Slightly Off Balance

by Kaylie Hunter

  “Air!” I answered loudly. “I heard air whoosh out of Morgan as he fell backward.”

  “See! She shot him. Might not have been a fatal shot, but she hit her mark. He’s at least wounded,” Bridget shrugged.

  “Way to go, sister,” Darlene said, offering me a high-five.

  I slapped her hand as the room went silent. I looked around at all the surprised faces. “Darlene and I are good again.”

  “For the moment,” Darlene added.

  “So you’re not a bitch anymore?” Tansey asked.

  “Oh, I’m still a bitch. I just don’t hate my sister anymore.”

  Tansey shrugged and went to fill her coffee cup.

  “What’s next? How do we hunt this asshole of a father of mine down?”

  “No clue,” Reel sighed.

  “I called Kelsey,” Wayne said. “She figures he’ll either go somewhere safe to hide and lick his wounds or he’s already trying to find a way to get to Tweedle.”

  A cold shiver raced up my back. Reel rubbed his hand up and down my arms to comfort me.

  “So where would he hide?” Darlene asked.

  “His son might know,” I said quietly. “Randall hates his father. He might tell me how to find him.”

  “How would you know that Randall hates his father?” Uncle Mike demanded.

  Tansey had been about to sit when she veered the other direction to leave the room. Rod hooked an arm around her waist and stopped her.

  “Talk,” he ordered her.

  “It wasn’t MY idea,” she insisted.

  “It never is, dear,” Aunt Carol said, shaking her head. “But at some point, you need to learn to put your foot down when Tweedle starts to steer you down a dark road.”

  “You talked to my brother?” Darlene asked, scuffing her foot over the floor.

  “He’s an asshole,” I nodded. “And he tried to kill our grandpa, but he’s nothing like Morgan.”

  “You mean, your grandpa,” Darlene sighed.

  “No, I don’t,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Both Dad and Grandpa knew you weren’t biologically related, but they still tried to protect you. They considered you family. Dad died trying to protect you because he loved you as his own daughter.”

  Darlene looked away.

  “I’m family,” Tansey shrugged. “And there’s not a drop of blood linking us.”

  “But maybe the reason I’ve never felt like family is because I have my biological father’s bad genes.”

  “Bullshit,” Bridget snorted. “My father makes yours look like a saint. But he has no hold over how I live my life. If you feel like an outsider, it’s because you’ve treated everyone like you’re an outsider. Trust them and they’ll trust you. It won’t happen overnight, but it can happen. And it can change your life for the better.”

  Bridget walked out of the apartment and down the stairs. Bones followed her.

  “I need to go see Randall.”

  “No,” Reel said, shaking his head. “Don’t argue, please. I just need you to be safe for a little while before you leap into doing something dangerous again.”

  “I’ll go. He’s my brother,” Darlene said.

  “That’s not a good idea,” Tansey warned.

  “He seemed obsessive about you,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Why wouldn’t he be? He’s just as shocked as I am to find out we’re related. I’m curious about him too, even though, yeah, he must be a little crazy to try to kill my grandpa.”

  “A little crazy? The man is downright creepy,” Tansey cringed.

  “I’ll go with her,” Leo said, watching Darlene.

  She nodded but didn’t say anything.

  “I’ll go too,” Tansey offered, retrieving her purse. “I already know the drill from when I went with Tweedle.”

  “You’d do that?” Darlene asked.

  “For now, I’d do that as a favor to Tweedle,” Tansey answered. “We’ll see if you can make it a day without being a bitch to me before I do any favors for you.”

  “No promises,” Darlene sighed, following her out the door.

  We watched them walk out and close the door behind them. I hoped that Darlene meeting her brother didn’t cause more damage. She had enough feelings she was trying to sort through.

  “Rod, how’s Everett?” Aunt Carol asked.

  “Detoxing,” Rod said.

  I grinned and turned to Reel.

  “Don’t get too excited. We’ve heard Everett promise before he was done with the drinking.”

