by C. S. Starr
“Can we go to San Fran soon?” she asked, after her body stopped vibrating from his attentions. “I want to see some of my friends.”
“Your dorky math camp friends?” Juan joked. “Sure, Baby. Whenever you want. Not today though, because Connor’s coming over.”
She gave him a bright grin. “Why are you still working for Connor?”
“Because he pays well, and it’s easy.” He pulled the blanket up and looked at her body. “Your boobs are getting bigger.”
“They hurt lately,” she said with a shrug. “I read that can happen when you’re pregnant so it’s a good thing we’re not having sex or I’d be freaking out.”
“Me too,” he agreed. “This girl I grew up with just had a baby and she almost died. Someone had to learn how to stitch—”
“Stop,” Rika cringed. “Don’t. We both know what happens.”
“Someday I want you to have my babies. When we’re much older.”
“How many?”
“Two,” he said, pulling her on top of him.
“How about one?”
“You hated being an only child. Two, at least. Maybe three or four. Maybe I’ll shackle you to the bed and we’ll have twenty.”
She rolled her eyes. “Two, maybe.” Her mouth met his and she slid her tongue ring along the roof of his mouth. “All those kids and I won’t have much time to put my other talents to use.”
“Two’s great,” he chuckled. “Someday I’ll stop working for Connor. Someone will take him out and everything will change.”
Rika nodded, nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck. “Hopefully for the better, because it can’t get much worse than those shitty movies he’s making. Maybe we should—”
They both jumped when the doorbell rang, quickly dressing to meet their dinner guest. Rika rolled her eyes as Juan opened the door and greeted his boss with a hearty handshake.
“Great place,” Connor said, looking around their large living room. “Rika, how are you?”
“Fine,” she said, putting on a smile. She didn’t like Connor. She thought he was a self-centered egomaniac, and he always looked at her like he felt sorry for her, which was infuriating. “I’m…I’ll go start dinner.”
She listened from the kitchen as Connor berated Juan about them moving into the house
“…I just think you’d be better off in your parent’s house, you know? More comfortable.”
“I’m pretty comfortable here,” Juan replied abruptly. “Just because I couldn’t have lived here before doesn’t mean I shouldn’t now.”
“You don’t feel like a fraud?”
“Nope,” he said with a shrug. “No more than you should, since you didn’t exactly earn the money for your parents’ house.”
Rika couldn’t help but interrupt. “You’re really putting that class shit on us? There’s no one to live in these houses. We had to bury the guy that was here and fucking fumigate the place.” Rika cringed at the corpse that had been in the back yard under a tarp when she’d first started coming over. “Besides, my parents lived in a house a lot like this, and your dad hadn’t done a good movie in almost a decade. If you want to start comparing bankbooks, I’m game.”
Connor looked taken aback by her forwardness. “Well, aren’t you a firecracker.”
“Aren’t you an asshole,” she muttered, making her way back into the kitchen.
“That’s my girl,” Juan said brightly, without a hint of an apology.
Rika waited for Connor’s response, but instead of replying or commenting, he changed the subject and turned his attention to Juan.
“So, how’s the flying going?”
November 2012
Los Angeles, West
Lucy kissed Tal’s cheek before slipping out of the bedroom and making her way downstairs and out into the backyard. She needed a few minutes to think before the emotionally charged situation she knew she was bound to find herself in once Bull and Zoey arrived. She’d insinuated her breakup with Zoey to Tal, more than once. Unless Lucy’s silence and comatose state had somehow convinced her otherwise, Zoey thought they were still together. Struggling, but together.
She knew Bull was unlikely to tell Zoey otherwise, even after their dream conversation. He usually wasn’t one to interfere in her relationships, not since they were fourteen, when Lucy had taken the competition factor out and decided that she liked women exclusively.
All bets were off now, however, since he’d caught a glimpse of her interest in Tal. She’d seen the early indications of that when they’d been in Grove.
Tal’s backyard was a masterpiece in urban gardening, nearly every inch of it covered in something useful and mostly edible. She assumed it was Leah’s handiwork. She stretched out on a lounger and looked over the pool.
They came from very different worlds.
The patio door slid open. “I made coffee,” Leah said, raising her eyebrows at the intruder in her sanctuary. “There’s enough for you, but Tal will have to make his own.”
“Thanks,” Lucy replied, wrapping her sweater around her. “That’s really nice.”
“I made it anyway,” she said with a shrug. “No big deal.”
“You and him are close,” Lucy said, looking at her. “I know that.”
“You seem to think you know a lot more than you do,” Leah replied, her brow furrowed. “You come in here, and you think that a week in the woods together makes you an expert on him.”
“He saved my life out there.” Lucy neglected to mention how he’d aided her much more recently than that.
Leah crossed her arms and frowned. “So repay your debt and help us with Connor, then leave.”
“I’m not here to stay. I have this little territory called Campbell? Perhaps you’ve heard of it?” Lucy raised her eyebrows. “It’s straddles your measly little universe.”
She turned and went inside, closing the door behind her. A minute later, a large cup of coffee was deposited on the table beside the lounger.
“I’m sorry about your brother,” she muttered. “I lost my sister in the early days.”
