The Company

by JA Huss

  “That makes no sense, Nick. Harper was under surveillance, so the Admiral always knew where she was. How come he didn’t just come take her?”

  “He was waiting for the file. Believe me, they looked for that fucker all year and couldn’t find it. I suppose that’s why they sent Tet in. And look what happened? That fucker got it.”

  “One got it.”

  “Yeah, but Tet would’ve had it if One hadn’t taken it. Harper walked right into his trap.”

  “You don’t like James, do you?”

  “It’s got nothing to do with liking him, Sash. It’s got everything to do with trusting him. And now we gotta go back and get that fucking file. And Harper. And don’t you think they know I’m coming now? I mean fuck, our birthday is only a few days away.”

  “What’s that got to do with it?” My mind is spinning. There is so much going on.

  “Never mind,” he says as he tries to lace our fingers together, but I pull my hand away before he can take it. “What the fuck?”

  “It’s not worth it,” I say.

  “What’s not worth it?”

  I nod my head in the direction of the cabin up the hill. “The fight you’ll have with Tet if you hold my hand.”

  Nick’s eyes shoot up to the top of the hill where Tet is standing with his arms crossed. “Fucking freak,” Nick says, blowing out a long puff of smoke.

  “Hey,” I say, nodding at his cigarette. “Can I bum one of those?”

  His eyes dart back to Tet, just a fraction of a second. But I see it. “You’re too young to smoke, kid.”

  That’s all I needed to know. “I was just messing with you.” I reach over and ruffle up his hair and he automatically dodges. I smile at him and he shoots me an uneasy one back. “Well, I’m going back in and see if Merc will teach me how to play Kumbaya on the guitar. Wanna come?”

  He glances up at Tet again and shakes his head. “When I’m done here.”

  “OK.” I hop down and swat the dirt off my butt as I walk back to the top of the hill. Tet turns and walks with me as we head back to the cabin together.

  “You hungry, Smurf?” James asks.

  “Starved.”

  “Me too.” And then he opens the back door and lets me walk through.

  Like I said. James is a dream in the partner department.

  It’s Tet you gotta worry about.

  Chapter Sixty-Three - Sasha

  We go back inside and Merc is sitting at the kitchen table smoking. That seems to be the thing to do when shit goes down. And now I really do want to learn to smoke but I have to settle for pulling out a butterscotch sucker from my pocket.

  The screen door in back slams and Nick follows us in.

  “Sasha,” he says. I turn reluctantly. I know that tone and it says I’m about to be in the middle of something.

  “What?”

  “Get your shit. We’re leaving.”

  “She’s not leaving with you,” Tet says. He grabs my hand in case I make a break for it.

  “Why, Tet? So you can keep using her the way you did Harper? So you can drag her into your insane revenge scheme? This shit is between you and One, man. Or you and my father. But I’m gonna say this one time. We’re leaving. I’m gonna go finish the job you didn’t, and then you’re gonna stay the fuck out of my life. You stay away from my sister and you stay away from my promise.” Nick points his finger at me and then his gaze follows. “Go get your stuff.” And then he pulls out a gun and points it at James. “Try and stop her.”

  “Nick,” I say.

  “I’m not gonna say it again, Sash. Now get what you need.”

  I look over at James but he’s got nothing to say to me. Not even a nod. So I do what I’m told. I go to the last bedroom, grab the pack I set on the floor earlier, and shrug it onto my back as I walk back out to the living room.

  “I’m going back to get her, Nick,” James is saying as I enter the room. He’s sitting down at the table next to Merc now, like those two haven’t a care in the world. Like Nick isn’t standing here in the living room with a gun. And I’m sure if they really wanted to fuck Nick up, he and Merc could do it. But Nick, no matter what he does, is part of the plan.

  “Look, asshole. You have no idea what you’re doing.”

  James nods with a smirk. “Right. I didn’t get this far by not understanding the game.”

