Resting Quietly #4
“And how you all ended up in the hospital here,” Hemmer said, nodding.
“And in the meantime, your brothers here crossed the border and scared me up, telling me about the situation with a gang trying to cross. We were on the lookout for them, although they’d already smuggled themselves through.
Some information from Dean, though—Lem Kirov’s name, for instance—gave us a list of his known associates, and we were able to intercept them, one at a time, while you four ran aground and hopped a ride.
The man who infiltrated our hospital had been to four others in two days—and our people grabbed Lem Kirov just as you tackled him, Reg.
I think, however they got here, they skipped right over you.
You boys pulling out of the harbor early was probably the best thing you could have done. ”
Hemmer smiled and drained the dregs of his coffee.
“And that leads us to where we are right now.” He grew sober.
“I’m going to ask this once. Are you all sure you don’t want to seek asylum here with us?
Any of you? The lot of you have helped smuggle fugitives out of ICE custody—if they find out about you, I can’t help you down in the States.
” He gave Dean a sad glance. “You could lose your job, Dean. You could lose everything.”
Under the table, Reg felt Anthony’s fingers twine with his, and he swallowed. He wasn’t aware he was speaking until the words came out.
“But… who’s going to make it better if everybody who hates what’s going on leaves?” he asked. “Who’s going to picket the detention centers and film the violence and tell the real story if we’re all up here?”
He realized what he’d done and bit his lip.
“But maybe that’s just me—”
“Me too,” Anthony said, meeting Reg’s eyes. “You’re not going anywhere—home, Canada, the moon—without me.”
Reg smiled, thinking he was glorious. “Okay,” he said simply. “I won’t argue.” Why would he argue with a thing he desperately wanted?
“I’m not leaving,” Julie said firmly. “We’ve lived on that property for thirty-seven years. I’ve raised my family there. We’ve….” She shrugged. “I like to think I’ve done some good with my community there. I count this last week with that. Ed and I aren’t going anywhere.”
“Rory and I aren’t going anywhere,” Val said.
“Hell no,” Rory agreed. “Although that was great of you to speak for me, Val. I appreciate the confidence.”
Val rolled his eyes. “You’d be so lost without me. Don’t lie.”
Anthony’s father grinned at Reg’s brother, his heart in his eyes. “Okay. I won’t.”
“I’ve got a fiancé and a work husband and a family,” Dean said shortly. “If they take my job, so be it. As long as they leave Marcus alone, they can piss up a rope.”
“It’s a good thing I know Marcus is the work husband,” Hemmer said dryly; then he sobered. “How’s he doing?”
“Recovering,” Dean said, sounding worried. “And pissed off. Those fuckers tried to push him around in a wheelchair. I think he lit a fire under our entire division to wave their giant dicks around and get that bullshit under control—at least in our county.”
Hemmer sighed. “All right, then. Let me know if you change your minds. Dean, you make sure every phone has my number. Once we know you’re coming, we’ll be ready with the welcome wagon, you hear?”
“I hear, Lloyd.” Dean was very sober. “You went above and beyond for us—thank you.”
Lloyd shrugged. “We apprehended an entire Bratva contingent, thanks to you people. Do you know how good that looks on my record? By all means, ask me for another favor. Please!”
“Will do,” Dean said, standing up to shake Lloyd’s hand.
Lloyd responded and then said, “By the way—I’m not sure you boys know this, but since you’re hanging around for another three days, you should probably take today to visit your young friends.
Reynaldo is feeling much better, and they’ll be moved to protected housing tomorrow, probably.
And since everybody else is taking your transportation, your hotel room is paid for, and all you have to do is get a ride to the harbor three days from now.
I’ll text you the information—but you’ll take a small plane out to Anacortes harbor, and then a rental to Seattle, and then a plane to Bakersfield airport.
We….” He shrugged. “We didn’t want to send you on a wild goose chase, but we didn’t want you-know-who to be looking at planes from Canada, either, should they get wind of this.
You smuggled yourselves in, we’ll smuggle you out.
Don’t you worry, boys. We’ve got your backs. ”
And with that, he tipped his head and left, leaving Reg to wonder why he wasn’t wearing a cowboy hat—he seemed to need one at the very least.
An hour later, after a lot of talking and catching up, Reg and Anthony started yawning through their coffee, and Reg’s mother decided it was time for them to go to bed.
As they wandered up to their room, leaning on each other as they tried to remember which one was their number, Reg took a look around and frowned.
