CHAPTER ELEVEN

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- NOW -

THE GUY STANDING on the other side of the door was something else.

He’d opened the door with a big swing, making me squint a little as the bright light from inside shined down on Kellan and me. He looked surprised to see us, his blue eyes widening through the smart-looking spectacles he wore. I recognized him immediately as the guy from the photograph in Kellan’s bedroom.

He looked to be the same age as Kellan, but that was where the similarities came to an end. He was a few inches shorter than Kellan, and was currently supporting a mess of curly red hair that looked in serious need of a haircut.

“Dude, where’ve you been these past few weeks?” Phoenix grinned, and I realized that he was actually kind of cute. But with Kellan right there beside me, there really was no comparison between the two of them.

Phoenix pulled him into a one-armed hug, and they did that typical macho man-slap thing.

“It’s good to see you, man,” Kellan said, slapping him one more time on the back.

Phoenix glanced at me, interest lighting up in his eyes. “Who’s the babe?” he asked, and I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. If it were me, I’d be more concerned over what we were doing here, at his place, in the middle of the night. I thought his curiosity was somewhat misplaced.

“This is April, Mario’s kid,” Kellan said, making my face scrunch up. Mario’s kid? He couldn’t have said daughter, oh, no, he had to use a word that made me feel about two feet tall. I was far from being a kid, and one of these days, he’d finally freaking realize it. “You gonna invite us in, man, or are we standing out here all night?”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Phoenix shook his head at himself. He took a step back, and opened the door wider. “Come on in.”

Kellan gestured for me to walk in ahead of him. I was taken aback as I stepped into the large hallway. The ceiling was three floors high, going all the way up to the top floor of the house. There was a huge chandelier in the middle of the top floor, several feet long, illuminating the floors below. Two wide staircases formed a sort of curved circle as they led up to the second storey of the house, where a large oil painting decorated the wall. The structure of the place was designed in such a way that I could see the second and third floors through the railings that formed wide circles overlooking the entryway.

It was beautiful.

Kellan walked past where I stood in the middle of the foyer doing a pretty good impression of a goldfish, and went into a room on the left. Phoenix came to a stop beside me, his hands stuffed casually into the front pockets of his jeans.

“You… you have a beautiful home,” I told him, snapping my mouth. How the hell did he afford such a place? He was young to have gained such wealth, and Kellan had told me that they’d met in foster care which didn’t make it very like that it was inherited.

“Thank you,” he said modestly. There was something about his face, a lack of arrogance and pride in his home, that confused me. I wasn’t sure what it was exactly. I tilted my head, studying him. He was obviously very wealthy, but he didn’t look it – and not just because of the ripped jeans and Star Trek t-shirt he had on – there was something down-to-earth and friendly about him. All the rich people I’d met before had been snobs – not that I should generalize to everyone.

“Yes?” he asked, and I realized that I’d pretty much been staring at him.

“Sorry,” I said, smiling sheepishly. “It’s been a long night, and I think it’s beginning to catch up with me.”

He eyed me curiously. “It’s okay. Come in and sit down. I promise I don’t bite,” he said with a half-grin.

Kellan was in front of a large fireplace in the grand living room, his hands out in front of him. They had a blue tinge to them, and I realized, with mounting guilt, that he’d been downplaying how cold he was outside when I’d offered him the blanket.

The room was warm from the blazing heat of the fire, and beginning to feel a little overheated, I let the blanket still wrapped around me fall off my shoulders.

Phoenix sat down in an armchair and gestured for me to do the same. I perched down on a sofa, glancing around the room. It was interesting to say the least. There were paintings on the walls, and a Persian rug in front of the fireplace. A large, overflowing bookshelf rested against one wall, and three computers were crammed onto a desk in the corner. The room was big and expensively decorated, but with the amount of stuff in it, it gave off a lived in, cozy vibe.

Phoenix rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Pulling off his glasses, he set them down on a nearby coffee table. His face was serious as he looked at Kellan. “What’s going on? Something tells me that this isn’t a social call. No offense, my man, but you look like shit,” he said to Kellan.