  “Dude, they’re using you. And every time I hear about it, I think to myself, ‘Nah, Six is so much smarter than that.’ And then every time you fall for it. But this time, asshole—this time I’m all out of faith. I asked you to do one thing for me. Keep her out of it. And what do you do? You deliver her to the one person who will bring her into it.”

  “Bring her into it how?” Merc asks. “I mean, look, Nick, I’m the first to admit I have no clue what you people are doing. But we’ve been on the same side all year. So it’s better to work through the team problems than split up.”

  Nick points to me but he’s looking at Merc. “She’s not on the team, Merc. Yet here she is, fully planning on participating. And you know why?” He looks at James now. “Because this asshole wants to use her. Just like he uses all the people he drags into his schemes. And now Harper’s in it. Didn’t your father ever teach you anything, Tet? Women and children stay home.”

  “Yeah, so they can be sold. They’re commodities.”

  Nick actually nods at that. “Yeah, maybe that’s how I see them then. Investments. The future. So shoot me.”

  “We’ll meet you at the yacht,” James says casually.

  “She’s not on the yacht, you fuck. How many ways do I have to say it? You sent her back to the one person she should never see again. She’s as good as gone now. If I don’t get to her by next week, she’s as good as gone.”

  “So,” Merc says. “Let’s go get her now. It’s only been a couple days.”

  Nick’s eyes burn but his words are eerily calm now. “It’s too late. He gave her away by now.”

  “What?” James says, getting to his feet. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Last year, on our eighteenth birthday? That wasn’t the one.”

  “The one what?” Merc says, throwing his hands up. “Will you stop talking in fucking code? Just spit it out.”

  Nick looks at James for a long second. “He’s been using you, man. She’s been promised since she was six, all right. But it was never to you. And in a few days, when we turn nineteen, my father’s gonna make good on that promise.”

  “Where?” James seethes.

  “The Santa Barbara house. There’s gonna be a big party. Her promise, James. I gotta tell you—”

  And for a second I really think he will. I really think that Nick is gonna tell James the one thing he needs to know that he has no idea he needs to know. James feels it too. A shift in what’s happening here. A shift from potential to realized consequences.

  James takes a step forward but there’s a snapping sound and then he’s gone. Dropped down. Or hit. Bullets spray into the house. I scream and duck, but then someone has my hand and I’m dragged to the back of the house.

  Chapter Sixty-Four - Sasha

  “Sasha, run!” Nick is pulling me out the back door and we run so fast down the hill, I fall face first and roll. Nick scoops me up and carries me a few paces, then sets me down and runs again. No yelling this time, at least not for us. But behind us the gunfire is still rattling off. AK’s spitting out bullets.

  After a few minutes the gunfire stops. Nick pulls me down a ridge dotted with pine trees and then we both slip because the incline is so severe and we are a human landslide. Rocks and clumps of dirt splatter out in front of our boots and then we plop to the ground and keep running. There’s no trees here and Nick runs faster. “Hurry, Sash. Hurry,” he prods me.

  But my stitch in my side is so painful, my pathetic attempts to suck in air so painful… “I can’t, Nick. I can’t run anymore.”

  He ignores that, just pulls me along until we get under the cove
r of the pines. “Just a little farther,” he huffs as he boosts me up the side of a small cliff by the butt. He climbs up after me and takes my hand again. “Hurry, hurry, hurry. We need to get out of here before they come looking.”

  “Who?” Jesus. My heart is beating so fast I think I might die. My phone buzzes in my pocket.

  “Answer it,” Nick barks at me. And then he stops, tugging me to stop with him when momentum takes me forward. “Give me your phone.”

  I jerk my hand from his and shake my head. “No. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “Who’s calling you?”

  “How the hell should I know?”

  “Look,” he growls in my face. “Look who it is.”

  I take my phone out and Nick snatches it away and presses the answer tab. “Merc. Yeah,” he barks into the phone. I can just barely make out words on the other end. Nick’s eyes shift around for a few seconds, then rest back on mine. “Got it.” And then he ends the call and hands it back. He starts walking over to a hill covered in dead pine needles.

