Recovering (7 page)

 
I connect my Bluetooth earpiece and
give Lo a call as I peel out of the WalMart parking lot. My foot wants to go
lead on the accelerator, but getting pulled over would just be one more bucket
of shit in this shit hurricane. I force myself to stay right on top of the
speed limit like I was just moseying my way to brunch after church.

 Lo picks up
on the third ring.

 “What?” He somehow
manages to pour his entire dickish attitude into that one word. Here’s the
thing about Lo – he’s a full-on genius. A hair away from mad scientist if you
ask me. Nothing wrong with having some smarts – Tarren’s got IQ numbers in
spades – but Lo has a way of always rubbing it in, letting me know that my
mental crayon isn’t only dull, but also broken and half melted in the sun.

 Yeah, I know
brains weren’t one of the gifts God doled out to me, but I do my damned best to
make up for it with roguish charm. Where’s the appreciation for that?  Roguish
charm can get you out of a whole hell of a lot of situations, even some where
too much thinking just gets in the way.

 “It’s me,” I
say.

 He must know
this is serious since I didn’t open with an insult. “Tarren’s dead,” he says,
and a waver hits his voice. Who knew the kid had feelings under all that goth
crap he paints on his face?

 “No.”

 A pause.
“Maya.” The heavy metal music crashing in the background disappears.

 “We’ve been
compromised,” I say. “You and your mom need to get out. Head for the hills.”

“Step-mom,”
he corrects automatically. “What happened?”

“Doesn’t
matter. Get out now.” I’m doing my best Tarren impression, all half-uttered
growls in a cold,
don’t even think of messing with me right now
voice. “Don’t
come back Lo. Seriously, you can’t ever come back.”

“Shit,” he
mutters. “How much time?

“None. Go.”

“It’s not
that easy fucktard,” he snaps back. “I’ve got things I’m working on. Important
things. Samples. Experiments. I can’t just sweep it all into a suitcase.”

This is why
Lo is such a little bastard. Here I am, trying to save his dweeby life, and
he’s bitching about it like I just pissed in his soup.

“Don’t care.
Move your ass Lo!” I’m grinding my teeth, trying not to fishtail the
slow-as-all-hell station wagon in front of me with the Disney Land family decal
on the back.

 “Was it
Maya? Did she turn and join up with them?” Lo asks.

 I whip
around the station wagon and leave it and the speed limit in the dust. I dare a
stupid cop to pull me over.

 “I swear to
God Lo, you ever say something like that again about Maya, and I’m going to
kick you so hard in the balls, Mariah Carey will be jealous of the high notes
you’ll hit. Maya would never betray us.”

I pass the
sign to Farewell.

Before Lo can
say anything that will further tempt me to hang up on this call and let the
angels have a go at him, I list off the username and password for the second email
Tarren gave me. “Soon as you get a new cell, email us the number. We’ll go from
there.”

  “Yeah? And
then what happens? We stay in hiding the rest of our lives?” I hear a door
opening on Lo’s end. The scrape of something pulled from a shelf, followed by a
small grunt. I hope that twiggy bastard drops a suitcase on his head.

 I fly past
the dwindling shops, and Bubba’s wheels skid as I hit a gravel road without
slowing. Snow covered pines and firs flash by like sleeping giants.    

“And make
sure you bring your mom, step-mom,” I correct myself. It would be just like Lo
to leave his feisty step-mom behind, let the angels descend upon her. Carmen’s
a little vacant in the head department, but she makes it up with lots of sauce
and sass and so many curves that I bet she’s a real rollercoaster in bed.

 “She’s my
checkbook until I turn 18. She’s not going anywhere,” Lo says. He sounds a
little out of breath.
Clinks
and
clunks
sound from his end of the
call.

 “Good.” I’m
about to hang up.

 “Stay safe.
Make sure Tarren does too,” Lo says. There’s that waver again.

 Awkward. “Yeah,
you too,” I mumble and end the call before I do something crazy like start not
hating the guy. I’m coming up on Dr. Lee’s cabin anyway, and my attention immediately
shifts to the occupants within.  