I chuckled a little at that, and leaned back into the sofa. I was feeling warm and snug, my muscles finally beginning to relax and uncoil for the first time since I’d climbed out of Kellan’s bedroom window. Exhaustion dulled the mess of worry and fear that had been my constant companion the past few weeks, and I actually felt like I could drift off to sleep.

“Tonight hasn’t exactly been a walk in the fucking park, Nix,” a disgruntled Kellan threw over his shoulder.

I didn’t know what I’d expected earlier when Kellan had first mentioned a friend, but he was nothing like I’d expected. I guess I’d expected someone just like Kellan.

“What’s going on?” Phoenix asked, looking at Kellan. “I haven’t talked to you in weeks. Are you in trouble?”

“You could say that,” I muttered. Kicking off my shoes, I let my feet sink into the plush carpet.

“Why do you automatically assume that I’m in trouble?” Kellan asked dryly. Stepping away from the fire, he took a seat next to me on the sofa.

“You’re not?” Phoenix asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, we are,” I piped up. Trouble was too tame a word.

Kellan sighed, and leaned forward. He filled Phoenix in on what had occurred the past few days; from the break-in, and finding Dad’s name on the flash drive, to those men breaking down Kellan’s front door today. From the way Kellan spoke, I deduced that Phoenix had already known about Dad’s appearance. When I mentioned it, Phoenix confessed that it had actually been him who’d traced Dad’s phone to where it had been abandoned.

Kellan had started pacing as he talked. It seemed that retelling tonight’s events had him riled up again. He paced the room, pent-up frustration coming off him in waves.

“Of course you can stay here, for as long you need. You’re always welcome here, Kellan. You too, April,” Phoenix said. “Besides, it’ll be a nice change to have some company around.”

Kellan paused in his pacing, looking hesitant. “You doing okay, Nix? The path out there is out of control.”

Phoenix glanced away, his knee beginning to bounce. “Yeah,” he muttered. “I’ve been busy... haven’t gotten out much these past few weeks.”

Kellan’s brows furrowed, concern passing over his features. “It looks like you haven’t had anyone over for months, not weeks. Come to think of it, when was the last time I came down? We’ve just been talking over the phone.”

“Like I said, I was too busy to have you over.”

Noticing Phoenix’s frown, I spoke. “It’s okay if you can’t host us. You shouldn’t feel obligated to–“

“No, no.” Phoenix said hurriedly, clearing his face. “You guys can stay for as long as you like. I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.” He stood up, determinedly not looking at Kellan. “Coffee, babe?” he asked, effectively distracting me.

“You’re a man after my own heart.” I lit up at the prospect of a big mug of caffeine. The fact that it was well past midnight didn’t matter – I’d long since developed a tolerance to the stuff and could fall asleep easily with it still in my system. “I’ll come with you.” I got up. “I’d like to see more of the house.”

“I can give you a tour of the house after,” he promised.

I glanced back at Kellan before I followed Phoenix out. “You want anything?” I asked. He didn’t respond, just scowled at the fireplace as though it had had done him serious harm. “Fine, then,” I muttered, shutting the door none too gently behind me.

Phoenix showed me to the kitchen, bustling around to make the coffee.

“I don’t really drink coffee,” he told me, heaving a coffee-maker out of one of the cupboards and plugging it in. “I know I have coffee beans around here somewhere…”

He managed to find the coffee beans and turn the machine on. While the coffee was brewing, he grabbed a plate. There was what looked like a homemade cake on a cooling rack. Phoenix cut a slice of the sponge, revealing a layer of cream and jam in the middle.

“You did not make that,” I said.

His smile was bashful. “Baking’s my guilty pleasure – but, shhhh, don’t tell anybody.”

I laughed, assuring him that his secret was safe with me. I liked him – he’d made me laugh twice tonight when I’d been so sure that I’d never laugh again. I hoped I’d found a new friend.