  “Well?” I ask.

  “James is dead.”

  My heart stops. “He is not.”

  “He’s missing and they threw grenades inside the cabin. He’s dead.”

  “No,” I say firmly. “No. He can’t die.”

  Nick is looking for something on the little slope. He lets out a grunt and then pulls. The whole hill slides away and I think I’m hallucinating before I realize it’s a cover that has pine needles stuck to it to make it look like brush-covered ground. There’s a motorcycle underneath.

  “You planned this?”

  He shoots me a look. “I plan for everything. Except your boyfriend back there giving my sister away.”

  “Boyfriend?”

  “James is awfully attached to you, Sash. And as far as I can see”—Nick swings his leg over the bike and turns the ignition to start the engine—“there‘s only two possibilities for that. He likes you, which would be weird, because he says he loves Harper, yet he sold her out to my dad. Or he needs you for something.” Nick stares me in the eyes. “I’m pretty sure he’s using you. Grab the helmets and get on the bike. We’re leaving.”

  I hand him a helmet from the ground and then plop the other one on my head. “Where are we going?” I ask, swinging my leg over.

  “To set things right, Sash. Whatever it takes, I’m gonna set things right.”

  “What about Merc?”

  “He says he’s out.”

  What?

  Nick gives the throttle some gas and we spring forward. This bike is not off-road capable, but we’re only on the dirt for about a mile when a paved road appears. He doesn’t stop to tell me where we’re going, he just takes that road all the way to the interstate and before I know it, we’re heading west.

  And all I do for the next four hours is think about how my life just changed again.

  James is gone.

  Chapter Sixty-Five - Sasha

  “Sash,” Nick whispers in my ear.

  I brush him away and roll over, still very sleepy after yesterday. We stopped in Rock Springs to grab dinner since towns are few and far between out here, and by the time we were done, Nick wanted to get a room for the night.

  “Sash,” he repeats. “Wake up. Let’s go eat and hit the road.”

  “What time is it?”

  “A little after seven.”

  I groan. “Are we in a hurry?” Silence. I open one eye and look at him. He’s lying next to me, one cheek pressed against the same pillow. His brown eyes are scrunched up like he’s confused. “What?”

  “I’m sorry for those things I said yesterday. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

  I just stare at him.

  “He might not be dead.”

  I can’t say anything, because if I do, I’ll cry.

  “He’s not dead. He’s Tet, for fuck’s sake. OK? He’s not dead.”

  But we called Merc last night after we got the room and Merc said he can’t find him. “I think he’s dead,” I finally say.

  Nick lets out a long breath. “We won’t know until we know, Sash. But… even if he is, he’d want me to keep going. He’d want Harper to be safe. And now that I know she’s back with my father, she’s not safe, Sash. I have to go get her. And get that fucking file.”

  I roll over on the bed and turn my back to him. “You shouldn’t have let Harper have it if it’s so valuable.”

  “She was safer with it, Sasha. It gave her power.”

  “It almost got her killed.” I turn back over. “She was dead. James saved her.” I look away. “He saved me too,” I mumble.

  “What’s the deal with the two of you?”

  I sit up and throw the covers off because obviously sleep time is over. “What do you mean?” I’m still fully clothed so I just slip my feet into my boots and straighten my ponytail.

  Nick gets up off the bed and when I turn to look at him, his scowl is even more pronounced. “He was possessive of you. He threatened me. Why was he acting that way? How long have you really known him?”

  It’s my turn to squint my eyes. “A week? You know that, Nick. We talked about it before he came to get me. And a lot of good it did, making me stay out there for three fucking months.”

  “Watch your mouth,” Nick snaps.

  I flip him off and shoot him a look. “Don’t boss me around. I’m in a very bad mood.”

  “I told you why you had to stay out there. The Admiral sent you to wait for Tet and when the Admiral gives you an order, you follow it.”

