by J. A. Huss
“No,” Mac says. “She’s gonna need to be visibly upset if this is going to work.”
Pax comes up the stairs from the third floor, where he’s been trying to contact Liam since this all started.
“Any luck?” I ask.
He nods. His face is dead serious.
“What?” Nolan asks. “What happened?”
“I got a meeting.”
“When?” Mac asks.
Pax comes over to my desk, glancing at the drawn curtains and then all the TV’s. “Tomorrow morning. He’s flying in. He’s gonna tell me where to meet him once he gets here.”
“Did he ask for a pinky toe?” Mac asks, trying to lighten Pax’s mood.
“No,” Pax says with a heavy sigh, dropping into the chair in front of my desk. “He asked for Victoria.”
“Fuck,” Nolan says.
“What should we do?” I ask.
“Not involve her, of course. We’ll just have to show up without her and see how it goes.”
“Did you tell him you’d bring her?”
Pax starts to shake his head, but it turns into a nod pretty quick. “I didn’t have much choice if I want the meeting.”
We’re all silent after that.
“We won’t, though,” Pax says, trying to convince himself.
“We should all go home,” Mac says. “You and Cindy should stay at Ariel’s house tonight. I think Victoria might need the support.” He looks at me next. “You too, Shrike.”
But I shake my head. “No. I made plans with Katya tonight. I left a message for her but… she’s probably with Ariel and she’s probably been told not to reply.”
“So you should come with us,” Nolan says as he peeks through a crack in the curtains to look down on the street.
But I don’t want to get stuck over at Ariel’s house tonight. There is safety in numbers, but there’s also safety in a well-fortified house. And even though Ariel is part owner of ShrikeSafe Security, my house is much better fortified.
I want Katya with me and I want us both over there, behind my wall and gate, inside my brick building with floor-to-ceiling bullet-proof, mirrored, garage-door windows.
“Do you think they’ll follow us if we leave the back way?” Mac asks.
“Only one way to find out. Unless we want to be stuck here all night,” Pax says.
“No,” the rest of us reply together.
We look up at all the TV’s when more breaking news banners flash across the lower third.
“I think I know where Katya is. And she’s probably cold, so if you guys are ready…” I get up from my desk and start turning the TV’s off. “Let’s head out.”
I turn the lights out as they shuffle down the stairs, all moods somber.
We did it. We killed Corporate and we bought a reporter and it made national headlines within a few hours.
We’re winning, right? Our plan is working, right?
So why do I feel so fucking afraid of what’s coming?
Chapter Forty - KATYA
I’ve been waiting at the church for two hours. I wanted to go to Oliver’s place, but Ariel was adamant that I not. She told me to go home. So did Mariel. And I agreed, but I came here instead. There are two places Oliver will go looking for me right now. On the bus stop bench outside his house where I’d wait if I wanted to hang out with him and have sexy times. Or here, at the church, where I’d wait if we were meeting in secret.
I think tonight totally counts as a secret meeting. So I don’t care how cold it gets, or how long I have to stand here, huddled up in the shadows of the gothic arches overhead. I will wait until he comes to find me.
Mariel’s story was long and complicated, just like she promised. But it was the call from Ariel and Cindy’s father that shocked the hell out of everyone in that room.
Mr. Corporate was dead.
Victoria broke down crying hysterically. The strength inside her—strength that radiated out from her like a suit of armor—melted away in one instant. We pulled up the pictures of West online. Shot in the head.
Oh, God. I can’t even think straight. That moment… God, poor Victoria.
But then a text came in for Ariel. Don’t. Panic. That was all it said. It was Oliver.
Of course, it said a whole lot more than that after Ariel explained what it meant. And even though we had no details, we convinced Victoria that West was OK. We talked her into it. We talked ourselves in to it. We had to believe that they knew what they were doing. That it was fake. Mr. Corporate was not dead. He can’t be dead. Because if he is, then all the Misters can die.
It was a sobering thought for everyone. And if Mariel wasn’t there to herd us together into one solid wall of bricks, we’d probably have fallen apart.
I hear the Camaro before I see it pull around the corner, and I’m on the sidewalk in an instant. He barely stops the car before I’m pulling the passenger side door open and slipping inside.
He drives off without a word. We stay silent all the way back to his house. He enters the fortress the back way, like he did last night, the gate opening, closing. Then the garage doors.
When the door is finally shut behind us and we’re sitting in the dark, he grabs my hand. “It’s OK,” he whispers. “West is OK. You’re OK. We’re all OK.”
I look at him, looking at me. He is lit up only by the dim, greenish glow of the dash panel lights behind the steering wheel. “This is it,” I say. “We’re in that moment for real this time.”
“No, Kat,” he says, shaking his head and squeezing my hand. “This isn’t it. Not at all. We’ve got the whole night ahead of us. And we’re safe here.”
I look away. Look out the window at the walls of the garage.
“Come on,” he says. “You hungry? How long were you standing out there waiting for me?”
“Long time.” I sigh. But I get out. Because he’s the only thing that makes tonight better. He’s the only thing I have that’s going right instead of wrong.
