by Snow, Nicole
“Oh my God!” I rush to his side. “Manny, Manny! What happened here?”
“Gwen. S-sorry.” He lifts the hand that was pressed to his stomach. “They...they beat me. I didn’t want to tell them...ohhh.”
He’s holding his phone, pinching his teeth together. It’s smeared with blood. Still, he holds it out to me.
“Nine-one-one. I...I can’t...” His eyelids flutter shut, and I wonder if he’s passed out. Then they open again, and barely whispering, he says, “Leave. Run. While...while you can. They know, Gwen. About you and Rush. I’m so...damn sorry.”
For the next ten seconds I’m just frozen, this terrible ringing sound lodged in my ears.
No, deeper than that, embedded in my brain, which struggles to grasp what he just said.
The full nightmare hits me why this happened, why my boss is a crumpled mess on the floor begging for mercy and straining to even breathe.
Jesus Christ, they found him.
The same people after Miller.
Shaking, I reach for my purse, for my phone, but it’s still in the car.
I’m not sure if it’s my head or my heart spinning faster. I feel like I just might pass out and join him on the floor.
But however scared I am, however confused, I can’t.
Can’t and won’t.
Manny groans again, using what looks like the last of his strength to give the phone a good shake.
I grab it from his hand, and dial 9-11, while jumping to my feet. As soon as dispatch answers, I rattle off the address and say a man’s been hurt bad. Beaten.
Manny gurgles again as the call ends. “Leave, G-Gwen. Go. Leave before they–”
I drop his phone on the floor a second before dispatch even hangs up, saying they’ll be there shortly. “Manny, no. I have to make sure you get help.”
And I also have to make sure this strange, newfound courage isn’t the end of me. I can’t leave a man who might be dying here like this. But I can’t do this alone.
I kneel down again, find his hand, and squeeze with all my might as he grumbles.
Whatever Manny Stork is – modern day Scrooge, white-collar criminal, selfish prick, bad luck charm – right now he’s a human being suffering mightily from his own bad karma. Even though I’m worried sick his agony might be contagious, might become mine, I can’t walk away and leave him here alone until I know he’s in custody, being treated, safe.
“Give me thirty seconds. I’m going to run to my car and get my phone so I can call for help.” I wait for him to nod weakly before bolting.
I’ve never run so fast in my life, flying through the office and back across the parking lot.
Shaking from head to toe, I have to hit the unlock button several times before I can get my car door open. Inside, my phone is ringing, the screen lit up and vibrating.
I fumble around, sliding into the driver’s seat so I can answer the call.
For a split second, I consider jamming my key in the ignition and flooring it away.
But I’m not Ms. Cluck-cluck today. I can’t leave Manny like this. A surge of adrenaline rips through me.
“Hello?” I almost yell it, swiping the answer icon without even looking at the number.
“Gwendolyn Marsha Courtney, get your butt to my place now!”
There’s that terror again. I’ve never heard Mother so frantic in my life. You know it’s serious when your mom uses your middle name.
“Mother!” I shout. “Where’s Miller?! It’s Manny, my boss, he’s–”
“Miller’s already here with the kids! He tried to call you ten times and said you wouldn’t answer.” Mother says. “Get over here now.”
My teeth dig into my lip so hard I taste blood, metallic and acrid.
Briefly, I wonder if the shrill noise in my ears is panic setting in. Nope, it’s real.
Sirens. Probably the ambulance and police escort the emergency dispatch told me were on the way.
“Gwen? Gwendolyn?” Mother sounds scared. Something I’m not sure she’s ever been.
Holy hell, this is bad.
“Sorry. I’m coming. I’ll drive right over.”
Once I see the flashing lights in my mirror pulling into the lot, I drop the phone and hit the gas. I don’t think I’ve ever pushed Old Pearl so fast.
More sirens shriek across town so close I can hear them, but that doesn’t stop me from speeding, running stop signs, needing to get to Miller and Mother and the kids ASAP.
