When Fates Align

by Isabelle Richards

  We’re huddled around the table, looking at Roger and Isla via Nigel’s laptop, and going over contingency plans. Nigel has really thought of and prepared for everything. A multi-day stand-off, tornado, nuclear fallout, Nigel’s got a plan for it. Max will be taking point at the location where Rafa will bring Arrow, and Isla takes issue with everything Max says. After twenty minutes of listening to the two of them argue about what to do in the unlikely event of Rafa showing up in a tank armed with shoulder missile launchers, I casually check my phone. I missed a text from Em.

  E: Come down to room 305

  L: At the Mandarin?

  E: Nah. By the time I made it back downstairs, my car was gone. I didn’t feel like waiting for another one, so I just stayed here.

  L: I’ll be right down.

  I kiss Gavin’s cheek and whisper, “I’m going to sneak out.”

  “You shouldn’t go anywhere alone. I’ll go with you,” he replies.

  “Em’s staying downstairs. I doubt I’ll run into any cartel members between here and the third floor.” I nod toward the computer. “Take notes for me?”

  He winks. “I’ll text you when they get to the alien invasion plan. You won’t want to miss that one. Now get out of here. I’ll cover for you.”

  Max starts screaming about fire safety protocols, and I take my opportunity to slip out.

  Em answers the door dressed in her lululemon workout garb. Her hair isn’t done and her eyes are puffy, as though she’s been up all night. “Hey.” She moves aside so I can come in.

  I walk past her and catch my toe on her pile of luggage by the door. Only Em needs five bags for three days of travel. “Going somewhere?”

  “Home.” She looks at her watch. “My car will be here in an hour and I still need to shower, so this will have to be a quick good-bye.”

  I take a whiff of her then gag. “Yeah, you do. I’m not sure an hour will be enough for that stank.”

  She unscrews the cap on a bottle of mineral water then takes a sip. “I spent all morning in that spin class I used to drag you to.”

  I wince at the memory. “The one with the sadistic teacher who won’t stop until everyone is crying?”

  “Yup, that’s the one. I was trying to peddle out my frustrations.” She holds up three fingers. “Three hours of spin, and I’m just as pissed as I was last night. Maybe more!” She sits next to me.

  “You want to talk about it?” I ask.

  She grimaces as though I asked her if she would like me to shave her head and put a bar in her nose.

  “You might feel better,” I say.

  “I tried to talk to him, but he flipped his shit on me and called me every name in the book.” She throws her hands in the air. “He slut-shamed me for almost an hour and I just sat there and took it! Do you know why?” When I don’t respond, she glares at me.

  “Why?” I ask.

  “Because some part of me believed him. My approach to relationships, the way I treat men, especially the way I treated him at my house that morning, is despicable and I felt bad, so I let him hack away at me Wolverine-style. I left London feeling like garbage. I was reevaluating my whole life, questioning every move, every choice. It was like I’d ordered a super-sized value meal of self-doubt with an extra side of horrendous guilt. I let it eat at me. I come here ready to make amends, and what do I find?”

  She glares at me again, and this time, I know it’s not a rhetorical question. “What?” I ask even though I know the answer.

  “Him fucking someone on your balcony.” She tugs the throw pillow from behind her and hurls it at the door. “God! I hate him!”

  Shocked by her behavior, I raise my eyebrows.

  “Don’t look at me like that!” She points at me. “This is all your fault! You made it sound so easy! All I had to do was be honest and talk to him. I thought I’d say, ‘How about we give this a try?’ and he’d jump at the chance. You never said he’d be harboring all this resentment and anger.”

  “That’s not exactly how I remember our conversation going. And he’s hurt. Did you really expect him to be on board just because you decided you were?”

  “But how hurt can he be if he’s already schtupping Jennifer Lopez up there? He certainly didn’t look very hurt.”

  I point at the ceiling. “That was Sabrina, and Jennifer Lopez she is not.”

  “Sabrina,” she snarls.

