Chapter 31
Thirty-One
Raven
I’ve never been home on my bike before. Left on the back of one, while my family was asleep. But never ridden up on one.
My brother’s car is in the drive. That’s encouraging; he’s saner than my mother and will help balance the shock of my arrival.
Not as much of a shock if she knew I was walking in here to hide from Chinese enforcers, carrying approximately four million in illegal unprovenanced diamonds.
I don’t think she’d care about the black box that Kurt’s risked everything for.
She might care about my gun, but that I dumped somewhere in Nevada.
I knock, because I’m effectively a stranger in their house. That’s what three visits in six years means: no keys.
It’s seven in the evening, not yet dark. There are lights on in the house. Maybe they’ve finished dinner, or given how long it’s taking to answer, maybe they’re in the middle of it. My mother will blame me for that, too.
The door opens at last, and it’s not my mother, or even Caleb. It’s my father.
“Genesis!” His expression eases from surprise to delight, making me feel guilty all over again for not seeing him as often as I should.
“Hi, Dad.” This is more awkward than I thought it would be. “I was… uh…” In the area. Give or take eight hundred miles.
“Come in, come in!” He steps back, holding the door wide.
The rest of them are sitting at the table, half way through eating. My mother stands up slowly, smoothing down her impeccable dress, almost as if to say what the hell are you wearing? But probably without the swearing. Even in her head.
My brother’s there. He leans back in his chair, raising his glass of water, giving me a droll toast. KaeLynn’s here too, and for a horrible moment, I wonder if I’ve interrupted something significant.
Like them announcing a betrothal or something.
But she gets up too, her dress an attractive light summer thing, even if it is more conservative than I would ever wear.
“Oh my gosh, Genesis,” she says, staring wide eyed. “You look awesome!”
That wasn’t the reaction I anticipated. I look like someone who’s spent eleven of the past twenty hours on the road, stopping for breaks only because it wasn’t safe not to.
“Can I take your… coat?” my father asks, stiffly formal, presented with the conundrum of an armored leather biking jacket.
“Thanks…” I unzip and shrug it off, conscious that it’s been a while since I had a shower, and in this heat, I’ve been sweating for most of it. Plus it has a velvet bag stuffed with diamonds in one pocket, Kurt’s little black box in the other. “I’ll just… uh… lay it on the sofa.”
“Have you eaten?” my mother asks, true to form.
“No.” Not since a road-side burger eight hours ago. My stomach rumbles at the thought of food.
“I made plenty,” she says; also true to form.
“Fantastic.”
No hugs, no awkward attempt at one. She waves at one of the two empty chairs and goes to the kitchen, fetching me a plate and silverware.
“Back so soon?” my brother asks dryly as I take a seat.
“It’s because I feel so welcome here,” I say, using the motion of tucking in my chair to take a subtle sniff of my armpits. Not too bad.
Caleb watches me like there’s some truth to that sarcastic deflection, and maybe there is.
“Of course you are,” my father says loudly, taking his seat again.
Conversation is stilted. Maybe it wasn’t before I arrived, but it sure as hell is now.
My father says nothing, but I catch him glancing at me once in a while, and he gives me small smiles.
My brother fills the silence talking about work, some project at the bank.
My mother focuses entirely on him, ignoring me as only she can; for once, I’m grateful for it.
I eat, keeping my eyes down. Not from any sense of decorum or guilt, but just because I’m exhausted. At least I’m safe here. No one knows where I am, and I can sleep tonight, take stock tomorrow.
After dinner, all I want to do is head for my room, shift some of the boxes my mother stores there until I can find my bed, and crash. But Caleb takes my arm.
“A walk in the garden, Gen?”
In other words, he wants to talk.
“Sure.”
He slides the patio door open, and we step out into the gloom of the late evening, the shadows thick despite the lights from the house. But we both know the garden so well we could probably walk it blindfolded.
“What really brings you here?” he asks, his arm still hooked around mine. Affectionate, but also preventing me from fleeing.
“What do you mean?”
“If you don’t mind me saying, you look…” He purses his lips in search of the right word. “…frazzled.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Frazzled?”
He waves his free hand in the air. “Ragged. Wrung out.” A glance across at me with a playful twist to his lips. “Running on fumes.”
“It’s a long way from LA.”
“No planes today?” He knows perfectly well there were.
“Spur of the moment decision.”
“Okay, great.” He stops, turning to face me. “Now let’s cut the bullshit. What are you running from?” His eyes narrow. “Or who?”
“Brotherly concern?”