It feels like an eternity with the same noxious sweat beading on my brow. The same awful questions leaping up from their depths in my mind and poisoning me.
What if the people who did this to Manny are far from done?
What if we’re not safe, even at Mother’s?
* * *
He’s there, standing in the driveway. And it’s hard to fight the urge to just throw the car into park, leap out, and hurl myself into Miller’s arms.
I also see Mother and a man I don’t recognize in a bombardier jacket, grey hair, and a little scruff on his chin.
Oh God, he might be one of them, I decide, nearly hyperventilating.
I slam on the gas and aim Old Pearl directly at him. My car roars, unsure she wants anything to do with the taste of blood. Frankly, neither do I, but–
But nothing. Miller leaps in front of the stranger and spreads his arms, waving.
“Crap!” I slam on the brakes and wrench the wheel, barely missing Miller, right before Pearl plows into a large concrete planter with a worrying crunch!
Just awesome. I’m still trying not to scream, untangling my seat belt, when Miller rips open my door.
“He’s after you!” I shout, crawling out, grabbing his collar. “They hurt Manny!”
“Babe, no. Come the hell here,” Miller growls, pulling me out of the car, into his arms. “You almost just flattened the man helping us.”
I fall down against him, relieved, thankful, but still so scared I even feel pale.
I’m not sure what happens next.
I can hear, see, move, but it’s like I’m just a guest in someone else’s body. A heavy fog takes over, blurs my vision, surrounds me, and chews up time and people and plans.
There’s something about the older guy, Mother’s guy, telling us we have to go. They’ve already got a place picked out a couple hours from here, apparently, somewhere to keep us all safe.
I hope to God they’re right.
* * *
It’s not until later, when we’re in a new black pickup, traveling north with Miller driving, me in the passenger seat, with Shane and Lauren in the back, that the brain fog starts lifting.
“How’re you doing?” Miller asks, looking over at me.
I pull my gaze off the kids in the mirror, who are both wearing headphones. They’re blissfully encased in their own worlds and I don’t blame them one bit. Shane plays a game on his little Nintendo, and Lauren follows along while an audiobook narrates a story on her tablet. A hint of seeing Mother hand the devices to the children, and of Miller telling them to put on their headphones before we pulled out of her driveway, flashes in my mind.
“What the hell happened?” I ask. “Where are we going, and who was that man?”
“The guy you almost made into a pancake?”
“Yes!”
“I take it you’ve never met J.T.?” Miller keeps his attention on the road. “He’s a friend of your ma’s. Former military, investigative experience, and pretty damn good at what he does.”
J.T.?
“No, never met him,” I say, though the name rings a bell, someone I remember her interviewing a few times for research. “But if he’s just a friend, why’s he involved?”
“Your ma hired him to help me.” Miller’s tone drops an octave.
The tick in his cheek tells me more. “You aren’t happy about that?”
“Can’t say I was real keen on it at first. I am now. Came around to the idea fast after Keith called, after plans changed, and now, hearing about
your boss...” His jaw tightens, suddenly more chiseled than ever. He glances in the rear-view mirror at the children before focusing on the road again. “If it wasn’t for J.T. and your ma, frankly, we might not be here right now.”
I blink at him a few times. Trying not to make myself sick off all the grim possibilities he’s hinting.
“What happened this morning? How’d you know about Manny before I did? I wasn’t even gone that long, probably half an hour at the store...”
“J.T. was on patrol. Has been since he set up his guys with the Equinox last night, but maybe we were too late. He was watching your office, Stork’s office, I mean. One of many things he’s supposed to pay attention to. As soon as he saw who dropped by this morning, and IDed them positively, he called me, told me to be packed in five minutes for a ride to May’s place.”
That woman I saw? “Is she the one you’re so worried about? The woman who met Manny, I mean. Tall, slender, black hair?”
