Nerves caused her knees to weaken, but she did not fear falling. Not with him here. “Did you mean it?”
“Every word,” he vowed. “But what specifically?”
“About loving Oscar? About wanting to be a father to him?”
Keys searched her eyes, though for what she didn’t know. When he spoke, it was precise and unflinching. “Every. Word.” She felt his fingers at the base of her skull twitch. “I have plans for his mother, too. It involves a ring, endless hours of chess, grand adventures in Azeroth, and countless quests through Faerûn. When she steps into the light, I’ll be right there at her side, and when she’s ready, that ring is hers.”
Rose wondered if this was how parachuters felt, right before they stepped out into the open air. “I’m not ready yet, Keys. I want to be.” Tears continued to fall down her cheeks as Oscar obliviously climbed the rock wall again. “You have no idea how much, but I feel like I can’t until I’m free of my past. And maybe it makes me a bad person, but roach hunting has never before sounded like such an incredible idea.”
“Yeah?” he asked, crooking a smile at her.
Rose nodded. “Yeah. What’s the first step?”
“Well, you’re a bit behind the times, because I’m already on step, like, seventeen.” He tipped his chin down at her hat, which was still on the ground at their feet. “And you’re not going to like this next part, because I’m going to need some of Oscar’s blood.”
Rose blinked rapidly at Keys, and that initial feeling of weightlessness that she’d experienced at agreeing to his plan completely vanished. “I’m sorry, what?”
* **
Keys hadno intention of traumatizing children unnecessarily, but there was no way to stage a public shooting without some chaos. Even if he enlisted the help of the Mountain Mutineers, theVia DaemoniaMC, theNon CrasMC, and his own Master Key Security Solutions, there was no way of creating a completely safe, completely fake event. Not if he had any hope of not having anything traced back to him or Mount Grove. It would defeat the purpose of bringing Rose and Oscar there if the bad guys, or roaches as Keys found he was fond of calling them, knew where they were. The plan was to lead them where theywantedthem to think Rose and Oscar were.
Things moved quickly after Keys brought Rose and Oscar out of the park. In the back of a rented motorhome that Thorne drove, Keys withdrew some vials of blood from Oscar while Rose held and comforted him. It completely sucked that Keys’ first act in the boy’s life was to cause him pain, but he hoped the giant-ass lollipop and teddy bear he’d bought in anticipation of this moment made up for it.
Rose’s reproachful look of “what the fuck?” when she saw the size of the damn thing might have put him further onto her bad side. Oops. Maybe he shouldn’t have gone with a lollipop that was as wide as Oscar’s head.
As Thorne drove Oscar and Rose away—Oscar happily licking at his treat—Grimm followed at a discreet distance in a separate vehicle that held all Rose and Oscar’s belongings. When Rose and Oscar had left their home earlier, Grimm and Thorne were waiting to break in and pack. They left all furniture, with the exception of Oscar’s racing bed, and food, and nothing was packed particularly neatly, but all their possessions were removed from the rental home.
Grimm would ensure that nothing happened on the long drive back. Additionally, the brothers had spare gasoline canisters to make less refueling stops in surveilled locations, plenty of water and snacks, and would avoid all toll roads. By the time theymade it back to Mount Grove, what should have been a fifteen hour drive would take about twenty-two. Keys and Goose would make it back before the others did.
Keys tried to nonchalantly walk back to the playground equipment that Oscar had been playing on as he placed an earwig into his left ear. It was similar to the ones Rose used with theNon Cras.
“Ready?” he asked Goose.
“Am I ready to shoot into a crowd of children?” Goose retorted back. “Apparently.”
When Keys had approached the brothers with his idea, he’d feared his idea would be too out there, too dangerous, for them to agree. But he still needed their help, and maybe they would have a better idea that would still get the same results. Instead, the brothers agreed without hesitationandthought there needed to be more than just hair follicles left behind.
Keys was nervous as fuck. Any other mission he’d been on like this—well, notexactlylike this, but equally as dangerous—he’d had his brothers with him. Really, his job had always been just to stay in his van. Watch the computers, track the comms, and verify everyone’s safety. Keys wanted to go to his brothers for help. He really, really had. But at the end of the day, he couldn’t risk them.
They had families and homes and jobs. If Keys’ plan failed, if Rose and Oscar had to run instead of settling down in Mount Grove, Keys knew in his gut that he was going with them. He didn’twantthat, nor was he hoping for it, but he knew that he was prepared to leave the only family he’d ever known, if he had to.
Keys looked around at the number of kids still at the playground. Rose chose this time to bring Oscar because it was the least crowded, which certainly made it easier on Keys’ conscience what he was about to do.
“Stop,” came into his ear. “Take a small step back and to yourleft. Based on the surveillance tape you did your weird-ass techy magic to, that’s exactly where Oscar would be standing.”
Facing the rock wall Oscar had been climbing only minutes before, Keys took out a mini soda can with Oscar’s blood in it and held it at roughly Oscar’s height. He still wore the latex gloves he’d donned to draw the blood. “Do you have a clear shot?”
“As clear as we’re going to get.”
Keys nodded and took a deep breath. “For the record, I hate this plan.”
Laughter filled his ear. “It was your plan, boss! If anyone should hate it, it’s me.”
“It means a lot that you’re willing to risk yourself like this. I won’t forget it,” Keys told the man stationed on the roof.
“Quit stalling. Now’s as good a time as any. Let’s do this thing!”
Keys grimaced, because he certainlyhadbeen stalling. “One… Two… Three…”
