Young Lies (Young Series)

by Kimble, W. R.

  To the annoyance of several doctors and federal agents, I refused medical treatment upon arrival to the hospital. Let’s face it: a sprained ankle and some cuts and bruises pale into comparison to everything else happening right now. The bits of news I’ve received about last night’s events are minimally pleasing: three dead, four in police custody, but one escape. And until Samantha wakes up and tells us who that last person is, or one of the four breaks his silence, we’ve got nothing. The only description I have to go on is “female.” Not helpful.

  More than once I’ve replayed the scenes on the boat in my head. How our stealthy approach was given away by a very observant guard with a gun. Though we hadn’t wanted to, we had no choice but to open fire and Marcus isn’t one to miss his target. Unfortunately for the target, or fortunately for us, depending on how you look at it, the guard was dead before he hit the ground. When we approached and got a good look at him, I remember shaking my head sadly. He couldn’t have been older than nineteen. But there wasn’t time to linger; the gunshots had clearly announced our presence. The minutes that followed remain a complete blur with the exception of a few key moments. Marcus roughly shoving me to the ground, my ankle twisting on a rock as I dropped. The bullet that flew past a second later that would have undoubtedly hit me. Voices shouting, more bullets. A door slamming open on the piece of shit boat that looked as though it shouldn’t float, let alone run. Two men walking through that door, one carrying a small boy who was kicking and screaming and fighting his captor; the other twisting a woman’s arms behind her back with one giant hand while the other pressed the muzzle of a gun to her temple. The men were shouting at us in Russian—probably threats of what they would do to their captives if we didn’t surrender. I really don’t know; by that point I was in a blind rage at the expressions of sheer terror on the two faces I most treasure in the world.

  The only thing that could have broken my gaze at that point was the too bright beam of a searchlight, its source being a helicopter. I know the light hit me at exactly the right moment, and I will never forget the look on Samantha’s face as she saw me, recognized me. Time slowed down in that moment. Samantha began to struggle, her eyes wide and locked on me with no regard to the gun at her skull. The giant hulking man holding her didn’t have a prayer in the world when she managed to twist away and knee him in the groin. And the guy holding Tyler would have suffered the same fate if his partner hadn’t recovered just enough to slam the butt of his gun into Sam’s head so hard that I swear I heard her skull crack, then throwing her body into the wall of the boat’s cabin. Before I could take a breath, Tyler was being thrown overboard and a team of CIA agents swarmed from seemingly nowhere. It had all happened so fast that I was certain I was the only one who’d seen my son flailing in the water.

  Ignoring my injured ankle and the shouts from Marcus for me to stop, I hobbled down to the water and threw myself in, swimming more quickly than I ever had before to get to where Tyler disappeared into the water. When I reached him he was sinking and I dived down, my eyes wide and ignoring the sting of disgusting lake water, grasped for his arm, and hauled him to the surface. Sucking in fresh air, I glanced down and adjusted my grip on Tyler, and felt a surge of affection for my son when I saw the Batman watch on his wrist. It seems like forever ago that I sat with him in my sister’s living room, watching cartoons, and tinkering with that damn watch while his eyes were glued to the screen. When it put it back on his wrist, he looked at me like I was insane, which was true both then and now, and I swore him to secrecy, then promised him I’d fix it when I returned from my trip. I think it excited him to have a secret with me.

  As I got us back to the shore, Tyler unconscious in my arms though mercifully still breathing, I quickly slid the watch off his wrist and into my pocket. My hand moves now to press it into my thigh, assuring myself it’s still there.

  By the time Tyler and I reached the land, whatever fight had broken out was over. That’s how quick this situation went. Several ambulances were on scene and as I searched for Samantha, some EMT had the audacity to take my son from me. The look I’d given him promised certain death if he touched even a single hair on Tyler’s head. He’d backed off then, and Marcus had found me, wordlessly leading me towards one of the ambulances. Samantha was inside, unconscious, and even from where I stood outside, I knew she was in trouble. An oxygen mask covered her mouth and nose. IVs were sticking out of her wrists. Blood was trickling from somewhere on her body to the ambulance floor.

