“Grow a pair, Gabby. I’m an adult. I know bad things happen. What I don’t get is you.”
Shelly thrust the cat into Gabby’s arms. “I can’t display my dead cat like some kind of psycho.” She stormed off in a cloud of righteous energy, leaving Gabby holding Tarragon at the end of her driveway, a Russian Mafia goon staring her down likeshewas the bad one.
“Killing animals…” He shook his head at her. “That’s cold.”
Her eyes practically bugged out of her head. “You—” She couldn’t even finish her sentence. “You’re going to kill my whole family if I don’t do what your boss says.”
“That’s just business.” He gestured with his head toward the cat. “That’s some serial killer shit.”
Just then Granny walked out and saw the cat in Gabby’s arms. “Did you get the reward?”
“No, I didn’t get the reward! I’ll be lucky if she doesn’t call the cops.”
“Why?” Granny looked confused. “Didn’t she want it back?”
“Alive! She wanted it back alive!”
“Sorry to interrupt,” the mob goon said, “but do you mind if I use the bathroom?”
Gabby blew her top. She was “the ref made a bad call, and I’m from Philadelphia” mad. “Are you kidding me? What, do you want a snack too?”
“It’s number two,” he said, unfazed by her yelling.
“Figure it out, jerk-off.” In a huff, she stalked back toward the house.
Granny caught up to her in the front entryway. “Did you need to talk to him like that? He’s very nice.”
“He’s not our friend, Granny!” Gabby said too sharply.
Granny raised an eyebrow and let Gabby have her fit. “His mother is from Sviyazhsk, right on the Volga. Such a pretty town.”
Gabby plonked Tarragon onto the table by the door with the mail she hadn’t read in the last couple of weeks. If she didn’t figure her shit out by tomorrow, Tarragon wouldn’t be the only dead animal. Granny was bringing snacks to their executioner.
When she clicked the door shut, someone yelled, “MOM! I’m trying to use the bathroom, and Lucas won’t leave me alone.”
“Lucas, get in here.”
Lucas crab-walked into the room like Stephen King had written him into her life and he needed an exorcism.
“How much sugar have you had?” she asked, knowing the answer. Telltale Starburst wrappers littered the floor.
Lucas, clearly high on a gallon of Mountain Dew and at least one bag of Starbursts, squealed in delight and scuttled out of the room. The minute he went around the corner, he set Kyle off. Gabby’s nerves sparked like frayed electrical wires. Her eye was twitching almost nonstop.
She took a calming breath. If she could just find the codes and keep her kids alive, she could turn them into decent human beings tomorrow. If they could just let her think…
“LUCAS! STOP IT! MOM!”
Gabby rubbed her temples as she walked into the kitchen. She only had twenty-four hours left.
“Gabs, boil some water for the dumplings, would you? I can’t get the TV to work for Burt’s show.”
Gabby shut her eyes. “I thought you were cooking.” The kitchen was fragrant with fried onions and ground beef cooking on the stove.
“I made the pelmeni, but we have to boil them.”
“Yum!” Granny almost never made the little Russian dumplings, only on special occasions. The last time Gabby had had pelmeni was her eighteenth birthday. Granny had made dumplings and given her a necklace from the old country. “I wore this the day I defected,” she had said. “It’ll keep you safe too, pupsik.”
“I’m making them for those poor boys outside.” She shook her head. “Mischa is from Moscow. Poor thing hasn’t been home for years. And he has a friend with him today. Ivan is a sweet boy too.”