  “Yeah, but you knew when James was coming. You knew he was in the OC with Harper. So explain why we didn’t just get a hotel in the next town over and wait him out there.”

  Nick walks towards me smiling. I step back. But he grabs my arm and pulls me close. “We could’ve done that, Sasha.” He looks down on my face. I hate the fact that he’s so much bigger than me. I hate the fact that everyone is so much bigger than me. “But I like you, ya know. I like you and I don’t think I’d have been very good at keeping my hands to myself if we were bunking together for months.” He laughs. “I mean, I know you’re too young in my head, but you know, I’m just an eighteen-year-old guy.”

  My cheeks heat up and I’m not sure if I’m blushing because he said that to me, or if I’m creeped out that he’s thinking about me sexually. “That’s bullshit,” I finally say. “You know you’re not allowed to touch me until I’m eighteen. I don’t think you have a self-control problem. I think you’re just up to other things and you don’t want me to know about them.”

  “We’re not operating inside the Company boundaries, Sash. We can make our own rules if we want. And yeah to the last part too. I’m up to a whole bunch of shit that you will never know about. That’s life. You’re a girl. I’m a guy. You should be in school right now.”

  “School?” I don’t even have a comeback for that. “What the hell world are you living in? I’m a Company kid with a hit on my head. What fucking school am I supposed to be in?”

  “Language,” he whispers as he places his fingertips against my lips.

  My whole body shudders. But I shrug it off and blink at him. “I’d love nothing more than to go back to school and grow up like a normal kid. But if I do that, then we’re not promised anymore.”

  He tisks his tongue and tightens his grip around me as I wriggle to break free. “Is that what you want?”

  “I have no idea what I want. But what I don’t want is you telling me what to think or how to act. Or just assuming I’m going along with your plans every second of the day. I’m one half of this team so I expect to be treated like a partner.”

  He leans down until his warm breath skates across my ear. “We are partners, Sash. In every sense of the word. You were given to me, so you’re mine. But I’m not putting up this big resistance as a pretense, you understand. I’m doing this to change the future for all the Company kids who come after us. So if you think I’m bound to that promise your father gave under duress wh
en you were born, you’re wrong. I don’t need a promise to get a wife. I’m quite capable of getting married all on my own. So”—his hand slides around the back of my neck and his fingertips slip up into my hair, sending chills down my whole body—“let’s just forget that promise right now and be together because we like each other.”

  He smiles as I stare dumbly up at him and then he laughs and lets go of my head. His fingers slip through my hair, dragging against the sensitive skin of my scalp. And then they are gone. “Sasha Cherlin, I have something cool to tell you. Do you want to hear it?”

  I swallow. “Is it something good?”

  He nods and smiles. “Yeah. Come sit.” He walks over to the edge of the bed and sits down, then pats the mattress for me to follow.

  I sit, but not too close. I don’t really know what’s happening.

  “I was bumming around up in the mountains in Wyoming. Way the fuck out by Bighorn Lake. You know it, right?”

  I shoot him a look. “Everyone knows where Bighorn Lake is.”

  He laughs. “So I was up there in the mountains and I was so fucking lost. But there was like this park access road, so I walked up this road to the top of a hill and do you know what was up there?”

  I shake my head as I stare into his eyes. He’s excited to tell me this and that makes me excited with him. “What was it?”

  “That medicine wheel thing you were talking about last summer. Remember that?”

  My throat starts to sting and my eyes start to water. “I was just talking to James about that a few days ago.”

  “Huh,” Nick says, smiling. “I saw it.” He looks over at me and then his hand grips my shoulder and he flops backwards on the bed, taking me with him. We sigh together. “It was pretty cool. You’re gonna love seeing it.”

  “I’m not going,” I say quickly. “I don’t want to go.” He says nothing to that. Just lets the silence take over until I feel the need to explain. “My dad was gonna take me this summer. I don’t want to see it with anyone else.”

  “Hmmm. I can see your point. I mean, your dad would probably be mad if you went without him, don’t you think?”