  I then had a decision to make. I could either ride to the hospital with Samantha while the EMTs worked frantically to save her or I could ride with Tyler in case he woke and needed comfort. As much as it killed me, I chose my son. The moment we arrived at the hospital, I was separated from both of them with yet another assurance that I would be kept up to date on their statuses. True to their word, someone has come in every hour since I’ve been here to update me. Tyler will be fine. He had a fair amount of water in his lungs, but that’s since been removed and he will recover quickly. Samantha, on the other hand...

  Fisting my hair in my hands, I groan. Concussion. Broken skull. Cracked ribs. Cracked kneecap—I vaguely wonder whether that’s a result of kneeing that bastard in the balls. If so, he won’t be reproducing... Then there was the last thing they mentioned—

  “Matthew.”

  The voice is soft spoken and familiar. So much so that before I even look, I’m on my feet and crossing the room, and my mother’s arms are wrapped tightly around my shoulders. I breathe in her comforting scent—the scent I knew as a little boy when I was sick—and instantly feel all my defensive walls crumbling. “I’m here, Mom,” I tell her as she begins to sob. “It’s all right. I’m here.”

  I crane my neck to find my father just inside the room—I didn’t even hear the door open—looking at me as though he’s never seen me before in his life. And he’s crying. Actually crying like he was at my memorial service. “Hey, Dad,” I say to him.

  Shaking his head, he closes the distance and hugs me and my mother. I’m not sure when we separate, but Mom doesn’t let go of my hand as we move to sit. “What the hell, son?” Dad breathes.

  I huff a laugh. “Long story, Dad,” I murmur, squeezing my mom’s hand. “One I’d really rather not get into right now.”

  “Dumbass.”

  We all look up to find Claire standing in the doorframe looking shocked and pale. I release my mom to cross the room and hold my baby sister. “Good to see you, beautiful,” I say against her hair, pressing a kiss to her head.

  “How’s Sam?” she asks, pulling away from me. “And Ty.”

  “They’ll be okay,” I say, trying to keep my voice even. I wonder how much my parents and sister have heard. “Tyler is stable, just scared and asleep at this point. And Samantha has some moderate injuries including a concussion, but the doctors don’t think any of it is life threatening.”

  At some point, I mention being hungry and my parents jump up to announce they’re going to get me something to eat. Claire rolls her eyes as they leave the room and doesn’t hesitate to start in on me. “You fucking dumbass,” she hisses, slapping me in the shoulder. “You’ve been alive this whole Goddamn time and you didn’t even contact us? Do you have any idea—”

  “Just stop,” I beg her. “Claire, I’m fucking exhausted. I know you’re pissed off and I know the last couple months haven’t been easy, and you will have your turn at tearing me a new asshole; just not now. I want to know my son and my wi—” I break off suddenly, mentally cursing myself at my near slip. Claire’s eyes widen fractionally. “—and Samantha are going to be okay before I start worrying about the rest of you.”

  Claire nods, taking my hand. “Fair enough,” she says. “I’ll drop the whole thing about you being dead. But there’re still a lot of unanswered questions that need answering. Not least of all, what the fuck happened that landed Sam and Ty in here?”

  Sighing heavily, I sit back in my chair and explain what I know. By the
time I’m done, Claire is speechless, something so rare and almost exotic that I smile a little. The amusement is gone quickly as I’m thrown back into the reality of my situation. “It’s my fault,” I say quietly. “All of it, Claire. If it hadn’t been for me, Samantha wouldn’t even be in this situation. I should have left her alone from the very beginning or at least let her live her life with Tom. She could have been happy and without fear. And Tyler... He nearly drowned tonight, Claire. I almost didn’t get to him in time. As it is, it’s a fucking miracle he’s alive. Another thirty seconds...”