  “But not in a long time. This might be the big one. The one that ends it for good.”

  “You are so optimistic,” Reel chuckled.

  “It’s all rainbows and sunshine,” Uncle Mike said, rolling his eyes.

  “Don’t forget the unicorns,” Aunt Carol laughed while filling everyone’s coffee cups.

  “What?” Wayne asked.

  “Her bedroom at her aunt and uncle’s house,” Reel shook his head. “She had Tansey paint a big sun on one wall, and the rest of the walls were plastered with rainbows and unicorns.”

  “How in the hell do you know what my girl’s room looked like?” Uncle Mike yelled.

  “I guessed?” Reel shrugged, but he couldn’t stop the grin that crossed his face.

  Uncle Mike threw the apartment door open and stomped down the stairs.

  “What time is it?” I asked in a panic.

  “Almost 8:00, dear. We put a sign up that the bakery would be closed today.”

  “Like hell,” I said. “The gossip-mongers will buy everything we can stock just to get a peek at me to see whether I’m alive. For a small town, this is great marketing. And I have a mortgage to pay.”

  I stood and carefully stepped over Reel’s outstretched legs as I wobbled on the outsides of my feet toward the bedroom. “Everyone out. I need to get dressed. Shoo. I don’t have any doors yet.”

  Chapter Thirty

  By noon, the sitting area and the front porch were standing room only. We were selling everything before we could put it in a display case. The deli was sold out of chicken salad, macaroni salad, and egg salad. Aunt Carol was scrambling to make more, and I had every oven baking something, bread sitting off to the side rising, and had been feeding the deep fryer for hours.

  Samantha and Bridget were serving customers and running the checkout counter until Tansey returned and jumped in to help. We were too busy for me to ask how the prison visit went, but Reel stepped off the back porch with a comforting arm around Darlene.

  We were only open for four hours on Sundays, just 10:00 to 2:00, but it took us another hour to get everyone to clear out.

  “That was insane,” Aunt Carol sighed.

  “But one hell of a mortgage payment,” Tansey smirked, counting out the register drawer.

  “We did okay, then?” I asked.

  Tansey nodded, smiling, as she continued to count.

  I sat at one of the tables and propped my feet up. “Where did all the pictures go?”

  “A friend of mine swung in and bought all of them,” Reel said, taking the chair next to me. “He’s an art fanatic and fell in love with them. He’s going to show them to some art dealers he knows.”

  I leaned over and kissed Reel on the cheek. “Thank you.”

  “I didn’t do it for you,” he said. “I did it for the commission.”

  “What commission?” I asked, concerned for Tansey.

  “Snickers bars,” Tansey laughed, tossing a dozen of them on the table in front of Reel. “Seems you’re not the only one addicted to the damn things.”

  Reel tore a bar open and bit into it. “What? I won’t allow myself to buy junk food, but it doesn’t count if someone gives it to me.”

  “If you get fat, I’m firing your ass,” a man said as he walked down the back hallway and into the seating area.

  Reel choked on the candy bar he was eating. I thumped him on the back before standing.

  “Are you Donovan? Reel’s boss at the security firm?”
I asked the man.

  He was clean cut, wearing a pressed button-up shirt and grey dress pants. But his eyes held a seriousness that absorbed everything around him.

  “Yes. You must be Deanna,” he said without extending a hand or a smile.

  “I have a question, and I want an honest answer,” I said, placing my hands on my hips.

  “If I choose to answer the question, I’ll answer honestly,” Donovan said, squaring his already tense shoulders.

  “Is he safe when he’s out on assignments?”

  “No. None of them are safe. But we do everything we can to take precautions and back each other up. I’d take a bullet to protect him.”

  “And is he good at his job?”

  “That’s a second question, but I’ll answer it because I think you need to hear the answer. He’s not good at it, he excels at it. He’s saved a lot of lives. Both clients and co-workers.”

  “And if he ever showed signs of being reckless?”

  “I’d send his ass home in a heartbeat,” Donovan grinned.

  I reached out and hugged him. “Welcome.”

