Chapter Eight
Sasha
We go back inside and Merc is sitting at the kitchen table smoking. That seems to be the thing to do when shit goes down. And now I really do want to learn to smoke but I have to settle for pulling out a butterscotch sucker from my pocket.
The screen door in back slams and Nick follows us in.
“Sasha,” he says. I turn reluctantly. I know that tone and it says I’m about to be in the middle of something.
“What?”
“Get your shit. We’re leaving.”
“She’s not leaving with you,” Tet says. He grabs my hand in case I make a break for it.
“Why, Tet? So you can keep using her the way you did Harper? So you can drag her into your insane revenge scheme? This shit is between you and One, man. Or you and my father. But I’m gonna say this one time. We’re leaving. I’m gonna go finish the job you didn’t, and then you’re gonna stay the fuck out of my life. You stay away from my sister and you stay away from my promise.” Nick points his finger at me and then his gaze follows. “Go get your stuff.” And then he pulls out a gun and points it at James. “Try and stop her.”
“Nick,” I say.
“I’m not gonna say it again, Sash. Now get what you need.”
I look over at James but he’s got nothing to say to me. Not even a nod. So I do what I’m told. I got to the last bedroom, grab the pack I set on the floor earlier, and shrug it onto my back as I walk back out to the living room.
“I’m going back to get her, Nick,” James is saying as I enter the room. He’s sitting down at the table next to Merc now, like those two haven’t a care in the world. Like Nick isn’t standing here in the living room with a gun. And I’m sure if they really wanted to fuck Nick up, he and Merc could do it. But Nick, no matter what he does, is part of the plan.
“Look, asshole. You have no idea what you’re doing.”
James nods with a smirk. “Right. I didn’t get this far by not understanding the game.”
“Dude, they’re using you. And every time I hear about it, I think to myself, ‘Nah, Six is so much smarter than that.’ And then every time you fall for it. But this time, asshole—this time I’m all out of faith. I asked you to do one thing for me. Keep her out of it. And what do you do? You deliver her to the one person who will bring her into it.”
“Bring her into it how?” Merc asks. “I mean, look, Nick, I’m the first to admit I have no clue what you people are doing. But we’ve been on the same side all year. So it’s better to work through the team problems than split up.”
Nick points to me but he’s looking at Merc. “She’s not on the team, Merc. Yet here she is, fully planning on participating. And you know why?” He looks at James now. “Because this asshole wants to use her. Just like he uses all the people he drags into his schemes. And now Harper’s in it. Didn’t your father ever teach you anything, Tet? Women and children stay home.”
“Yeah, so they can be sold. They’re commodities.”
Nick actually nods at that. “Yeah, maybe that’s how I see them then. Investments. The future. So shoot me.”
“We’ll meet you at the yacht,” James says casually.
“She’s not on the yacht, you fuck. How many ways do I have to say it? You sent her back to the one person she should never see again. She’s as good as gone now. If I don’t get to her by next week, she’s as good as gone.”
“So,” Merc says. “Let’s go get her now. It’s only been a couple days.”
Nick’s eyes burn but his words are eerily calm now. “It’s too late. He gave her away by now.”
“What?” James says, getting to his feet. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Last year, on our eighteenth birthday? That wasn’t the one.”
“The one what?” Merc says, throwing his hands up. “Will you stop talking in fucking code? Just spit it out.”
Nick looks at James for a long second. “He’s been using you, man. She’s been promised since she was six, all right. But it was never to you. And in a few days, when we turn nineteen, my father’s gonna make good on that promise.”
“Where?” James seethes.
“The Santa Barbara house. There’s gonna be a big party. Her promise, James. I gotta tell you—”
And for a second I really think he will. I really think that Nick is gonna tell James the one thing he needs to know that he has no idea he needs to know. James feels it too. A shift in what’s happening here. A shift from potential to realized consequences.
James takes a step forward but there’s a snapping sound and then he’s gone. Dropped down. Or hit. Bullets spray into the house. I scream and duck, but then someone has my hand and I’m dragged to the back of the house.