  “Stop,” my sister commands. “Matt, don’t be stupid! Tyler isn’t dead. He didn’t drown. You got to him in time and he’s going to be back to normal in a day or so. As for Samantha being better off without you... Yeah, maybe you’re right. You and Leo could have seen her in that diner that day and you could have just ignored her, then gone on your merry way never to think of her again. She would have stayed in that tiny town depressed and miserable and not living her life the way she wanted to live it. She could have married Tom Saunders and they could have half a dozen kids by now and live on some Godforsaken farm. But you know what? None of those kids would be Tyler. Her life revolves around that little boy and you know it. It’s because of you she’s got him. Would you really wish that away?”

  “No,” I whisper, swallowing the bile in my throat. “Never.”

  Claire ignores me. “If you’d ignored the threat against Samantha and Tyler and if you hadn’t gone to Omaha when you did, something would have happened to them. It’s only a matter of when it would have happened. You might not believe it, but you’ve kept them safe. And I know that’s why you did what you did, to keep them safe. They’re safe, Matt.”

  “It’s not over, though,” I say grimly. “One of the kidnappers got away.”

  “And they’ll be found,” she tells me. “Don’t concentrate on that. Concentrate on the fact that you’ve got what you’ve wanted for five years: Samantha and Tyler. Are you going to make the most of it or are you going to wallow in what you think would have been best for everybody?”

  I stare at my baby sister, my eyes narrowed at her stubborn face. “I hate you sometimes,” I mutter. She cracks a smile that I manage to return as I pull her against me and press a kiss to her forehead. “They’re safe.” My words are mostly directed to myself and I’m surprised that I feel better at hearing them aloud.

  “Damn right they are,” Claire tells me, resting her head on my shoulder.

  “First thing I’m going to do when this shit is over,” I say quietly, “is get that kid some damn swimming lessons.”

  Claire laughs and starts to respond, but there’s a knock on the door and we’re both immediately sobered as the door opens. I expect to see a doctor enter; instead I’m on my feet immediately, watching as Leo’s tanned faces drains of all its color and he leans against the doorframe to keep himself upright. “What the fuck...” he breathes, staring at me.

  “Where were you?” I demand, suddenly pissed. I see Claire stand up slowly in case she needs to break something up. “Why weren’t you at the house last night?”

  Leo blinks rapidly, straightening up, his posture defensive. “I was out,” he says faintly. “Took the boat out for hours.”

  Easy enough to check...

  “Where were you?” he counters.

  We stare at one another for a few very long moments before I finally smirk. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  Leo smiles cautiously and enters the room completely, crossing over and pulling me into an embrace that I return after a couple seconds. “Jesus Christ, Matt,” he whispers.

  “Yeah,” I respond. After a couple manly pats on the back we push one another away and look anywhere but at one another. Claire is looking between us like she finds us completely insane.

  “Idiots,” she mutters, shaking her head in amazement as she sits back down.

  I do what I can to bring Leo up to speed on what’s going on. Apparently he was out on the boat until two hours ago and in the time since, he’s been questioned thoroughly and finally cleared and told of what happened. Marcus drove him to the hospital himself, conveniently leaving out the detail of my presence. This was discussed beforehand; I want to see the reactions of everyone I come into contact with. A little paranoid, maybe, but an unfortunate necessity given that someone close to me has betrayed me. And the look of shock on my best friend’s face was, thankfully, completely genuine and exactly what I was looking for. I hate being suspicious of the people closest to me. I wish it were unnecessary.

  At some point, Claire notices the looks passing between Leo and me, and knows we need to discuss things in private, so she volunteers to head out and find my parents and see if she can’t coerce someone into giving her information on Samantha and Tyler.

  “What the fuck happened?” Leo asks the moment the door is shut behind my sister. “I saw that plane, Matt. You couldn’t have walked away from it.”

  “You’re right,” I agree. “If I’d been on it, I wouldn’t have walked away.”

  Realization dawns in his eyes and it pushes him back into his chair. “You got off the plane,” he states quietly. I nod. “How’d you know?”

  I shrug. “Terry and I did the pre-flight checks. I saw something he didn’t. He got on the plane, went into the cockpit, I disappeared.”

  Leo is shaking his head. “Matt, if I’d known...”