I heard a thump from somewhere in the house, almost as though Kellan had thrown something at a wall, and glanced apprehensively at the door.

“What was that?”

Phoenix merely shrugged and grabbed a mug for me. Once the coffee was made, and I’d devoured a slice of cake, we made our way back to the living room. Kellan was still pacing, looking deep in thought.

Taking a sip of the coffee, I noticed a guitar leaning against one wall for the first time.

“You play?” I asked Phoenix, nodding at the instrument.

“A little.” He took a sip of his own coffee. “You?”

“A little,” I echoed with a small smile.

His smile mirrored mine. “Looks like we have something in common–“

“If the two of you are done flirting,” Kellan interrupted. Moving away from the fire, he glared at his best friend. “I need to use a computer and carry on searching though this.” He held the flash drive up.

“They don’t work,” Phoenix said, noticing me glance at the computers in the corner of the room. “Follow me.”

He led us to a room across the expansive hallway, and I almost choked on my coffee when I entered it.

It was crazy.

There were dozens of computer monitors all over the place; on the floor, on table tops, stacked on top of one another. Some were small-screened, some really large. There were also cords and electrical wires littered all over the room, and I nearly tripped over a bundle of them on my way in. Kellan’s steadying hand on my elbow had been the only thing keeping me upright.

There was a small sofa in the corner of the room with some blankets on it. Empty soda cans and potato chip packets littered the tables, and although I couldn’t see any crumbs on the keyboards, I could imagine them there. It was immediately obvious that Phoenix spent a lot of time in this space. Kellan had said earlier that Phoenix worked with computers, but this was like nothing I could have imagined.

Phoenix walked over to a large monitor after finding a small space to place down his mug – a feat I hadn’t thought possible given the amount of things crammed into the room. He pressed a few buttons on the keyboard, and a number of monitors in the room came to life.

“You can put the flash drive into this USB port.” Phoenix pointed to a computer box tower.

Kellan shoved the flash drive into the USB port, his fingers tapping on the touch screen of the computer to bring up the files.

I sat down on a chair nearby after picking up a tangle of computer mouse devices and their cords, and placing them on the floor. I turned to look at the closest monitor to me as Kellan opened up a folder.

“There’s so much on here. It’ll take us days to get through it all,” I said, as Kellan dragged a chair towards the large monitor and sat down himself.

“Gotta start somewhere.” He opened up a different file and a list of convicted criminals immediately filled the screen. Their names, what they’d been convicted for... and the bounty hunters who’d been assigned to their cases once they’d skipped bail were mentioned. My gut tightened, a bad feeling beginning to rise up within me.

“Go back to the other document, the one that listed cash transactions,” I said, putting my mug down. Kellan did as I asked, and when the file appeared on the screen, I searched through the document, looking for specific names. “Go back to the other document.”

There was a pause, and I could almost imagine Kellan’s raised eyebrow as I bossed him about. He didn’t push it, thankfully, and brought the file back up.

“What are we looking for?” Phoenix asked, puzzled.

I leaned back, the last glance at the file confirming my suspicions. “The bounty hunters on the list... they all got a big fat check right around the time the convicts skipped bail.”

“They got paid to not turn in the fugitives they were hunting,” Kellan said with understanding, his face darkening considerably.

I was appalled. It was their job to hunt down fugitives and bring them to justice, yet they were accepting money to keep the criminals out of prison.

“And they’re adding the fugitives to their numbers,” I said. “The fugitives’ names are listed with other members of the crime ring. They’re recruiting them.”

Kellan swore. “Man, this is so fucked up.”

I nodded in agreement, trying not to think of Dad. I hadn’t seen his name on the list, but then again, Kellan hadn’t scrolled all the way down. Was that how Dad had gotten all that money, by letting criminals go free? The thought turned my stomach sour.

I shook my head. That couldn’t be right. It didn’t make sense. Dad had been one of the best bounty hunters in the state. He was well-known for his uncanny ability to track down and arrest fugitives.