  “I like her,” Donovan laughed, hugging me back.

  “I’m glad; now take your hands off my woman,” Reel growled. “Deanna, get off those feet. You should have spent the day soaking them instead of working.”

  Reel pulled out a chair, and I obeyed, sitting and propping my feet up.

  “Donovan, what the hell are you doing here?” Reel asked.

  “Kelsey sent me. She didn’t like what she was hearing. She wanted to come herself, but Nicholas threw a fit.”

  “Can’t say I blame the kid,” Reel said. “He just got her back. It’s going to be awhile before he feels safe again.”

  “Her son?” I asked.

  “Long story,” Reel nodded, grabbing my hand and intertwining our fingers.

  “I also heard that Bridget is stealing wallets still.” Donovan glared across the room at Bridget.

  Bridget cringed, and Bones looked at the floor, chuckling.

  “She’s teaching us to stay alert to our surroundings,” I defended Bridget. “She doesn’t keep the wallets but reminds us of how easy it is to have someone deceive us. It’s been helpful.”

  “I’m a cop, and she’s snagged mine three times now,” Uncle Mike grumbled. “Tweedle’s right. Bridget’s good for us. If you don’t want her working for your firm, I’ll get her a job at the police department.”

  “We’ll see how it goes,” Donovan said, shaking his head. “Now fill me in on the case.”

  “We have a possible location of where Morgan is hiding, but we have to wait until nightfall,” Reel said coldly, as he leaned forward in his chair.

  “What are you talking about? What don’t I know?”

  “It’s fine, babe. Darlene got a possible location out of her brother, so we are going to check it out. This is what we do, remember?” He looked at me, trying to reassure me, but I could see the rage simmering behind his crystal blue eyes. He was distancing himself, pulling back so he could focus on Morgan Marlian.

  “You can’t kill him,” I whispered.

  Multiple sets of eyes turned toward me, but no one spoke.

  “Reel, he’s Darlene’s biological father.”

  “If we can take him alive, we will,” Wayne nodded. “But we won’t take a chance of him coming after you or Darlene. If there’s a choice that has to be made, I’ll drop a bullet in him myself.”

  I scrunched up my nose, not liking that answer, but knowing it was the best I was going to get. I nodded at Wayne and heard everyone around me release the breaths they held.

  “Come on,” Reel said, picking me up out of my chair and carrying me. “I hear you have a freezer full of Klondike bars and every season of The Big Bang Theory waiting for you upstairs.”

  “You’re kicking me out?”

  “No,” Reel grinned. “I’m letting everyone else talk about work while I get to curl up with you in bed and watch TV.”

  “Don’t get any ideas,” Tansey said, passing us to run up the stairs. “I’m also going to be in that bed, so no hanky-panky allowed.”

  “Wouldn’t expect anything else,” Reel grumbled, rolling his eyes.

  “I have doors for my apartment on order,” I whispered to Reel. “They should be here next week.”

  “Do they have locks on them?”

  “They will after you install them.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “I’m bored,” I pouted to Tansey.

  “No. We are not sneaking back downstairs again. The house is filled with trained military men. Every time we’ve tried, they’ve caught us, and we’ve looked like idiots.”

  Reel had watched TV with us for a little over an hour before he got a text asking for his presence downstairs. Every time we went below, we were sent back upstairs like teenagers.

  “Why won’t they tell us what’s going on? And why did Darlene tell you that she didn’t get any information out of her brother, when obviously she did?”

  “I was right there with her, so it makes no sense to me. He told her he didn’t have a clue where his father would be hiding, and I believed him. When we got back here, Reel pulled her aside, and they argued. But I don’t know about what.”

  “So I’m just supposed to sit here like a good little girl?” I pouted again, throwing my lower lip out for added effect.

  “Let’s go over to my apartment. You can read in the window seat while I paint,” she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me out of my bed.

