Estranged (30 page)

Kalei tried to take in a deep breath
of fresh air, but the bag impeded her attempt. In contrast to the
cool breeze that played across her exposed arms, the air inside the
bag was already humid and warm. It pressed close to her face and
kept any of that refreshing relief from coming in. Furious and
frustrated, Kalei reached up to pull the bag off, but as her
fingers closed around one corner, she noticed a man approaching and
let her hand drop.

Tall, dark, and handsome, he smiled as
he drew nearer. “Why the bag?”

Kalei didn’t so much as shrug as she
responded, “Why not?”

The man was just a couple feet away
when she replied, and at the sound of her voice, he casually
stopped and squinted into her eyeholes. “Your voice sounds
familiar... Have we met before?”

Kalei relinquished her hold on the
railing and turned to face him. She wanted to scream in his face
and tell him to just leave her the fuck alone. All she wanted was a
moment’s peace! Instead, she said, “How can you tell? If you
haven’t noticed, there’s a freaking bag over my head. Tends to
muffle sound, change voices a bit.”

His squint deepened, and a handsome
crease formed on his brow. “No, I’ve definitely heard your voice
before.”

Kalei was pissed that she couldn’t
even shake a damned stranger, but she knew it wouldn’t do them any
good if she tossed this man over the balcony and caused a scene. So
she stepped past him and reached for the door handle to the room.
“See ya.”

As she walked by him, the man reached
out for her arm.

Kalei snatched her arm away and then
pointed her index finger at his face. “Back the fuck
off.”

She glared at him through the
peepholes in her stuffy brown bag. He raised an eyebrow as he
raised his arms in surrender, taking a step back as he said, “Okay,
sorry.”

Kalei waited for another heartbeat,
daring him to try something so she would have an excuse to vent her
rage, but when he didn’t, she broke eye contact and stepped into
the room, slamming the door behind her as she ripped off the bag.
She glanced at the four garish walls; it felt as though they were
closing in on her. Her companions were already too close for
comfort. Even in a room of three, it felt crowded.

“
I fucking hate you all.”
She plopped down into a nearby chair and stared at the
ceiling.

Jenna looked up from her conversation
with Josh. “What happened?”

“
Nothing. Listen, what the
fuck are we doing here? I can’t stand this shithole. Let’s just go
already.”

“
And go where? I’m sure
Tusic and SWORDE are already taking bets on who gets to sink their
claws into us first.”

Josh chimed, “Wait—Tusic? The GPS
company?”

Kalei absently replied, “Don’t worry
about it.” She continued to Jenna, “We can’t just sit here on our
asses. My family is still out there. Dead or alive: I need to find
out which.”

“
You heard Franklin.
They’re still in the city. They’re fine—”

“
Are they? He didn’t even
say if they are still Untouched, he just said, ‘They’re together.’
And are you really going to trust anything that comes out of that
fucker’s mouth?”

“
Well, what do you think
we should do? You already tried calling your little friend, Lecia.
She won’ answer you. Now what?”

Kalei paused for a moment. It was
true; Lecia hadn’t answered any of her calls. Kalei suspected it
was because Lecia didn’t recognize the number, but then, when did
an aspiring researcher turn down calls? In either case, Kalei
didn’t leave any voicemails for fear that Tusic might have an
illegal phone tap on Lecia. In fact, Kalei didn’t even know why she
kept calling Lecia in the first place. Terin knew Kalei had been
talking to Lecia before her imprisonment. He probably knew she was
the only one Kalei could turn to now. It was stupid for Kalei to
call, but it was the only idea she could come up with. Lecia was
the only outside person she had left. Except for one other person,
but she was loath to drag him into this mess. If anything, she
wanted to keep him as far away from her black nails as possible.
But then, what options did she have left?

Kalei turned and picked up the hotel
phone. “I’m calling Marley.”

Jenna jumped up and pushed in the
trigger on the receiver, “Whoa, whoa. You mean your police friend?
What are you? Stupid? You call the station and the first cop that
picks up will know your voice.”

“
That’s why I’m calling
his cellphone. Now bug off.” Kalei waved Jenna away, but her sister
wouldn’t move.