He couldn’t have turned in the amount of criminals he did if he was also recruiting some of them to join the crime ring. That would mean that he’d been tracking even more criminals than anyone was aware. It was impossible. There weren’t enough hours in the day. Plus, Kellan worked with him most of the time. He would have noticed. Whatever Dad’s role in this, it hadn’t been letting fugitives go free.

When I looked up, it was to see Kellan studying me carefully. I caught his gaze and could see the same questions, the same doubts, mirrored in his eyes that I was sure were in mine.

“What’s that?” Phoenix said suddenly, pointing at something on the screen. “It says Cosa Nostra underneath each table.”

I leaned closer towards the monitor and saw that he was right. “Isn’t that–“

“–the Italian Mafia?” Kellan finished, his face grim. “Yes.”

“You think they’re behind all this?” I said, flabbergasted.

“It makes sense. This level of organized crime… it had to have been going on for decades,” Kellan said.

“Do they really recruit people? I thought it was like something you were born into,” Phoenix said, looking wide-eyed.

“There’s a difference between working for them, and joining the family. They have people working for them all the time – doesn’t mean they’re Cosa Nostra members.”

I sat back, defeat weighing my shoulders down. “We are in over our heads,” I said.

Kellan didn’t agree. “We’ll continue to peruse the lists. We’ll find someone who isn’t mentioned in them. We’ve managed to get this far. They’re not unbeatable,” Kellan said, running a hand through his hair in an agitated motion. He stood up and made for the door, glancing at me before he left. “I need a smoke. It’s late, why don’t you head up and go to sleep? We’ll regroup in the morning.”

“I’ll grab some sheets.” Phoenix stood hastily. “And a vacuum. The guestrooms haven’t been used in a while.”

He was up and out of the room before I could protest. I didn’t want him to put himself out. He was already doing more than enough, giving us a safe place to stay.

I expected Kellan to follow Phoenix out the door, but he hung back, looking like he was debating something. Finally, he grabbed a chair and dragged it closer to me.

“What?” I asked him when he sat down in front of me, his face serious.

“April,” he sighed. I jolted at the sound of my name coming out of his mouth, having only heard him say it a handful of times over the past few years. “Luke’s name was on that list.”

“W–what?” I said, my stomach falling. “I didn’t see it.”

I’d had my doubts, but I hadn’t wanted to believe them. I’d have accepted any other explanation, not wanting to acknowledge that we really were alone in this. That we truly had no one else to rely on. It was naive, but throughout all of this, I’d held on to the hope that we could turn to Uncle Luke for help.

That was gone now.

“You weren’t looking all that closely. You were only searching for one name,” Kellan said knowingly.

I hated to admit that he was right, but it was true.

“It wasn’t there,” I said softly. “Dad’s name wasn’t there.”

“But we don’t know for sure what that means, April,” Kellan said, looking like he truly hated to squash my optimism. “His name might not have been on any of the cash transactions, but it was still on that list.”

“Why do you have to think the worst of him?” I demanded, standing up. “All he ever did was see the best in you!”

Kellan sent me a flat look as he stood up, too, his patience finally having run thin.

“You think that I don’t wish with everything in me that there’s more to this? That Mario’s name on that flash drive doesn’t mean what others would believe it does?” He spoke fiercely. “Because I do. I wish for it so badly, but I have to think about us too. About protecting ourselves. If life’s taught me anything, it’s that people can turn around and betray you in the blink of an eye.”

I swallowed, his words hitting me hard. “He’s gone... he could be dead,” I said, my voice cracking with emotion. “I don’t want to spend forever questioning what I thought I knew about him.”

And then Kellan Reed did something so out of character, so unexpected, that my breath completely left my lungs.

He hugged me.

I could feel his hard chest pressed against mine, the elevated pace of his heart ringing in my ears. He pulled back, the conflict in his eyes shaking me to the core.

“So, it looks like the rooms aren’t in as bad a shape as I originally thought,” Phoenix said, his words entering the room before he did. He stopped short when he came into view, his eyebrow disappearing into his hairline.

