“OK. What’s this all about?”
“The Bostons? They handled the Company money-laundering.”
“Not the Bostons. I know who the Bostons are. What’s that got to do with Kansas, Wendy?”
“It all went down at the same time. When Sasha was killing…”
“You can say it. I already know he’s alive. We really are at his house right now.”
“What?”
“Focus. While Sasha was killing whoever the fuck that guy was out in Kansas, you were…?”
“I was hooking up hidden cameras inside an estate crawling with Company elite so we could keep an eye on the kids we had to leave behind.”
He pauses here, maybe thinking about that. What I just said isn’t a lot of information and if he has no context, it doesn’t make much sense to him.
“You’re right. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Do I need to understand this part of the story?”
“Depends, I guess.”
“On what?”
“Whether or not those girls of yours need a cure.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - NICK
“You’ve got her at my house?”
I am a little bit impressed at this revelation. Also, Indie. That girl is either in on this—and I don’t think she is because there is no point in that—or she’s got a scary sense of intuition.
I need to keep her in mind should there be any backlash about what’s happening right now.
Merc raises his hand. “Back up a minute. You said Carter Couture and I need to have a conversation or one day I might wake up to something very unexpected. What the fuck does that mean?”
I scrub my hands down my face and think about shaving when I get home. Then I think about home and how Wendy is already there. I’m slightly concerned about her condition right now, but it’s no longer a nagging urgency like it was before Merc showed up. Also, I like that she’s at my house. It’s familiar. And it’s not just my house anymore, is it? It’s our house. Same way that her cabin is ours now too. This is kind of a best-case scenario in my opinion.
“Nick.” Merc’s voice is tense. He might even be a little scared. He should be scared. He thinks he got out. But it’s really hard to get out. And if you’ve got skills the way he has skills, you’re never really out, are you? And don’t even get me started about those girls.
Merc is just about to walk over and grab me by the throat when I finally answer him. “Have you ever heard of something called the cure? And when I say ‘cure,’ imagine quotes around that word.”
“Cure for what?” Harrison asks.
I need to be careful here. I don’t want to say too much, but I can’t afford to say too little, either.
Merc is clearly running out of patience because his next words are forced out through clenched teeth. “You heard him. Cure for what?”
“Have you heard of it?” I ask.
“Maybe.”
“OK. I’m gonna take that as a yes. Did you drag it out of Wendy? Or did it pop up before you took her?”
“It came from her.”
I nod. “All right. What did she say?”
“Never mind what she said. What do you have to say about it?”
“Ya know, I’m not gonna take it personal that you’re getting all edgy with me, because I get it. When you hear the word ‘cure’ you think ‘disease’ and then ‘death,’ right? So I get it. I’d feel the same way if someone were talking about my daughter in conjunction with that word too.”
“Nick. I swear to fucking God, I am not playing games here. Tell me what the fucking cure is.”
“What it is? Well, that’s a hard one. Let’s start with the disease. Because we’re all familiar with the disease. It’s called the Zero Program, right? Babies are born, they grow into kids, and these kids turn into little killers. Now, do you remember, way back in the day when we were planning Santa Barbara, there was a discussion or two about Sasha and triggers?”
I think Merc actually forgot about this, because it takes him a couple moments. And then it’s not even him who speaks. It’s Harrison.
“Yeah,” Harrison says. “I do remember that. But it was bullshit. Sasha never had a trigger.”
“Nope. She never did. I’m like ninety-nine point nine-nine percent sure no one ever really fucked with Sasha’s mind the way they might’ve—and I’m just using this as a ‘for instance’—Angelica.”
Merc lets out a breath. “Does James know about this?”
“Yeah. He does. He was part of some dark shit—as we are all aware—in his formative years. So even though I’ve never had any conversations with James about a trigger for Angelica, I’m sure he’s kept it in mind.”
“He never said anything to me. And maybe I don’t see him regularly, but we’ve met up at least a dozen times over the years.”
“I’m sure Angelica is fine,” I say. And I mean this. “She’s what, eighteen now? I hear she’s got plans for college this fall. I think if it were a problem, it would’ve shown up by now.”