Katie
I blink against the morning light, the sunlight streaming in through the living room window.
I’m halfway on top of Lance. He’s beneath me, the two of us stretched out on the couch. Jeannette and Nathan Willow took our bedroom. Well, they didn’t take it, per se. In fact, Jeannette really didn’t want to put us out like that. But Lance and I insisted, not taking no for an answer. That’s where they are now, behind the closed door, asleep.
I smack my lips, tasting morning breath and feeling thirsty. Lance stirs underneath me and I feel the arm of his I’m laying on squeeze me tighter. He’s cradling me, and it feels nice. Comfortable.
“Mm, morning,” he says in a low mumble.
“Morning,” I say, leaning up and giving him a long kiss. I can feel my nethers stir as we hold together, but this isn’t the time or place. We can wait until Jeannette and Nathan leave. Whenever that’s going to be.
To be honest, Lance and I don’t really have a plan for the two of them. When they were getting set up yesterday Lance and I discussed possibilities, keeping our voices low.
“We could drive them somewhere,” I suggested. But Lance shook his head.
“No, not yet. If Will was after her and the kid, he’ll definitely send more. Probably scout out. I’d like to keep them in hiding, at least for a bit longer, until the heat’s off of them.”
So I guess they’re staying here. For how long, I don’t know.
We break off our kiss and I push myself up, get off the couch. In the living room are boxes of diapers, Nathan’s toys, some extra suitcases and duffel bags Jeannette had packed up. We decided to take everything out of the car, in case somebody drove by and saw it suspiciously full of baby stuff and luggage. I walk over to the bathroom to pee and brush my teeth, and when I come out the smell of coffee is just starting to waft its way to my nose.
“Mm, good call,” I say to Lance, giving him another kiss as he passes by me to use the bathroom.
The pot is ready and I pour myself a cup when the bedroom door opens and Jeannette walks out, carrying Nathan. The baby is playing with her hair, giving it light tugs, making goo noises as he does.
“Morning,” I say, and Jeannette offers an apologetic smile.
“Morning,” she says. She glances around. I think she’s still a bit off-put, being here. After all, it was only a couple of days ago that she found out Lance was her late husband’s hired killer. You don’t get over something like that so quickly, even if she did compose herself pretty well when we were there before.
“Do you want some coffee?” I open the cupboard and take down a mug.
“I would love one, thanks,” she says. Nathan starts squirming, trying to get out of his mother’s arms, but she looks reluctant.
“It’s okay for him to roam around,” I assure her, pouring the black liquid into her mug. “We don’t have anything dangerous lying around.”
Still, Jeannette gives a quick glance around before setting Nathan down. He immediately crawls into the living room, heading straight for one of his toys.
I put the coffee pot back and hand the steaming mug to Jeannette.
“Thank you,” she says, blowing steam off the top and taking a sip.
“Did you sleep all right?”
She nods, taking another sip. “Yes, very well, thank you. Sorry again for taking your bed.”
But I’m already shaking my head. “It’s no problem, really. We insist.”
The bathroom door opens and Lance comes out. He sees the two of us, locking eyes with Jeannette. I feel her freeze, but then Lance offers her a curt smile.
“Morning,” he says.
“Morning,” Jeannette mumbles as Lance passes by, getting his own mug of coffee.
We all move into the living room where Nathan is still playing. Lance and I sit down on the couch while Jeannette takes a place on the floor by her son. He smiles as he crawls over to her, gripping a brightly-colored plastic cube in his hand.
“He’s really cute,” I tell her, and Jeannette smiles as she makes faces at Nathan.
“Thank you. Yeah, he’s wonderful,” she says.
We sit in silence, Lance and I sipping our coffees, watching the two of them play together. Jeannette looks happy, despite everything that’s happening to her. She’s strong, I can tell. And as much as she’s keeping her guard up, I think she’s starting to relax.
Lance announces that he’s going to make some breakfast and he leaves to go do that. I stay on the couch, and soon enough Nathan notices me, grabbing his little plastic cube and crawling over to me, a big grin on his face.
“Oh!” I say, putting my mug of coffee down as he reaches me. “What’ve you got there?”
He hands it to me and I take it, my eyes going wide as I make ooh and ahh noises. I feel Jeannette watching us.
“He likes you,” she declares, and I look up, give her a smile.
“He’s very friendly,” I say, but Jeannette shrugs.
“Not to everyone. Just people he’s comfortable around.”
