Chapter Eighty - Sasha
I don’t think it’s possible to bite my fingernails down any closer to the quick, but my mouth doesn’t seem to notice as we pull into the Cabazon parking lot, home to Interstate 10’s larger-than-life resident reptiles.
I was just here a few days ago and it seems like my life is moving in circles.
“That’s them,” I tell Merc. “In the red truck.”
Merc mutters under his breath. “Fuck.” He turns into the parking lot and two men exit the red truck and start walking to the underbelly of the brontosaurus.
“Park close, so I can hear. Like right up next to it.”
Merc does not park close. Instead he drives past the two men and stares them down. Then he pulls into a spot a good hundred feet from where they are meeting.
“Merc.”
“Shut up,” he barks at me. “Sit your ass in this truck and do not move, do you hear me?”
“I’m the one who knows them.”
“I don’t give a fuck. I’m the one who’s doing business. Little girls do not cut deals with international street gangs. I don’t care how fucking tough you think you are, Cherlin, you’re still Zero to me. So shut your mouth and do not even think about getting out.”
I cross my arms over my chest and huff out some air. “It was my idea.”
“Yeah, well, an idea doesn’t keep you alive when you’re double-dealing with scumbags like these guys. And when I tell them what we’re offering, they are gonna jump on it, Smurf. So this is your last chance to call it off. Because once we have a deal, there’s no turning back. People will die tomorrow. You got that?” He waits for me to answer, but I don’t. I just swallow it down. “Do you understand that?” he asks again, this time grabbing my arm and squeezing tight.
“I get it, OK? But what other choice do we have? We need firepower. We need boots on the ground. We need them to kill if we want to have any chance at all of getting Harper and Nick back.”
“Look, Sasha, just because you said you want Nick and Harper to get out alive doesn’t mean they will. These guys know who they are. They know who their father is. They know their connections. So they might just double-cross us and kill everyone. Including you and me. Or maybe, and this is far more likely, they will take us all prisoner. And then we’ll all get to experience what James went through down in Honduras twelve years ago. So I’m gonna ask you one more time. Do you really want to give James up to save your boyfriend? Because they want him, Cherlin. They want him bad.”
“I told you. He’s not gonna get caught. James will never get caught. They want One too, so they’ll be happy to get him. James will get away, I know it. He’s so much smarter. So much more lethal. If anyone can pull us through this plan, it’s James.”
“Not James, kid. Tet. I don’t know why the fuck you can’t see him for what he is. A messed-up dude with questionable loyalties.”
“It doesn’t matter. They’re the same guy. So if Tet can do it, then James can too.”
Merc draws in a long breath of air and then opens his door, leaving the truck running. “OK. Be right back.” He holds out his palm and I scribble the address down on the back of a map I found in the glove box. I marked the Santa Barbara community on there as best I could on the front too. Just to make sure they get it right. Drug dealers, ya know? Not the brightest of the bunch.
Merc takes the map and pushes the door closed so it doesn’t slam. Then he walks off into the sun, his shades down and his dark hair blowing a bit in the hot wind.
I hold my breath as he approaches the two men standing underneath the giant dinosaur. They don’t shake hands and I see that as a bad sign. But then I see heads nodding, so that eases me a bit.
I bite my fingers again. Geez. I can’t take the tension. I’m really not cut out for this hardcore dealing. I’m not. I’m just a little kid. I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m gonna get everyone killed with this idea.
But then the two men look at each other and smile. One even laughs and claps the other on the back. Merc hands them the map and they put their heads together to study it.
There’s more negotiation, then they all look over at me. My stomach flips. I swear, I almost open the door and puke.
This is it. This is where Merc tells them about Nick and Harper and asks for immunity. They already have the coordinates, so they’re the ones calling the shots. That was Merc’s idea. Give them the upper hand and let them make this decision on their own. That’s the only way it will work, he said. They have to want the deal. We can’t coerce them and expect co-operation.
My leg is going a mile a minute as they hash things out. They look over at me several more times, and then there’s some heated discussion.
I can only imagine what they are saying.
They want Nick. They want Harper.
And it makes sense for them, right? They want the children of the man who sent them so much trouble and strife over the years down in Central America. They want to teach him a lesson and they are ready and willing to send the LA chapter of their gang if they think they have the chance.
And I know what Merc’s response will be.
You can have James. The kid who shot your leader twelve years ago. You can have his rescuer. The assassin who broke him out and mowed down the deformed man’s entire family—mostly women and children—to do it.
I know this part. And no one else does besides Merc, because I told him. Probably not even James knows this part. Because this was how One got in to the compound to find James. James only knows what happened after.
I know this because One is my mother’s brother. My uncle. The uncle who used to come to our house every New Year’s Eve until I was ten and get drunk with my father so they could talk about my mother. Share her memory.
He used to ruffle my hair and whisper, “You have a number, Sasha. Not a name, a number. You’re Zero. The one no one sees. The one no one expects. The one who will set it all right.”
Of course, back then I had no idea what he was talking about. I had no idea what he was really talking about until James told me the Company had my parents killed. He told me this right here, in this parking lot. As I was sitting on the toe of a giant brontosaurus.
She needs to hear this, he told Harper.
He wanted me to know what I was up against.
Suddenly the little group of men breaks up and Merc is walking back to the truck.
My stomach flips again as I try to read his expression, but I can’t, it’s no use. So I hold my breath until he gets back in the truck and says, “It’s done.”
I exhale.
“They took the bait.” He looks over at me. “Now what?”
This is the last part of the plan. The really dangerous part. The part that might get all of us killed. Because this gang might be notorious for their ruthless revenge killings, but the person I need to bring in next isn’t called Number One for nothing. “Next I call my uncle.”
Merc clenches his jaw, his eyes darting back and forth as he thinks this through. “You wanna know why they were laughing back there?” he asks.
No. “Yes.”
“They were laughing because they said if they see James, they’re not gonna kill him.”
“No?” I ask, hopeful.
Merc starts the truck and backs out of the space, then heads towards the exit. “Nope.” And then he looks me in the eye as he waits to turn left to get back on the Interstate. “They’re gonna douse him in gasoline, set him on fire, and then put it out.”
“What?”
“They’re gonna make sure he lives to feel the pain.”