Sacrifice

His money was on Chris, but the footsteps on the concrete were light and unfamiliar. Michael turned his head to find himself face-to-face with a travel mug, steam escaping through the hole in the lid.

“Hot drink?” said Adam, his voice quiet.

“Sure.” Michael cleared his throat and forced his frozen fingers to wrap around the mug. He barely knew Adam, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted this distraction. He turned his gaze back to the horizon. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

He expected Adam to retreat into his apartment, but a blanket dropped over his shoulders, a weight of rich brown fabric that felt velvet soft to the touch.

Michael froze, unsure how to react.

Adam gave his shoulder a quick squeeze before moving away. “You were making me cold just looking at you.” He sat cross-legged against the beam at the corner of the patio. His movements were unhurried and graceful, so different from Michael’s brothers. He offered half a smile. “Nick ignores my chairs, too.”

Michael glanced over his shoulder at the patio chairs. Saying he felt better with his feet in the grass felt like admitting vulnerability, so he kept his mouth shut.

Silence swirled between them, and though it wasn’t strained, Michael wondered if he was being rude. “Thanks for letting us crash here for a little while.”

“Stay as long as you need to.”

Michael snorted. “You say that now.”

“A houseful of Merricks isn’t exactly a problem.”

Michael studied him, trying to determine whether he was teasing, and what the right reaction should be.

Adam’s expression went serious. “You’d do the same for me.”

Michael looked back at the drainage pond. “You don’t know that.”

“I know Nick. So yes, I do know that.”

Michael wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he fidgeted with the lid of the mug.

After a long stretch of silence, Adam said, “Your brothers are asleep. You should get some rest, too.”

“Yeah, right.” Like he could sleep now, when he didn’t know if they had a chance of surviving the next twelve hours. He took a sip from the mug, just to spare himself the need to say anything else.

To his surprise, warm chocolate and cinnamon swirled across his tongue, instead of the coffee he’d been expecting. It was good, and helped warm him from the inside. He took another sip.

Adam pulled his hands into the sleeves of his pullover and blew on his exposed fingertips. “Do you want another blanket?”

“No.” Michael didn’t mean to sound short, but the word ended with an edge. He added, “You don’t have to sit out here. Go back inside if you’re cold.”

Adam didn’t move. “I’m all right.” He paused. “Do you want me to leave you alone?”

“Yes.”

Again, the word was too short, too harsh. But Michael couldn’t wrap his brain around social niceties, and he sure as hell couldn’t face the stress of a conversation. Not because Adam’s presence bothered him. Because Adam was a reminder that others could be caught in the crossfire if he made the wrong decisions. A reminder that Michael couldn’t handle everything on his own, that once again they were dependent on the charity of others.

Tension crawled across his shoulders, digging in for a nice long ride. He wished they could run. He wanted to wake his brothers and pack them into the truck, then drive somewhere he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone else.

He checked the time. Seven more minutes until he could call. He slammed the phone onto the concrete beside him.

Running would lead to problems with the authorities. It would paint him as guilty almost immediately. He and his brothers might be safe from the Guides—at least for a little while—but it would be hard to hide from the cops. He didn’t have much cash on hand, and using credit cards would leave an indelible trail.

But staying made them a target.

Along with everyone around them.

Adam uncurled from where he was sitting. Michael hoped he was going into the apartment. But no, he edged over to sit next to Michael. Then he held out his hand.

“Here.”

Michael looked down. A key chain sat on Adam’s palm.

“Keys to the apartment,” Adam said. “My mom’s been whining that I’m never around much anymore, so I’m going to visit for a while. Maybe even spend the night.”

Michael didn’t touch the keys. Suddenly ashamed, he stared at his travel mug. “You don’t have to leave leave. That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant.” Adam paused. “And I know what it’s like to need time to regroup.”

“I don’t want to chase you out of your home. We can leave—”

“Sure, you can. Whenever you’re ready. Or you can stay. But I have somewhere else to go—somewhere free—and it’s not a hardship.” He rolled his eyes. “Or it won’t be for a while. You know how mothers are.”

The words hung in the air for a moment. Adam seemed to realize what he’d said, because there was a little flinching around his eyes—but he couldn’t unsay the words, and Michael appreciated that he didn’t try.

Michael reached out and took the keys. He had to clear his throat. “I’ll work on finding us somewhere else to stay once I talk to the insurance company.”

“You should try to get some sleep.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’ve said.”

“Keep the keys with you if you leave. I’ll get the spare from my mom.”

Michael nodded. He knew he should say thank you, but emotion was clawing its way up his throat, and he was worried his voice would crack—or he’d say something angry, just to cover it up.

Keep it together. Your fifteen minutes is almost up.

It was enough to steady his breathing. “We’ll be gone by tomorrow morning.”