That makes me feel good. I keep playing with him, eventually sliding down off the couch and joining Jeannette on the floor. Nathan crawls over to his other toys, bringing them to us so we can play too. Eventually the three of us are sitting in a circle around myriad plastic and cloth toys, Nathan often banging two toys together or bringing Jeannette or me something so that we can play with it.
Lance comes back to tell us that breakfast is ready, so Jeannette and I get up, Jeannette scooping up Nathan to bring him with us. He cries for his toys a bit, but is distracted when he’s brought into the kitchen.
We sit down at the table to plates of scrambled eggs and toast. He’s even spooned some baby food from a jar into a bowl for Nathan. We eat mostly in silence, with Nathan the one making the most noise. At one point he reaches away from his mother, towards me.
“I think he wants you to hold him,” Jeannette tells me. My eyebrows lift.
“Is that okay?” I ask her. She looks nervous, but she gives me a smile and hands Nathan over. I take him and spin him around, putting him on my knee. Jeannette slides the baby food over to me and I feed him, gently scooping any spilled food up off his little chin.
“You’re good at that,” she observes.
“My sister has a baby boy,” I tell her, a pang hitting my heart at the thought of Amanda. “Tyler.”
She nods. “You seem very comfortable with him. And he seems to like you too.”
Lance doesn’t say anything, but he’s watching us. I haven’t held a baby in so long. I forgot how little and squidgy their bodies are. How innocent and natural they smell. I only just realize that I’m bouncing my knee a little bit, lifting it up by my toes. I wasn’t aware I was doing that.
“Thanks again,” Jeannette says, “for letting Nathan and I stay here. If you two didn’t show up when those men came …”
“It’s best not to think about that,” Lance tells her. “What’s done is done. You’re safe.”
She nods. “Do you know … how long before we can go home again?”
Lance and I glance at each other.
“We’re not sure,” he says, taking the reins. “Katie and I were talking about it. If Will Silver sent those men after you, then he’ll try to send more, or more than likely stake out your house.”
“And I can’t go to my brother’s?”
“He might know about that,” he says. “I want to keep you here for now. It’s safe here. If he should ever suspect me of being involved, the address he has on file for me is fake. I don’t take chances.”
She nods, but doesn’t look entirely convinced.
“It’ll be fine,” I tell her. “We’ll see how things look after a few days. We can try to make a more informed decision after that.”
“What about … what you two told me when you came by my house?” Jeannette asks. “You told me you were going to … get revenge on Will Silver for ordering the hit on Allan.”
Lance and I look at each other.
“That’s become a bit complicated,” I tell her. “We’re not sure that’s going to happen anymore.”
“But … I mean, you said you were a hitman,” she says to Lance. “And when you said ‘revenge’, I assumed you meant you were going to try to … kill him.” She whispers the last two words.
“We were,” Lance says. “But like Katie said, things became complicated. That’s not our plan anymore.”
“Well, what is your plan?”
I open my mouth, but pause.
“Um … we actually haven’t gotten that far yet,” I admit.
Jeannette clearly wants more details, but I don’t know what to tell her. Somehow I don’t think she’d be happy to know that Lance was in the same room as Will Silver and didn’t manage to kill him.
“All right,” she finally says. “So where does that leave me and Nathan?”
“Like I said, we’re going to keep quiet for a bit,” Lance tells her. “And then we’ll see where things are at.”
She doesn’t look happy. “And in the meantime, Nathan and I just have to stay holed up here in your apartment?”
“I know it’s not ideal,” I tell her. “But the alternative is you putting your and Nathan’s lives at risk. Is that what you want?”
She looks defiant for a second, but drops her gaze.
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” she says. “I’m just … stressed out.”
I reach over and put my hand on hers. She stiffens for a second, but relaxes.
“We’re all stressed out,” I tell her. “But we’ll figure something out. Don’t worry.”
We finish breakfast and Lance offers to clean up while Jeannette and Nathan and I go back into the living room. We’re sitting on the floor when I hear Lance’s cell phone ring in the kitchen.
“Hello?” he answers. A pause, and then, “Okay. Hold on.” He calls out to me. “Katie?”
“Be right there!” I call back, then stand up. I give Jeannette a smile and she returns one as I head for the kitchen. But Lance meets me at the kitchen doorway.
“Here,” he says, and he leads the way into the bedroom. I follow him in. He closes the door, then puts the phone on speakerphone.
