Regardless, a little voice inside told me that my road would be a short one. Albeit we were intelligent people, I had my doubts. Images of a future with Rachel swam around my head. A future where we wouldn’t have to hide, wouldn’t have to run, and could be free again. It all sounded a little too sublime, too good to be true. At this point, I was living day by day, uncertain of what was to come. I couldn’t get too attached to Rachel. It would cause her more pain than I’d like to imagine. For that little voice was incessant, and seldom had it quieted since discovering I was a wanted terrorist. It said my road would be a short one…and that very thought terrified me to my core.
“Owen! What are you waiting for? We have some things to discuss.”
Rachel’s voice jolted me from my daze. As I became coherent, I saw Grey and Briana trailing her and her cousins. I scurried behind them and we walked up concrete steps into a loft. It was spacious and had a pool table with burgundy fabric. The room had a faint smell of cigar smoke that lingered in the air, and even with the dim lighting, I couldn’t keep my eyes from the walls. There were all kinds of pictures of their family, posters of the Miami Heat, cars, and I saw one of the Wu-Tang Clan. In just a few glimpses, I saw most of what made up their interests.
“I like what you’ve done with the place,” Briana said.
“A lot different from when you were a little girl, huh?” Luke smiled and let out a throaty laugh. I caught the glimmer of a gold molar in his mouth. There was a long, saggy, beige couch against the wall, accompanied by another perpendicular in the corner. Her cousins both sat on the smaller sofa and let us four sit on the longer one. Rachel daintily crossed a bronze leg over the other and rested her hands, intertwining them around her knee. None on our couch said a word, but Vinny kept glancing over me as if I were an intruder of some sorts. His forehead was scrunched up, and he didn’t look very pleased.
“So, prima, tell me why the fuck are you risking your life for this gringo?” Vinny waved a hand in my direction. My anger caused me to flinch, and I almost jumped off of the couch, but Vinny’s rocky build made me think twice. Still, I was no coward. “What the fuck? Nice to meet you too, asshole.”
He jumped up and lunged at me with fiery eyes, and Rachel was between us before either of us could lay a hand on each other. “Ay, ay, ay! Calm down. No fighting!” Rachel shouted, pushing us farther apart.
“Fucking gringo…” He muttered some hateful Spanish, I assumed. Luke also stood up with him, but was now easing back down onto the couch. He eyed me just as Vinny had—distrusting and loathing.
“What does that word even mean?” I whispered to Briana.
“White boy…”
Rachel, still standing, huffed and began to wave her arms around heatedly.
“Now are you two ready to stop acting like thugs and listen to what I have to say? Owen—”
“Before you continue,” Grey interrupted. He seemed uncomfortable in this environment. “Take your batteries out of your phones. Now.”
Vinny and Luke looked at him as if he was insane. “Why?”
“Because they could be listening.” He pointed to Vinny’s phone which was now out of his pocket. “Take out the batteries.” They both glanced at Rachel to silently confirm Grey’s demand. Rachel crossed her arms and nodded. They reluctantly popped out the batteries and set them on the cocktail table between the couches.
“Owen is in deep shit, and it runs a lot deeper than you think.”
“He’s not my blood,” Vinny shrugged in my direction, making a sour face as if he could smell my gringo self from where he was sitting.
Rachel snorted. “He’s not your blood, but when whatever it is they are planning goes into action, you will both wish you would have treated him like he was.”
“What are you talking about?” Luke questioned.
“Owen was framed for the bombings at Georgetown. We think someone, or a group of people wanted Owen’s party to lose the election.”
“Why?” Vinny still glowered at me like I really was a killer.
“As a journalist, I am inclined to believe someone wants to keep themselves in power. With all of this happening weeks before the election, who knows what else they could be hiding?”
“Is that what all of this is about?” Vinny scoffed and stood up, pacing around. “You just trying to get a story for a big bonus at work?”
“It’s not just a story, Vinny! Something tells me this all goes back to the Confinement.”
