“Not yet,” Ben reported.
“Jay Lopez is still making phone calls, trying to find anyone who’s free,” Eden told him.
“That’s totally unnecessary,” Ben said. “I mean, thank you. I appreciate it enormously, but we did it, Eed.” He was so excited, but Eden’s heart sank as he explained, “Angel’s already gone. She packed her things and took Wade’s car. She left town for good about five minutes ago.”
“Ben, no, call her and stop her.”
“What?” His voice went up in disbelief. “Why?” He even laughed. “Eed, no, she wanted to go. She was ready. She’s gone. She’s gonna be okay—”
Eden kept her voice even and low, so her tiny charges couldn’t hear what she was saying. “Ben. Listen to me. Mary Lou Rahman, you know, Sam Starrett’s ex-wife? She volunteers at the women’s shelter.” Mary Lou regularly led one of their daily AA meetings, but since AA stood for Alcoholics Anonymous, Eden didn’t share that with her little brother. “She knows a lot about domestic abuse. She said the shelter really is the safest place for Angel right now. She told me that the last thing an abused woman should do is try to flee by car. He’ll go after her—Cody will. And if she’s driving something as easy to spot as Wade’s piece of—” she cleared her throat and found another word for the pungently descriptive one that Ben had used to describe Wade’s car “—doody, the odds of his finding her are—”
Ben cut her off. “But he’ll expect her to go to Phoenix, because that’s where her sister—”
“He’s an expert at mind-games,” Eden repeated what Mary Lou had grimly told her. “It’s the classic abuser MO. Cody will know that Angel wouldn’t dare go there. He’ll know that she’ll know he’d find her if she did. So what are her options? Unless she has a passport—and I’m betting she’s not much of a jetsetter, considering—he’ll assume she’s not heading for Mexico. So he’ll follow her north.”
“Shit,” Ben swore.
“He’ll have to choose between the Five and the Fifteen,” Eden continued, “LA or Vegas. I guess that brings the odds down to fifty percent—”
“That’s still too high.” Ben’s voice was tight.
“He’ll pull off at every rest stop, thinking she’ll be too scared and sick to her stomach to stop for food, but she will have to pee—and he’ll be right,” Eden told him. “And if he finds her—when he finds her—he’ll do something crazy and stupid, like run her off the road, at ninety miles an hour. Seriously. Ben.” She lowered her voice even more. “Mary Lou said that this is the time—when a woman finally leaves her abusive spouse—that she’s most likely to end up dead. And where is Angel right now? Alone and isolated in some easy-to-spot car on the Five. If I were Cody, I’d guess the Five. A woman who’s running for her life is probably going to avoid the whole What happens in Vegas vibe. She’s more likely to go somewhere that might feel safer to a woman who’s alone than the land of drunken convention-goers, so… San Francisco or, I don’t know, Portland? Maybe as far north as Seattle?”
“Shit,” Ben said. “Really? You just… guessed that?”
“If I can guess it, Cody can, too,” Eden said. “So call her, Ben. She’s in danger—”
Ben cut her off. “We can’t call her. I already told you. She didn’t take her phone.”
“Fuh,” Eden couldn’t stop herself from starting that word she abso-effing-lutely couldn’t say while head of childcare at TS Inc. And then she was so flustered, she didn’t know where to go with the sound. Shh became shoot. Heh became heck. But her mind went blank as this Fuh just kinda hung there as all those little eyes focused on her, because she’d also let loose with some serious volume.
Sam Starrett’s daughter Haley saved her butt by cheerfully singing the chorus to Deck the Halls, turning Eden’s fuh into a fah. “Lah lah leh-lah, leh-lah lah lah!” Her smile was an echo of her father’s—a mix of mischief, amusement, and genuine concern.
“Mommy said she’d be here soon,” the little girl sang to the familiar tune as Eden quietly told Ben, “Call me as soon as Adam gets there.”
And then Eden joined in. “Fah lah lah leh-lah, leh-lah lah lah!”
* * *
Wade went immediately into worst case scenario mode as Ryan used his own phone to surf the myriad of domestic violence prevention websites, confirming the grim news that Ben had gotten from his sister.