Slowly, Kellan’s arms began to unwind around my waist until they hung loosely at his sides. I took a step back, feeling kind of dazed and a whole lot confused. Our eyes caught and held. When neither of us spoke, but continued to stare at the other, Phoenix said, awkwardly, “I’ve put clean sheets in two of the guestrooms... or are you, uh, sharing?”

I turned to see a small mischievous spark in Phoenix’s eyes that said he really couldn’t help himself. Kellan sent his best friend a dangerous look – one that would have made anyone else pause – but Phoenix just shrugged.

Feeling a flush work its way onto my face for no reason, I took another step back.

“I’m gonna go crash then,” I said, hurrying out of the room. I glanced back once to see Phoenix mock punch Kellan on the shoulder. In retaliation, Kellan shoved him.

“I was just joking around, man,” Phoenix defended. I stifled a smile as I left the room even as my mind replayed the feel of Kellan’s strong arms wrapped around me and the drum of his strong heartbeat against my chest. “First door on the left,” Phoenix called out after me.

I went about finding my bed for the night, feeling sadness creep up on me. Seeing the two of them together made me miss Axel, miss that easy interaction that came from a deep friendship. I’d seen Axel last weekend, but with the uncertainty of how long we’d be laying low hanging over our heads, I would have loved to have seen him one more time.

* * *

Later that night, there was a knock at my door.

I rolled over on the bed and glanced at the nightstand. Four AM.

Sighing, I tossed the covers aside. I’d been trying in vain to fall asleep for the past two hours, unpleasant thoughts plaguing my mind. The sound of those gunshots going off tonight, how loud and terrifying they’d been, replayed over and over again in my mind.

I thought about Uncle Luke, too. Of him, and whether he knew where Dad was. Whether he’d known all along. He was part of that illegal operation, so it was only logical to assume that he knew what was going on. If Uncle Luke knew, if he’d had any part in Dad’s disappearance... murderous wasn’t even close to how I felt just thinking about it.

There was another knock just before I opened the door. Kellan stood there, barefoot, in his boxers and a t-shirt.

“Yeah?” I asked, lifting my eyes to focus on his face just as his eyes rose from their own perusal.

I’d taken off my leggings and pulled on a pair of boxers – unworn, with their tags still on – that Phoenix had left for me on the bed. I crossed my arms over my chest, aware I wasn’t wearing a bra, and looked expectantly at Kellan.

“We need to talk,” he said.

“It couldn’t have waited until the morning?” I said with a raised eyebrow, but stepped back to let him in. I walked back towards the bed without a word. It was the only invitation he’d be getting.

“I knew you’d be awake.” When I turned around, he had Phoenix’s guitar in his hands. My eyes shot to his, surprised. “Thought you might want to play.” He shrugged, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he looked kind of bashful.

“Thanks.” I took the guitar from him, feeling oddly touched.

“There’s a small thrift shop not far from here that opens up in a few hours. I thought we’d go and grab some clothes for the next few days. Anything else we might need, we can get Phoenix to order online. I don’t think it’s a good idea to hit the mall right now,” Kellan said, leaning against the wall across from the bed.

I swallowed. “Couldn’t – couldn’t we go back to your place or mine during the daytime?”

He was silent for a minute. “It would be a stupid risk to take. There’d most likely be someone waiting for us to return. We’ll stay here and lay low.”

“And then?” I asked.

“Then... I don’t really know,” he said, and I realized he was stumbling around in the dark, just like me. I expected Kellan to always know what to do next and maybe that was unfair of me. He was older, he had experience in this world I was only now having my eyes opened to, but that didn’t mean he was all-knowing. At the end of the day, he was doing the best he could, same as me.

We were both silent for some time, the uncertainty that was our future hanging over our heads like a dark cloud. When the silence became stifling, I adjusted Phoenix’s guitar on my lap, letting my fingers fly over the cords. Kellan’s eyes slid shut, contentment washing over his face as I began to sing a song about a girl and a guy and falling in love.