“That’s her,” he growls, glancing at me. “You saw Jackie?”
“Yeah. I saw Manny pull into the office on my way to the store. Couldn’t believe he was working on a Sunday, so I drove around the block and watched him and a dark-haired woman walk into the office. I just thought it was another client, not...not someone who’d beat him up. Not this.”
Miller’s eyes are glued to the road.
“God, what if Manny didn’t make it?” I ask, trembling at the thought. “The cops and EMTs were pulling up when Mother called, but I don’t know how bad he was hurt. I stayed until they got there. I just couldn’t leave him.”
“J.T. will let us know. That was mighty brave of you, Gingersnap, hanging around for that worm. He owes you his life if he’s still got one.”
My stomach sinks. “I should’ve stayed longer. Maybe I could’ve told the police something so they’d catch this Jackie person.”
He reaches over and lays a hand on my knee. “No, you shouldn’t have. It’s J.T.’s job to worry about that. You did exactly what you needed to do. We had to leave. All of us.”
My head hurts with more questions.
Picking and choosing the ones to focus on, I ask, “So did that J.T. pick you and the kids up?”
“May did,” he tells me. “Soon as she heard from him, she was on her way.”
“My mother picked you up? Um, just how involved is she in this?”
“Too deep now,” he answers, shaking his head. “She also packed a suitcase for you. That lady thinks of everything.”
Yeah, except for the way I scared her half to death when she couldn’t get a hold of me.
Any other day, that would frighten me. Today, it doesn’t matter.
“J.T. stayed at the office as long as he could, waited for Jackie to leave, then tailed her.” He glances at me. “To your place. Her goons must’ve beat it out of Manny.”
I slap a hand to my chest, feeling my heart leap into my throat. “You were already gone, weren’t you?”
“Yeah, safe and sound at your ma’s. Calling you, but you weren’t answering.”
“I was dealing with Manny.” There’s this nervous rush of relief and fear. A feeling like we just dodged a bullet, except there’s no way to guess how many more are coming.
He gives a slight nod. “They won’t find anything at your place, I made sure nothing was left behind.”
“Did J.T. call the cops on them for breaking and entering?”
“They didn’t hang around long enough to try. Almost like they knew the place was deserted. Or knew they’d been compromised.”
“Well, they beat up Manny bad. He has to tell the police. A sworn statement. That’s evidence.”
He shakes his head. “Only if someone can find her, babe. Can’t put that witch away for shit till she’s got no broomstick left to fly away on.”
“I saw Manny, too. Once they get her, I’ll tell them everything. Don’t you worry.”
He shoots a sorrowful look my way. “Not that easy. Even if they brought her into custody, she’s got an army of law sharks and insiders lined up to help. We can’t even have her arrested unless we’re sure we can keep her locked up. Not till we find some way to release the intel on Mederva.”
Frustration and anger scorch my veins. “Who is this Jackie, anyway?”
“She took over as CEO for Mederva Therapeutics a couple years ago,” he tells me, then goes quiet.
It’s not hard to figure out the rest.
“Is that when all the other stuff you told me about last night started?”
“Yeah. She must’ve been brainstorming it for years, had all the right pieces in place like lightning. Only area she slipped up was distribution, shipping, where Keith and I knew something wasn’t right.”
Another flash of Manny, of his trashed office, his beaten body, enters my mind, sending an ice-cold shiver down my back.
I swallow the burning bile in my throat before whispering, “She’s pure evil. We really are in deep doo-doo, aren’t we?”
Miller looks at me intently then, bristling. “No. Leave it to me. I’m going to get us the hell out of this. She’ll pay a hundred times for making you suffer.”
14
Promises Made (Miller)
I walk the perimeter of the cabin for the fourth or fifth time tonight.
It looks secure, and we’re as deep in the woods as a cabin can be. These forests up here are enough to rival the thousand-year-old rainforests and overgrowth I’m used to back west.