Tal’s cousin, Lucy remembered. “He was my twin.” She squeezed her eyes shut but a defiant tear escaped. “How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Get up in the morning. Breathe.”
Leah sat on the edge of her lounger and clutched her mother’s coffee mug. “I think about her every day; what she’d be like, what she’d look like. I imagine how life would be different, and then I remember how important it is to live, for her.”
“And the boy who killed her? What about him?”
Leah’s expression changed, and Lucy realized that she had completely disregarded her as an intelligent woman, because it was easier to see her as a sniveling, whiny girl. “He’s got a kid now. I check in on him now and then. Make sure it mattered to him, what he did. If it hadn’t?” She shrugged. “His life would have been different. It would have been shorter.”
“What if Connor did take Tal? He could have—”
Leah leaned in. “Why do you think I slept with him? Do you think I had some illusions of grandeur with that little shit? That I thought I needed him to live? Gaining someone’s confidence after a lifetime of disdain has its price.”
“So you knew? You know.”
She raised her eyebrows. “I didn’t know what it all meant then. I know more than I want to, but exactly what I need to. He blamed it all on you, you know. To justify it. Why it happened.”
“Where’s my brother?” Lucy whispered, her heart pounding.
“I don’t know,” Leah replied honestly. “But I can show you where he died.”
***
When Tal woke up later that morning, it was to the phone beside the bed ringing. He hadn’t meant to stay with Lucy, but he’d fallen asleep and the prospect of moving and waking up alone had kept him in place. She was gone, a rumpled blanket in her place. She hadn’t cried until she was moments from falling asleep, and she’d tried to hide it f
rom him but he’d known right away, and when she’d buried her face in his chest and fallen asleep, after murmuring ‘thanks’, he’d never felt more useful.
The more Lucy talked about Cole, the angrier he was at Connor, and not just because Lucy was upset. Cole was, as far as Tal was concerned, an innocent in a game he’d never been good at. Connor had, knowingly or not, unleashed the beast that was Andrew Campbell, and that was, from what Lucy had told Tal, a grave mistake.
“Hello?” he answered gruffly, rubbing his face to wake up.
“All’s good on the eastern front,” Connor said brightly. “Good morning, sunshine.”
“Hey, buddy,” Tal said, rolling his eyes at his phone. “What’s up?”
“How’s Rika?” he asked suggestively.
“What…oh,” Tal rolled his eyes. “She’s great. I…should have got to know her a long time ago.”
“That tongue ring always made me curious. There’s only one reason a woman—”
Tal laughed to shut him up. “Come on. It’s not like that.”
“You always did see yourself as more of a lover than a fucker, Bauman. So here’s the deal. I need you to release a hundred grand. We’re trying to buy some support and everyone in Phoenix seems to need a kitchen appliance of some sort.”
It was the call Tal expected, with an extra dose of bullshit.
“No,” he said, smiling to himself as he said it. He knew this conversation should have happened years earlier.
“Ha ha,” Connor laughed. “I’m going to send someone over for it. We’ll need cash. You get a better deal if you pay—”
“I mean it. No.”
“What the fuck, man?”
“I’m cutting you off. This is it.”
“You’re cutting me off? It’s my—”
“It belongs to the kids of West. It’s not yours. I don’t think this is a good use of it.” It felt incredibly good to finally put it out there. “No.”
“You don’t think that defending ourselves is a good use of money?” Connor shouted through the phone. Tal bit his tongue and reminded himself that he didn’t want Connor to know that he knew who was likely responsible for their kidnapping, which had most certainly not been a good use of money.
“It’s not happening, Connor. You’ve asked for a half a million dollars this week. There are hungry kids out there. Cut your losses.”
“A week with that fucking communist bitch and you think—”
Tal knew he’d make it about Lucy. “I’ve thought about this for a long time. There are better ways for us to operate—”
“You’re done,” Connor said with finality. “You’re done here.”
The line went dead and Tal pulled himself out of bed, knowing that it would take at least a day for Connor to make good on his threat. It wasn’t much time, but it would have to do. He dressed and bounded down the stairs, but found the house empty. A short note on the kitchen table explained.
Gone to the office with Lucy. Back later.
Under different circumstances, Tal would have found himself refreshed by Leah’s note and pleased that they were both making an effort to get to know one another. However, he doubted that was the case, and the unknown reasons for them going anywhere together made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He wasn’t left with much time to work through his concerns, however, as a loud knock on the door drew his attention. He looked through the peephole to see Bull staring in at him.
“We’re fucking exhausted. Open the door.”
Tal did, and he and Zoey, bags in hand, staggered into the foyer.
“Where are we sleeping? We almost got creamed by some sort of fruit truck ten minutes ago because I was half asleep. We need to rest,” Bull said, flopping down on the couch.
“We’re dethroning Connor. Soon,” Tal said, avoiding eye contact with Zoey. “Probably in the next day or so.”
“Do you have your proof?”
“Nope, but we don’t have time for that. He’s out, Rika and I are in.”
“Who?”
“My second.
“Tal, where’s your bathroom?” Zoey asked quietly, her eyes dark as she peered around his house.
