“Where do we hide the bodies?” she asks, grabbing the dead man on the ground.
“No,” I grunt, wondering why she keeps thinking she ought to be the one to drag around corpses.
Jake frowns at me for admonishing his daughter. Then he gestures for her to stand back.
“Go inside and stay with your mother and Kai’s family. Send your brother out here to help.”
Unable to keep my mouth shut, I say, “There’s a ditch in the back where bodies are dumped.”
“How do you know?” he growls as if I’m secretly a member of this safe house and took the most complicated route to return home.
“There’s always a ditch in the back.”
We study one another. I almost expect Jake to pull the pistol stashed in his hip holster. Neri hugs her father, and his rage goes a little soft. Man, she has him wrapped around her finger too.
Then she walks over and hugs me. “Hurry up so you can meet Mama,” she says and then flashes a frown at her father. “You too. Mama’s probably scared inside.”
Neri walks casually in the house, but I catch her take off running as soon as she’s a few feet inside the door. She wants Kai to play buffer now. Her father likely knows what will happen because he moves quickly.
“I asked for your help, and you fucked my daughter,” he hisses while erasing the space between us.
Standing eye-to-eye with the beast, I refuse to back up. “Yes.”
“There’s no way you’re coming back with us.”
“That’ll be up to Neri,” I say, throwing the responsibility on her. It’s the least I can do when she made me fall for her and then encouraged me to think long-term.
“Do you think I won’t kill you?” Jake demands, seeming bigger now. Middle age has been good to old Gator.
“If that’s what you want, I’ll have to let you do it.”
“Let me?” he mutters, forcing a smile before grumbling, “Let me.”
“Neri would never forgive me for killing you, and she’s the only reason I’m here. That’s why, if you need to kill me to prove something, I’ll let you do it. The question is will you break your daughter’s heart? Or are we cleaning up these bodies?”
Jake grips his gun but doesn’t pull the weapon. “I knew their trip was a mistake.”
“Did you see the kid?” I ask, leaning down to check the corpse for useable weapons. “She’s entertaining in the pool. Wouldn’t have that if they didn’t travel here.”
“Shut up,” he grumbles and storms over to the other body.
Kai joins us just in time to help with the third corpse. We drag them quickly around the side of the house. In the back—just as I assumed—there’s a covered trench where long-forgotten bodies rot. We dump the three men inside and re-cover the mass grave.
“When are we leaving?” I ask as we return to the driveway and move the SUVs into the garage.
“Those skinheads will attack when we pass through their territory,” Jake says. “There’s no way not to pass through it unless we want to backtrack and go the long way.”
“We’ll just end up in the territory of another group of fucking losers,” I reply. “Nothing but craziness for thousands of miles.”
Jake falls silent until after we’re in the garage. Meanwhile, Kai does his usual routine of seeming overly laidback so other people will lower their guards. Oh, yeah, I’ve caught on to the little shit’s tactics.
“We’ll have to drive right through their territory,” Jake says. “It’s a decent-sized road, but quiet as fuck there. Mia and I came through on our way here. There’s only one little gas stop for miles, and I noticed Aryan stickers on the front windows. If we’re attacked, we’ll find no safe havens around here.”
“Why not drive through at night when they’re at a disadvantage?” I ask when Jake again falls silent.
Kai sees something on his father’s face and speaks up. “Ani has trouble driving at night. If we go just after dawn, she’ll remain quiet.”
“Why do I care about that?” I ask him.
“Your woman will be in the car with a screaming child distracting her.”
Imagining Neri in a firefight with a wailing kid, I submit, “Fine, we’ll do your thing. Those skinheads are usually junkies or drunks. When the Feds used to hit their locations, they always went in the morning when most of the assholes were sleeping. We should be able to sneak past them at dawn.”
“Then what?” Kai asks his father. “You wanted us at this house and said there was nowhere safe for hundreds of miles. Where do we go next?”
“There’s a small airport a few hours from here. I have someone who’ll fly us out of this fucking place.”
I sense the pilot is someone Kai knows, but Jake doesn’t use names. He’s probably hoping to ditch me along the way and wants to make tracking them more difficult.
Well, if that’s his plan, the asshole’s bound to be disappointed.
NERI
As usual. Papa doesn’t adjust to “new” well. He was ready to deal with Kai’s love and her child. On some level, he knew his angry stance would soften once he saw them. What he didn’t expect was Cobain, and he will swear that I never warned him.
I love Papa, but he lies. I’ve been sending signals for days that Cobain was important to me. Not to the group or the mission, but to me. I even sent an adorable picture of Cobain with Robin. How obvious did I need to be?
However, Papa refused to hear me because he didn’t want the truth. When he gets focused on something—like our safe return—he drowns out all unhelpful distractions.
Well, that distraction remains with Papa while I’m forced to find Kai and send him to keep the peace.
Down a long dark hallway, I find the bedroom where Kai kneels between Mama and Anika.
“Papa and Cobain need you,” I tell him.
Getting my point—or seeing the panic in my eyes—Kai quickly leaves but promises to return soon. Sunny almost follows him out of the room and stares at the doorway long after he leaves.
I can’t comfort her, though, because I’m too busy caring for my frazzled mother.
“Your hair,” Mama coos, holding me against her. “You’re so beautiful.”
I soak in my mother’s affection. We’ve only been apart for several weeks, yet I’d forgotten how small she feels in my arms. When her gaze finds mine, I’m struck with tremendous guilt.
Mama is trapped so far out of her element because Kai and I decided to visit the United States. She doesn’t do well away from home, and Papa can’t hide his tension. For a week, she’s known we were in trouble, but he probably kept the details from her. Now she’s away from home, scared, and surrounded by enemies. This kind of danger is why Mama and Papa left the United States long before I was born.
As a child, I hadn’t realized anything was wrong with my parents. They took such good care of me, and I spent most of my time away from outsiders.
Then at fifteen, I came to understand how my mother would never be normal. Something shattered in her when she was a child, and nothing healed right. No amount of love and security could fix her. She would always be fragile and innocent in ways I would outgrow.