Telling Kat and Link had not only gone well, it had gone incredibly exceptional. Chance’s mother was ecstatic, which is good because he was somewhat concerned she was going to be a little too silently concerned with his life choices. She told him, long ago, when she first discovered the box of condoms hiding under his bed when he was a teenager, that if he ever got a girl pregnant she was going to beat his head so hard that it would leave a permanent dent to remind him of his stupidity. Granted, this was a little bit different, all things considered. He was an adult, after all.
But still, they went over to his mother’s house and had dinner and Hannah very expertly avoided drinking any of the wine his mother offered or the craft beer that Link tried to give her. He was surprised neither of them suspected anything by the time all was done. He half expected his mother to say “I know” when they eventually told them at the end of the night. But she was just as shocked as he had been and, if possible, even more happy over it. Link was clapping him on the back, though later he pulled him aside to give him a more serious talk.
“The world is a fucked up place kid,” he said. “And bringing a child into it can be terrifying and tough. I know because I worried my entire life for your sister. And I clearly didn’t do that good of a job protecting her after what happened recently.”
“Those were Scout’s choices, not yours,” Chance said.
“I know. But I’m the one who taught her how to make choices in the first place. Whatever choices she’s making are still on me,” he said. “But this is my point. This world is scary, and what we do for a living makes it even scarier. You’re going to need to protect that girl and the baby she’s carrying with everything you got in you.”
“Of course I’m going to,” Chance said. “She means more to me than anything ever has. And that’s going to go double for this baby when it arrives.”
“Good, so step two: have you thought about proposing to her?”
That was something that took Chance back. He couldn’t say he hadn’t. He’d thought about a distant future with Hannah that included a ring on her finger and them sharing a home and a last name. But he hadn’t really thought about the act of actually proposing. It scared him too much to think of it as anything more than just a random necessary thing that had to happen in order to get to the life he was imagining for them in the distant future.
“A bit,” he said. “But there’s a lot going on that I need to take care of first.”
“I agree. You can’t help that you’re bringing a baby into this world. That’s done and it’s going to happen. But what you can help is how you build this family. That girl deserves a ring, but she also deserves one after we eliminate any threats that might be lurking,” Link said, taking a sip of his after dinner coffee.
“Threats…”
“If Ben finds out you’re having a kid, he’s not going to react well,” Link said. “It’s nice hostage bait, first of all, to take your kid and extort you for everything you’re worth. But on top of that, that nutcase has been gunning for the president position for as long as I’ve known him and you having a kid would certainly upset that chain of succession. The entire gang would rally around this kid and then he’d be really out of the running.”
Chance felt his throat constrict and his entire body get tense. The idea of Ben coming anywhere near Hannah, anywhere near their child, it made him see red from every corner of his vision. He could hear his own heart beating in his ears and feel it through his shirt at his chest. He gripped tightly to the railing of the balcony and gritted his teeth and little too tightly to the point where he could feel them groan just a bit from the pressure.
Ben needed to go. If Chance wanted a family, wanted a future, Ben needed to disappear from all possible scenarios. That meant they were going to have to lock him up or kill him. He had been Chance’s friend once but right now all he wanted was to see the light leave that man’s eyes. He’d hurt his sister, threatened his family, and conspired to do some awful things to try and get back at Chance. He was far past second chances and the benefit of the doubt. He was far past putting up with any sort of compromise or deal or attempt at making peace with this situation.
Ben had threatened something incredibly precious to Chance, and for that he was going to not only pay, but disappear from their lives forever to somewhere where he could not hurt them again.
Link seemed to get the idea when he looked into Chance’s eyes and gave him a solid, firm nod. They were agreed in this. Link clapped his hand over Chance’s shoulder once again, reminding him of all those years together when Chance was a kid and Link was there to be his confidant and friend and the truly closest thing he had to a father. He was glad that Link was going to get the chance to see this baby, to watch his grandchild grow up. Link was more deserving of it than anyone else that Chance could think of.
So they returned back into the house with the beginnings of a plan in mind to make the world safe for their families. Chance wrapped his arm around Hannah tightly and didn’t let go the rest of the night.
***
“What have we heard on Ben?”
