Chapter Seven
Sasha
Merc’s cabin has a strange bookshelf filled with vintage science fiction, hippy acid-tripping pop culture from the Seventies, and American classics. I have a sudden regret for leaving my Little House book back at the mall. It’s a childish book. One more suited for ten-year-olds instead of me. But it has an innocence and simplicity about it that my life could use a little more of.
I pick a sci-fi novel off the shelf as a new song comes on my earbuds. Merc’s idea. To shelter me from the manly conversation going on across the room. I take a quick glance over my shoulder and catch Nick in mid-swing. His fist crashes against Tet’s jaw and then the whole thing starts all over again.
He’s not taking this well. That’s what Merc said when he gave me the iPod and earbuds. Better stay out of it, kid. And then he walked off.
Nick not taking this well is the understatement of the year. The fights have been numerous and loud. Short, but what they lack in length, they make up for in intensity. We still don’t know why Nick is so pissed. At least, I never heard that explanation since we got here to this cabin just outside of town. Maybe Nick told Merc when they drove together? I rode with James and James didn’t say shit on that drive.
Merc likes Taking Back Sunday and I like this song, so I hum along as I read the back cover of the sci-fi novel.
A thousand years after the apocalypse came to Earth and humans built a dome…
Yeah. No, thank you.
I put it back and sigh. The crashing of furniture makes me glance over my shoulder a second time, and now Merc is prying Nick and Tet apart.
Men. They are so emotional, it drives me crazy.
The next book is called The Abortion.
That one makes me laugh and then I have like an out-of-body vision of myself standing in this room looking through Merc’s bookshelf, laughing at a book called The Abortion, while Tet and Nick try to kill each other.
There is no hope for this girl at all. Like zero chance of hope. I mean, it’s just over. I put that book back and walk down the hallway to the bathroom. This cabin is weird. It’s got three bedrooms and two bathrooms, but one bathroom is the laundry room too. And it has a door that leads out back.
Only a man would have a bathroom with a back door, but right now I’m glad it’s here because I walk right out and into the late-afternoon sunshine. There’s a picnic table down a rolling slope that leads into some woods, so I walk down and cop a squat on the table so I can prop my feet up on the seat and try and makes some sense of things.
One. That was certainly a surprise when he showed up in Huntington Beach. I’m not sure what Tet has in mind for him, and I’m not sure I even want to know. But whatever he does, I don’t think I care too much.
I’m on James’ side no matter what. I just can’t see hitching my wagon to anyone else right now. He’s the best at what he does. And we need the best. I’m sure Merc is a good killer too. And Nick. He’s not dead yet, so he has to have a certain skill level.
But Tet. Now that man is a killer.
A shadow forms in front of me and I look up from my introspection to see Nick walking down the hill. His mouth is moving so I know he’s talking, but I can’t hear anything because Nothing At All is blaring in my ears.
“What?” I say, removing my buds. I really like this song.
“Fucking James is out of his mind.” He takes a seat next to me on the table.
“That’s not James, Nick. That’s Tet. And yeah. I agree.”
“Why the fuck did he do it? Were you there?”
Shit.
I nod. “I was there. One drugged her and the Admiral wanted me dead. James had to produce a dead me and a live Harper. It was as simple as that.”
He just stares at me like I’m a freak. “You’re OK with this? That he gave my sister back?”
I hate his accusatory tone. And then his words from earlier pop into my mind. He has a girl. I’m just a kid. “I’m not OK with it, Nick. I just don’t see much choice. We needed to buy time.”
“So you sold my sister?” He scrubs his hands down his face. “Fuck. Sorry.” He looks over at me and his blond hair falls into his eyes, obscuring his face a little. Making him look sad and dangerous and angry all at the same time. “But fuck, man. I was counting on that file and my sister, and now I got nothing, Sash.” His eyes search mine. “Nothing. I’m right back where I started.” He takes my hand and squeezes it. “Sorry. OK? For getting mad.”
I nod. And I wish I could make him feel better by telling him about the other file, but I can’t. I never did tell Nick. I never did tell anyone after Ford took the file to Merc. He said keep my mouth shut and I did. And now, even though Nick and I are on the same side… I’m not entirely sure that’s true. Who is this girl he wants James to see? He’s on the run. How does he have time to find girls?
So I don’t say anything about the file. “James has a plan, I think.”
“Yeah, to get us all killed.”
I look away and Nick scoots closer to me on the table. “Sorry.”
And then we sit in silence for a little while. Finally he tugs on the earbud draped over my shoulder closest to him. “What’re you listening to?”
I look at the iPod in my hands and offer it up to Nick, but he puts a hand up and declines. “Is that why you came out here? To get away from me and James?” He reaches into his jeans pocket to pull out a smoke.
Sometimes I wish I could smoke. It looks relaxing. It’s something all hunters do and I’m a hunter now. Plus, on the comparison scale, it’s better than drinking. Most hunters don’t do much of that. They are always alert. But Merc drinks a lot. I like that about him. “Nah,” I say as he lights up his cigarette. “I just wanted to be alone.”
Nick smiles at me and a small flutter forms in my stomach against my better judgment. I’m not immune to his charm. And he is charming. Harper is very beautiful in a striking model kind of way. Nick is her twin, and his beauty is more surfer than model, but nonetheless, it’s a bit overwhelming. So a stomach flutter is in order. “I missed you, ya know.”
I give him a smirk and a head tilt to show him I’m playing. “I would’ve never known by the way you disappeared. How come you left me?”
“Hey,” he says, putting his hands up like he’s surrendering. “I told you we had to lie low. I was in hiding.”
“That makes no sense, Nick. Harper was under surveillance, so the Admiral always knew where she was. How come he didn’t just come take her?”
“He was waiting for the file. Believe me, they looked for that fucker all year and couldn’t find it. I suppose that’s why they sent Tet in. And look what happened? That fucker got it.”
“One got it.”
“Yeah, but Tet would’ve had it if One hadn’t taken it. Harper walked right into his trap.”
“You don’t like James, do you?”
“It’s got nothing to do with liking him, Sash. It’s got everything to do with trusting him. And now we gotta go back and get that fucking file. And Harper. And don’t you think they know I’m coming now? I mean fuck, our birthday is only a few days away.”
“What’s that got to do with it?” My mind is spinning. There is so much going on.
“Never mind,” he says as he tries to lace our fingers together, but I pull my hand away before he can take it. “What the fuck?”
“It’s not worth it,” I say.
“What’s not worth it?”
I nod my head in the direction of the cabin up the hill. “The fight you’ll have with Tet if you hold my hand.”
Nick’s eyes shoot up to the top of the hill where Tet is standing with his arms crossed. “Fucking freak,” Nick says, blowing out a long puff of smoke.
“Hey,” I say, nodding at his cigarette. “Can I bum one of those?”
His eyes dart back to Tet, just a fraction of a second. But I see it. “You’re too young to smoke, kid.”
That’s all I needed to know. “I was just messing with you.” I reach over and ruffle up his hair and he automatically dodges. I smile at him and he shoots me an uneasy one back. “Well, I’m going back in and see if Merc will teach me how to play Kumbaya on the guitar. Wanna come?”
He glances up at Tet again and shakes his head. “When I’m done here.”
“OK.” I hop down and swat the dirt off my butt as I walk back to the top of the hill. Tet turns and walks with me as we head back to the cabin together.
“You hungry, Smurf?” James asks.
“Starved.”
“Me too.” And then he opens the back door and lets me walk through.
Like I said. James is a dream in the partner department.
It’s Tet you gotta worry about.