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Outside, Ava waves from her lounge chair. A young teen in a swim cap reaches the end of the pool, dives, and comes up a good distance from the wall and resumes his strokes.
“Are you good here?” Milo asks from the lawn. Ava meets Milo’s gaze, and I can’t help but feel like this is a hand-off.
“Yes, thank you,” I answer as the unsettled reality hits. Sloane isn’t the only Watson sister being detained in a compound. But leaving again won’t do any good. I tried. Sloane’s best hope is that in the meeting going on up at the house, they come up with a solid extraction plan.
CHAPTER 35
Sage
“A group of us are going to go see the Barbie movie later. It’s a private screening. Want to join us?” Ava’s cheerful veneer twists my insides while the surreal surroundings gnaw at me. The blue sky, the luxurious pool overlooking an ocean, laughter floating over the breeze from the nearby public beach. It’s all too much. There was a funeral held earlier today. My sister is being held against her will. Men are upstairs in the house making a plan to extract her. And they want me to sit through a Barbie movie?
“I’ll take a rain check.” I force a cordial smile because none of this is Ava’s fault. She’s been nothing but nice, and she and her husband have been wildly generous. It’s no secret the Sullivans are the funding source behind Arrow Tactical, making nonprofit operations like saving my sister possible.
Her son reaches the end of the pool. Water drips over his swim cap and down his face, around the tight goggles. “Mom? Are you timing me?”
“Tell me when to start,” Ava says.
“Mom! Now.”
“What is that attitude?” She’s smiling as she asks, but there’s an underlying warning to her tone. She holds up the stopwatch. “You have to tell me when.”
“Okay. Now. Four laps.”
“Got it.”
He stares at her.
“Are you going to go?”
“Catching my breath,” he tells her.
She presses the stopwatch when he dives.
“Do you think there’s any chance I can convince them to let me go with them?”
Ava’s attention remains on the pool, but she asks, “What would you do? I don’t know your background. Do you have any training?”
“No,” I admit.
“Without adequate training, you wouldn’t be an asset. My stepdaughter was in the FBI, and she worked hard. These men, they train daily. There’s a lot that goes into what they do.”
“I’m sure.” My fingers wiggle as a memory of the weight of the gun and the acrid air after I pulled the trigger lingers. “But once they get her, she’s…my sister will need someone.”
Her son surfaces and twists his head. Ava snaps the stopwatch and yells, “Eighty-two seconds. Good job.”
He slaps the water and looks to the sky, mouth open to suck in air.
“One more time. Then I’ll do breaststroke.”
He pushes off the wall, becoming one with the water. Ava snaps the stopwatch. I can’t see her eyes behind the oversized sunglasses she’s wearing, but I feel her studying me.
“I can understand wanting to be there for your sister. We can figure something out. Be sure you’re with her as soon as possible.” Her attention returns to the pool, but she asks, “Is that what’s worrying you? Not being there for her when they find her?”
That, and so many other things. Felix’s death. I should’ve never come here, never brought my sister’s mess to their doorstep. And soon I’ll be saying goodbye to Knox. For good, because it’s the best thing for him. I brought my sister’s mess to him and his friends. There’s no way I’ll let him take on mine.
“You know, talking about your concerns helps. It might not seem possible, but it does.”
The hospital priest comes to mind. He always encouraged us to talk about our feelings. One of my friends, Jonas, called him the therapriest.