“Jake?” he asks. A voice comes onto the phone.
“Yeah.”
“I’ve got Katie here,” Lance says. “She’s my partner. She’ll be in on this too.”
A pause. And then, “Okay,” says the voice. “So Lance … Craig Silver came by my place yesterday. He was acting all nervous. He wanted to come in because he … uh, he wanted to help take down his dad. Stop Will Silver.”
I raise an eyebrow, and when I look up from the phone Lance is looking at me.
“Did he say why?” Lance asks.
“Said he didn’t like what Will’s been doing lately,” Jake replies. “Said Will killed the police captain in a hospital.”
“Yeah,” Lance is nodding. “We were there for that. Both of us.”
“Huh,” Jake says. “Well, I told him I’d think about it. And to be honest, I don’t know if I trust him.”
“Why not?” I ask. “I mean, apart from the obvious.”
Silence on the phone for a second. “Let’s just say that Craig and I have a history.”
We wait for him to go on, but he doesn’t.
“All right,” Lance says. “So what do you want to do?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Jake says. “But I was thinking we all could meet up, go over a plan. If you’re there—and Katie—then that’ll be more security for us. I figure Craig’ll be less inclined to fuck us over if there’s more of us.”
“Right,” Lance nods. “Okay. Want to meet at your place?”
“Sure,” Jake says. “I’ll call Craig and tell him to come by. I’ll tell him you two are coming.”
“Great. We’ll head out now. See you.”
“See you,” Jake says, and Lance ends the call.
He looks at me. “Well. What do you think?”
I tilt my head. “I’m not sure. I haven’t really had time to process it yet.”
“Well, we can go over to Jake’s. I know where it is, I took everybody there after the hospital. And if we don’t feel good about it after the meeting, then we won’t have to do it, all right? This maybe be some trick of Will’s, after all.”
“Yeah, considering he’s still going after those two,” I incline my head at the bedroom door. “Better safe than sorry is a good way to go.”
He smiles, and then leans down and kisses me. We hold together, and I reach up, cradling his head in my hand. When we break apart we look at each other, our eyes locking together.
“Okay,” he says, a light smile on his face. “Let’s do this.”
Lance and I leave the bedroom and turn into the living room where Jeannette and Nathan are still playing. She looks up at us.
“We have to go out for a bit,” Lance tells her. “It probably won’t be for long.”
“Make yourselves at home,” I say. “Help yourself to anything in the fridge.”
“Thanks,” Jeannette says, putting on a smile. She goes back to playing as Lance and I get our stuff together and then head out the front door, leaving the apartment.
We go down to the parking lot and climb into his car, Lance starting it up and driving us away from our apartment, in the direction of Jake’s. I remember back to when Lance and I first went to Jeannette’s, back when Lance told her who he was. She mentioned that she talked to Trista—Officer Pearson, as she knew her—to give a testimonial against Craig Silver. But she didn’t say for what. She might not be happy to know that we’re on our way to meet him right now. And this will be my, and Lance’s, first time meeting him. If you don’t count that travesty in the hospital room with the police captain, Captain Hartridge.
Lance turns his car into a quiet little alley and we drive slowly along until he finally parks to the side, turning off the car.
“It’s that one there,” he points to a door similar to all the other apartment doors along this small street. We get out of the car and walk up to it. Lance gives it three hard knocks and after a moment we hear footsteps coming down stairs.
The door opens and I see a man who looks, at a glance, very similar to my Lance. Short, dark hair adorns his head, and he stands almost at a height with Lance. Their eyes are even the same color: blue. But Jake is wearing a leather jacket with a white stitched insignia on it, and the shade of blue in his eyes isn’t as bright as that of Lance’s.
“Lance,” Jake says, reaching out a hand and shaking his. He turns to me. “You must be Katie.”
“Hello,” I say, and we shake hands. Jake invites us in and we follow him up the stairs where the room opens up into a living room, with a hallway branching off the opposite wall to other rooms.
“You guys want a beer?”
“Sure,” Lance says.
“That’d be great,” I tell him, and Jake nods, heading to the hall and turning right away through a doorway. I look around. The space looks nice. Homey, comfortable. A door at the far end of the hall opens up and I hear a metallic clunk-clunk as a girl on crutches appears. The first thing I notice about her is the fact that her arms and legs all look twisted. But then I look at her face and I see that she looks very pretty. Beautiful, even. She holds herself well, and she stares at Lance and me without looking abashed or ashamed.
