Needs, Wants and Other Weaknesses (The New Pioneers Book 6)

by Nam-Krane,Deborah

  “Don’t talk like that, Mari,” Hannah admonished softly. “You are walking out of this room with Josh, and you are going to raise my niece in that place in Back Bay. I stayed there all these years in case you could get away before I could find you.”

  “And that’s why I stayed in Wakefield.” Josh stood on the other side of Mariela’s bed. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you coming there and my idiot parents turning you away.”

  “Josh,” Mariela whispered. Hannah let go of her fingers. Josh took both of Mariela’s hands. “Did you see her?”

  “She’s as pretty and sweet as her mother,” Josh said as he stroked her face.

  Mariela shook her head. “No. She’s as smart and brave and strong as her aunt and father.”

  Josh kissed her on the forehead. “You’re the one who’s strong, and I don’t want to hear anything about you not leaving with me. I have been waiting a lifetime for you to come back to me.”

  Robert stepped forward. “Mariela? I’m Detective Teague. I wanted to let you know that we arrested the woman who took your daughter. Everyone from the mayor’s office down wants to see her put away for what she did to you and your family.” He cleared his throat. “We’re going to need to ask you some important questions, so let’s not hear anything more about you not making it through, alright?”

  A tear rolled down the side of Mariela’s face. “I remember you from the warehouse,” she said at last. “Thank you.”

  Robert smiled. “Don’t thank me. I wouldn’t have been anywhere near this if it hadn’t been for Hannah.”

