Mr. Maples’s moans continued as his arms and legs twitched. It was his penis that caught my attention. It wasn’t sticking out but wrinkled and small. I thought about how the teacher told us that raisins were dried grapes. His penis was now a raisin.
Mom looked from him to me. Her neck straightened. “You are going away, Lorna.”
My knees wobbled. “Mom, I’ll be good. I promise.”
“We’re all going away.”
“What?” I didn’t understand.
Mom’s voice became even calmer. “Go upstairs. Be very quiet so you don’t wake Anna or Zella. Get Mason and Missy and all you can carry.” She looked down at Mr. Maples as her nose wrinkled. The grip of my arm painfully tightened as her stare came back to me. “Listen, Lorna. You can’t tell anyone about this...” She took a deep breath. “...about him. Nothing ever happened. If anyone finds out about any of it, they’ll take you away from me. If we’re going to make it, I need the checks. If you tell them—anyone—and they take you...” She let me fill in the blanks. “Do you understand? Missy and Mason.” She swallowed. “The people who take kids, they’d take you all away.”
I nodded.
I did understand.
It was what Mr. Maples had told me, but different.
“Promise me, Lorna. Nothing happened. You weren’t alone with him—ever. You were asleep. I woke you and I told you we were leaving.”
“Yes, Mom. I was asleep...” Repeating lies had gotten easier with time.
Her green eyes blinked as she finally released me. “Get your clothes on. Tell no one, not even Missy or Mason. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mom.”
Mr. Maples groaned louder.
“Hurry, Lorna. We need to be gone when he wakes.”
Reid
Present day
The plane rolled right and pitched up before rolling left and pitching down and dropping, losing altitude. It was a strange and uneasy sensation, such as a silver ball in an old-fashioned pinball machine. The crosswinds were the paddles, thrusting the plane about. Thankfully, we didn’t have rubber bumpers to bounce.
Gray veiled the world beyond the windows as large raindrops pelted the reinforced glass. Lightning streaked, momentarily brightening the clouds before thunder rumbled, echoing as the plane shook. My grip of the armrest tightened as two sets of eyes met mine. The three of us and Patrick had been through too much to be taken out by a storm. It would take more than a force of nature to bring down the Sparrows.
If my life passed before my eyes, half of it was spent with these three men. We’d met at eighteen years of age. Here we were eighteen years later. As days turned into months, time became more difficult to track—basic training, our first deployment, and then our second. We came back to Chicago, attended college, and that was when the real work began.
As the plane bobbed and weaved and we neared Washington DC, I came to the realization that I’d spent as much time with these men as I had with my mother and grandmother. Before this moment, I hadn’t put it in that perspective.
It wasn’t the only thought that came to mind when assessing my life. While my focus for nearly the last two decades revolved around Sparrow, my existence was so much more than what I did or who I was as a top member of an outfit. The light that shone upon me day and night, the reason for everything from waking to going to sleep was Lorna. When I told her that I didn’t need to lose her to know her worth or my love, I was as honest as I could be.
Gasps came as the plane dropped. The phenomenon was referred to as an air pocket. No matter what you called it, it was fucking unsettling to suddenly drop hundreds of feet. Marianne steadied us.
My grip tightened, not because of the turbulence, but with the knowledge that the intersection of the two most important sectors of my life was what brought danger and harm to my wife.
The three of us remained silent, possibly lost in our own thoughts of Sparrow, family, and future as the plane finally broke below the clouds. No longer submerged in the clouds filled with electrical charges, natural light shone through the small windows, illuminating the cabin. Though the rain continued to fall, the increased light brought a sense of confirmation that we would survive. We would make it to another day, another week, another month...
“Marianne deserves a raise,” Mason said with a sigh. “That was...” He didn’t finish but we all knew what it was.
“Fuck, I’ll give her a year’s salary,” I volunteered.
Sparrow didn’t respond to Mason’s comments.
While Sparrow employees weren’t officially paid through our outfit, they were well compensated. If he had responded, years of experience allowed me to fill in the blanks. Sparrow would say that neither Marianne nor anyone else deserved a raise for doing their jobs. What he wouldn’t say was that she was financially secure, not only for her piloting abilities but more important, for the loyalty she’d shown and her willingness to bend to Sparrow’s ever-changing schedule.
It was as if the prolonged minutes within the storm were gone and forgotten, never to be mentioned.
Would that happen once we had our revenge?
Would Lorna be able to sleep without medication?
Would I again see the light in the world?
Sparrow spoke as we neared landing, asking about the hotel and the waiting cars.
A feeling of unease itched just below my skin. “I know I’m usually back in the tower, but I’m not comfortable with the two cars.” I was talking about the plan to get us from the airport to the hotel.
“We do it all the time,” Mason said. “It’s less noticeable when we don’t arrive together.”
“I’ll ride alone,” I volunteered.
“No,” Sparrow responded. “I’m the one who will be recognized.” His intense stare scanned Mason and me. “Reid, you’re part of the shadows of Sparrow. People aren’t used to putting your face with us. And” —he shrugged— “few have gotten Mason figured out.”
It was because of his extensive reconstructive surgery that he defied facial recognition programs.
“Being seen with me,” Sparrow went on, “will make it more difficult for you to be seen in the future. The two of you will enter the front door of the Mandarin Oriental, and Garrett will take me around back to a secluded entrance. We’ll meet in the suite.”
I looked at Mason who nodded.
My head shook as the landscape of Washington DC came into view. “I admit it’s less stressful in the tower.”
“Are you kidding me,” Mason said. “Everything rides on the man in the control center. Every bit of data, every question, and every retrieval of intel. This should be a ride in the park for you.”
“Patrick can handle the control center,” I said.
“He can,” Sparrow said, “but not like you. Don’t forget that.”
There was a reason we had our roles.
The three of us silenced as the wheels touched down, bouncing before settling on the runway. A rush of air filled our ears as the flaps moved and brakes engaged. Finally, we came to a stop.
The cabin filled with clicks as seatbelts were unfastened and Keaton joined us. His face was unusually pale. “Marianne said to tell you that she will refuel and be ready to leave as soon as you return.”