This was the most dangerous time for Angel. And fleeing, alone, by car was absolutely not advised.
“It’ll distract Cody,” Wade insisted after suggesting he should go back to Plan Tell-His-Brother-that-Wade-is-Gay.
“Great,” Ryan said testily. “All that means is he’ll kill you before he jumps in his truck to go kill Angel, and I get to go to two funerals.”
“So… I’ll go to where he works and smash his windshield,” Wade said. “Except, he’d probably kick it out and drive without it. So, I’ll slash his tires. Without his truck he can’t follow her. Of course, then he’ll kill me for a different reason.”
“He could rent a car,” Ben pointed out. “Or borrow one from a friend. And then Angel won’t see him coming.” That could be worse that having her watching out for Cody’s black truck. “Also, he’s not at work.”
“He can’t rent a car,” Wade spoke over him. “He doesn’t have a credit card. Hell, he doesn’t have any money at all. This morning he borrowed ten bucks from me. And I know for a fact that he’s tapped out at the PayDay Loan place.” He shook his head. “As for friends…? None stupid enough to lend him their car. Maybe Jimmy Revere, but he rides a Harley, and he just bent the front tire’s rim.”
“Do you think Cody would be crazy enough to do something like steal a car to go after Angel?” Ryan asked Wade.
“We could only hope.”
They all jumped—Ben a little less high since he knew Adam’s voice, and he knew that the man was on his way over.
“Eden filled me in,” Adam told them through the screen door. “I just got off the phone with her, and she’s still at work, so it looks like I’m the cavalry, boys.” He winced as he came inside and saw Ben’s face with its array of healing scrapes and bruises.
“This is my friend Adam,” Ben told Ryan, because Wade had met the actor at the high school, after their first fight—God, that seemed like eons ago. Eden and Jenn had been out of town, at a friend’s wedding shower up in Napa, and Danny and Izzy had been busy, too, participating in a HAHO jump with SEAL Team Sixteen. So it had been Adam who’d come to school to collect Ben after that first suspension. “His partner’s in my brother’s team.”
“I’m sorry.” Ryan was wide-eyed. “But you’re Adam Wyndham. The Adam Wyndham. Omigod, I loved you in American Hero.”
“And you’re the Ryan,” Adam said, giving Ben an arch look of approval that also managed to say Lordy, what a shit-hole as he glanced around at Wade’s sorry living room. “I get it. You’re totes adorbs.”
Ryan, meanwhile, had spiraled into full fanboy mode. “Oh, man, that scene in the movie when you’re fighting the Nazi, the hand-to-hand combat sequence…? That was awesome!”
Meanwhile, Wade was bristling at the implication that Ben had discussed his boyfriend’s cuteness factor with Adam, so he put a possessive arm around Ryan as he said, “Totes adorbs? God, it’s so wrong when forty-year-olds refuse to age with dignity.”
Wade had similarly insulted Adam, weeks ago, in the high school front office, and no doubt had made note that implying that the handsome actor was old was a hot button for him.
Now Adam’s smile was dangerous as he said, “Oh, Mary, how incredibly sweet is it, that you and Totes Adorbs have patched things up?”
Wade bristled just as Adam clearly had known he would. “Don’t call me Mary.”
“Don’t call me forty, Junior.” Adam countered. “Despite the fact that you’re to blame for Ben looking like the poster child for a Fight Club remake, I’m here to save your pimply teenaged ass.”
“And how are you gonna do that?” Wade countered. “We gon
na pile into your stupid little Prius and chase after Angel, hope we find her before Cody does?”
“That’s not an entirely bad idea,” Adam said, “considering we know where she’s going.” He looked from Ben to Ryan to Wade. “We do know where she’s going?”
“North on the Five,” Ben confirmed. “But if we all leave, Cody’ll know something’s up because he’ll stop getting replies to his texts. He texts her constantly.”
“So we take the phone,” Adam said.
“Can’t. GPS. He tracks her,” Ben said.
“Hmm. Where’s Cody right now?” Adam asked. “And when was the last time he texted Angel’s phone to check up on her?”
