by Kieran Scott
But I was never going to get a night like that. It had already been six months without one.
I staggered to my locker, ignoring the questioning stares of my classmates. Somehow I had made it through the first four periods of the day, and it was time for lunch. Another midday meal spent alone under a tree in the yard. That was fine by me. With any luck I’d nod off. Sometimes daytime sleep was dreamless. A half hour of pure nothing. I could deal with a little nothing.
My fingers trembled as I tried to work my lock and got the combination wrong once, then twice. For the third attempt, I rested my forehead against the cool metal, and when I yanked up on the handle, it actually moved. The force jolted the books in my arms and they fell. The heavy one, my chemistry textbook, landed squarely on my little toe.
Hot tears sprang to my tired eyes, but I bit them back. That was when the soccer ball hit me in the shoulder, and I knew the universe had something against me.
“Oh, hey. Need a little help?”
Boy did I ever need a little help.
Someone knelt down beside me. All I could see was a shaggy head of blond hair, a purple and blue bruise on a forearm, a pair of brown work boots. My dad had a pair just like them.
The boy looked up, and our gazes met. His blue eyes were bright until they focused on me, and then they softened. He stood up, holding my books in both hands.
He didn’t ask me if I was okay, because clearly I wasn’t. But he gave me this smile. This sympathetic, understanding smile and said, “Hey, it’s gonna be okay.”
“Is it?” I asked.
“I’m Oliver,” he said, shifting my books to one arm so we could shake.
“Kaia,” I replied.
When I took his hand and he held mine, I knew.
Nothing would ever be the same.
chapter 35
KAIA
“Oliver!” I shouted.
I grabbed a gun off the floor and aimed it at Hector’s heart. My arms had never been so steady. No one was taking Oliver away from me. No one.
My finger squeezed the trigger. The bullet lodged in Hector’s shoulder. He turned toward me, his face twisted in anger, and his gun swung around with him. I was about to squeeze off another shot, when blood exploded from Hector Tinquera’s chest. The man seemed suspended for half a second, wavering, before he suddenly went down, sprawling like a rag doll across the cherry wood desk.
Oliver stared at me, stunned, alive. Someone else had shot Hector.
My mother rushed to my side. We both turned to see my father stepping into the room in full riot gear, the faceplate on his helmet flipped up. His blond hair was longer, grazing his chin, and his skin was absurdly pale, except for the sunburn across his nose. There was a new scar on his neck—a curved, pink line—but otherwise, he looked exactly the same as the last time I’d seen him.
“Sorry, kiddo,” he said with a smile, and chucked his chin at Tinquera’s body. “That one was mine.”
“David?” my mother breathed, her chin trembling.
“Dad?” I choked out.
He pulled off his helmet, let it drop to the floor, and gathered us both into his arms, kissing us each on the forehead.
“Finally,” he said. “We’re finally home.”
chapter 36
OLIVER
Kaia’s family was back together again. I couldn’t imagine how that must feel, but considering the fact that she hadn’t stopped moving—pacing, bouncing her foot, fiddling with her hair—since we’d all been dropped off at this FBI safe house or whatever, she didn’t seem content.
I sat at a small, round table near the wall while Kaia walked back and forth in front of the couch and her mom watched her warily from the corner. The door opened, and all three of us flinched, but it was only Kaia’s dad. He’d changed into a clean white T-shirt and jeans, his hair pulled back in a low ponytail. The tattoo on the back of his neck wasn’t his only one. He had cursive writing on one arm, military symbols on the other. He wasn’t a big guy, but he was clearly powerful. His presence filled the room.
“So…” he began, pressing his palms against his thighs.
“Where have you been?” Kaia demanded.
“It’s a long story.”
“I can’t believe you’re really alive,” Kaia’s mother said, holding her fingertips against her own lips.
She had been clutching one arm around her waist since we left Hector T.’s house in a silver SUV over an hour ago. After a year in captivity, she’d gotten her husband and daughter back and watched the brother she’d risked everything for die. But somehow, she was keeping it together. Like mother, like daughter, I guess.
“Yeah, neither can I to be honest. I’m just so glad the two of you are okay.” He took a step toward Kaia and she took a step back. She looked so confused and fragile. I wanted to hold her hand or put my arm around her or something, but I felt like I belonged where I was. On the sidelines.
“Tell me where you’ve been. What happened in Oaxaca? Why did you tell us to run?” Kaia asked, hugging herself tightly.
Her dad blew out a sigh and sat on the edge of the coffee table. Kaia and her mom remained standing.
“I was about half a mile from the motel that day, on my way to scout the job, when the CIA intercepted me,” he said, glancing at Kaia’s mom. “They told me they had a mission that required my special…talents.”
Kaia’s expression tightened. Her mom whispered something under their breath.
“I told them no way. I was out. I’d been out for years,” Kaia’s dad continued. “But they disagreed. They blackmailed me.”
He paused and rubbed his forehead, pushing some renegade hairs away from his eyes. “They told me who you really were, Elena. Who your dad was. Your…husband.”
