“A8,” he said, turning around and pulling a set of keys off the wall. He held it up and pressed the lock button and a car near the end of the giant garage beeped. It was a discreet, heather gray, Audi.
I snagged the keys and smiled at him. “Thanks.”
“Uh, if Mr. Raines asks, what should I say?” he asked.
I smiled. “Tell him I’ll be back and not to worry.”
He laughed. “Not worrying isn’t exactly a major practice of Mr. Raines lately.”
“I know,” I said, walking towards the car. “But he’s just going to have to trust me.”
48
GIO
I folded my hands into my hair and cracked my neck to the side. After having such a wonderful date with Avion and feeling like we’d made a huge step forward, now I had to go back and tell her that my lack of action on the Narzand brothers had led to her father’s death.
“Gio,” Milli said. “You need to tell us what to do.”
“I don’t know!” I looked at Merrick. “What wouldyoudo? Kill them? That’s not gonna look great. The Governor dies and then we fly in seconds later and kill the Lieutenant Governor and the Secretary of State? The entire city of New York would be looking to hunt us down.”
“I’m sure that’s what they’re trying to get out of us,” Milli said. “They want us to behave recklessly. This entire thing is designed to lure us out. Your plan to lock us all up in this air-tight facility worked a little too well. That’s why we haven’t heard anything from them in weeks. They didn’t have a move to make against us, so they made one that would lure us out.”
That sounded very viable, but it didn’t track with what Milli and I had spoken about earlier. If there was someone trying to get to us and they had a man on the inside, then they shouldn’t have an issue. Even knowing that there was a slight possibility that someone close to me could be betraying me, I couldn’t bring myself to suspect Kelly, Punk, or my parents. When I spoke to them--when I looked them in the eyes--I didn’t feel like they were lying to me or keeping anything from me.
This made much more sense, but then what was with Milli’s feeling that someone was a traitor. “If the point is to lure us out, then wouldn’t running out there be playing right into their hands? If that’s true. If they’rereallythat desperate that they killed their own father because of it, then maybe we just stay put. Maybe we’ll get lucky enough and they’ll kill each other next.”
“This is the last stop before something much bigger,” Merrick said. “We’ve seen what escalation means for the Narzands. We don’t want to see what’s next. If they’re expecting you to make a move, then make one.”
I wanted to argue, but I was also sick of the Narzands running my life. I didn’t want to be running anymore. I didn’t constantly want to be on the defensive as opposed to the offensive. I’d been fighting with being more reserved in my best attempts to keep everyone around me safe, but maybe that was the problem. I was a fighter, not a defender.
It was time to fight.
“Milli, you’re coming with me,” I said, standing up from my desk. “Dad, you’re staying here with Mom and Avion. If anything happens, I need you to call me immediately.”
“I’m coming with,” Merrick said.
“No.” I turned and looked him in the eyes. “I trust you to protect my house and my … My girlfriend. If you want to be a real dad, you’ll stay here and do it. Preferably not with any psychological torture.”
“Girlfriend?” Merrick and Milli said in unison.
“We’re not talking about that right now,” I said, keeping my attention focused on Merrick. “Are you gonna do it or not?”
Merrick just rolled his eyes. “You know I’m going to.”
“I need to go tell Avion,” I said. “Milli, go get the car ready.”
“Yeah.”
We all rushed out of the room, and my father and Milli took the elevator down, while I took the stairs up. My mind was reeling trying to decide exactly how to explain everything to Avion in a truncated period of time, but maybe what I needed to do was ask her for some time for a more thorough explanation down the road and instead just tell her I was going to take care of things.
“Avion?” I called out as I knocked on her door, but I got no response. I did have my key on me, but I knocked again just for safe measure. “Avion? Are you still up?” It was entirely possible that she went right into her room and went to sleep. Though I didn’t want to disturb her, I let myself in so that I could at least give her a quick update.
Her living room lights were still on, which seemed a little strange, but I put it out of my mind and continued straight through to the bedroom. I opened the door and slowly peeked in, but then I noticed that the blankets were thrown back and she wasn’t in bed. I stepped back out and glanced around the kitchen and living room area, but she definitely wasn’t anywhere in there, so then I walked back into the bedroom and over to the bathroom door.
Except the door was open and the light was off. She wasn’t in there either.
And I went straight into panic mode.
