Zack gave a swift nod and he and Hal walked out.
I texted my brother,
“Can you come to Chonburi?”
He answered,
“You ok?”
“Need you. All = fucked. FUBAR!! I’ll explain when you get here. Bring Nino and Tino. Get ready to call in favors.”
“Got it. I’ll get there asap. Call you from the flight.”
“Thx.”
As we walked out, I saw Randall, sitting on the edge of a desk, on the phone, in a pose of defeat. His hand was on the back of his neck and he looked at me with what looked like apology. The guy had no power to do anything about this cluster fuck.
But, I did.
***
Zack was standing there, outside the car, eyes on me.
“I have resources,” he said, “They’re at your disposal.”
“Good,” I said, slapping his back.
“I’m making another call and suspect you’ll have even more resources,” Zack added. I nodded, not sure what he meant. He drove us back to near where our borrowed car was.
***
Angel and I were on the beach near our motel, alone. No wires. No wires ever fucking again. I leaned back on the sand and looked up at the beautiful blue sky.
“They’re all gonna pay,” I told her.
She was sitting beside me, her arms wrapped around her knees, holding her skirt carefully around her thighs, her chin on her knees.
"Which ones? Which of them touched you? Hurt you? Tell me and before this is over I will fucking make them hurt.”
“All of them, Dare. Every single one of them.”
Angel
The look in his eyes, pain and anger, and sadness, it made my heart ache.
I put my legs down and smoothed out my skirt.
He face-planted into my lap and wrapped his arms around my middle. I put my hands in his hair and stared out at the water, sifting through his hair, feeling him, feeling all of my feelings.
I don’t know how long we sat there, me feeling everything. And then I felt his thumbs on my cheeks, wiping tears that I didn’t know were falling away.
“Every one of them will hurt, my baby. I promise.”
“I don’t ache for revenge, Dare. I just want them stopped so that no one else has to go through it.”
“No, Angel. They will bleed, they will hurt. They will fucking burn in the lake of fiery hell I make for them.”
A breeze blew my flat ironed ponytail into my face. I pulled the elastic out and fluffed my hair out.