“David, I—”
“It’s okay,” he held up a hand. “We can talk about all that later. The point is, they told me that the Black Death cartel already knew we were in Oaxaca. They said that if I went with them, they’d send someone to protect you two. But if not, you were on your own.”
“How the hell did my father find out we were in Oaxaca?” Kaia’s mom demanded. “We used assumed names, our Austrian passports.”
“Honestly, I think the CIA told the cartel so that the agency could have something over me,” Kaia’s dad said. “How the CIA found out about your real identity, I still don’t know.”
“Sonofabitch bastards,” Kaia’s mom bit out.
“So you said yes? Without a second thought?” Kaia asked.
“No. Are you kidding? You know me,” her dad replied. “I tried to fight my way out. Even took out five of their guys before they subdued me.” He looked pretty proud of himself. “But there were too many of them and only one of me. I managed to get one of their cell phones and text you in the confusion.”
“So what the hell happened?” Kaia demanded. “If you went with them, where was this so-called protection?”
Her dad’s eyes darkened. “They were too late. They told me later what had happened. They found the hotel all shot up with no bodies left behind. For the longest time I thought you were both dead. They all did.”
I swallowed hard as tears shone in his eyes.
“I went into a depression, I think. I couldn’t think straight, so I…I did what they asked. I didn’t have anything to live for anyway, so what the hell? I went to Jordan to do another job for the CIA, but things went sideways,” Kaia’s dad continued. “The intel was bad, and I was captured by the guy I was sent to take out. He and his men held me for almost a year until the government finally sent in a SEAL team. I only got back to the States a couple weeks ago, but I was in a coma for a few days. Let’s just say my captors weren’t very hospitable.”
Kaia’s mother walked over to him and knelt at his side. “Oh, David.”
“It’s okay. Really. I’m fine now,” he said
, grasping her hand. “But I had a lot of time to think…and to regret decisions I’d made. Like why the hell hadn’t I asked the CIA to find out exactly what had happened to the two of you before I went to Jordan? I’d simply accepted what they said—assumed they were right. I was not myself, that’s my only explanation. So when I woke up after my rescue, the first thing I did was ask them to find out what had happened to you both. I told them to go to Henry and Bess’s place, because I knew that’s where you’d be, Kaia, if you were still alive.”
“But they didn’t send anyone,” Kaia said.
“They did, they…” He paused, rubbing his face with both hands before standing and taking her mom with him. “It turned out there was a mole in the room. This guy got a hold of my phone somehow. He sent around a photo of you and put it out there that I was alive and let the world know the locations of all our safe houses, including where you were in Charleston. Basically every asshole who ever felt wronged by us was sent after you.”
“Including Hector Tinquera,” I said under my breath.
“Exactly,” Kaia’s dad said.
Kaia sighed. “So that explains Picklebreath.” She looked at me. “And the chick in the freezer.”
Her dad and mom exchanged a look, but didn’t ask her to explain. “Apparently the NSA sent some agents to retrieve you and found an unconscious German patriot on the floor of the house, half a gallon of blood in the kitchen, and you running out the back door,” he said. “They chased you, but it seems we trained you right, and you got away.”
“So…wait? The black SUV…those were good guys?” I asked.
“One of the black SUVs, at least,” Kaia reminded me. “Probably not the one that was shooting at us.”
“No, that was the DeCosta brothers.” Kaia’s dad looked at her mom, who paled. “They are not happy people. The NSA nabbed them instead of you, and you know the rest.”
“So we were like five seconds from being rescued,” I said, and they all looked at me. “Just to be clear.”
“And Henry and Bess?” Kaia asked.
“They found them a half mile from the house. The German apparently tortured them pretty badly, but Bess is gonna be okay.” Kaia’s dad looked at her mom. “Henry didn’t make it.”
“Ohmygod.” Kaia let out a small sob. Her mom’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m really sorry,” I said. “They were always really nice to me.”
Kaia’s father looked my way. “Listen, Oliver… I want to thank you for sticking by my daughter. Whatever you two have been through out there, I’m glad she didn’t have to go through it alone.”
He offered his hand, and I got up to shake it, surprised by how wobbly my knees were. His grip was so strong it was hard for me to match it, but I tried.
“How did you find us, anyway?” I asked.
“A camera at the Joshua Tree National Park rest area got you guys on tape and facial recognition caught Kaia, and then Marco when he went inside. Once they realized you were all together, they tapped into Marco’s cell phone and read his texts. That’s how we found out where you were headed—where Hector Tinquera lived.”
He shook his head, seeming overwhelmed, and looked at Kaia. “I’m so sorry I left you, kiddo. I’m so sorry for everything this last year. I swear to you, if I could have gotten to you sooner, I would have. I’m so, so sorry.”
Tears spilled onto Kaia’s face, and she took three steps forward, then into her dad’s arms. He held onto her as she cried, and he gently rubbed her back. I watched them for half a second before I had to turn away.