  Mariela smiled at her friend. “You look very tired, old friend. If you want me to get better, you go get some rest so I don’t have to worry about you.”

  ~~~

  It was ten before Hannah was convinced to leave the hospital. "Get some rest," Josh finally said. "You've been up a while."

  "You'll call me...?"

  "Yes," he said, but he didn't look at her. "I’ve got to get back to Mari, okay?" Hannah sighed as he turned away.

  "Drop me off at the train station," Hannah said to Robert as soon as they were in his car.

  He looked ahead. "I'm taking you home."

  "I don't want to go back there. It was never home. I was just holding it for them, and now that they're here, it's really not mine. And don't tell me I earned it because we both know I didn't. And I don’t want to go back to Dorchester because I can’t deal with Asif or Maria right now. So take me back to the train station and I'll find somewhere else to stay tonight."

  Robert drove past the train station. "Sleep at my place."

  "Don't be stupid."

  "Baptiste's going to agree that you need a babysitter tonight."

  "Great. Where does he live?"

  Hannah called the Grahams when they arrived at Robert’s apartment. "I'm sorry to call so late—"

  "Don't worry about it," Emily said gently. "Hellie and Mariana have been watching movies and eating popcorn for the last four hours. We're not going to sleep any time soon."

  "Emily seems nice," Hannah said as Robert handed her a glass of water.

  "Yeah, she's a good mom," Robert managed after he stopped himself from dropping the glass.

  "Yeah...so why does she hate you?"

  "Who said she hated me?"

  "Your face when she opened the door, and the way she looked at you. That and the fact that she wouldn't let you in her house."

  Robert took a swig of his beer. "She was part of an investigation I conducted a few years ago."

  "She was a suspect?"

  "No."

  "She was a witness."

  "No, not really."

  "She was the victim?"

  "No."

  Hannah frowned. "So how was she involved?"

  "She...um...I met her when I went undercover."

  Hannah grinned. "And she made you."

  "Not exactly," he said after he had another swig. "But she knew I wasn't who I said I was."

  "She knew you weren't who you said you were but she didn't know you were a cop?"

  Robert strummed the armrest with his fingers. "She didn't care," he said finally. "She just wanted me to go away."

  "And you didn't. Why?"

  "I was working a case."

  "No, I mean why did she want you to go away?"

  "Because she's a busybody."

  Hannah shook her head. "No, that's not it," she said slowly. "She agreed to take in a little girl she'd never met today. She's protective. She was protecting someone. Ah!" Hannah grinned. "So was she close to the pharmacist or the schoolgirl?"

  Robert felt his face getting warm and told himself it was the beer, even though beer never did that to him. "It's a little more complicated than that."

  Hannah couldn't stop giggling. "She and Mitch must be very nice people if they took any of your calls after that." She made herself stop after a minute. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

  "I'm just remembering something someone said about you."

  Hannah threw her head back. "Can we talk about people who don't like you some more? If I wanted to be reminded of how much people don't like me, I'd have stayed with Josh."

  Robert moved closer to her and rested his cheek on his fist. "Why can't Josh stand you?"

  Hannah stared at the ceiling. "You're the detective; you tell me."

  "He blames you for what happened to Mariela."

  "Wrong," she whispered. "He blames himself. If he hadn't placed that call to Mariela, if he had gotten to Maria first, if he hadn't been worried about me..."

  "Then none of this would have happened? That's crazy. And he stayed with your parents all this time?"

  Hannah pulled her head up and turned to lean on her side. Robert could see that she was tired. "Josh says he stayed because he wanted Mariela to find him, but that's only part of it. He stayed because he was worried something would happen to Jerry and Meg if he left. And he's right. They didn't have to pay for their house, but there were some weeks they wouldn't have eaten if Josh hadn't been there to buy them groceries. Me, I would have let them rot."

  "I don't think that's true."

  "I don't feel sorry for them anymore. They're just two more people who are taking up more space than they should be."

  "I don't think you mean that," Robert said softly.

  "They're not family," Hannah said, swallowing. "Mariana isn't going to go anywhere near them."

  "How did you know?"

  "That they were bad people?"

  "That Mariela was pregnant with a girl."

  Hannah sat up and looked down at the floor. "Maria sent us a message."

  Robert moved closer to her. "Someone smuggled something out? Is that why she was—"

  She bit her lip. "No," she whispered. "She sent us a message as she was dying." Her eyes welled up again. "When they found her...body...there were cuts on it. I hacked into the system and got a look. They didn't know what it was, but once I turned it upside down..." She sniffled. "You know the sign for the planet Venus? They used to call it 'Venus' Hand Mirror.' It's also the sign for ‘woman.’ Maria had scratched that into her skin as she was dying." She sobbed. "Because she knew that Josh and I were still looking, and even if we couldn't find her in time, we'd find them."

  "Hannah," Robert whispered. He gingerly put his hand on her back. "No one should see that."

  "Josh didn't talk to me for over a year after that. I don't blame him."

  "Josh was a kid, too."

  Hannah smiled at Robert. "We're not kids anymore."

  "I guess not," Robert said, gently moving her hair out of her face. "You're Guanyin."

  "I can't be in two places at once, and I can't hear everyone calling for help."

  "No, but at least you're listening."

  She swallowed. “There are some things you will never stop hearing.”

  He sighed. “Is that your way of saying you’re not done? Getting Mariela and her daughter back isn’t enough?”

  She bit the inside of he
r cheek. “If I’m not done,” she said a second later, “maybe it’s because someone else isn’t done.” She turned to face him. “Were you done after you cleared your father’s good name?”

  “For God sake,” Robert muttered as he pulled away.

  “Stop whining,” she snapped. “That’s not a secret and you didn’t do anything to hide it.”

