could do was stand there clutching her bag, paralyzed by her inability to unfuck this situation.
Then she remembered what was in the bag she was holding and impulsively tossed it in his direction. “Here,” she said, trying to sound cheery. Unfortunately, she overdid the fake enthusiasm and her voice came out in a wild chirp, “I got you a paddle!”
David flinched as the bag landed in his lap. His eyes were shut tightly, and snot and drool were draining from his mouth and nose.
“Miss?” a man’s voice called behind her.
She whirled, hackles raised, ready to kill for her kid brother.
An older man with a huge keyring on his hip stood just inside the door, holding a broom in both hands. Behind him, she saw a cluster of kids watching with worried faces.
“Miss, can I help you?” the custodian asked.
“No, we’re fine,” Nina said, trying to make her voice as natural as possible. “This is my brother,” she said in an awkward half-explanation that she instantly understood did nothing to make the situation better. “We’re fine. Really. Thanks.”
“Miss, could you come with me to the office, please?” the man said. He stepped forward, a worried look on his face. “This area is for the children, and—”
“Where is David?” a high-pitched voice demanded. “Where is my baby?”
And then—fuuuuuuuuck—Beverly stormed into the gym.
David’s mother’s eyes burned with fear and rage. Her head was tilted to one side, pinching a phone to her shoulder. “You! Get away from him.” She hurried past the custodian, pointing at Nina. “Yes, ma’am,” she said into the phone. “It’s her. Nina Mack. She’s not supposed to be here.” Twisting the phone away, she shouted at Nina, “You’re not supposed to be here!”
“Bev, I can explain,” Nina said, biting back her anger. “David is in danger.”
“You get away from my son,” Beverly said. “David, sweetie are you okay?” Then, speaking into the phone again, she said, “Okay, yes, ma’am. I’ll tell her, Ms. Jackowski.”
Fuck, Nina thought. Ms. Jackowski was her parole officer.
“You are in big trouble,” Beverly said. “I have your pa—”
“Shut up!” Nina shouted, and with a flick of her mind, she ripped the phone from Beverly’s stupid hands and whipped it across the gym, where it smashed against the block wall and fell in pieces to the wooden floor.
Beverly slammed to a stop. Her mouth fell open.
“Everybody out!” Nina shouted, and turned her focus to the custodian, who, propelled by a wall of invisible force, slid slowly backwards out the door, which slammed shut behind him. The other doors followed suit, slamming shut one after another.
Nina had fucked this up beyond all belief, but it was too late to change that now, too late to rein it in. She had to protect her brother, even if it meant he would spend the rest of his life thinking of her as a monster.
But she had to hurry. The cops were undoubtedly speeding this way. She had to get her point across before they arrived.
And then she laughed, realizing she had inadvertently achieved her goal. In a few short minutes, this place would be swarming with cops and parents. Junior would take one look at the commotion and turn the other way.
“Why are you laughing?” Beverly demanded. Apparently, some part of her brain had conveniently rejected the smashed phone and slammed doors in a kind of defensive denial. “Are you on drugs?”
“No,” Nina said, and laughed again. She couldn’t help it. This whole situation was so crazy, so fucked up, and at the same time, she was so relieved that David would be okay. At least for now.
The thought of what could still happen later sobered her instantly.
“Listen to me, Bev,” Nina said. “This is serious. There are bad people looking for David. They will hurt him if you go home in the next few days. When the cops get here, tell them you need protection.”
“This has to do with the shootings, doesn’t it?” Beverly said. Apparently rediscovering her anger, she strode forward. “Those five people on the news. The ones shot to death in your driveway.”
“Yes,” Nina said. “It does. And if you don’t do as I say, you are going to die, too.”
Beverly’s eyes went wide. “Are you threatening me?”
“No. I’m warning you. There’s a difference.”
Beverly’s face had shifted through deep red to dangerous purple. She advanced with her fists balled. “You leave us alone, you little bitch!”
And suddenly, Nina had had enough. Because while yes, she was one of the most powerful telekinetics in the nation, she was also a twenty-two-year-old girl who’d spent half of her life eating Beverly’s shit just so she could spend time with David.
Now lines had been crossed.
“You’re just like your father,” Beverly sneered, drawing back a fist. “You think you can come into our lives whenever you please and—”
Beverly stopped, locked in place by a gigantic, invisible hand. When she started to protest, a smaller invisible hand covered her mouth.
“You listen to me, Bev,” Nina said. “I’ve always been nice to you. I’ve always tried to get along, because I wanted to see David without you being a pain in the ass. But you know what, Bev? I am now officially sick of your shit.”
She gave the big hand a little squeeze, not enough to damage Bev but enough to get her message across. Emphatically.
“But what I really care about is David,” Nina said.
She could hear her brother whimpering behind her, and she hated that she had screwed up like
this, but everything she had done, she had done to protect him. Sometimes, we have to act like monsters to save the ones we love.
“Take him someplace safe,” she said. “Out of town if possible. This should all blow over in a few days, but stay on your toes just in case, all right? And when this does blow over, let’s pretend none of this ever happened. I’ll visit David, and everything will be fine.”
She gave the invisible hand one more squeeze. “One more thing before I let you go, though. And I want you to remember this forever, okay, because it’s super-duper important. I know you hate me, and that’s fine, but do not fuck with me, Bev, or I will make you suffer.”
18
Junior Dutchman stood a few feet back from the cleaning station, gritting his teeth every time his father slapped another half-fileted grouper down on the board. Junior didn’t mind blood. He just didn’t want any on his new Robert Graham shirt, which had cost him three hundred bucks.
Meanwhile, his father, having just returned from a fishing trip, was wearing a ratty t-shirt and cargo shorts streaked in gore. With his blurry jailhouse tattoos, deeply tanned skin, and the cigarette dangling from his lips, Roland Dutchman, Senior, looked more like a professional fisherman than the capo of Florida.
The impression was exacerbated by the attire of Senior’s constant companions, Uno and Dos, a pair of top-notch triggermen on semi-permanent loan from Mr. Valdez himself. Uno favored bowling shirts two sizes too large. Dos wore tank tops two sizes too small.
When Junior first met the hired killers, he’d cracked on their clothes, but they had given him dead-eyed stares, the men having no sense of style or humor. But they were good at their work. That was for sure.
At this moment, that was an uncomfortable truth.
Junior waited, doing his best to seem cool and confident. You couldn’t let Senior see you sweat, no matter what.
Senior tossed a tangled wad of fish guts off the dock. Down in the water, the massive tarpons trashed, fighting over the scraps. Then the man finally looked up from his bloody workspace and bored his orange-brown eyes into Junior’s.
