Page 20 of Zane

Now, years after vanishing from Blake’s life, Josh sits across from Marco in the warehouse of his headquarters, sweating through his shirt while a scarlet macaw watches from a brass stand in the corner.

Marco asks whether the woman can truly understand beasts, whether she can command them, whether she can make them carry messages or find hidden things.

Josh thinks of Blake at eight years old beneath the porch steps, mud on her knees and secrets in her mouth.She was supposed to be working for their team at the feed store but she’d somehow disappeared.

“I can bring her to you.”

Marco did not answer at first.He stroked the macaw’s crimson head with one gloved finger, and the bird kept its black bead of an eye fixed on Josh as if measuring how much meat he had left on his bones.

Outside, rain dragged dirty lines down restaurant windows.Somewhere in the kitchen, water dripped steadily into a metal pan, each drop as loud as a countdown.

“You can bring her,” Marco repeated, tasting the sentence.“Or you can tell me where she is and save yourself the trouble.”

His voice was calm enough to be kind, which made it worse.Josh had learned that men who shouted still believed the world could be argued with. Marco did not shout because he had already decided what would happen.

Josh wiped his palms on his jeans.

“She won’t come if strangers show up. Not for money. Not for threats.” He swallowed.“But she might come for me if I make it sound like I’m dying or desperate or something.”

The lie sat easily in his mouth.It worried him how easily.

The macaw shifted on its perch, claws scraping brass. It opened its curved beak and gave a low, guttural sound that was almost a laugh.Marco glanced at it, then back at Josh.

“She will know you are lying.”

For the first time that night, Josh thought of Mara with something close to hatred.Dead years and still protecting the girl.Dead years and still standing between him and the only thing that might buy his life.

“She always wanted to believe people could change,” he said.“That was her mother’s weakness.Blake inherited some of it.”

Marco leaned back.

“No.Her mother’s weakness was dying before she finished hiding her.”He lifted a hand, and a man at the door placed a battered phone on the table.The screen was cracked in a spiderweb pattern that made Josh’s reflection look broken into pieces.“Call her.”

Josh stared at the phone.He had imagined rehearsing first, finding the right words, softening his voice into regret.Instead, Marco watched him with patient eyes while the macaw ruffled its feathers and whispered something that sounded too much like Blake’s name.Josh picked up the phone before his hand could start shaking harder.

He’d called the number at least ten times over twenty-four hours.He was running out of time.Then the phone rang.

“Josh?It’s Blake.You’ve been calling me.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“What do I do?” she asked looking at Ham and then Zane.

“You just sit in that booth and don’t move.No matter what he says or does, do not get up, do not follow him.Even if he has a weapon, you’re wearing the stealth vest and you will not be harmed.You have my word,” said Ham.

She nodded at him, trusting the older man for all she was worth.

“I’ll be at the counter,” said Zane.“You’re going to see others seated there as well.Piper and Mila will be behind the counter, acting as wait-staff.Don’t look at any of us.Just act normal.”

“Normal at this point is me shaking like a leaf,” she said with a nervous grin.Zane pulled her close, whispering against her.

“I’m here.I’m not leaving you.”She nodded, burying her face in the crook of his neck, smelling the faint hint of his shower gel and cologne.

“Get in place, he just passed The General Store,” said Cowboy.“Don’t worry, honey.We got you.”

In spite of all the reassurances, all the concern for her safety, Blake found it difficult to sit still and not be afraid.Why would Josh want to see her after all these years?When she’d refused to show her skills in front of him any longer, and her mother stepped in, he’d become more and more bitter.He became more and more verbally abusive to her.

Her mother took the slaps across the face or the foot stuck out in the hallway to trip her as she carried the clean laundry basket.When she’d asked her mother ‘why’, she gave the most motherly response ever.