“Two minutes ago.” Ryan had taken charge of answering Cody’s multitude of texts. “He asked, What’s for dinner?” He was being careful, scrolling back through days and weeks of saved texts, looking for Angel’s responses to similar questions and mimicking them so as not to arouse Cody’s suspicion. “I asked him what he wants. He hasn’t responded.”
Wade said, “He’s at work at a construction site near the marina—”
“No, he’s not,” Ben interrupted. “When I was on my way over, I saw him going into the Irish Pub.”
“That bar near Burgers Plus? The one that’s, like, two minutes from here?” Adam asked, his voice rising in disbelief, and Ben nodded. “Oh, good. So he could come home at any given moment…?”
“Why didn’t you tell me that before, shit-head?” Wade asked Ben. Like Adam, he was about to pop a vein.
“I did,” Ben said.
“No, you goddamn didn’t.” Wade looked as panicked as he ever had as he turned to Ryan. “You can’t be here. Please, Rye, you gotta go.” He started rummaging in a junk-filled drawer in the old dresser that was being used as a TV stand. “Besides, I’m just gonna just do it—go over to the Irish Pub, slash Cody’s tires.” He pulled out a switchblade knife that he opened with a flash of sharp-and-nasty before he snapped it shut. “He was just bitching about how much a new set cost—I know he can’t afford to replace them. If I take out his tires, he can’t follow Angel anywhere.”
“Wait,” Ben said. “I thought the idea to use Adam’s car to follow Angel was a good option—”
“Yeah? Good? Really? What if we don’t find her first?” Wade asked. “Or what if we do find her, and Cody shows up? What then?” He turned to Adam. “No offense, but your presence isn’t gonna slow him down. I know you kicked Nazi ass in American Hero, but those fight scenes were stunts. Cody’s twice your size, and he won’t be pulling his punches. Nah, the best way to keep him from Angel is to take out his truck, make it so he can’t follow her.” Knife in hand, he started for the door. “Ryan, go home. I’ll call you later. Ben, if you don’t mind staying and answering Cody’s texts—”
“Not a chance,” Ben said, blocking Wade’s path. “Wade, seriously. You can’t do this. You said so yourself. Cody’ll kill you. It’ll be for a different reason, for helping Angel get away, but—”
“It’s not like he’s not gonna figure that out,” Wade argued. “I mean, I gave her my car.”
“So don’t tell him that. Maybe she borrowed it to go to the store, and just hasn’t come back yet,” Ben said.
“Yeah, then he’ll make me report it as stolen, and the police’ll find her and drag her back here and—”
Adam spoke up. “I’ve seen you act,” he told Wade. “Just tell Cody you’ve already reported it stolen, throw in a coupla indignant That bitch’s gonna get its. If you sell it, he’ll believe you. I seriously doubt he’ll call the police to check up on you. Especially if he thinks you’re pissed at Angel, too. The key is to make Cody believe you’re on his side.”
On Cody’s side.
Ben laughed as he realized… “Of course.” He’d said it aloud and they all turned to look at him. So he told them, “I’ll slash Cody’s tires.”
“Yeah, that would be a giant, Godzilla-sized hell no,” Adam said.
“You.” Wade said flatly. “Do you even know how to—”
“How hard could it be?” Ben gestured with his head toward Wade’s knife. “Stab the sidewalls and pull? Repeat, repeat, repeat?”
“Um, no?” Adam said again.
Ben held out his hand for the knife. “Come on. Give it.”
Adam turned to Ryan to ask, “Have I suddenly become invisible?”
Ben turned to him. “Adam. Don’t you see, if I do it, it’ll be me getting back at Wade. We’re feuding, right? So I’m escalating it.” To Wade, “That way it’s not about Angel at all. It’s about you punching me in the face in Ms. S’s office, and getting me suspended again.”
“But why would you slash Cody’s tires?” Ryan spoke up. “I mean, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to mess with Wade’s car?”
“Wade’s car’s not here,” Ben was thinking aloud. “Also, maybe evil-tire-slashing me hopes Cody’ll get pissed enough to knock the shit out of Wade for me.”
“That’s pretty good motivation,” Adam said before catching himself. “But, sorry, no. Ben, Eden will kill us both.” He was, however, sounding less absolute.
“Adam, I love you,” Ben said, “but you don’t get to say no.”