We close our doors at the same time. They clunk, the way old cars do. And then I meet him at the front of the car and he takes my hand again, leading me to the door. We are in the garage closest to the main living area, so we don’t need to pass through any more before we are safely inside.
He flicks on the lights, but I flick them off. “No,” I say. “I don’t care if the windows are mirrors at night. I can’t be in here if the lights are on. I feel way too exposed.”
“Maybe just one or two, then. Hmm? How about this?” He walks over to the buckeye tree and slips a switch on the wall. It lights up the trunk, but just barely. And it casts shadows on the glass ceiling twenty feet above it. “Is that OK?” Oliver asks.
It’s too pretty and perfect not to be OK. So I nod. “Yeah. I think so.”
“Are you hungry?” he asks, walking towards the kitchen and opening the fridge. “I’m starved. We should’ve gone through the drive-through.” And then he looks over his shoulder at me and smiles.
God, he has the most charming smile ever.
“I can make you grilled cheese. Want some grilled cheese? And tomato soup?”
I laugh as I walk over to him.
“I bet you thought I forgot,” he says, letting go of the fridge door to cup my face with his hands. “I forget nothing about you, Katya Kalashova.” He leans down and kisses my lips. “Not one thing. And just so you know, this is not that moment.”
I look up into his eyes. Wanting that to be true so bad.
He kisses me. Softly. Gently. And then he whispers, “Not that moment,” into my mouth just before his tongue enters and begins to wash away the horror of today. “West is fine, Katya. It was fake. Makeup. He’s alive and hidden away until we get what we need. It’s an act and we,” he says, pulling away from my lips just a little, just so he can make sure to look me in the eyes as he finishes his thought, “we are in control this time.”
I don’t believe him. I want to believe him, but I don’t.
“Soup and sandwich?” he prods me again.
Grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Comfort food.
When he’s done cooking he serves me and we eat. Me sitting at the bar, him standing up on the other side of the island.
“I think…” I say, when we’re about halfway done eating. “I think something is very wrong with my sister.”
“What?” Oliver asks. “What happened? What were you guys doing all day?”
Where the hell do I start? With this morning? And the visit from my sister? The lies she told me to get me to go over to that Antimony Association brunch? The creepy feeling I got walking through the house? The fact that Mariel is back? I almost laugh at that, but I hold it in so he doesn’t ask more questions.
Hell, the fact that I even know Mariel would probably be a shock to him. That I work for her? That I work for Liam? That I work for Gori? Which parts of my mystery does he know? And which one of them will finally make him turn against me and walk away?
I shake my head. “No,” I say. “If we go there right now, I’ll be lost, Oliver. All the things I need to say will ruin the only good thing I have left. You.”
He takes in a long draw of air and lets it out very, very slowly. And then he walks around the island and takes my hand. Pulling me off the stool. We walk past the beautifully lit up buckeye and climb the stairs to the bedroom.
When we get to the top, he lets go of my hand as we stand at the foot of the bed.
He undresses me. He slips the green dress over one shoulder, then the next. It falls to my waist as he palms my breasts, just for a moment, before reaching behind me to unclasp my bra. I let him take that off and lick my nipples. Trading off, one to the next, like he’s afraid they might feel neglected if he only pays attention to one. His mouth covers them. Sucks and nips them.
“Sit,” he says, lightly pushing me to lower myself to the bed. He kneels in front of me and lifts up one of my boots. He drags the zipper down and takes it off, his palm flat against the bare skin of my calf. His touch so light, it sends a chill up my body. Then he goes to work on the next one.
He stands me up again after that. And the dress is pulled over my hips and falls to the floor.
I stand there in only my underwear and let him look. I let him get a good long look at the words that he wrote on my body this morning. And I wonder how that day and this day can be the same one.
When his eyes finally come back up to mine, I say, “Your turn now.”
Chapter Forty-One - OLIVER
“No,” I say. “There are no turns tonight.” And then I walk over to the bedside table and grab the markers I was using on her body last night. “I’m not done yet, Katya. I have so much more to say.”
She sighs and then I get a smile. “Well,” she says, looking at her body. “What’s left?”
“Everything’s left,” I say, taking her hand as she looks puzzled. “We have everything in front of us.”
I pull the cap off the marker with my teeth and start writing on her hand. This is the hand Oliver will hold onto, never letting go, for as long as he lives.
When I’m done writing and look up at her, she’s smiling again. “Do you plan on handcuffing us together?”
“If that’s what it takes.” I lower her hand and begin to write on mine. This is the hand Katya will hold onto, never letting go, for as long as she lives.
We hold each other then. Hands, bodies, hearts, and souls. “We’re a perfect match, darlin’,” I say. “I’m not after anything from you, Katya. I’m just after you.”
She frowns and buries her head in my neck, wrapping her arms around me tight. “I think I’ve made some bad choices, Oliver.”
I shrug, still holding her close. “I think we’re probably about even in that respect.”
“No.” She sighs. “You have no idea what my life is like.”
I have a lot of ideas, but that’s not what we need to talk about tonight. “The past is the past,” I say. “Sometimes you just have to forgive yourself and go forward.”