“In part, yes. Also worried what shit you might be bringing down on the family, and KaeLynn.”
Ouch. Also, fair.
“None.” Because no one knows I’m here. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“And that, Snotnose, is not a denial that you are in trouble.”
Shit.
I shrug a shoulder, trying not to look like I care. “Busted. Busy life, what can I say?”
“How long did it take you to get here from LA?”
The non-sequitur catches me by surprise. “About eleven hours.”
“Sure you didn’t come from San Francisco?”
I stop breathing. Glance back at the house. Wonder why I didn’t anticipate this. Meet his searching gaze. “Why would I have come from San Francisco?”
“Oh, I don’t know. BASE jump off a building there this time last night, lots of commotion, and twenty-one hours later, my baby sister walks in looking…” He hisses through his teeth. “…frazzled.”
“Some coincidence, huh.”
“Yeah, some coincidence. Don’t get me wrong,” he begins, then rattles off, half performative, half sincere, “I’m glad to see you, you always have a place here, important to be safe, yadda yadda.” He crosses his arms. “But I’m going to ask you again. Are you bringing trouble?”
“And I’ll give you the same answer, Caleb. I wouldn’t do that to you.”
He nods slowly. “Good. How long are you staying?” That sounds like an invitation to leave, and he hears it too. He shakes his head. “I didn’t mean it like that. Genuine question; no pressure. You told me we’re safe; I believe you.”
“I haven’t decided,” I reply. “A few days, if that’s all right.” Don’t know why I’m asking his permission; it’s my parents’ house.
“Grand.” He gives me a wry smile. “KaeLynn and I aren’t staying for… obvious reasons. But we’ll be around, if you want to talk. I’ll text you the address.”
“Uh… broke my phone.”
“Did you drop it while jumping off a building?”
“No.”
“Well, fine. I’ll write it down. If you’re still here at the weekend, come for lunch?”
“Sure, sounds good.”
“Great.” He leans in for a fleeting one-armed hug, tousles my hair like I’m five again, grins at me, then walks back in.
I linger outside, no longer feeling the need for sleep. Adrenaline has pushed the fatigue away.
Will my mother and father make the same connection Caleb has? Will he tell them? Will KaeLynn?
Was I wrong to come here?
Maybe a hotel would’ve been a better idea. Maybe it still is; I don’t have to stay in one place, I could travel every day. Could they track my card fast enough if I’m gone by the following morning? Hell, I don’t know. I read romances, not thrillers. Maybe I could just pay cash.
All the things I could’ve done, but didn’t.
Morning is welcome when it comes. My dreams the night before were not.
I remind myself it’s just my brain processing events, but that doesn’t help un-see the images of Cole dying as he bleeds out, Kurt thrown into a deep dark hole, and Declan searching for me desperately.
They still disturb me, despite knowing none of them are true.
Cammy picked Cole up. He’ll be alive, even if he’s in a hospital somewhere answering difficult questions about a gunshot wound.
Kurt had nothing to incriminate him, even assuming it was law enforcement that picked him up.
They’d have to know exactly who he is even to ask the right questions.
And Declan?
Last time I came to my parents’ house, he ingratiated himself with Dario and Cole.
He’s probably with the crew right now, shooting pool with Dario or annoying Tasha.
Even if he’s curious why I’m not answering his calls, I can’t envisage a world where ‘desperate’ can be tagged onto his searching for me. Irritated, more like.
I make myself a coffee and retreat to the sofa in the living space. The little black box Kurt gave me is in the back pocket of my leather pants, never away from me, just as he requested. A constant reminder of the question that circles around and around inside my head: what is it?
Pulling it out, I examine it with fresh eyes. It’s slim, rectangular, with a button on the side and a little L in a box in one corner. Clearly a storage device, but that doesn’t help. Could be anything on it. Blackmail material, birthday plans, last year’s tax returns.
Out of curiosity, I press the button. It prompts for a PIN I obviously don’t have. Locked, then.
I’m still staring at it minutes later when my mother walks in, and cover it with one hand.
“Morning.”
“Good morning, Genesis. Did you sleep well?”
Said with all the warmth and sincerity of a hotel maid.
“Fine, thank you.” I pause, bracing myself to ask the woman who birthed me for a second favor. “Could I please borrow your phone? I’ve lost mine, and I’d like to google something.”
My mother looks surprised that I’ve asked, but unlocks her phone and hands it over, face expressionless.
“Thank you.”
“Be careful with it please.”
Yes, because I was about to drop it and run it over with my bike. “Sure.”