“You can call me Adam,” I say, walking up to him.
“No, sir. My grandfather would not like that too much.”
I shrug with my hands. “Where is he?” Meaning his grandfather. “Indie said he was sick. I hope he’s OK.”
“He’s fine. Just… resting today.”
Which is kind of a lie. I know the old man was diagnosed with emphysema a few years back and it’s hard to miss the truck that delivers oxygen tanks twice a month.
Still, it’s a polite lie. So maybe it doesn’t count.
“Is that why you’re here?”
“No.” I say it bluntly. “I’m here to talk about Indie.”
“OK. What should we talk about?”
“We should talk about…” I hesitate. Because he’s twelve. And Indie will throw a fit if she finds out I’m having this conversation with Nate. “She’s a girl.”
“Yes, sir.”
“But she’s not an ordinary girl.”
“Yes, sir. I know that.”
“And you should not make any plans with her.”
Nate makes a look of confusion at this statement. “What kind of plans?”
“Future plans. Girlfriend plans.”
Nate laughs. “No, sir. She’s just my best friend. Not my girl.”
“I know that, Nate. And that’s because you’re both still very young. But in a year or two you will feel differently. And I’d just like to head that off at the pass, if I can. Because even though Indie is a girl, she’s not girlfriend material.”
I get another confused look from Nathan St. James so I decide to just spell it out. “Do not kiss my…” I pause, trying to come up with a term that adequately explains what Indie is to me. “Do not kiss my Indie. Do not hold her hand. Do not fall in love with her. Do not plan a future with her. She is not that kind of girl.”
Nate just stares at me, face blank, stance relaxed. Then he says, “Can I fish with her?”
“Yes.”
“How about swim?”
“If you’re wearing clothes.”
He laughs and looks away. “Of course we wear clothes.”
“You can do all the things you two do. Just keep it… innocent.” It’s a bad word choice. Something a man would understand but not a boy. “Does that make sense, Nate?”
“I think so.”
“Good.” I suck in a deep breath. Let it out. Decide I’m done here and turn back to the path through the woods. But then I stop and look over my shoulder. “Don’t tell her I was here.”
“Yes, sir.”
And then I walk home, thinking it was a dumb idea to have that talk with Nate. Because love doesn’t have rules and these two passed the point of no return the moment they met last summer.
They will love each other no matter what I say or do to dissuade them.
And, I’m sorry to say, that’s very bad news for Nathan St. James.
When Indie and McKay get back from church she changes her clothes and disappears into the woods and I take McKay aside for a quick chat. “Start her real training tomorrow.”
He gives me a thoughtful look. “You sure?”
“I’m sure. I want her on the job in six months.”
“I dunno.” McKay rubs a hand over his clean-shaven jaw as he considers this. “Six months? Why?”
“Because I’m tired of working alone and that’s the whole reason I bought her.”
Then I turn my back to him and go inside to my office, close the door, and get back to the business at hand.
Core McKay and I grew up together. He’s from Alaska, not Louisiana. His father was an arms dealer for the Company up there and normally that would mean that one day he would take his father’s place. Keep the family business going.
But McKay had two older brothers so his future wasn’t written in stone. My father and I were up in Alaska when I was ten and McKay was nine to coordinate with another Untouchable Company man about a job that was coming up in the Ukraine.
And I took to McKay. He was as tall as me, even though I was older. And we kinda resembled each other with the light hair, and the light eyes, and the build of our lean bodies back then. So my father bought him for me and he came home with us.
Not to Old Home. Back then this mansion was nothing but an old mess and while we did spend summers there before McKay came, afterward we lived in New Orleans in a big old house in the French Quarter. I didn’t go to school, I had private tutors. This was common among the Untouchable families. So when McKay came to live with us I suddenly had a best friend and a classmate, when every day prior to that one, I had been alone.
This is how I know that Nate and Indie will be bonded forever.
She is who she is. Lonely, and sad, and tough, and eager for a friend.
Just like me.
And Nate, though not Company the way McKay was, is just like him.
Desperate for more.
And even though Nathan St. James is only twelve years old, and even though he doesn’t know it yet, living next door to Indie Anna Accorsi will be the highlight of his life.
People don’t walk away from that.
Just ask McKay.
And this bond is something special.
Just ask me.
I love McKay. I would die for McKay.
If McKay walks away, I go with him.
My father bought McKay for me back when he was nine for one reason only. To be me. To take my place. We were never going to be friends.
At least… that was my understanding.
But even the best laid plans have bumps.
Once it was clear that McKay would be staying with me, my father and I sat down for a very serious conversation about what that meant.
“He is yours now, Adam,” my father said. “Forever. In every way. And if there is a thing in this world that threatens to break you apart, you need to eliminate that thing. He is the only person in this whole wide world that you owe loyalty to. His loyalty was bought so yours must be given freely.”
I guess it makes sense. I get the feeling that McKay was holding a few secrets for my father. I get the feeling that my father was trying to protect his own ass, as well as mine.
But I never had that kind of conversation with Indie when I bought her. I guess I didn’t think this pledge of loyalty needed to be stated outright the way my father did.
There might’ve been a natural tendency for McKay and I to cultivate an adversarial attitude towards one another. It would’ve been natural, given the circumstances.
But Indie and I never did have that kind of relationship.
Of course she has my loyalty. I’m on her side. Always.
But is she on mine?
And how does McKay fit in?
There’s no rulebook that spells all this out.
For now, I guess it’s fine. We’re all on the same side.
But if McKay owes me, and I owe him, and Indie owes me, and I owe her—then what happens when we’re not on the same side anymore?
“Indie Anna!” McKay is yelling from the bottom of the stairs. He shoots me an apologetic look. “Sorry. I told her to be ready. She said she was.”
“She’s a storyteller, McKay. When are you gonna understand that?”