Vinny and Luke froze. Their demeanor turned grave.
“What? What do you mean? This all goes back to the Confinement…”
The change in Luke’s tone was palpable. It was the first time since meeting them that they didn’t appear so callous. It was hard to tell, but it almost looked like fear.
“I’ve thought…that maybe we weren’t meant to be released from the Confinement.”
Rachel’s words pierced like daggers, and the reactions from Vinny and Luke were evidence.
“There’s no fucking way that’s true. I can’t believe it. After everything we saw happen, there’s no way…” Luke stumbled over his words and he rubbed his forehead with his palms. Was he beginning to sweat? Rachel sat down next to Grey at the end of the couch, closest to Vinny and Luke.
“Was the Miami Camp bad? What did you see?” her voice was soft and empathetic. Vinny’s eyes jumped up to meet Rachel’s. “It was a nightmare. Six million people, from all walks of life, different languages and cultures, stuck. Hundreds died every day because they would fight, and the guards would kill them. Imagine, all the gangs behind one fence, all the drug dealers forced to be together. I could only imagine how bad it would have been if it was in the dead of summer, the winter kept the temperature mild. Regardless, they didn’t have enough supplies to feed everyone—”
“Are you serious?” Rachel interrupted. “Yes, I’m serious, prima. Kids died right in front of my own eyes from starvation. It was horrible. I have nightmares sometimes.” There was pain behind Vinny’s voice. Luke didn’t add anything to Vinny’s statement, he just stared at the concrete floor. I glanced at the scar on my left forearm. I had nightmares too, just like Vinny. The faded dot on my arm from the cigarette was a physical scar…but the Confinement’s damage ran much deeper. It scarred us mentally more than anything.
“I wish you had pictures.” Rachel’s voice was distant.
“I don’t have any pictures,” Vinny answered, “but you do have our word. We are witnesses.”
Rachel nodded. She seemed to be daydreaming.
“So, tell us about this plan,” Luke said. Rachel pulled herself out of her daze. “Well, Owen and I have made it all the way here from North Carolina, and we can’t keep running. We are running out of time. We have to get Owen out of the country—”
Vinny started laughing. “You gotta be kidding me.” His chuckles were guttural and raspy. Rachel wasn’t amused, and she began to open her mouth to speak.
“No, it’s possible. I can do it,” Grey interjected. We all turned to him. “I’ve actually been thinking of how we would go about doing it.”
“No offense,” Vinny spoke over his subsiding laughs. “You think you’re going to be able to get Owen Marina, through security, and on a plane in the second largest international airport?”
“Yes.” Grey nodded confidently.
“Gringos, man…” Vinny patted Luke on the back. “They are loco.” Luke didn’t laugh, but a smile emerged. “I was laughing, too,” Briana added. “Until Grey and I talked. He’s the real deal, he’s not crazy. His computer skills are unbelievable.” They glanced at Grey again. I couldn’t tell if he was smiling behind his scraggly black beard.
“I’m interested in hearing about this later, Grey,” Luke said, “but what about you, Rachel? Maybe you forgot, but you are just as wanted as he is. Why don’t you go with him? And where is he going?”
Luke’s words struck a chord inside of me. The thought resonated in my mind. ‘Why don’t you go with him?’ The i
dea was alluring, Rachel coming with me. Part of me was excited to hear her answer. The slightest possibility of Rachel still being in my life gave me butterflies. I knew, though. I knew she couldn’t. The story meant more to her than remaining by my side.
“I—um. I can’t,” the words tore away at me, even though I already knew them before she spoke. “I have to get the truth out to people before it’s too late. Before the election.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Luke countered.
“Uncle Ian.”
“Damn, that’s right. I forgot all about him. I’m still lost, though. What proof do you have besides Owen? I know you, Rachel, and if you had a story you wouldn’t be here right now asking us to get involved in this crazy mess.”
Rachel huffed and her lower lip began to tremble. Luke asked a valid question, one which frightened me. I knew she wanted this story more than anything, but how would she get it? My words and experiences were just one voice in a sea of lies. Who would believe her story?