It took us damn near four hours to get here, and it still doesn’t feel like it’s far enough.
Nowhere’s truly far enough from a lioness on the prowl.
She’ll find us, sooner or later. Find me. Just like she almost did this morning.
It’s worse than I thought since she’s come here personally. I always figured she’d send her minions. The risk of keeping the cleanup completely hush-hush inside the company must’ve been enough to pull her out of her ivory tower.
Not that it’d be the first time I’ve seen her personal thirst for violence.
Or maybe she just wants to settle score with me.
I had no choice. We barely survived our first brush with her and escaped with our lives.
Now, after beating the truth out of Manny, it’s only a matter of time till Jackie the Ripper connects the dots between Gwen and May and this little cabin.
I have to be ready to fight. To protect Gwen and the kids and this place with a few savage surprises of my own.
Fuck.
Cold sweat beads on my brow. My insides clench, my heart wavers, like there’s this huge fist hammering me from the inside out. I worried I’d already lost it all this morning.
I’d been so fucking scared when Gwen didn’t answer her phone. Then when I pulled open her car door, after she’d come flying up in my arms, shaking uncontrollably.
It’s not hard to see what this shit is, a slow acid drip ruining her life, and I hate every bit of it.
Seeing her safe rivaled even what I felt when I saw Shane running up the driveway carrying his precious lemons.
Relieved. Thankful. And so pissed off I want to personally impale Wren’s head on a pike.
Small silver lining, her grocery run left us with a full food supply. We loaded it up from her car into the new truck J.T. loaned me, meaning we won’t have to leave the cabin for several days.
I’d packed everything I could grab at her place, but knew we’d need more.
May saw to everything else with J.T.
The nondescript Chevy, for one thing, a great choice since it’s just about the most common pickup on the roads in America. Gas for the generator. The cabin itself. It’s a rustic place with a few rooms perched on a huge, secluded section of Rainy Lake. Ontario is less than half an hour away if things really go to hell.
However long we’re here, the cabin isn’t half bad. It’s fully off the grid, and with the generator, it has all the conveniences of home. Only one road in and out, too.
Its A-framed shape
and green tin roof blend into nature.
Probably renders it invisible from the sky with the tall pines and hardwood trees everywhere.
The kids were excited, treating this like one more stop on our forced vacation to the Upper Midwest. They instantly claimed the open loft with two twin beds as their space. The lower level has an open living and kitchen area, then a bedroom with a queen bed and bathroom attached.
The cinder block basement holds the water tanks and generator. I’ve already carried it up the steps leading from the basement and set it up in the sound-reducing shelter attached to the back.
There’s also a wooden garage shed on the property. Big enough to park the truck in and to store various lake equipment, kayaks, a canoe, life jackets, fishing gear.
All the things I truly can’t imagine May ever using.
Gingersnap, however, might be right at home. She’s a natural water baby. Her abilities in the pool proved it.
If we get a second to enjoy ourselves, I want to check out the lake. Also wouldn’t mind seeing her in that bikini again. Or even bare-assed and mine.
She’s proved her many talents in that department and many more.
Right now, she’s inside, putting away the fuckton of groceries she bought. Almost like she knows we’ll need them organized. I’m sure it helps make the kids feel like this is a vacation rental rather than a hideout.
I’m thankful for that.
For all she’s done, really, and I shudder to think where I’d be if I hadn’t met her and May.
Still hate the fact I’ve put them all in danger trying to expose Mederva’s human sacrifices.
But accepting their help has gotten easier. They’re giving people, every last one of them, and every day everyone’s alive and in one piece makes me more grateful.
Now I just have to make sure I don’t take advantage of that.
Once this is over, with Jackie and her crew behind bars, we’ll be gone.
Not Ireland. Not necessarily home to Seattle. But somewhere safe, somewhere we can call home, where the kids can have normal lives.
Normal.