  Again, I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place. I have no idea how to help them. They’re too screwed up to be helped. I squeeze her hand. “He cares about you—more than he wants to admit. And you care for him more than you want to admit. Unless you’re both willing to start admitting that, you’re destined to hurt each other. It’s time for both of you to fish or cut bait.”

  She waves dismissively. “Consider my bait cut. I tried talking to him, which was a gargantuan step for me, and it blew up in my face. While I admit I still have a lot of evolving to do, I’m not ready to take another step, and even if I were, it wouldn’t be with him.” She pulls the pillow out from behind me and throws it at the door.

  I point at the door. “You know he’s upstairs and not hiding in the hallway? Throwing the pillows at the door does nothing.”

  She flips me off, then the alarm on her phone chimes. “Look at that—time’s up. It’s time for you to go. I have a plane to catch.” She stands and motions for me to get up. “Come on. You’re running off to play Nancy Drew, and I need to hug you.” Once I stand, she pulls me tight against her. “Come home safe. I don’t care if you catch the bad guy or not. You just come home safe.”

  “I promise,” I whisper.

  “No more dying. I can’t go through that again.” Her alarm dings again, and she pulls back, trying to cover up the fact that she’s wiping away tears. “I’ve got to get in the shower, so I’ll see you, okay?”

  I blow her a kiss as I walk to the door. “Bye, Em,” I say, but the bathroom door is already closed.

  I opt for the stairs rather than the elevator and jog up the two flights. When I open the door to our room, Green, Sully, Gavin, and Max are shouting at each other.

  “Another boxing match?” I ask as I close the door.

  They all stop talking and stare at each other, then stare at me, then back at each other. It amazes me that these guys work undercover. They couldn’t be more obvious if they tried.

  I cross my arms. “So this is about me, I take it?”

  Gavin’s phone rings. He looks at the screen then holds it up. “Office. I have to take this.” He points at Max. “You know where I stand.” Gavin disappears into the bedroom.

  I say, “So…”

  “It was MMA, not boxing. The two are totally different,” Max retorts, trying to look casual and failing miserably.

  I pick up a bottle of water from the table. “Your deflection only confirms something’s going on.” I sit at the table across from Max. “You might as well tell me now.”

  Sully leans back in his chair. “We’re just talking about the fact that you’ve brought dirty agents into my clean investigation.”

  I wince. “Oh. That.”

  Greene and Sully are good agents. They follow the rules, and they feel that carrying a badge is an honor and privilege that should be respected. I worried about how they’d feel if they knew about this arrangement, but not enough to alter the plans. Plus, with all the agents the mob guys have been paying off and the agents D’ante’s been paying off, I’m starting to wonder if anyone in the FBI isn’t on the take.

  Feeling guilty and stupid for thinking I could keep this from them, I cover my face with my hands. “You knew?”

  Greene and Sully look at me as if I’m crazy.

  “We’re dumb, but we’re not stupid,” Greene says with a laugh.

  I fan my fingers, looking at them through the gaps. “Are you still on board?”

  “We want this cartel to go down,” Sully replies, peeling the wrapper off of a blueberry muffin. “If we need to play with the smelly kids in class to
do it, so be it.”

  What a huge relief! I’m so happy that it’s all out in the open, and now that we’re on the same page, I ask something that’s been weighing on my mind. “I was thinking about that. How do we know whoever the mole is won’t tip Rafa off? If Rafa finds out, he’ll come prepared, and it’ll be a bloodbath. Think Kill Bill. Think Dawn of the Dead. Think Django Unchained. In fact, just think of any Tarantino film.”

  “Dawn of the Dead isn’t Tarantino,” Max says.

  I crumple a napkin and throw it at him. “Not the point.”

  “Only the agents involved and the director of the FBI knows about our plan, and he’s one hundred percent on board if you know what I mean.” Max takes a bite of his bagel sandwich, lox falling out the back.

  I point at him. “I think that cream cheese has been sitting out for hours. The lox too.”

  He pats his stomach with his free hand. “Gut of steel right here.”