“You know what?” her voice was heated. “We can’t think about the end yet. Right now, we have to keep everybody safe. That means we have to get Owen on a non-stop flight to Moscow, where the United States Government will have no chance of extraditing him for the crime he didn’t commit.”
“And?” Vinny split the silence. Rachel shook her head, and I thought I saw tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Vinny and Luke were making Rachel face something that she couldn’t face. The fact that her plan had gaps. It had loose ends that didn’t work. She had no real story.
“There is no and!” she shouted. “Give me a break! Let’s just focus on what we have to do here and now. I will worry about the story after Owen is safe again. Like I told him when we first met, Ian has information bombarding him twenty-four seven. What if someone else knows something that we don’t? Maybe there are more pieces to the puzzle than what we have to offer.”
“You know what, fuck this…” Vinny stood up and looked at all of us, but mainly at Rachel. “We haven’t seen you in years, prima, and you think you’re just going to walk on into the shop like you are still the old Rachel we used to know? You got all your fancy degrees and forgot about your old life back in the barrio with us. You didn’t even call us after the Confinement! So fuck you, and fuck your friends! You are risking everything we have worked for by just being here! Who knows? The fucking FBI could barge in at any minute, all thanks to you being so damn inconsiderate and just like always making everything about you!”
Vinny was fuming. Part of me was about to defend her, but something kept me seated. This was a family matter, and I wasn’t family.
“Calm down, man.” Luke stood up and tried to get him to sit down. He shrugged off Luke’s grasp and kept pacing around. “No, hell no! It just blows my mind she expects us to risk our freedom, our garage, our whole lives for nothing!” I heard Rachel crying. Grey rubbed her back gently, and Briana sat beside me glancing at Vinny and Luke.
“Three…three hundred…” Rachel hiccupped in tears. “And fifty…fifty thousand dollars.”
Vinny and Luke froze. The air was tense and Vinny’s angry expression didn’t lessen.
“What did you say?” Vinny asked.
“She said, three-hundred and fifty-thousand dollars,” Briana announced matter-of-factly.
“We…we will give it to you…for helping us.”
Vinny glanced around at all of us as if we were hiding some secret or lying. “Rachel, stop crying,” he said. “What are you talking about, prima? How in the hell would you get that kind of money?”
“I stole it,” Grey answered nonchalantly.
“Stole it?” Luke asked, bewildered and wide-eyed. “Well,” Vinny began, “don’t you think the person you stole it from will want it back?” Grey shook his head no as if it was nothing. “I stole 1.4 million dollars from someone else who stole it. It was my job to stop grand larceny from occurring at my bank, and I failed. So, I stole the money that was stolen in order to help Owen.”
Vinny and Luke digested Grey’s words. They didn’t respond, just glanced around at the ground in front of them.
“If you help us,” Rachel composed herself enough to speak, “we will give you three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. We will give the same to Briana.”
“Seriously?” Luke questioned with disbelief.
“Yes. Owen needs to get out of this country alive. We plan to do that with Briana and Grey’s help.” Vinny’s forehead scrunched up as Rachel finished her statement. “Then what do you want from me and Luke?”
I was curious to hear this answer myself. Rachel had yet to tell any of us why we came to see her cousins in the first place. Obviously, it was partly because of protection. This loft on top of the garage allowed us to hide in plain sight.
“We want your muscle. We need a backup plan, and that’s the role you will serve.”
“You’d give us 350K just to be a backup plan?”
“Of course. It is the least we can do for agreeing to be a part of this. Your involvement is a major risk to take, especially if we fail.”
“We won’t fail,” Grey spoke up.
“And if we do?” Luke asked, nervously.
“Then we are all fucked,” Briana replied. “At least, that’s what they told me when I asked them the same question.” She chuckled.
“So, it’s that simple,” Luke retorted. “If we fail, we are fucked.”
“Indeed,” Grey said. “We aren’t going to fail, though.”