Jenna said, “What’s gonna stop him
from calling in the reinforcements, huh?”

Kalei looked away to the undisturbed
pillows on the bed beside her, studying the leopard spots closely.
Jenna had never been a cop; she wouldn’t understand.

Kalei said, “He’s my
partner.”

“
He’s Untouched! You’re an
Estranged.” Jenna’s voice took an unforgiving edge. “He won’t trust
a damn thing you have to say.”

That fact that Jenna was right made it
that much harder for Kalei to hear. If Marley had any sense,
partner or no, he would hang up the moment he heard her voice. Or
turn her over to the authorities. The thought made Kalei’s stomach
clench. Still, she couldn’t let go of the kind memories of her
foster cousin, or the instinctive prodding that told her Marley
wouldn’t turn her in. Kalei reached for the receiver and tried to
pull it away from Jenna as she said, “Whether he wants to or not,
I’ll make him believe me.”

Kalei’s attempt to free the phone
failed, Jenna’s grip was unyielding.

Jenna said, “You think you
can
make him?
With what? Brute force? Threats? Partnerly love? C’mon,
Kalei; get real. You got no skill at persuasion, and whatever bond
you guys had ain’t gonna fix the fact that you tha’ threat now. You
tha enemy to all them cops and their families.”

Kalei slammed the phone down onto the
receiver, narrowly missing Jenna’s fingers as she pulled them out
of the way. “And what other option do I have! Huh? Please, tell me!
You’re the big sister, right? You’re supposed to have all the
answers! What the fuck am I supposed to do!”

The phone rang. Everyone fell silent
and stared at the device. They couldn’t have been more shocked if
the thing had sprouted arms and legs and begun dancing an Irish
jig. It rang again.

Without taking her eyes off the beast,
Jenna whispered to Kalei, “Who the fuck could that be?”

Kalei whispered back, “I dunno. Maybe
it’s the manager, or housekeeping or something?”

“
More likely a ho lookin’
for her sugar daddy.”

It rang again.

Josh cupped his hands around his
mouth, giggled, then whispered, “Answer it.”

Jenna looked at Kalei and said, “Yeah,
answer it.”

Kalei furrowed her brows at Jenna and
hissed, “Why me?”

“
Because—”

It rang again.

Jenna yelled out, “Fuck! I’ll answer
it.” She plucked the phone from the receiver and said, “Hello?” She
paused and frowned at the painted lady portrait above the bed. “No.
Who is this? ... I ain’t telling you nothin’ until you tell me who
this is!” She put her hand over the mouthpiece and whispered to
Kalei, “Check the windows.” Kalei nodded, then shooed Josh out of
her way as she tried to get around the bed. She hadn’t made it more
than two steps when she heard Jenna say, “Grasshoppers?”

The word sent a mental jolt through
Kalei. She turned around and snatched the phone away from Jenna,
waving off her sister’s complaints as she pressed the phone to her
ear and said, “Marley?”

“
Kalei.”

She could have cried, it was such a
relief to hear his voice. She never would have expected to react
that way to Marley, of all people, but it was like waking up from a
nightmare and finding that the Reaper hadn’t taken her loved ones
after all.

She asked, “How did you get this
number?”

He replied, “I’m a Detective now. It’s
my—”

Jenna whispered furiously, “Marley?
What the fuck is he—”

Kalei turned away and pushed her free
hand to her free ear to block out Jenna’s protests.

Marley was still talking, “—happened
since you left. But that doesn’t matter; you’re with SWORDE,
right?”

“
Not anymore.”

“
Thought so. Listen, you
might wanna get out of there. An anonymous tip just came in saying
that Kalei Distrad has been spotted at the Lazy Daze Motel.
According to dispatch, SWORDE is heading your way.”

“
Thanks, Marley. Listen, I
need to talk to you—”

“
I don’t think that’s a
good idea. Just get out of there, Kalei. ETA is seven
minutes.”

“
Marley, wait! Chi’s
Diner, ten o’clock.”