  I roll my eyes. “Thank god there’s more than one bathroom.” I look at Sully and Greene. “You’re not worried?”

  Greene shrugs. “No more than any other mission.”

  I lean forward on my elbows. “How do we know someone isn’t on both payrolls? You know, double-dipping, playing for both teams?”

  Sully pops the rest of the muffin in his mouth. “They’d be fucking stupid if they were. Going against the mob would be signing their death certificate. I don’t trust these guys Gio knows as far as I can throw them, but I don’t see them double-crossing anyone on this mission. Not if they want to make it out alive. Some of the agents Gio’s got on the payroll are in real deep with the mob, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they have orders to eliminate anyone who gets in the way.”

  “No way!” I say, shaking my head. “I can’t believe an agent would turn on another agent like that.”

  “Come on, Lil. You’ve been at this for how long and you’re still questioning the lengths people will go to protect themselves?” Max says, wiping cream cheese from his mouth. “But I don’t think it’ll be a problem. Thanks to the wiretaps, we know just about everyone who’s on the cartel payroll, and there’s no crossover.”

  “I remember you saying you were working on a list. How’d you figure it out?” I ask. “It’s not like you can put out a survey, ‘Are you a corrupt agent?’” He laughs, and it occurs to me that he might actually do something that stupid. “You didn’t do that, right?”

  He shakes his head. “No. Remember those files we found in the safety deposit box?”

  Tapping my fingers on the table, I try to recall. “When we were looking for the money?”

  He points his finger at his nose as he takes a sip of water.

  “Oh, yeah. I totally forgot about those,” I reply.

  “Between those and a box of files we found buried in Ash’s office, I had a long list of agents.” He screws the cap back onto his water. “Then I went through each investigation and pin-pointed where things had been shut down and cross-referenced it with that list. It lined up perfectly.”

  “I didn’t know you’d found more,” I reply.

  “Yeah. We found a floor safe in his office. Under a rug under that big heavy desk. We only found it by accident, actually. An agent tripped on the crack in the floor.”

  “Oh good, you told her,” Gavin says as he comes out of the bedroom. He kisses me. “Are you okay?”

  I furrow my brow. “With the files?” He nods, and I reply, “Yeah, sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  He glares at Max. “So you didn’t tell her?”

  Max clears his throat. “There’s nothing to tell,” he says through gritted teeth.

  Greene picks up his plate and gets up from the table. “I need to be anywhere but here.”

  Sully follows him to the living room. “Me too.”

  Max glares at Gavin. “This was my call.”

  Gavin smiles. “Not anymore. Cat’s out of the bag now, isn’t it?”

  Pissed off that I’m being discussed as though I’m not here, I slap the table. “Someone tell me what the hell you’re talking about!”

  Gavin moves Greene’s chair closer to me then takes my hand. “In the files, Max found something addressed to you.”

  I look at Max. “Me? I didn’t even know about the files. Why would there be something for me in there?”

  Max scratches the back of his neck and glares at Gavin. “You’re a real asshole, you know that?”

  “But at least I’m honest,” Gavin snaps.

  I snap my fingers in front of Max’s face. “Hey, I’m over here. What did you find?”

  He places his palms on the table and pushes himself up then walks to his room.

  I turn to Gavin. “What the hell is going on here?”

  “I just found out myself, otherwise I would have told you,” he replies.

  “Can we please stop talking in code?” I shout. “What the fuck did he find?”

  “This,” Max says, walking back holding an envelope. He places it on the table in front of me.

  After opening the envelope, I slide out a letter then unfold the first third of the paper. When I see the handwriting, I drop it as though it’s on fire. Confused, I look at Max. “You found this in the safe?”

  He nods. “Yeah.” He pats my shoulder. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

  I’m not sure I need privacy. Hell, I’m not sure I even want to read it. I stare at the folded letter and debate shredding it to pieces. But eventually, curiosity gets the better of me. I open the letter and read the familiar script.