“And how can you be so damn sure?” Vinny pressed with a skeptical glare.
“Because. Briana and I have discussed the plan of action, and if we follow it—it will actually work, quite well if I might add.” Briana suppressed a smug smile that tugged at her lips.
“What’s your role in all of this?” Luke nodded to Briana. She glanced around at all of us before answering. “Well, I have to get in touch with my old contact on the Darkweb. I used to work with Silk Road, but that was shut down by the feds. Given our time frame, I highly doubt a rush delivery from Sweden would work. I should be able to find someone who can give it to me in person. Then, getting Owen’s photo on the passport once we get him an adequate disguise will be the hard part. It has to look real enough to fool the security agents.”
“What about you, Grey?” Grey flinched from Luke’s sudden question. I had yet to hear his plan either. “I would assume, that with as badly as they want to catch Owen, they are using facial recognition to find him. Once he is seen on the airport security cameras, we could believe with good reason that they will swarm the airport as soon as they can. I will have to create a diversion.”
“What kind of diversion?” Luke continued barraging them with questions.
“That’s what I still have to figure out,” Grey answered. “I have the idea. It’s just, I still have to work out the logistics of it.”
I had stayed quiet this entire time. I was just listening to them discuss how they were going to get me out of the country. I tried to stay relaxed, but I felt unsettled in my gut. It hadn’t even been five days, and I was the polar opposite of being free. I couldn’t make any of my own decisions. Now, I went along with Rachel’s plan because it was the only chance I had. The morning after Cole died, I knew I would need a miracle to get me out of this, and I met her. That had to have meant something. She said it was fate…
“So what about you, Rachel?” Vinny’s deep voice pulled me from my thoughts. “Where do you fall in all of this? What is your role?”
“I don’t have a role. I will say goodbye to Owen before he walks in. I can’t risk getting caught because I must be able to communicate with Ian. The country has to find out what is really going on.”
“And what is really going on?”
Vinny’s tone caused Rachel’s normal glow to fade away. The passion I first saw in her eyes when I met her wasn’t as visible. She was reluctant to answer. She didn’t want to have to face the truth.
“I don’t know yet,�
�� she stammered. Vinny huffed and didn’t let up. “And what makes you believe you ever will?”
This time, even his words hurt me.
“I have this feeling…” She mumbled. “That Ian might know more than we do. I have a feeling that it will all work out.”
“Well, I hope your little feeling is right,” he scoffed, “and it doesn’t land all of us in prison for the rest of our lives.”
Rachel swallowed and nodded in acknowledgment. She brushed her hair behind her shoulder and looked at the ground.
“Here’s the deal,” Vinny continued. “The moment we are done at the airport, whether you needed our help or not, that 350K will be ours. Are we clear about that?” He glanced at Grey.
“Crystal,” he replied.
“Good. Now, it seems like we have some work to do.” He stood up and Luke followed suit.
“I’ll go get my laptop out of the car,” Briana said. Grey began to open up his backpack. “I have to make whatever wireless you have here secure before we do anything. It won’t take long,” he added. I didn’t have anything to do. Anyone connected to me would be in deep shit. I was helpless.
“Vinny,” Rachel began. “I need you to go buy me a pre-paid phone. I have to call Ian.”
- 10 -
The sun that slipped through the blinds warmed my face. The Weather Channel said it was a record-breaking cold temperature today. It was not like I would know. I’d been stuck in my apartment, being held hostage by the FBI.
I peered out the window, just as I had countless times in the past twenty-four hours. Like I expected, there it was—the black Yukon Denali sitting in the parking lot of a gas station just across the street. I knew they were listening, monitoring my every waking move.
It felt like the only time I was free was in my sleep. Although, I hadn’t done much of that either. I got maybe an hour or two of real sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I was plotting how I could get to Manhattan to see my dad. Everything was ready to go. I was just trapped and I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t talk to anyone. It would be pointless. I did text Emily a simple ‘how are you?’ To which she replied, ‘I’m okay.’
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