I was happy for her. I was. But the jealousy that ripped through me was almost more than I could take. Before anyone could see my tears, I headed out the back door.
chapter 37
KAIA
I wanted to go after Oliver. Clearly, he needed me. But there was one thing I had to know first. I extricated myself from my father’s arms and looked at my mother.
“Have you been here, in the States, this whole time?”
She nodded. My mother never cried, but this was the closest I’d ever seen her come. Her face was almost purple from the effort of containing her emotion.
“Why didn’t you get in touch with me?” I asked. “Why didn’t you at least let me know you were alive? Do you have any idea what this year has been like for me?”
“I was trying to protect you, Kiki,” my mother said, the lines at the corners of her eyes deeper and sadder than I remembered. “Hector…he had someone watching me at every moment. He knew my every move. He was constantly threatening to track you down and…” She paused and swallowed a few times before continuing. “I had to do what he said…say what he wanted me to say…or he would have come after you.”
“Why didn’t he kill me in Mexico?” I asked.
My mom’s gaze darted to my dad, then back to me. “He was about to. He knocked you out, but when he raised a gun to you, I grabbed your pistol and put it to my head. I told him if he killed you, I’d kill myself, and then he’d never get what he wanted.”
Sounded familiar.
“Jesus, Elena,” my father said.
“Well it worked, didn’t it?” she countered. “She’s alive.” Her fingers raked at the skin at the base of her neck, and I realized suddenly it was her nervous tick. She used to play with her locket, which was now around my neck, so there was nothing there for her to touch. “You should know something, Kiki. Oaxaca was supposed to be our last job.”
I blinked. “What?”
“It was a massive payday. Enough for us to retire,” my father said. “We knew how much you wanted out and we wanted you to have a normal life. What we’d been doing to you…dragging you all over the world, never giving you time to make friends, go to school, have birthday parties… It was wrong. It was—”
“Selfish,” my mother interjected.
“So when we got back, we were done.”
I sat down hard on a chair. All these missed chances. Everything could have been so different. I felt like crying for what my life could have been, but I was all dried out. No tears would come.
“So how did you send that text to me? Telling me to stay away?” I asked. “I mean, if you were being watched.”
My mother cleared her throat and glanced at my father. He gave her a supportive nod and somehow, that made me feel more solid too. Obviously, they’d been through hell. They’d been ripped apart, not knowing whether I was alive, whether they’d ever see each other again. My mother’s lies had been revealed to my father. My mother had spent the past year married to an evil man. But still, they were managing to be there for one another now. We were going to be okay.
“I was allowed one half hour each day, most days anyway, to bathe on my own,” my mother began. “A few days ago, I overheard Hector and Tomas talking about your father. I couldn’t hear everything, but I caught enough to make me believe he might be alive. So I lifted one of the guards’ personal cell phones and smuggled it into the bathroom with me.”
She paused and reached for my father’s hand. “I used the cell phone to check the safe house cameras for signs of your dad. Instead, I saw you.”
“In Chicago,” I said.
“Yes, in Chicago.” She gave me a wan smile.
“Hector would have killed you if he’d found out you stole that phone,” my father said.
“Yes, but he would have killed the guard if he’d ever reported his phone missing, so I took the risk that the man wanted to live.”
My father nodded, proud of her logic. She blushed.
“A couple of nights ago, Hector told me he’d sent Tomas after you, Kaia. He said now that he knew David was alive he wanted to kill you himself. He wanted to take away the most precious thing in David’s life, like David had taken his.”
“I’m so glad I put that bastard down,” my father said.
“I’m so
sorry, Kiki. About everything.” My mother reached for my hand, and I let her take it. “But the important thing is, we’re back together now. All of us.”
“I’m sorry about Marco,” I told her, my voice thick. “He was so worried about putting me and Oliver in danger. I never thought about the fact that I was putting him in danger.”
“He loved you, kid,” my mother said, sounding so much like Marco it was painful. “If he had a choice, he would have rather you walked out of there alive than him.”
Hot tears fell onto my cheeks. My mom reached for my dad, and he pulled us both into another hug. I let myself drink them in for a moment, inhaling them, memorizing their feel, before I pulled away.
“So…what’re we gonna do?” I asked, drying my tender, bruised face with my fingertips.
“What do you mean?” my mother asked. She reached out to touch her locket, which lay flat against my chest, and smiled.
“Where are we going to go?” I asked, looking at my father. “Are you back in the CIA for real? Are we always going to be stalked by this army of hit men your mole sent after me? Are we going to have to keep moving?”
My mother and father exchanged a look. Clearly, neither of them had thought that far ahead.
“I never thought I’d get out of that prison,” my mom said.
“I was pretty much focused on getting you both safe,” my dad replied.
“Well then, maybe you two should talk.”
I took a step back. I’d done enough heavy thinking for one week. It was up to them now. They were, after all, the parents. I headed out the back door after Oliver, but paused on the threshold.
“One thing,” I said. “If we do get a new house, no pink in my room.”
chapter 38
OLIVER