“Yeah, I absolutely do,” Adam said. “As the delegate for Team Gillman—”
“What’s the worst that could happen?” Ben asked.
Adam didn’t have to think about that one. “You get arrested for destruction of property—go to jail, pay a hefty fine, have an arrest record until the end of time…? And all that probably happens after Cody beats you into a bloody, unrecognizable pulp.”
“Maybe I can do it without anyone seeing me,” Ben was thinking out loud. “Then it’s my word against Cody’s when—if—he goes to press charges.”
“In that parking lot, in broad daylight?” Wade scoffed. “Someone’s gonna see you. Also? Surveillance cameras. I know that Burgers Plus has ’em—”
“Most businesses do,” Ryan chimed in.
“So… we get Cody to go someplace where there’s not any surveillance cameras,” Ben started.
“Ben,” Adam said again. “No.”
“But if I slash the tires, Wade and Cody will be on the same side,” Ben repeated the words that Adam himself had spoken just moments earlier. “Adam. Think about it. If Wade plays this right, he pretends that he’s mad at Angel for taking his car, and that he’s mad at me for slashing Cody’s tires. There’s a solid chance Cody won’t take any of it out on Wade, because they’ll be on the same side!”
Wade didn’t get the importance of what Ben was saying, and he just kept shaking his head.
Adam, however, had landed solidly on Ben’s page. “Whoa.”
“Yeah,” Ben said. “And as far as the beating-me-into-a-bloody-pulp thing goes, Cody won’t have to, if Wade—”
“Does it for him.” Adam laughed his disbelief. “Whoa. Kid, I dunno…”
“It’ll work,” Ben insisted. “You just have to show us…” The idea had sparked when Wade made that crack about Adam’s choreographed fight scenes in American Hero.
“Okay. Okay. Devil’s advocate. Let’s just make sure…” Adam turned to Wade to ask, “Is there a gun in this house?”
“What?” Wade was even more confused.
Adam pushed. “Legally or illegally, is there—”
“No,” Wade said. “I mean, Jesus. What are you gonna—”
“Not for us to use,” Adam said quickly. “Not for anyone to use. I was just making sure Cody doesn’t have access to a firearm. You know, to kill Ben with after he slashes his tires?”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t be good,” Ben said.
“No,” Wade said again. “Cody’s on probation, so my dad moved all of his guns over to my uncle’s. That was a noisy day.”
“And nothing’s wandered its way back here?” Adam asked. “You’re sure?”
“Absolutely,” Wade said. “Believe me, if there was a weapon in the house, Cody’s probation officer would’ve gotten an anonymous
tip about it by now. Seriously though, Cody can do plenty of damage to Ben with only his fists.”
“But he won’t have to,” Adam said, “if you beat the shit out of Ben, first.”
Wade was astonished. “Wait. You want me to…?”
“Yes. Sa-weet baby Jesus, save me!” Adam squeezed his eyes shut. “I can already feel Eden’s wrath.” But he laughed again. “Ben, you’re a genius. This could actually work.”
* * *
SEAL Candidate Petty Officer Third Class
Jon “Timebomb” Jackson:
It happened fast.
It was during log PT. We were humping the thing down the beach and back, and yeah, it was late Thursday afternoon. We were all exhausted, and when freaking Schlossman’s foot slipped in the soft sand, he went down. Hard.
I know it wasn’t his fault. It could’ve happened to anyone of us, but at the time I was feeling like this dude was a giant load that we were carting around on our backs.
So Schloss hits the deck, and here’s the thing: when there’re only five of you carrying a three-hundred pound telephone pole, when one of you goes down, you all tend to follow. Like, what’s that called? Dominoes. (laughs)
I had the misfortune of landing between the sand and the log.
(Rubs his left collarbone.) And yeah, I actually heard the bone snap.
At first I thought it was my neck, which would’ve, um… Well. Been bad is an understatement.
Funny—although, it wasn’t that funny at the time. But after that initial mind-blowing burst of pain, the dull ache that followed wasn’t much worse than the pain I was already carrying. Add into that the fact that I was grateful to be feeling anything. I mean, not a broken neck, right? So I’m ecstatic about that.
Until I realize what it means—a broken bone.
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