  “I know,” I say before he can finish his sentence. “You weren’t meant to know. And I know you know what I mean by that.” Leo looks away frowning. “It was necessary.”

  “Yeah,” Leo says gruffly. Our eyes meet and an understanding passes between us, and this won’t be discussed any further right now. A time and place for a more in-depth visitation will present itself, but we’ve only got minutes before my family returns. He tells me about the days following my “death.” How he was detained in Moscow for two days before the American embassy sprang him free. He was questioned about his reasons for being in the country, what he might know about the plane crash, and what, if any, connection he might have to the terrorist cell that’s been after us. The moment he landed at home, he was taken to Claire’s.

  There’s something else I need to know about, though. I know what I need to know about the Russians and they’re much less of a concern now than they were only weeks ago. “What’s Frank Marone got to do with this?” I ask in a low voice.

  His eyes snap up to mine in surprise.

  I shake my head. “Don’t look at me like that. I’ve learned more in the last few weeks than you can even imagine. Tell me about Frank.”

  He knows he’s in trouble. “You know Sam was working for him?”

  Freezing, I glare at him. “What?” I growl.

  Leo blinks at me. “You didn’t know,” he whispers. “Fuck.”

  “What do you mean she was working for him? Start talking, Leo, or your head is going through the fucking wall.”

  He rubs his hands over his face. “She wanted a part time job and I knew Frank was looking for an office assistant. So I sent her to the travel agency. Matt, I thought it’d be okay.”

  I knew Frank had been keeping tabs on Samantha, though I don’t know why; what I didn’t realize was that Samantha was put right in his line of sight.

  “I thought she was all right.”

  “Why would you think that?” I demand irritably. “After all the shit he pulled, why would you send Samantha to work for that bastard? If she wanted a part time job, you should have gotten her to Bonnie or God forbid, Young Technologies. Of all the people in the world, you pick the one I wouldn’t trust with my dry cleaning let alone the mother of my child.”

  “I know,” Leo acquiesced. “No excuses. All I can say is I thought if anyone could handle him, it would be her. The second she came to me about what she found, I knew I was wrong.”

  My brow furrows. “What did she find?” I ask cautiously. God only knows what Frank Marone might have hanging around his office...
r />   “Files in his office,” Leo tells me promptly. “Full of photos and information on her and Tyler. From what she described, he’s been gathering this shit for years. Obviously I haven’t had a chance to do any sort of investigation; this only went down yesterday. If I’d been more on the ball, I would have caught it. I’m sorry.”

  Unfortunately, it’s not news to me that Frank Marone has been stalking Samantha and Tyler for years—it’s the reason I was so determined to get home—but the fact that Sam is now aware of the stalking is unacceptable in my book. I’ve worked very hard over the years to keep her as oblivious to the downsides of my job as possible and I’ve failed that. “If you knew Frank had all this information, why did you leave the house last night? You should have been there to protect them, Leo. You swore to me you would be.”

  Leo rubs his hands roughly across his face. “I didn’t realize it’d gotten this far, Matt,” he tells me. “When I left, I told Ray and Drew to keep an eye on things, increase the rounds, Alvin was supposed to be watching the lake. I needed to get out for a little while. I waited until I was sure Sam and Tyler would be in bed before taking off.”

  “Where’d you go?”

  “Couple miles down the river. I was, um, meeting someone.”

  Something in his tone is off. “Who?”

  He shifts uncomfortably. “A woman. I was there all night if you want to ask her,” he says.

  My eyebrows shoot up as his meaning sets in. “Right,” I say briskly, really not wanting details any further than that.

  “You think Frank was involved?”

  “I don’t have any real proof at this point, but if he’s not involved in some capacity, I’ll sign my company, assets, and bank accounts to my nieces and nephews.”

  Leo nods broodingly and we sit in silence for a few minutes until another knock on the door breaks the silence. This time it’s a doctor and I’m on my feet before he can even close the door. There’s a smile on his face, so I choose to take that to mean he has good news. He pauses for a moment, glancing at Leo who quickly gets to his feet.