Chapter Sixty-Six
Fox
Jenny patched in. “Fox, if you can hear me, I’m getting to Haze as fast as I can, but I’m still ten minutes away.”
My GPS told me I was four minutes away.
The roads passed by in a blur. I had to stay focused on driving.
I watched the time tick down.
I pulled up close to the charity shop. I had my knife. I was prepared to do whatever it took.
The glass windows at the front had their blinds pulled down. I could hear the low murmur of voices. I crept up to the windows and listened.
I heard what sounded like: “Peso!”
I recognized that name. Octonauts was playing.
What the hell was going on? An attempt to calm a hysterical terrified Bibi?
The blinds blocked my view. I couldn’t see anything inside. I crept round to the alleyway and the back door that I knew Haze had entered through. I tried the handle. It turned. I heard raised voices from inside. Things were escalating.
I crept out into the main shop. Drake had his back to me, standing in front of my wife and daughter. Bibi was sitting on a table, staring down at Haze’s phone. I couldn’t hear what Drake and Haze were saying over the noise of Octonauts.
I gripped my knife harder and charged at Drake. I threw myself at him, toppling him to the ground.
“Dada!” Bibi had turned toward the noise and was grinning at me. “What you doing?”
I wanted this man dead. But not in front of my daughter.
“Playfight! That’s fun, isn’t it?”
Drake was rubbing his head as I patted him down and took his gun, tucking it into my waistband.
Haze went over to Bibi. “We’re going to have a little grown-up talk, and then we’re going home.” She turned up the volume further on her phone and came back to us.
Drake tried to sit up. I pushed him back with my foot and turned to Haze. “Where are we going to do it?”
My adrenaline was spiked. I was ready for this. For once and for all putting the hell of the last year behind us.
“We’re not.” Haze folded her arms. “We’re letting him live.”
Of all the things I’d expected my wife to say, that was not it.
“Tell me why we aren’t going to kill the man who took our daughter? The man who tried to kill us? He is The Chameleon, isn’t he?”
“He is The Chameleon.” Haze took a deep breath. “But he’s also my father.”
I looked between them both. Haze’s father?
How? What? Why?
Oh, god. This man was my father-in-law?
I looked between them. I could see it. I could goddamn see it. A resemblance.
I tried to focus.
The Chameleon had been tasked with killing us.
He was our enemy.
“If he’s your father, then what happened to familial loyalty? Everything we’ve gone through this last year was because of him!” I pushed my foot down harder, pressing it against Drake’s chest.
“It’s a fair point.” Haze shrugged at Drake. “But he claims he’s been trying to save us from The Corporation. And it feels a bit icky killing my dad.”
“Save us? What about Ivrea?!”
Haze and Drake looked at each other.
“Well, that’s complicated,” is all Haze would say.
“I told you not to go to Balgray!” Drake was staring up at me. “The Corporation somehow found out you were going to the party. They were going to kill you there.”
I shook my head. “Wasn’t everything you were doing set up to make us go to Balgray?”
Drake pushed my foot off his chest and sat up. “That was before I realized what The Corporation had planned. I wanted you to leave Bibi at home so I could talk to her. She had something of mine.”
I looked at Haze. She nodded.
“I was never meant to take her. I was going to make sure you had no idea that I’d even been there.
But when I heard The Corporation were going to kill you there, I tried to warn you not to go.
You didn’t listen, so I had no choice. I took her and made sure you knew about it, to get you out of there. ”
“You kidnapped Bibi to save us?” I scoffed.
“It worked, didn’t it?!” Drake looked up at me as he got to his feet. “I knew nothing would get you out of there faster than thinking your child was in danger. I knew the men there would be no match for you when you were in such a state.”
“You expect praise? After everything you’ve put us through?!” I didn’t want to shout. But this was it. I was finally face-to-face with The Chameleon, yet I couldn’t unleash the hell I wanted to. “What was wrong with just coming to us? Explaining everything? Like a normal human being?”
“I had to be sure!”
“Let’s stop the shouting! There’s a child—” Haze was cut off by Jenny charging through the front door, holding our kitchen knife.
“Hi Jen Jen,” said Bibi, still staring at Haze’s phone.
Jenny took in a totally unfazed Bibi, and the three of us standing, facing each other.
“What is going on?”