I, Michael Bennett (Michael Bennett 5)

“These gentlemen are from the gas company, I take it?” Mary Catherine said skeptically.

I nodded and left with them for a meeting in the lobby.

An hour later, I came back to the room, my head spinning. What I’d just been told made a lot of sense, but I still had trouble swallowing it. Talk about a shock to the system.

“Mary Catherine,” I said grimly. “I have news. Could you gather everybody together for a family meeting? Actually, have the twins take Trent and Chrissy and Shawna into the other room. I need to talk to all the bigger guys.”

“What is it, Mike?” Mary said.

“I’ll tell you in a second,” I said. “But you really might want to reconsider your position when you find out what it is.”

“What is it, Dad?” Brian said as they squeezed into the room.

I looked at their faces one by one where they sat on the chairs and the desk and the double bed.

“Well, what’s going on is, well … we’re moving,” I said. “We have to move.”

The kids stared at each other, giant-eyed.

“What? Why? Huh? Why?” everyone wanted to know at the same time.

“Quiet down, children,” Seamus cried.

“Our block was cordoned off because a criminal, a drug lord, a man named Manuel Perrine, whom I caught and who then escaped, planted a bomb in front of our building. He wants to kill me and hurt you guys because of how much I love you. That’s why we need to go somewhere where he can’t find us. Now. Someplace safe.”

“But what about school?” Juliana said.

“And Mass?” Seamus said. “Father Charles is out sick. I have to say Mass tomorrow morning.”

“We’re going to have to figure all that out, guys,” I said. “The U.S. marshals are sending over a team right now to take us to our new location.”

“What about our stuff?”

“They’re going to go by the apartment and pack it up for us. We can’t go home. It’s too dangerous.”

“We’re leaving New York?” Seamus said. He seemed flabbergasted.

“At least for now,” I said.

“But all our friends. Our lives,” Brian said. “How can this be happening?”

My sentiments exactly, I thought as I let out a breath. This sucked, and it was about to get worse. I didn’t even tell them we might have to change our names.

CHAPTER 108

THE WITNESS PROTECTION team arrived at four in the morning. Four more FBI agents and about a dozen U.S. marshals in cars and vans. Though they tried to keep their weapons under their Windbreakers, out of the kids’ sight, I spotted more than one submachine gun.

This was no joke. They wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble if we weren’t serious targets. This was about as serious and scary as it got.

“Okay, Mary Catherine,” I said to her in the lobby as the agents were walking the kids out into the waiting vans. “I guess this is good-bye for now.”

One of the female FBI agents who was coordinating our transport turned around from the front sliding door as she overheard us.

“Excuse me,” she said. “Good-bye? What are you guys talking about?”

“It’s okay,” I said. “This is Mary Catherine, my nanny. She’s not coming with us.”

The brown-eyed, red-haired agent thumbed her smartphone.