“What?” Anthony asked, fumbling for the keycard.
“This could be the nicest place I’ve ever been in,” Reg told him frankly. It was practically a castle—old, with original wooden fixtures and plush carpet runners in rich blues and reds—and it had only hit him just now that this wasn’t a Best Western or Holiday Inn Express.
“Good,” Anthony said as the door clicked. “It’ll be like a honeymoon. Or a really good vacation.”
Reg snorted softly, remembering their interlude the night before. “More of that would be nice,” he admitted, and then, sadly, he yawned. “But after—”
Anthony caught his yawn and finished his sentence. “More sleep.”
They crawled into bed still wearing their sweatshirts and socks, with the towel and throw in puddles at the foot of the bed.
THEY WERE awakened less than an hour later by somebody else knocking at the door.
“Oh God,” Anthony mumbled, and he reached out—on purpose—to stop Reg from getting up. There was no way his father would do this to him; it had to be someone from Reg’s family.
“Why would they do this to us?” Reg mumbled. At least that’s what it sounded like, because he was facedown on the pillow.
Terrifying that he slept like that. Now Anthony knew. With that in mind, he stumbled to the door and found Reg’s mother standing there, both backpacks—thoroughly cleaned and repacked—over one shoulder, and their denim jackets and hoodies over the other arm.
“Oh my God, let me help you,” Anthony gasped, taking the backpacks first so he could set them on the floor by the bed.
“Here, Mom,” Reg muttered, scrambling out of bed to get the jackets and sweaters. “Sorry, we were just—”
“Sleeping, like I told you,” she said, laughing a little. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
With that, she scampered away like a pixie in jeans and a tie-dye hoodie while Anthony and Reg tried to pull their brains back in through their ears.
She was back a moment later with the two bags of provisions that they’d carried. Only, Anthony could already see, the bags had been emptied and restocked.
“Where’d all the paperbacks go?” he complained.
“We gave them to the boys,” she told him bluntly. “Ilia and Reynaldo were most insistent—apparently there’d been implied promises about getting to read all of them.”
Reg snorted. “They made that up, Mom, but that’s fine.” He frowned. “They’re getting released tomorrow?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “And we told them to expect you around two o’clock today. You’ll have to wake up again to eat, and that should work just fine.”
“So,” Anthony said, feeling a little slow, “if we’re leaving in three days, and you and Dean will take three days to get home—”
“We’ll all be getting home about the same time,” she told him.
“Dean and I might even be picking you up from the airport.” She nodded toward Reg’s phone.
“And now that you have a new one of those, you’ll need to spend at least an hour texting everybody.
Anthony here stirred up a hornet’s nest when he texted. It needs to be you.”
Reg gave Anthony a puzzled glance. “But Anthony’s so nice,” he said. “How could he stir up hornets?”
Julie gave Anthony a telling look and patted his arm. “I’ll let him tell you, son. But don’t worry. He said something everybody needed to hear and you would never have said. It’s okay—we’ll have it all balanced out by the time you get home.”
Reg frowned at Anthony, bemused, and Julie laughed a little.
“Give me a hug,” she said. “You and your young man enjoy this time here—you’ve earned it.
” And with that she kissed him on the cheek and then turned to Anthony for his hug.
“Welcome to the family, kiddo. I hope you’re ready for all of us. ”
Anthony snorted. “Oh yes, ma’am.” He smiled. “And I already felt like family. If you didn’t want me to stay, you shouldn’t have been so awesome.”
She laughed and patted his cheek. “Now, if only we could get Sal to come home, I might actually believe that. Bye, boys. Travel safe. Text us all you want, but don’t forget to put the phones down after a while. You deserve the peace.”
And with that she was gone, leaving Anthony to face Reg’s irritation.
“What did—how did you scare up a hornet’s nest?” he demanded.
Anthony let out a sigh. “Reg….”
“No, seriously. What am I walking into when I pick up my phone?”
He said it, but to Anthony’s intense relief, he let the phone remain on the charger and crawled back into bed with the air of a man who needed more nap more than he needed to fight—or to log on to find out why his myriad siblings were currently freaking out.
“I just happened to mention to them that….” Wow. He was glad Reg was lying down for this. “That you let your mother win at cards.”
“You did what?” Reg pushed up on one elbow, and Anthony waved him back down.
“We’re going back to bed.” He yawned. “Lay down and face me.”
It was always harder to maintain a good edge to your anger when you were prone and gazing into the eyes of somebody you were trying to be angry with.