Ari’s Plan
Back to Pago Pago
Selena Torres opened the door before they'd reached it, still in a maid's uniform. Halo's mouth fell open. “Sarah?”
“My real name is Selena. Come in and I'll explain.” Selena's hug lasted a beat longer than either of them expected.
Annabeth was right behind her, arms already open. “So good to see you! Come in, make yourself at home.” She held Halo at arm's length a moment, looking her over, before pulling her in properly. “We've missed you.”
“HALO!” Tina barreled in and hugged her hard enough to rock her back on her heels, then held her out for inspection. “You look great! I expected skin and bones. Xander took good care of you.”
Halo laughed, some of the tightness in her chest easing for the first time in days. “Yes, he did.”
“Let the poor girl breathe,” Annabeth said, shooing Tina off. “Selena, go talk with her somewhere quiet. Halo, come find me in the kitchen when you're ready. We'll eat.”
Selena waited until Halo was settled before she started.
“I'm sorry for the lie. Joel had my family to hold over me: deportation back to Columbia where the cartel would murder us. He controlled me completely. It was Joel who told the rescuers you were all dead.” She looked at her hands.
“There's a hundred-thousand-dollar bounty on me now. I don't go anywhere without Eleni.”
“We'll put him away for good, Selena. I promise you that.” Halo stopped mid-sentence, her mind catching on the word promise. “Oh, my God. Selena, we'll finish later, I need Simo.”
She found him at the kitchen counter with Eleni. “Simo! I know where Xander is going!”
“Calm down. Tell me.”
“He keeps his promises, we all know that. He told Joel that if he ever screwed up, it'd cost him… Xander's going after him himself.”
Simo's face went hard. “He's going to screw things up or get himself fucking killed…” He caught Annabeth's look and winced. “Sorry, didn't mean to curse in front of you.”
“It's fine,” Annabeth said turning to Halo as Halo’s voice rose.
“What do you mean, killed?” Halo gasped.
Simo glanced at Eleni, then at Annabeth, and made a decision. “You should talk to Annabeth first.”
Annabeth's face had already gone pale. She took Halo's hand and led her to the living room instead of back to the guest room. “You remember my niece, Elara Swan? Stayed with us one summer, good with Tina?”
Halo nodded slowly.
“She went to LA last year, trying to break in. Ari watched out for her as best he could. The last anyone saw her, she was at Aurae with Johnny Stone and Joel Miller. She left one way. They left another.”
Halo's arms went around her. “Annabeth. If Joel had anything to do with that, he has to go down.”
“That's the plan. Ari's being meticulous, airtight, so Joel can't buy his way out.” Annabeth pulled back.
“He was going to ask you for this favor himself.
I'll ask it for him instead. He needs you to see Johnny Stone. Try to get the Governor of American Samoa to release him in exchange for testimony against Joel.”
Halo went still. Johnny Stone, face to face, after everything he did to her. She thought of Joel and of Elara. “I'll do it.” Then, before Annabeth could smile: “There's something you should know first. I'm pregnant.”
“Then you can't possibly go…”
“I'll do this, Annabeth. “We have to put him away. All of us. None of us are safe while he's free”
Getting Halo out past the paparazzi swarming Santa Monica took twenty minutes and Catrina, the flight attendant’s, uniform.
Simo swapped the two women, sent Catrina off in the Cadillac playing movie star while Halo slipped home in a flight attendant's ponytail, helping the co-pilot check seatbelts like she'd done it her whole life.
JJ was waiting in Halo’s kitchen. Halo screamed happily mirroring JJ’s own scream. They collided into each other, laughing and crying at once.
JJ pulled back touching her hair. “Brown hair now, brown contacts, a tan, a titanium plate.” She knocked on like it was a party trick. “I'm fine, I'm fine! How are you? Where's Xander?”
Halo's face did something JJ caught immediately. “Long story.”
“We've got all night.” JJ pulled out a stool, while Halo poured JJ a glass of wine and not one for herself. Then pulled out fruit and water and placed it on the kitchen island and sat next to JJ and began eating.
“I'm so hungry lately, JJ.”
It took JJ a full ten seconds to do the math, no wine for Halo… and then she was on her feet, stool clattering. “NO. WAY.”
“Yes, way.” JJ hugged her hard and they talked past midnight, Halo's whole story, then JJ's turn to explain what happened with Simo.
Ari hung up the phone and turned to Simo and Eleni. “Pregnant, and still insisting on Pago Pago. She's putting up quite a front.”
“She's set in stone on going,” Simo said. “Knowing her even this little, I'd guess nothing changes her mind.”
“Her stubbornness is daunting.” Ari sighed. “Update on Joel: he's leased a jet, routed through three shell companies to hide it. Delivery to El Monte Airport within days. My people are watching the field.”
“When that jet lands, we go to full alert,” Simo said. “Halo out of the country might be the safer option, for once.”
“Agreed. Now… Xander.”
Eleni cleared her throat. “Halo wanted to climb the hill herself, after we drove past Joel’s house. I've only known one other person willing to risk everything like that for someone.” She didn't look at Simo when she said it, and somehow that made it worse. “She'll do anything for him. Anything.”
“That's dangerous.” Simo muttered.
“For who?” Eleni said flatly.
Ari let the silence sit before he spoke again. “I'll have our doctor standing by, if or when you find Xander. Where will you keep him?”
“Halo's house. Security's already in place.”
“And if he's dying? Or already gone?”
“Nearest trauma center. After that, it's the legal system's problem.”
“And if he won't come with you?”
“Then I make him.”
“Gently.” Ari cautioned.
“I feel like a nursemaid already,” Simo muttered.
“I know the feeling,” Eleni said, not kindly.
Ari left them to it. The second the door closed, Eleni rounded on Simo in Greek. “Why do you get like this every time you hear people are in love?”
“It's silly.”
“Was it silly when you married Marina?”
Simo was quiet for a moment. “Looking back? Yes.”
Eleni leaned in close and changed the subject. “Be kind to him when you find him. He has a bullet through him, a family he's trying to protect, and a woman he loves. Try, for once, to remember what that's like.” She turned and left him with no reply coming from him.