She lifts her head from my shoulder and looks at me. So serious. “What do you regret?”
“Not kidnapping you and making you my prisoner four years ago.”
I get a very small smile from that response. “Do you think it would have turned out differently?”
“No, Katya. No. It wouldn’t have. And that’s why I let you go. But I regret it. I do. I regret not learning more about what was happening. I regret not thinking our future together through a little better.”
“But I was young?” she asks.
“Very,” I say. “In age, anyway. You’re one of those old souls, Katya. People who have seen and heard it all before. But I’m sorry I let you down.” I kneel down in front of her naked body and kiss the words on her belly. “I’m sorry I let you travel that road without me.” And then I read them out loud. “‘I give you my love more precious than money. Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?’”
She kneels down with me and we settle on the floor. Both her hands come up to my scratchy face as she stares into my eyes. And then she leans in and we kiss.
When I pull away she’s crying. “What?” I ask, my turn to hold her face and look for meaning. “What’s wrong, Kat? If something’s happening, please tell me. No matter what it is, I will not let you travel alone again. I promise.”
She breathes heavy for several moments, trying to figure out if she should take that leap of faith. And then she draws in one final breath, holds it, and let everything pour out of her.
“My sister is into something very bad, Oliver. Those Silver people?” She sniffs. “Do you know them?”
I nod. “I do. We’re in trouble with them too. I’m just not sure why we’re in trouble yet. How did your sister get involved?”
“I don’t know. When I left here four years ago, I left her under the supervision of one of the most trusted private schools in the country.”
I nod. “I knew she went there, but I never paid much attention to her. I didn’t want to make her feel weird.”
“Oh, God, Oliver. I think those Silver people got to her while I was gone. She’s got these friends in this house just off campus called the Antimony Association.”
“Antimony?” I ask. “Isn’t that kinda like a silver—”
“Yes,” Kat says, crying harder now. “It’s them, Oliver. They’re here. They’ve been here the whole time I was gone. They got her. She took me to this brunch this morning. And I don’t even know how to explain how or why it was so damn creepy. Everything was creepy. The tents, the people—kids—all dressed up like they are already powerful adults. And their leader, Lauren, she has this really expensive art on the walls…”
Kat starts crying uncontrollably now. “Shh,” I say. “Stop crying and just tell me, Katya. Just tell what happened.”
“She mentioned you, Oliver!”
“What? How? What did she say?”
Katya sniffs and wipes her face with the back of her hand that has no marker on it. “I said something like, ‘You shouldn’t have that photograph out in the open like that.’ And she said, ‘We use ShrikeSafe Security, so we’re fine.’”
“That’s it?” I ask.
“That’s your company!”
“I know, Kat. But lots of people around here use it. And it’s not really mine. My sisters all own that.” I let her sink into me and we lean back against the bed. She cries softly for a few more minutes, thinking it through. I’m not about to tell her she’s wrong about those people. I just want her to consider all things rationally. And it’s really hard to do that when you’re in a panic.
I smooth her hair down and then lean forward to try to see her face. “We
don’t need to figure it all out tonight, you know. Tomorrow everything will become clearer.”
“Tomorrow is her birthday, Oliver.”
Goddamn, she sounds so small and scared right now.
“She’s eighteen. And that’s… she’s getting her call, just like me. I got called back to Lucio Gori. I never got away, Oliver. Never. They let me run. They knew where I was going. They knew what I was doing. And then they came back that summer. And he said, ‘You have until the end of the summer to get Lily set up in school and then I’ll expect you back here.’”
Why didn’t she tell me?
It’s a rhetorical question meant just for me. Because of course, I know why she didn’t tell me.
She was afraid of him. Lucio Gori Senior.
“So I went. But you know what?” She lifts her head off my chest and stares at me in the almost dark.
“What?” I ask.
“I led them right to her.” She starts crying again. “They got to her while I was gone.”
“Shh,” I say, sighing heavily and wrapping my arms around her so tight, I’m afraid I might break a rib. “Trust me for just a little bit longer, can you do that, Katya? If you do, I promise, I will make this all better.”
“This is the moment,” she says, choking back a sob. “This is the real moment when I buy into it. When I start to really believe that nothing can touch us and then everything spins out of control.”
I pet her head like she’s a child. Someone I need to care for and keep safe. “No,” I say. “This is not that moment, Katya. You are safe with me, OK?” I stare at her. I want to make her believe me. “I promise. Nothing is going to stop us from being happy. Nothing. I will give you my love more precious than money. And you will give me yourself. You will come travel with me. And we will stick by each other for as long as we live. I promise.” I murmur it over and over again. “I promise.”
She cries for a little longer, but eventually she falls asleep wrapped up in my arms. I lift her up and place her on the bed. Cover her body and tuck her in.
I sit there with her for a while. Just enjoying the stillness of her sleep. But once I’m sure I wont’ wake her I find her phone in her pile of clothes, go downstairs, and open the door just to the left of the kitchen that might be a pantry, or a broom closet, but which is neither, and enter.