Lance raises a hand. “Emily.”
She narrows her eyes a bit, then turns around and goes back into her room just as Jake comes out with three bottles of beer. He looks to see Emily’s back disappear.
“Ah, sorry about that,” he says. “She’s still mad about what happened with Merryn.”
That’s right, Lance told me about that. Jake looks embarrassed and I feel like he doesn’t want to get into it, so I take a sip of my beer instead.
“Craig should be here soon,” Jake tells us. “Do you want to sit down?”
We go sit at the dining table.
“So how did this all come about?” I ask Jake.
“Craig came by yesterday,” Jake tells us. “He told me his dad’s been acting off the rails lately. Killing that police captain. The shoot-out at the Bullets’ warehouse yesterday, fucking … everything he did to Merryn. And then, when he got back to PharmaChem Craig said he talked about how you,” he looks at Lance, “yelled something about some kid, Nathan Willow.”
Lance and I look at each other, don’t say anything. We look back at Jake.
“So apparently, Will wanted Craig to go and kill Nathan and his mom. And Craig says that he said he didn’t want to do it, so his dad suggested sending some guys to do it instead. Craig said he told his dad he’d do that, but he came here and said he wanted to help instead.”
Lance and I are silent. I don’t know what to say. All I can think about is those guys we stopped yesterday. But before anyone can say anything else …
Knock knock knock.
“That should be him,” Jake says, and he gets up and goes down the stairs to open the door. I hear two muffled voices, and soon two sets of feet are coming up the stairs. Lance and I stand back up as Jake appears with Craig. I recognize him from the hospital. When he sees Lance and me I can see by his expression that he recognizes us too.
“Craig, this is Lance and Katie,” Jake says by way of introduction.
Craig nods. “I remember you two. You were at the hospital yesterday. I didn’t know who you were.”
“I figured out who you were,” Lance says. He isn’t smiling. Jake looks from his to Craig.
“Craig, do you want a beer?”
“Sure,” Craig says, pulling his gaze from Lance. Jake nods, leaves to go get it. The three of us stand in silence. I take a sip of my beer. Soon enough Jake returns, hands the drink to Craig.
“All right,” he says. “So now that we’re all here. Lance and Katie, like I told you, Craig’s decided he wants to help us stop his dad.” Craig nods, but doesn’t say anything. “I was thinking about it … Will is a suspicious man, but he trusts you, Craig. Right?”
“I should hope so,” Craig says, taking a sip of his beer.
“Right. So we can use that to our advantage. Maybe get you to lure him out somewhere and then shoot him.”
But Craig shakes his head. “Whoa, no. I told you. I’m not … I don’t want to be a part of anything that happens to him. I’ll help you guys get him, but beyond that …”
“So you’ll lead your dad out to his death, but you won’t pull the trigger yourself?” That’s Lance talking. He’s staring daggers at Craig, who looks affronted.
“Hey man, what’s your problem?”
“Your dad is my problem,” he says. “And by proxy, that means that you’re my problem.”
“Hey, if you don’t want my help then I’ll gladly leave,” Craig says, but both Jake and I start to protest.
“Whoa hey, boys,” I say. “Come on. We’re here to work together.”
“Exactly,” Jake says. “Let’s try to keep our heads clear. We all know what we’re here for. Craig,” he looks at him. “We appreciate you being here. Right?” He looks at Lance and me. I nod, and after a second and an eye-roll, so does Lance. “There. So … let’s keep working on a plan.”
“I can lure him out,” Craig says. “Maybe … take him out to dinner somewhere? And you guys can get him in the parking lot?”
A flashback to my first encounter with Lance suddenly pops into my head and I have to shake it away.
“No, nowhere public,” Jake says. “We need someplace where there aren’t a lot of people around … someplace private …”
“Like the desert?” I offer. But Craig shakes his head.
“Why would we need to go into the desert?” he asks. “What about those drug facilities? They’re all in these run-down parts of town. And one of them got burned down last night. I could see if he wants to check the other ones out, and I could meet you guys there.”
That’s not a bad idea, I think, but Jake chimes in before I can say anything.
“I think it would be good to have somebody with you,” he says. “Just to make sure things stay on track.”
I look at him, check out his expression. He’s suspicious. Craig tilts his head side to side.
“Okay. But, I mean, he knows who you are,” he says to Jake. “It’s not like he wouldn’t recognize you.”