 I pull up
into the driveway, turn off the truck, and take the spare Glock from the glove
compartment. If they break Maya, if she talks, they could already have angels
swarming us and our allies. The angel network is a far cry from the efficient
machine it used to be when Grand’s father ran things, but I’ve got a feeling our
enemies would pull their broke-down clubhouse together for the chance to enact
some hellacious revenge on us.

 I wait
inside the truck, listening to the wind blow through the trees around me. My
eyes scan for any movement, any flash of color that could mean a coming attack.
I try not to think about just how pathetic my aim was two days ago, or how
exactly I could take on even a single angel when my video game life bar is 25%
at best. We’ve always been the hunters. I take a second to appreciate how much
I really, truly hate being on the prey end of the equation.

Everything is
quiet. Pristine. Unnerves the hell out of me. I swing down from the truck and take
careful steps up the icy porch steps. A small wreath of pine needles hangs on
the front door, a tiny touch of green in this frozen forest of white.
Francesca
.
My heart clobbers as I pound on the cabin door. I’ve just got to believe that
Maya will hold out, that…

 Francesca
opens the door, her doe eyes wide and warm…still warm, even after everything.

 “Gabe.” She
seems generally pleased to see me, though I don’t know why. Her expression
clouds as she gets a load of my face.

 “I need to talk
to Dr. Lee,” I say quickly and add, “right now,” as if the urgency weren’t
plain enough.

 “Okay.”
Francesca eyes the gun in my hand with unconcealed fear.

 “Everything’s
fine,” I lie to her. “We’ve just got…a situation.” Damn, those were the same
words Tarren used, and I’d wanted to punch him in the face for it.

 “Do you want
to come in?” Francesca is still the concerned hostess, even now.

 “I need to
stay out here. Get him now.”

 Francesca
nods and turns, but Dr. Lee is behind her. His face is lined and leathery as a
baseball glove. Same color too. Those dark eyes take me in.

“Tell me,” he
commands. The old man is sharp as broken glass. I almost expect him to read the
entire story right off my face.

 “Maya’s been
taken.” No time to be all secretive in front of Francesca. “You need to get
out, now.”

 “Don’t you
presume to kick me out of my house Gabriel Fox,” Dr. Lee spits back. “That girl
was filled with rage and hurt. She was lost. And you only fed her with coals
and vengeance. You led her down your own path. The path of ashes.”

I hate when
he goes into one of his
drama-dripping rants. This is exactly where
Tarren gets it from. When I was a kid, Dr. Lee’s anger was scarier than the
monster in my closet. His voice boomed like thunder and could shake all the
lies and excuses out of me. Now, my eyes take in the peppered hair, the liver
spots on his hands, the loose skin around his jowls. For as long as I’ve known
him, he’s been ancient, but he was never this old before – old enough to look
weak and frail.

 “Bellow all
you want, but you’re leaving.” I realize that I have to look down to meet his
stony gaze.

“What is…”
Francesca starts.

“If they
come, they come,” Dr. Lee says. “I’m not running anymore.”

“And what
about her?” I nod toward Francesca. “It’s all fine and good to lay your weary
ass down for a noble evisceration, but where does she go?”

“Please,
stop,” Francesca says, but I don’t. I can’t.

“How long
until they find her? How long until they thank her for keeping me alive?”

Dr. Lee’s
lips press together so hard they look almost white. Finally, he says, “Francesca,
we shall be taking a sojourn. You’ll need to pack a bag.”

Francesca
looks at me, tears gathered in her eyes.

“I don’t have
time to explain what’s going on,” I tell her, “but it’s not safe here. You have
to leave.”

“Who took
Maya?” Her hand keeps clutching a long, dangling lock of black hair.

 This is so
not the time for the big reveal. “It doesn’t matter…” I start.

 “Has she
been kidnapped?” Francesca’s voice quavers.

We’ve asked
way too much of her. Shown her flashes of something terrible without preparing
her for the full-on nightmare.