Adam didn’t look away. “It’s okay to let other people take care of you, you know.”

Michael laughed without any real humor to it. “Yeah. Sure.”

“Hmm. Well, at least now I know where Nick gets it.”

That pissed Michael off. “You think I should let other people ‘take care of us’? You think that would help? Let me tell you what happens when I try. When my parents died, they had people working for them. Good guys, I thought, who offered to help me figure out the business. Good guys who stole almost ten thousand dollars before I realized what was going on. Or how about when Nick and Gabriel were twelve and they snuck out of the house to be stupid, and they got caught. I asked a neighbor to come sit with Chris since it was the middle of the night. She was real helpful. She reported it to DFS. Told them my brothers were running wild. There are all kinds of people trying to help, but it always seems like they’re really just waiting around for me to f**k up.”

“I’m not waiting for you to f**k up.” Adam paused. “Just because you can’t trust everyone doesn’t mean you can’t trust anyone.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“I know.” Adam stood and moved toward the door. “Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.”

Michael turned to snap at him, because he couldn’t take any more emotion or uncertainty, and “helpful” commentary from a veritable stranger wasn’t all that welcome.

But Adam was already through the door, softly latching it behind him, leaving Michael sitting on the concrete, alone with his worries.

Hannah lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, willing sleep to slow her thoughts. She’d choked down a cup of coffee on the way home from the firehouse, knowing she’d have to be alert enough to get James to school, but now she was paying the price.

Some days her life was almost too surreal for examination. Six hours ago, she’d been performing CPR between burning houses during an earthquake. One hour ago, she’d been holding James close, inhaling his ever-present scent of sugar cookies and boy sweat, tickling him until he cried, “Mommy!” and collapsed in giggles on the front steps of his elementary school.

Then he’d gone through the double doors, and she’d walked back to her car, enduring the judgmental stares from the other mothers, most of whom were ten years older than she was.

When she’d been seventeen with an infant, she’d expected the stares. They validated a feeling she’d walked around with every day: shame.

Now, she wanted to scream at them all. I’m a good mother, too.

Some days she felt interminably lonely. Any friends she’d had in high school were finishing college now, looking at internships and getting ready to start their adult lives. Hannah had started her adult life five years ago, and she couldn’t relate to young women whose biggest dilemmas were how to get their first credit card or how to deal with a roommate who had loud sex at all hours of the night. But she also didn’t fit in with women whose days revolved around yoga class or desk jobs or picking up their husband’s dry-cleaning. She felt squarely smashed in between life cycles, trapped by a mistake of her own making.

A mistake she wouldn’t change for anything in the world.

She loved her son.

He just didn’t cure the loneliness.

Hannah picked up her phone and checked for a text from Michael. Nothing. He still hadn’t responded. Should she call? He was probably asleep by now.

She sent another text.

When you have a moment, please let me know you’re okay.

She clicked off the screen and set the phone on her nightstand, not expecting a response.

The phone rang almost immediately, and she snatched it up. “Hello?”

“Hey.” Michael. He sounded exhausted. His voice hadn’t lost the roughness.

“Hey. Did I wake you?”

A low sound, almost a laugh. “No.”

“Are you staying in a hotel?”

“No. Adam’s place. At least for the day. The guys needed to sleep.”

“Nick’s boyfriend? Are they all crashed on the floor?”

“Nah, he left. They’ve taken over all the furniture.”

“Where are you going to sleep?”

“You’re funny.”

Silence filled the line for a minute, as she tried to figure out how to respond to that. “I’ve been worried about you.”

He didn’t say anything for so long that she had to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. He finally sighed. “We’re fine.” He paused. “Your dad let me get some clothes out of the house. The truck survived.”

His voice sounded so bleak. She didn’t have much experience with this side of firefighting, and all the intimacy of sitting in the back of the ambulance was gone now that their only connection was based on a cell signal. She wished she knew what to say. “Have you talked to the insurance company yet?”

“I just hung up. They’re having a case manager call me back later.”

She sat up in bed. “You sound . . . you don’t sound good. Do you want me to come over?”

“No. No, Hannah. I want—look, forget it. I felt bad for not texting back.” A long sigh, full of pain and so much emotion that she wanted to drive over there right now and wrap him up in her arms. Then his voice steadied. “We’re okay. We’ll be okay. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Michael, I just watched your neighborhood burn down. I am worried about you.”

That low not-quite laugh. “Don’t remind me.” A pause. An almost-shaky breath. “Please.”

“Why don’t I come over? I can bring coffee—”

“I said no, okay?”

His tone shut her up quick. Hannah blinked.

He made a shuffling sound with the phone, and his voice sounded distant for a moment. “I’m sorry. I’m—it’s been a bad night. I don’t even know what I’m saying.”