Marley was silent. For a moment, Kalei
thought she heard him inhale, like he was going to say something,
but then the phone gave a light “click” and went dead.

Kalei hung up the phone and found an
agitated Jenna standing immediately behind her. Jenna said, “What
the hell was that?”

Kalei moved away from Jenna and
started to collect her few belongings from the dresser. Her
chapstick, her change, her hooded sweatshirt... While Kalei had
been grounded to the hotel, Jenna had been busy collecting
supplies, including fresh clothes. Kalei replied, “Don’t worry
about it. Right now, we need to get out of here.”

Josh reported from the window, “I
don’t see anything out here.” He covered his mouth with his hand as
a snicker escaped from his grinning countenance. “What am I looking
for? Is the boogey man coming?” He giggled like the preteen he used
to be.

Kalei’s eyes lingered on Josh for a
moment, trying to puzzle out why his giggling sent off red flags in
her mind, but she wrote it off as childish nonsense and turned to
Jenna. “Someone just tipped off SWORDE. We’ve got about six minutes
before they get here.”

Kalei expected her sister
to be pissed, but instead, Jenna clapped her hands and grinned
wildly as she said, “Sweet, a Camaro pulled in yesterday and I’ve
been
dying
to
jack the thing.”

“
No.” Kalei stopped her.
“They’ll find out the car was stolen and just send out a BOLO. We
have time. Let’s just go on foot.”

Jenna stomped her foot and rolled her
eyes as she said, “Fine. Jus’ make sure you don’t take your mask
off once we get out there.”

“
What?”

Kalei had no idea what Jenna was
talking about, but the teen had already pulled away and started
shuffling through the stash of grocery bags in the second drawer of
the dresser. After a moment, Jenna said, “Ha! Gotchya.” And turned
around with a full, white opera mask in her hand. “Here. Put this
on. An’ make sure you pull your hood up.”

Kalei snatched the mask and said, “Why
the hell did you let me walk out of here with a paper bag on my
head when you had this!”

“
You didn’ exactly wait
around for me to tell you. Besides, it was funny as
hell.”

Kalei mumbled a series of choice
curses as she pulled the mask on.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Dropping By

The three finished gathering up their
things and then went on their way. They had just made it across the
parking lot when Josh said, “Hey! I forgot my first aid
kit.”

Kalei looked at Jenna, forgetting that
the mask hid her raised eyebrow. She said, “He really has no
fucking clue, does he?”

Jenna laughed. “Nope.” Then she gave
Josh a light shove on the shoulder and said, “Leave it, or I’ll
give you a hole your Band-Aids can’t fix.”

Luckily, Josh knew Jenna well enough
to forget about the first aid kit.

They made it several blocks before the
sound of sirens began echoing off the buildings. Kalei said, “It
sounds like Marley’s estimate was optimistic.”

Jenna laughed. “Or
pessimistic.”

Kalei spotted Josh anxiously glancing
over his shoulder. Casually, so as not to spook him any further,
she said, “Relax. As far as we’re concerned, those sirens have
nothing to do with us. We don’t want people wondering why you’re so
nervous, do we?”

Josh shook his head silently and
proceeded to study his feet the rest of the way.

It was already late afternoon,
although Kalei could hardly be sure from the overcast sky. A light
drizzle had begun to fall as they made their way down the streets
of the West End, and Kalei felt an angled drop hit her eyelid
through the mask. Annoyed, she pulled her hood down
further.

But Kalei, despite her annoyance, was
glad for the weather. The rain brought everyone’s hoods up, their
umbrellas out, and made it easier for Kalei to blend in.

As the streets became more and more
crowded, Jenna took her gloves off, handed them to Josh, and then
put her own hands in her pockets. Kalei watched Josh put the gloves
on, and she realized she still didn’t know what kind of person the
kid was. She didn’t know if he was likely to attack some passerby,
or if he’d spent enough time as an Estranged that he could control
himself. And even if he could, did that mean he would? Kalei was
already uneasy with Jenna, the addict that she was, roaming these
civilian streets. Kalei wondered if she had unleashed a pair of
time bombs onto the streets of her city, and resolved to watch both
her companions closely.