  Grabbing a book from one of my unpacked boxes, I followed Tansey down the hall and into her apartment. Every time I entered, I was shocked by all the sunlight streaming in. She had decorated the apartment in earth tones, with tons of comfortable cushions that Aunt Carol helped her sew together, and tall plants scattered around the apartment that Uncle Mike and Rod helped carry upstairs. It was the perfect Tansey-paradise. Even her paintings seemed more uplifting lately.

  I strolled over to the open window with the deep window seat and curled up. But before I opened my book, I heard voices in the backyard.

  “We have to tell her,” Reel said. “If we don’t and anything happens to him, she’ll never forgive us.”

  I turned and looked at Tansey as she carried a glass of water over to me. I raised a finger to my lips to silence her, and she crept over beside me to look down.

  “We can’t tell her,” Uncle Mike snapped. “If she knew that her grandpa had been taken, she’d do anything the madman wanted to try to get him back. Her grandpa wouldn’t want that.”

  “Then how the hell will we know for sure that the place he’s referring to is the blue house? The message says to meet him at the place where she came the closest to death. We’re only guessing that he meant the blue house. He could have meant the cabin. Or he could have meant the muddy gulley.”

  “Look, I get it,” Uncle Mike said. “She’ll be pissed. But she’d be guessing just like us. We have men at all three locations just waiting for him to show his face. We’ll catch him, rescue her grandpa, and then tell her.”

  “And if it all goes to hell? If Vince dies?”

  “Then it won’t be us she’ll blame. She’ll blame herself—and we may never get her back. So let’s not screw this up.”

  “Shit,” Reel sighed.

  “We need to figure out who stays behind tonight to protect the girls,” Uncle Mike said.

  “Leo said he would stay. I trust him, but he’s not ready for mission work yet. He’s been through some shit. He’ll step up if the girls are in danger, though.”

  “You sure?”

  “She’s my life, man,” Reel said, running his hands through his hair. “No way in hell would I leave her if I didn’t know he’d keep her safe.”

  “Then let’s get back inside and go through the plans one more time. The note said to meet at 9:00, so we only have a few more hours.”

  Reel nodded but waited a few minutes, staring across the quiet yard before sighing and wa
lking back inside. I turned to Tansey and saw the tears streaming down her face.

  “You can’t go, Deanna,” she said, shaking her head. “For once, let them protect you. Stay home. Play it safe.”

  “And if Morgan kills our grandpa?”

  She dropped her head into her hands and cried quietly. I threw an arm around her in comfort and looked up to see Darlene standing in the doorway.

  She stepped into the apartment and closed the door, walking over to us. “I wanted to tell you. Reel made me swear to go along with his plan. What can I do?”

  “Find Aunt Carol,” I whispered. “Tell her I need a gun; the boys have mine. Then get back here. Leo’s our babysitter tonight. I’ll need you to distract him.”

  Darlene looked shaky and pale, but nodded before slipping back out of the apartment.

  I pulled Tansey’s face up so she would see me. “The way I figure it, they’ll leave Rod here too. He’s not trained for the military stuff. I think it’s best if you play like you have the flu. Go change into pajamas, grab a pillow and blanket to curl up with on the couch. It will help explain why your face is so blotchy,” I said, grinning at my friend.

  She nodded, sniffing as she got up, and walked silently to her room, closing the door behind her. Minutes later, Leo and Rod walked in, looking around.

  “Where is everyone?” Rod asked.

  “Darlene had some errands but will be back soon. Tansey doesn’t feel well, so she was going to change and lie down for a while. I was just about to go back to my apartment to read in my room.”

  “Tansey’s sick?” Rod asked with concern.

  Tansey walked out of her room, dragging a blanket and carrying a pillow. She tossed the pillow on the couch and curled up on top of it with her face turned away from everyone. Rod walked over and rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head before he declared that he was going to make her some soup. Leo opened the door as I moved back to my own apartment.

  “How sick is she?”

  “Maybe a touch of the flu. Or it could just be exhaustion. It’s been a wicked couple of months.”

  “Yeah, I get that,” Leo nodded. “So Darlene’s coming back over? Were you two planning anything special?”