  Halo,

  If you’re reading this, I fucked up. Well, I already know I fucked up, so I guess I should say if you’re reading this, I got caught fucking up. I got in over my head, like I always do. Instead of getting out, I just kept betting down. Double or nothing. You always told me that was a sucker bet, and I’d tell you I’m no sucker. Well, seems that was one more thing I was wrong about.

  I’m not just in over my head this time. I’ve jumped into a lion’s den filled with starving lions with steaks stuffed in my pockets. The only way out now is a miracle, and I’m not holding my breath for one of those.

  My biggest fuck up isn’t just that I’m in trouble. I’ve drug you into it with me. If something happens to me, they’ll be coming after you. You need to run. Change your name, run, and never look back. I stashed a ton of money in the filter room. Use it to start a new life. The files in this safe are your ace in the hole. They don’t know I have them, and these files will bring them to their knees.

  You can’t trust anyone. Not the cops or the Feds. They’re all corrupt. Leak the files to the press then run as fast and as far as you can.

  I know you won’t believe me, but I do love you. I might not act like it. I know I’m a selfish, immature prick and I treat you like crap. You deserve so much better than me, but I’m too greedy to let you go. When I met you, I knew you were everything I would want in the future. There was no way you’d still be around when I was ready, so I tied you down. I knew you’d never leave my dad, and I milked it for all it was worth. I tried to have my cake and eat it too, figuring I’d make it up to you when I was ready to grow up and stop fucking around.

  The deeper I got into this mess, the more I pushed you away. Not just because I wasn’t ready to settle down, but because I needed to keep you out of this. If they thought you mattered to me, they would have used you to get to me, and I couldn’t risk that. I’d put you through so much already.

  I had a five-year plan. Five years, twenty mil, and we’d disappear. I’d grow the hell up and finally treat you like you deserve. But if you’re reading this, that’s never going to happen.

  I’m so sorry, Halo.

  Ash

  Biting my lip, I refold the letter and slide it back into the envelope. I push back from the table. “I think I need some air.”

  I hear Gavin calling to me as I walk onto the patio, but I don’t turn around. Fluffy snowflakes sprinkle from the sky when I step onto the terrace. I thought it
would be warmer today—yet another unexpected twist.

  Snowflakes get stuck in my eyelashes as I look at the sky. “Got anything else you want to throw my way? It’s early afternoon, so there’s still plenty of time for you throw another curveball or two. Maybe Greene’s really the mole? Or Sully’s really a woman? Oh, I know! I’m still in a coma, and this has been a manifestation of my subconscious. I’m going to wake up and Gavin will still be MIA and Lorenzo and Carlos are still alive. Am I close?”

  “You know talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity,” Max says from the sliding glass door.

  A maniacal laugh comes from deep within me. “I’m long past insanity.”

  He walks across the balcony and leans against the railing.

  “I bet you a million dollars that if you test that letter, there’s MDMA all over it,” I say. “He got sappy when he snorted it.”

  He wraps his jacket around my shoulders. “Do you want me to have it tested?”

  “I don’t need you to.” I point inside. “That drivel is nothing but drug-induced bullshit. He got high one night and got sentimental. I can promise you in the sober light of day, he didn’t mean a goddamn word of that.”

  “Would it matter if he did?” he asks.

  “He didn’t write that for me,” I snap. “He wrote it to ease his own conscious. He knew he was fucked and wanted to tell himself he was doing the right thing. If I meant so much to him, why would he leave it somewhere I didn’t even know existed? I had no idea there was a floor safe in his office. I never would have looked there!” I look down and scream, “You have to actually set the plan in motion for it to count, fucktard!”

  “This is why I didn’t want to give it to you,” Max says, wiping snow off my face. “I figured it would only confuse you. You’ve got enough going on.”

  I punch his arm. “You have no right to keep things from me. I’m a big girl who can make her own decisions. I don’t need you to protect me.”

  He rubs his bicep. “I always forget how hard you punch.”

  I punch him again. “You’d better remember next time!”

  “I’ll try,” he says with a smile. “Answer me this, and then we don’t have to talk about it anymore. Halo?”