 I take her
hands, though I know mine are cold and thin. “I need you to be strong for me
right now,” I tell her. It’s the cheesiest of cheese, but that’s what my idiot brain
spits out. “I know I’ve got no right to ask that of you.” I squeeze her hands.
So warm. So soft. I want to kiss her fingertips. “Bring anything important that
you can carry. You may not ever be able to come back.”

 She
trembles, and for a second I think she might clock out of consciousness, but
then she pulls her hands from mine and is in the house, rushing up the stairs. Good
girl. My heart swells for her. That leaves me and Dr. Lee. My mother has
already prepared him for the possibility, and I know, despite his squawking
about going down with the ship, that he has a packed bag filled with plenty of
money growing cobwebs in the back of his closet.

 “Tarren’s
going to get her back,” I tell him, and I really do believe it. Tarren can do
things like this. I also want to tell him that he’s right about Maya, how we
betrayed her by stoking the flames of her vengeance, or however he put it, but
we don’t have time for that conversation.

As Dr. Lee
retreats back into the cabin, I take up a position in the driveway and monitor
the woods. All the hairs on the back of my neck are creeping up. Any moment a
swarm of angels could descend upon us.

 To their
credit, Dr. Lee and Francesca are ready to go in fifteen minutes, though I
swear the time went about as fast as a log rolling uphill. When we gather at
Dr. Lee’s old SUV, I hand over one of the clean phones I bought at Walmart and
give them the info for our group email. I wish I had thought to steal a set of
license plates in the Walmart parking lot to give to them. Too late now.

“Don’t forget
to eat,” Dr. Lee tells me. “At least 3,500 calories a day. Lots of protein. And
the vitamins.”

“I’ve got it
Doc,” I tell him and barely manage not to add,
now get in the car you
stubborn bastard.

Dr. Lee
stands in front of me, looking a little ridiculous all bundled in his his thick
black coat and furry hat with ear flaps. He reaches into his pocket and hands
me several capped syringes. “You’ll probably need these when you go to rescue
her.”

He didn’t
even have to ask if I was going to throw my skinny ass into the fray.
“Adrenaline shots? I ask.

He gives me a
look that says maybe my mental crayon is half melted in the sun after all.
“B-12 injections. It’ll give you a boost when you need it. But Gabriel Fox…”
For a moment, I’m a little boy again and he’s about to tell me the injured baby
raccoon I brought to him didn’t survive the night. “…don’t do anything stupid.
If you can’t get Maya back then you’re all Tarren has left.”

God, I wish
he wouldn’t talk like that. Like she’s already gone. All I do is nod and help
him ease into the passenger seat of their SUV. Francesca stands next to the
driver’s side door. When I come around to her, she gives me a hug. We don’t
have time for this, but my body betrays me, and my arms move, pulling her into
me. That raven hair is on my cheek, soft as I imagined. Some tiny, crazy part
of me imagines that if we could just stay like this and close our eyes, the
entire world would just stop and leave us in peace.

I step back,
my hands moving to her shoulders. She trembles. Because of me. Because of what
we are. I’ve put her in danger.

“I’m sorry,”
I whisper.

“I’m afraid
for you and for Tarren and Maya,” she says back. “What is…”

“You have to
go now.” I pry my hands off her shoulders. I wish I had some brave, heroic
words of comfort for her, but instead, I just watch as she swings into the
driver’s seat of the SUV. Dr. Lee meets my eyes. Disappointment galore in his
stare.

Be safe
you stubborn old buzzard,
I think. It was the name Tammy always called him behind his back, but she
spoke it with fondness. I wave them off and stay too long watching the SUV get
smaller and smaller in the distance before it turns around the bend.

Now I should
haul ass to Peoria Fucking Illinois to get Maya back, but…

 I jump into
my truck and rev the engine. Going home is dangerous, unnecessary, stupid…but
the only pictures of my dad are on a shelf in Maya’s bedroom. And then there’s
my lucky hat.