  “Then you obviously know it’s more complicated.”

  “So why are you the only one allowed to be complicated? Because you have a badge? Or is it the gun?”

  “I got those so I could—” He stopped. “Oh, nice try, Ms. Bruges. But I can tell when you’re trying to distract me.”

  She shrugged. “You got so bent out of shape when it was sex, so—”

  “Was that really all it was?”

  “Sex? It wasn’t even sex, nothing happened.”

  “I mean,” he said, “was that really just you trying to distract me?”

  “Why don’t we find out?” she whispered as she put her hand on his leg.

  “If you insist.” He leaned in and kissed her. Her mouth was still as sweet and soft. His hand moved down her back and hers moved up his leg.

  She moved onto his lap and started unbuttoning his shirt. He broke off their kiss and grabbed her hand. "It's been a long day."

  "Then you'd better tuck me in soon." She kissed him again and he hungrily grabbed at her bra. He could give her only so many chances to stop.

  At two o'clock in the morning, she sleepily smiled while he nibbled on her skin. "Don't tell me later I tricked you into anything," she murmured as she stroked his back.

  "Poor innocent lamb that I am," he said as he kissed her.

  "You're much nicer than you think," she said as she wrapped her leg around him. "But your secret's safe with me."

  "Now what do I have to do to convince you otherwise?"

  "Let me see what I can come up with," she said as her hands moved down his hips.

  Epilogue

  Charlie Gavin pounded on the door at midnight. He was with his partner, Len Richards, the spokesman for the mayor’s office.

  “Jesus Christ, Charlie,” he heard David mutter as he undid the locks. “What is your problem?”

  Charlie took in David’s rumpled hair and unbuttoned shirt. “Good, Kasi needs to hear this too,” he said as he walked in.

  “Hi to you too, you son of a bitch,” David grumbled as Charlie walked by. “Oh good, Len’s here! This is going to be good.”

  “Charlie thought this could wait till dawn, but I didn’t think you’d thank us for letting you sleep in.”

  Kasi came out wearing an oversized white robe. “So out with it already,” she snapped.

  “I got a call from Justice an hour ago,” Charlie said. "Hilary Sayles made bail yesterday."

  "How is that possible?" David asked as Kasi gasped.

  "Someone got an emergency order from a federal judge last night to allow it."

  “And I had to make a couple of calls to DC to find out who,” Len said. “If I burned any favors, it was worth it.”

  “Who?” David asked, ready to explode.

  Charlie looked at Len, who nodded. “Alex Sheldon,” Charlie said. “The man, the myth, the demon.”

  David blinked as the color drained from Kasi’s face, but just once. He stood up tall. “Good,” he said. “Now we know where the son of a bitch is.”

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Robert Teague is a character that’s as much a part of my psyche as Miranda, Jessie, Lucy and even Alex Sheldon. After Let’s Move On I knew that Robert had more of a story, and what it was came together quickly as soon as the character Hannah Bruges came to me.

  I am fortunate enough that I have never had any dealings with this world…or have I? When I was twenty years old, a friend of mine who was active in Asian American issues in Boston told me about the ugly world of the wait staff in Boston’s Chinatown. Many people, I was told, not only didn’t get their tips but also didn’t get to keep the majority of their wages because they were paying their employers back for bringing them to this country. I was horrified then and disturbed two decades later to find that this practice was continuing if not getting worse, and by then I was aware that those people were just one part of a terrible story.

  “Human trafficking” had started to become a well-known phrase, sadly, and as I started writing this story I thought that was what I was writing. What concerned me, however, was that much of the attention around human trafficking tended to be on sex trafficking. While that is a big part of trafficking, it was only one part of my story (and by design, a small part). It’s fairer to say what I’m talking about in this novel is the garden variety human exploitation we’ve tolerated for a long time.

  This is one of the most sanitized stories about exploitation that you’re going to read, and that is by intent. I was only willing to touch so much of the people who look at other human beings as commodities or toys. Reality is both more mundane and much worse. If you, like early readers of this, are chilled by what I’ve written, know that it is only the tip of the iceberg.

  Hannah Bruges is the hero we wish there were more of. She was young enough when she was confronted by exploitation for the first time that she was still capable of empathy, compassion and a belief that she could make a difference, if only for one person. I can only hope the rest of us can believe that is possible as well.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I am indebted to Diantha Jones for referring me to her editor Mia Darien. May this be the beginning of a long relationship.

  Erin Cawood has been a rock of support for several years, and I’m thrilled that she’s designing my covers right now. Hannah may be the most difficult heroine to capture, but Erin got her essence perfectly.

  Caroline Fardig gave me valuable feedback on the manuscript (and the blurb!). Thanks most of all to her for her continued encouragement.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Deborah Nam-Krane is a writer in Boston-proper. The Smartest Girl in the Room and The Family You Choose were published in 2013, An Engagement (A New Pioneers Short Story), The China Doll and Let’s Move On in 2014, and The Art of the Next Best (A New Pioneers Short Story) and The Golden Boy Returns in 2016.

  In 2012 she wrote the History section of her sister Suzanne Nam’s Moon Thailand (Moon Handbooks).

  Please join her mail list to find out first about new releases and connect with Deborah on any of the following sites:

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  A book reviewer for Amazon for the last decade, she is grateful for all of the reader reviews she has received so far. If you enjoyed the book, please consider leaving a review on the retail site you purchased from, Goodreads, your blog or wherever you share your opinions.