“There’s one just down the hall, second door,” Tal replied.
When she vanished and closed the door, Bull’s expression darkened. “Where’s Lucy?”
“She’s out with my cousin.”
Bull raised his voice, and Tal knew he had the same concerns that he did. “Why is she out with your cousin?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Tal said, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his pyjama pants. “I woke up and found a note saying they were out. At my office. I can call there. I have to go to Rika’s house to finalize a plan for this Connor thing—”
The look on Bull’s face was not reassuring. “You need to calm down and think here. Do you trust your cousin?”
A calmness came over Tal, as he realized with certainty that he did trust Leah. “Yes.”
“Why would she take Lucy to your office?”
Tal reached for the phone and dialed the studio. No one answered. He wasn’t surprised. “I don’t know. Lucy’s an adult—”
“Lucy’s had a mental breakdown. She’s not exactly in the right mindset to be making good decisions. Get me a coffee, and we’ll go find them.”
“What’s going on?” Zoey emerged from the bathroom rubbing her eyes.
“Zoey, go get some sleep. I’m going to…Tal and I have some things to do,” Bull said gently.
“There’s a room off the pool, down the hall. You can sleep there,” Tal said, as he grabbed her bag and led her there. She looked relieved when she saw the bed.
“I…I’m not used to Bull’s hours,” she admitted. “And I’m a little homesick. I just…I just need a nap.”
Tal nodded, feeling her exhaustion in his bones. “We’ll wake you up in a bit.”
He closed the door, and immediately the phone started ringing.
“Tal, someone came for us,” Rika said, her voice clear. “Now, we shot them—”
“Come over here, please,” Tal said, hoping his voice echoed her calm tone. “We need to move fast.”
“On our way.”
Tal started the coffee and shook his head at Bull, who had his coat on, ready to go.
“Can’t go now. Lucy and Leah, they’re on their own—” He ducked as a window smashed. “You good with a gun?”
“We can’t just leave her—”
“She’s tougher than you think. Leah’s tougher than I think. They’ll be fine.” Tal nodded towards his father’s office. “Wherever they are, it’s probably safer than here.”
Bull begrudgingly followed Tal into his office, and his eyes went wide as a bookcase was pushed aside and to reveal a rather extensive gun collection.
“This used to be a wine cellar,” he noted. “I don’t really like wine.”
“What’s happening here?”
“I cut Connor off financially about an hour ago, and he told me I’m out. I assume he’s going to try and kill me so I don’t continue to be a problem.” Tal spoke with a calm decisiveness he wasn’t sure he had in him.
“Oh.” Bull eyed a large assault rifle. “So you like guns, huh?”
“I hate guns. I hate them more than anything except dying.” Tal reached for a revolver. “Which I’m not prepared to do right now.”
“I’ll take the closest thing you have to a hunting rifle,” Bull announced. “And if anything happens to Lucy, I’m going to shoot you with it as soon as we’re done. Somewhere painful.”
Rika, flanked by seven of the biggest kids Bull had ever seen, arrived about ten minutes later, her young children in tow.
“Where’s the safest place for them?” she asked, a frown on her face. “I should have gone to San Fran this morning, Tal.”
“We probably all should have,” he admitted. “But this will be over quickly.”
“One way or another,” Rika grumbled, looking around, her eyes set
tling on the broad man posing with an assault rifle. “Who’s that?”
“That’s Lucy’s second, Bull.” Tal smiled at her kids. “Can you girls be quiet?”
They both nodded.
“They can go with Zoey, Lucy’s—”
“Girlfriend,” Bull declared, shooting Tal a dark look. “She’s sleeping down the hall.”
Rika nodded and took them out of the room, leaving Tal alone with more testosterone than he’d ever encountered in one place.
“So we need a plan,” he told them. “We need to take Connor down.”
One of the kids, who made Bull look like Tal in comparison, said gruffly, “You think he’s coming here?”
“I think he’d want to make sure the job is done,” Tal replied.
Rika’s companion nodded. “Then you find out where he’s landing, and you get there. Fast.”
“I’ll go,” Bull said. “I want to do it.”
“Get in line,” another of Rika’s companions said. “Juan was like a brother to me—”
“He almost killed the most important person in my life,” Bull roared.
“Can we not fight about this?” Rika said, more gently than most in her position would have. “First, we need to take him out, and then we can decide who he fucked up worse.”
Tal glanced at himself in the mirror by the door. All the memories of his father preparing for his own death flooded back. The canned goods that had lasted over seven years. The gold from the safety deposit box. The two months he’d spent meticulously teaching Tal and his brothers the lessons that should have taken a decade to properly be absorbed.
Always trust your gut.
“Bull, you and two of the Mexicans go.” Tal said authoritatively to the crew Rika had brought with her. “You have two seconds to decide who. Rika, go get a gun, and call who you need to call to take the phone lines down. I don’t want him being able to call anyone.”
She nodded and vanished to Tal’s office, and he turned to face Bull and the two largest, angriest looking kids from Rika’s group.
“You’re going to Van Nuys airport. Don’t take a direct route, shoot first and ask questions later. Do not shoot Connor. Fatally.”