Chance called together Link and Moose. He asked if Cindy could come too but Moose decided it was better for her mental health at the moment if she stayed out of it. Chance wasn’t going to contradict him and the girl had been a ton of help thus far. But there was only so far they were going to get on their own.
“He’s a snake in tall grass,” Link said. “Which means there’s only one real way of dealing with him.”
They waited.
“Burn the field down and smoke him out.”
“Lovely as your metaphor is, we’re talking collateral damage here,” Moose said. “We’ve already seen the type of collateral damage that Ben can cause, just look at Cindy.”
“This is different—”
“How?” Moose said, harshly. “You want to scare him? After what happened to Cindy?”
“She will be safe—“
“But what about others? Chance, you saw what happened to Cindy and was ready to just go ape shit at the thought of it happening to Hannah,” Moose said. “Imagine how many other people in this town want to protect their friends and family just as much.”
Chance knew he had a point. It was hard to imagine but he and Hannah were not the only people in love, not the only budding family that could be put in danger if they didn’t find a way to safely take down Ben. He imagined any number of faceless siblings or parents or spouses who had to watch their loved ones get trampled by a man who was a little too power hungry with an inferiority complex to match.
“Okay, so what do you propose we do then Moose? We’ve got no leads, nowhere to start,” Chance said. “If you’ve got some magic way we can—”
“Hi, sorry. I didn’t want to interrupt.”
There stood Cindy. Even with her standing taller, walking on her own, and looking a little surer about herself, she still very much looked small and little more fragile than Chance would have liked. Her bruises were gone completely, though a few of her wounds had scarred over in a way that would be a permanent reminder of what happened to her. She had been timid about going out and meeting new people, but Hannah had been a big help to getting her to open up.
“Cindy, hi, sorry. We went later than we thought,” Moose said, getting up and walking over to her.
“No, it’s alright,” she said. “I’m actually here because I was hoping you might have room in your plan for one more person to help?”
“You want to help us?” Link asked.
“I know forced exposure therapy probably isn’t the best idea for someone who just went through so much trauma but the only way I’m going to feel better is if I feel useful. And I want to make him disappear. I want to get him of the streets and away from where he can hurt anyone else.”
She was more impassioned than Chance had ever heard her, full of more energy than he’d known her to be capable of. Despite the fact that Moose looked uncomfortable with the whole situation, her sincerity seemed there. She wanted to help. She was desperate for it. Chance knew from experience that people who were desperate for anything tended to make overly rash or impulsive decisions. But she looked completely clear in the eyes. Nothing about her seemed deranged or the result of her getting a little too shit-faced and deciding to step outside.
“How do you want to help?” Chance asked. He ignored the glare that Moose was sending his way. He knew Moose was not keen on this girl getting anywhere close to the action, but he also couldn’t tell her what to do.
“I know Ben, I know his patterns,” she said. “We were never—we never fucked or anything. But I’m an observer and Ben’s kind of obnoxious about everything he does. I know what he does, where he goes, and who he surrounds himself with. If you need it, I can get you names of places to start looking. It’s better than smoking him out completely.”
“I agree,” Chance said. “There is a possibility he finds out we’re onto him and he starts making a mess of things.”
“We cross that bridge when we come to it,” Link said. “For now, this is a start. Give us what info you have Cindy and we’ll do the rest.”
Cindy sat down with Link and started listing off all the places and names she knew of that might be of use. Chance left it to Link to take them down and decide what was useful and what would be a dead end. He was good about knowing the city and the people that way.
“Can we talk?” Chance asked Moose who was sitting at the bar with two empty shot glasses in front of him and glassy eyes. “I know you’re not happy about this. But she’s getting involved on her own, and on her own terms. We’ll keep an eye out for her.”
“How would you feel if it were Hannah?”
“Hannah is already involved.”
“And look at the protective maniac it turned you into.”
Chance sighed and turned to face the bar. He knocked on the wood beneath his fingers with a light fist and was brought a shot glass of his own and a bottle of Jack. He didn’t want to go home drunk, but he made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t keep alcohol in the house or drink in front of Hannah while she was pregnant. So he might as well get what he could here.
“Doing this is going to protect them all,” he said. “I’ll make sure of that and so will you. Because you and I have something Ben doesn’t. And that gives us an advantage.”
“And what’s that?”
“Something we’re fighting to protect.”