He didn’t have the luxury of time, maybe hours or even a day, but nothing beyond that. Waiting was as much of a gamble as ransacking the joint with guns loaded. A few blocks from ground zero he stopped for fuel—several containers of gasoline and a case of Red Bull.
The blackout-tinted windows allowed him privacy in his parking spot under a tree one street over from the old shack, but still allowing him to have eyes on anyone coming and going from the single-car detached garage or front door. After the sun set, he painted all his exposed skin black and emptied the duffel bag arsenal of guns, grenades, and knives on the seat next to him, taking his time to organize them one at a time in his weapons vest and belt.
Then he waited for a sign.
*
The end was eminent. Jillian didn’t know what the end would be, but she felt it approaching in Irene’s constant checking-up on them and her nervous demeanor that required constant puffs from her inhaler.
“How did you end up marrying her?”
The corners of Knox’s mouth turned up a fraction. “It was a marriage of convenience, just short of being an actual arranged marriage. Edgar tired of watching me spiral downhill over the years, pining after a woman I would never have. He knew I had two addictions: Sunny and power. So he fed the latter. His loss led to the creation of G.A.I.L., but my knowledge, connections, and ability to command is what made it what it is today.”
“Corrupt.”
“Effective.”
“How did he know about you and my mom?”
“Love is reckless. We were reckless. The addiction went both ways, like needing just one hit of nicotine. It would have been easier had I not taken the job with Grant. But I did and that kept Sunny in my life, it kept our paths crossing. It was never sex, just years dotted with stolen moments, like that night in the ladies’ room—holiday and birthday parties, picnics. It was the most necessary torture. I lived for just one kiss, just one whisper of love. Edgar witnessed one of those reckless, stolen moments. He didn’t tell Grant, but from that moment forward he was determined to make sure it never happened again. Irene was a gift of sorts, a promise that someday I would control G.A.I.L. Our skills complimented each other.”
He laughed.
“How’s that for love? She was smart, but insecure. All I had to do was smile and she willingly said yes to anything. She began to feel restless with the job Edgar gave her. What she didn’t understand was that no one left G.A.I.L, at least not voluntarily and not usually alive. He needed her controlled, and who better to do it than the ultimate control freak? I married her. I tamed her.”
“And then?”
“And then she found letters I wrote to Sunny, but never sent.”
“Why didn’t you send them?”
“I wrote them after she married your father. I valued my life too much to send them. Anyway, Edgar assured Irene I wasn’t having an affair. Of course she didn’t believe him, so she had me followed for months. I didn’t get anywhere near Sunny, but those letters … they wrecked Irene. Edgar insisted she be evaluated for mental stability. You know better than anyone that G.A.I.L can’t risk its members suffering from any sort of mental illness. They recommended she take an anti-depressant. She didn’t do so well on it. Her paranoia just got worse.”
“But it was justified, so it wasn’t really paranoia.”
He nodded. “But Edgar and I were the only ones who knew it.”
“So you had her committed?”
“No. Edgar wouldn’t do that. He thought we needed her. She was good at what she did. We managed her the best we could … for years. But the only thing more unpredictable—more destructive—than Irene was Sunny and Mickey. I waited seventeen years to be with the woman I’d loved my whole life. Seventeen years I watched her raise a family with another man, but never once did my love for her waver. After someone close to her saw us kissing, she decided to tell Grant about us. She told him she was going to leave him after you and Jude started college.”
“No.”
“It was true. For a breath of time … it was true. Grant and I had it out, nearly killed each other over one woman. I hated him for taking the family that should have been mine, and he hated me for taking her heart. In the end, neither of us won. You were kidnapped and on the verge of never being the same again. So she stayed for you. She chose him over me. She chose you over me. She completely broke us.”
Grant and Sunny Day stayed together for their daughter. Of course her mom defended Cathy’s affair. She’d had her own affair. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t sex. In some ways it would be more forgivable had it just been her body, but it wasn’t. Her mother gave her heart—her true love—to Knox, not her father. She gave Grant two children, a home, and time. Wasted time.