“I could go,” I say, and everybody looks at me. “I could go with you, help lure Will Silver out there.”
“Katie, are you sure?” Lance asks, but I give him a level look.
“I’ve been training for this,” I remind him. “Besides, I’m the only one here who Will hasn’t actually interacted with.”
“He saw you at the hospital,” Lance points out.
“Yeah, but I don’t think he was focusing on me.”
Craig chimes in. “He didn’t mention you or anything afterward,” he says to me. “I think his mind was elsewhere.”
“Okay,” Jake says. “So why would Katie go with you? Could she pose as your girlfriend or something?”
Craig shakes his head. “No. Dad would have known about any girlfriend of mine. Besides, I would never bring someone like that to any of the facilities.”
We all stand, thinking. Every now and again I take a sip of my beer. Someone who would need to go to the place where they make drugs … a lab assistant? Someone from the FDA?
“What about a potential investor?” I ask. Lance slowly nods his head and Craig seems to think about it.
“That could work,” he says. “We could set up a meeting … dad could talk to you and feel comfortable.”
“Maybe you heard about the one last night burning down?” Lance adds. “And you want to check the other ones to make sure they’re all right?”
Jake asks, “Could we wait at one of the facilities and you guys come meet us there?”
But Craig shakes his head. “No, dad’s wary when people try to make decisions for him.”
“I could pose it to him,” I suggest, “and let him choose which one to go to. Then I can call you guys,” I look at Lance and Jake, “and you can follow us there.”
Craig is nodding. Everyone’s nodding.
“Yeah. That should work.”
“Okay,” Lance says, giving me a worried smile. “You sure you’ll be all right for it?”
“I’ll be fine,” I tell him. “You guys just make sure you get him.”
“Whoa, hey,” Craig says, lifting up his hands. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“Right. Sorry,” I say.
“Okay,” Jake says. “When can we do this?”
“I could call dad now,” Craig says. “Set up the meeting for tomorrow.”
“Good. The sooner the better.”
“It’s perfect timing, too,” I tell them. “Lance and I just stopped two guys who tried to kill Jeannette and Nathan Willow.”
Both Jake and Craig freeze, looking at me.
“What?”
“Who?” Craig asks. “What happened?”
She filed a testimonial against Craig, but I don’t know what for. And those two guys yesterday. “Yesterday, two guys came with guns and were going to kill Jeannette and Nathan Willow,” I tell him. “But we stopped them. Will called on one of their cell phones. That’s how we knew he was behind it.”
Jake looks at Craig, who looks surprised, flabbergasted.
“I … are they okay?”
“They’re safe,” I say to him, not giving any more information. I’m watching him, observing his movements, his subtle reactions. He’s breathing hard, almost panting. He runs a hand through his hair. Jake is still staring at him.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Craig finally says.
Jake just nods, still staring at him.
“Well,” he finally says. “I guess you should go and call your dad, huh?”
“Huh?” Craig seems to snap back to reality. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I’ll go do that.”
He doesn’t seem to know what to do with his bottle of beer, but Jake takes it from him, puts it down on the dining table. Craig turns to go.
“Uh, Jake, I’ll call you with the time of the meeting,” he says. To all of us, “See you guys tomorrow.”
We nod in farewell, and Craig heads down the stairs, the three of us standing silent as we listen to his footsteps descend, and then the front door open and close. Jake quietly walks over to the top of the stairs and goes down. We hear him lock the front door, then come back up. He joins us.
“I don’t trust him,” he says right away.
“Why was he acting that way about Jeannette and her kid?” Lance asks.
“Because he told Jake that he didn’t set those guys on them.”
“It’s not just that,” Jake tells us. “Apparently, this Nathan Willow kid … might be Craig’s kid.”
My eyebrows fly up. “What?”
Jake nods. “He said he got drunk one night and … forced himself on the kid’s mom.”
Jesus. Jake goes on.
“And if he set those guys on the kid and his mom and then lied to me about it …”
“I don’t know if he was lying,” I say, making both Jake and Lance raise their eyebrows. “I mean, I used to be a therapist. I’m pretty good at reading people. And when I dropped Jeannette almost getting attacked … well, Craig’s reaction seemed genuine.”
Jake doesn’t look convinced. “I don’t know. All I’m saying is be careful when you’re with him. He’s dangerous, and his dad is Will Silver. If they’ve got something planned, then you’ll have to think fast. But if not, and this is legit … well, this may actually be the end of Will Silver.”