“McKay has already agreed.”
I look at McKay. He just shrugs at me with his hands.
Then I look at Donovan, who is nodding his head. “I’m all for this, Indie. I think it will be good for you too.” Then Donovan looks at me. “And she’ll be just right across the lake. Hell, that house used to be part of this property. It’s… it’s… this is good. Trust me.” He looks back at Indie. “But you still need to meet with me.”
“Why?” Because for some reason, I’m angrier about Donovan’s offer to take Indie to LA than I am about Indie’s announcement that she’s moving in with that punk, Nathan. “Why you, Donovan? You’re not even here.”
“Because she has to talk to someone. And what are you gonna do? Huh? Where else are you gonna take her for therapy? You just gonna waltz into some counselor’s office and say, ‘Hey, my kid here was brainwashed by some psychotic secret organization when she was little and we need someone who can talk her down off the ledge when she gets the urge to kill people?’”
“OK.” Indie huffs and throws up her arms. “That’s enough. Here is my final decision. I am moving out. Today. I will withdraw the emancipation request so we don’t get too much scrutiny in the local courts. But I’m not meeting with you anymore, Donovan. I’m fine.” She directs her gaze to me. “I’m grateful for everything you guys have done, but I don’t need therapy anymore. I’m over it. I’m over the jobs. I’m over the killing, I’m over the Company. They’ve been gone now for two and half years. It’s done, you guys. We’re rich, we’re still alive, and we’re done. I want to marry Nathan St. James, have his baby, and be a mother. You can stop worrying about me now. You did a good job and I will never be able to repay you or tell you how much I appreciate you. I love you. All three of you.”
Her eyes dart to mine when she says that. And I know she loves me. She just doesn’t tell me much. So she wants me to hear this.
“I’ll be right across the lake. It’s barely moving out. And I’ll probably be over here every day anyway, because Nate still has one more semester of high school.”
High school. The fucking dumbass is still in high school.
I want to kill that kid with my bare hands. I want to wrap my hands around his throat and look him in the eyes while I choke the life out of him.
The only thing keeping me from doing that is… she would hate me. Forever. There would be no way to take that back once it’s done. And I’m not talking about Nathan’s life. I’m talking about Indie’s rage.
I shrug and sigh. Because her mind is made up and I have long since learned to pick and choose my battles with Indie. “Fine. You can move over to the carriage house with Nathan. But Indie, I’m begging you. Do not marry that boy. If you love him now you will love him in three or four years. There is no real reason to get married other than to… to prove that you can walk away from us whenever you want. I know you can walk away. You have been able to walk away since the day I brought you home. You don’t have to prove anything anymore.”
She stays quiet, biting her lip a little as she looks at McKay and then Donovan.
“You don’t have to choose, Indie. That’s what I’m really saying. You can have him and us. It’s all fine.”
She lets out a long breath. A huge sigh of relief. And that might just be the best outcome I could’ve hoped for. She doesn’t want to walk away. She wants to keep us. All of us.
And as long as we accept that, she will stay.
“I can live with that.”
Now it’s McKay’s turn to sigh. And I realize he is against this marriage idea as well.
Well, of course he is. She belongs to him more than anyone. He was the one who took care of her on the day to day. He took her to the doctor when she was sick. He made her meals every day. Called her home from the woods every night. Paid for those braces that straightened her teeth. Hell, he even went to parents’ night when she was in those schools.
But the more I think about all this shit, the more enraged I become.
Because Indie is mine.
Mine.
McKay helps her move out too. He boxes up her room and drives it over to the carriage house in his truck.
It’s well after midnight when the lights from his truck pass through the dark front room of the house.
I’m waiting for him in the TV room off the kitchen when he walks in. Our eyes meet as he crosses the room and sits down next to me on the couch, sinking back in the cushions with a sigh.
“I hate that fucking kid.”
I can’t stop the laugh that comes out with my words. “Me too, dude. Me too.”
“And Donovan is pissing me off.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Do you know he wanted to take her to LA?”
“He mentioned it.”
“Fuck him. He doesn’t get to walk in here after all these years and tell us he knows what she needs.”
“No shit.”
“And Nathan St. James. I mean… I guess he’s OK. But for some reason, I hate that little fuck.”
“He ain’t so little no more.”
“No shit. Did you know he was on the football team?”
“Get out of here. That pissant puke?”
“He told me. Showed me his varsity jacket too. He’s even got a football scholarship to Ole Miss for next fall.”
“What?”
“Yeah. The offer came in the mail last week. He thinks Indie and the baby are gonna move to fucking Oxford with him next summer.”
I am… stunned. “Do you think she’ll go?”
“I dunno. Not if she’s smart.”
“Well… better a Rebel than a Gator, I guess.” We both laugh. “But seriously. That’s like a five-hour drive, McKay. She can’t move to Ole Miss.”
“I know.”
“She’s not OK. She will never be OK. They fucked her head up so good before she came to us, there’s no telling what could happen if we weren’t around to keep her in line. She doesn’t even understand it, ya know? Because she blacks out when it happens and then we… well, we just bring her out of it and pretend it didn’t happen. Seven times Donovan had to fly in and do an emergency brain un-fuck.”
“Preaching to the choir, brother. But what are we gonna do? She’s got her own money. And a truck. And in six months she’ll be eighteen and we’ll have no more say in anything.”
“Should we tell her? We could tell her. Try to make her understand.”
“She won’t believe us. I mean what are we gonna say? ‘Hey, Indie. I know you want to move out with your little baby daddy and be a normal grown-up like everyone else. But you can’t. Because you have a hidden evil killer lurking deep inside you. Except you don’t know about it because we’ve been keeping it secret for all these years so you don’t go insane.’ She would flip out and call us a bunch of liars.”
“We have the tapes.”
“Shit. That’s a fucking can of worms all its own. Why the hell you and Donovan felt the need to record all that shit, I’ll never understand. If anyone found them, we’d be heading for the fucking electric chair.”