Chapter 29

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

HIRO

While Maddox deals with getting in contact with someone who can get a warrant in place so he can get the flight manifest from the airline company, I head into the car and sit in the back seat with Shion. But now that I’m here… I don’t know what the fuck to even look for or where to start.

“I’m the reason his dad’s dead,” Shion says.

The statement is so out of left field that I’m momentarily confused before it finally clicks that he’s talking about himself and why there’s a teenager after his life.

“Why do you believe that?”

“I was young… fresh out of the academy. I ended up at a gas station that was being robbed. The guy was on drugs and was so irrational that I should have shot him. I should never have hesitated, but I had this weird fucking idea that I could talk him down. That I could get him to drop the knife he was holding and then he’d get on the ground and everyone would be fine. I’d never killed a man… sure as fuck didn’t think the first week out on the job, I’d be putting a bullet in one… and what if I missed? I got perfect marks with marksmanship, but what if this time I fucked up? What if one of the hostages ran and the bullet struck them instead? What if I forgot how to fire the damn gun? All of these stupid things ran through my mind.

“But that hesitation cost a man his life. The robber stabbed one of the hostages… and I shot and killed him as he went after the son of the man he’d just stabbed… but it was too late. If I hadn’t been so fucking confident that I could talk him down, that kid wouldn’t have had to kneel in his father’s blood as he sobbed and reached for him. Blame was thrown on me, but I wasn’t reprimanded. From a technical perspective, I didn’t do anything wrong. But I know that I had time to shoot and kill him… I know I should have. So no, I don’t fucking blame the kid for wanting to scare me or kill me or whatever the fuck he wants to do. Hell, it was… ten years ago at this point… he’s eighteen now. And instead of getting help, he got some manipulative asshole to eat away at his mind until he decided that revenge was the best solution here.”

Shion sighs heavily. “If that kid gets caught… if I tell them what he was trying to do… it could ruin everything for him. He just needs help… and I just needed to pull that fucking trigger sixty seconds sooner.”

I watch him for a moment before shaking my head. “This is a child who has been manipulated.”

“I’m aware.”

“At eight or even at eighteen, it’s not easy to understand what it means to take a life. Hell, it’s not easy even at our age. Yeah, he might try to understand or he might have some big idea that he’s going to avenge his father, but he has absolutely no idea what it would’ve been like to have been in that situation,” I say. “I’ve been blessed or cursed with the ability to deal with the dead. To see the way regret eats at them. My own brother was so convinced that he deserved his death that he refused to even tell me who killed him. The ability that guilt has to eat away at you is a remarkable and terrifying thing. If you’d shot that man dead, you’d have been left questioning, ‘What if he would have surrendered? What if I was too rash?’ There are too many what-ifs, Shion. You did what you believed to be right. Because there’s no telling what would have happened if you’d taken that shot.”

“His father would be alive.”

I shake my head again, well aware he’s too caught up in this idea. “You don’t know that. When I have time, I’ll go back to Japan with you, and I’ll see if his father still follows him. There’s no guarantee. Ten years is a long time, and he could have moved on. But maybe speaking to his father will fix everything. Until then, I need you to let someone know so they can find him some help. So he can get away from the toxicity this Vali person is putting on him.”

Shion’s shoulders sink down and the rather confident man seems small. “I know… you’re right.”

“If you’re afraid of getting in trouble for not telling them sooner… simply tell them the idea struck you now. I guess… that could be your way of protecting him. There’d be no proof… you could simply say that this is a wild speculation, but here is someone who could be after your life.”

Maddox knocks on the window, which confuses me when he could just open the door.

“Why did you knock?” I ask as I open it.

“Because it was supposed to be locked.”

This man. “Oh my god, you’re like five feet from the car. I’m not going to get abducted when you’re five feet away.”

“Famous last words,” he says.

Of course he believes someone could possibly abduct me when he’s right there. “What do you need, Mr. Dramatic?”

“Can your ghosts go anywhere?”

“Yeah.”

“Like… the office of the person I’m going to call to get the flight manifest?”

“Yes, but don’t you have to go through a bunch of legal shit? Isn’t that the issue and why it could take forever?”

“Right, but if you know where the girlfriend was sitting in relation to us, I could give the person on the phone a very clear idea and I bet they’d pull it up on their computer out of curiosity. Even if we have to jump through some hoops to get the information legally… if your ghost, say… happened to see it, no one would know.”

I nod, rather fond of this devious idea. “They would have to know where to go. Especially if it’s someplace they’ve never been.”

“Right, but getting that information will be faster than waiting on approval of a warrant, and then getting the company to send everything our way.”

“Yeah, I mean… what’s the worst that can happen? The ghosts can’t find it and we have to wait to get the names and addresses? We might as well try it.”

“Right,” Maddox says. “It hurts nothing. Give me some time. Have Keaton on standby.”

“Why Keaton?” Reggie asks, sounding hurt.

“They think Keaton’s soooooo important,” Natalie grumbles as she kicks a rock at Keaton, who gives her a glower.

“What the fuck did I do?”

“They’re jealous now,” I tell Maddox.

“Who?”

“Everyone that’s not Keaton.”

“I’m not,” Grandpa says. “This Keaton guy is definitely more useful than this lot.” He gestures at the rest of them. “That bird is more useful than those two.”

Spite looks up at him before hopping after a bug.

“Funny,” Reggie says.

“See if I ever play strip chess with you again,” Natalie mutters.

It is fascinating how they could possibly question why Maddox would ask for Keaton’s help over theirs.

“I definitely don’t regret my decision to ask Keaton,” Maddox says as he watches another rock sail at Keaton.

“Sexy pants is in position,” Reggie assures me… which I guess means that Keaton is ready now that Maddox has acquired all necessary information. It took longer than I’d hoped, but it’s not like it would have been any quicker going about it the other way.

Maddox simply states to the woman that he’s in the process of acquiring a warrant for the manifest of the flight we’d been on, and that he was hoping to give her the specifics in advance to see if there’s any information he could have before the warrant is put in place. He describes to her the area where the girlfriend had been sitting, and a vague idea of what she looks like. She doesn’t give him much, but hopefully her interest is piqued enough that she pulls up the manifest herself to take a look out of mere curiosity.

If not, then legal actions are already being put in place.

The issue is that we are not very patient men… especially when someone has threatened Maddox.

He hangs up and looks back at me from where he’s sitting in the driver’s seat with Avery to his right. We’d pulled into a fast-food parking lot about an hour ago, just for a place to wait since we’d been hoping to get something before we drive the two hours back home. Our fear was that if we drove home and the girlfriend was living in this area, we’d have to drive right back.

“So?” Maddox asks as everyone looks at me expectantly.

“Nothing yet.”

“Well shit,” he says with a sigh.

“Let’s get something to eat and go from there,” Avery suggests.

We pull in behind the cars waiting at the drive-through, and since Maddox is preoccupied with that, I pull up the app Vali had asked us to download and see that they’ve messaged us back.

I read through their messages where every word is meant to sound like they’re on Maddox’s side. But there are such subtle, intricate parts that are trying to get him to see things their way. Of course, Vali hasn’t explicitly said anything that clearly states they want Maddox to kill anyone. Maddox’s responses show his reluctance to deal with them, and I’m sure they can see it. But the little things like “You can’t allow her to control your life, you have so much to protect” and “If she keeps getting into your head, she’s not going to leave until she’s taken everything you love from you” are things that would eat at Maddox more than anything else, and this Vali person knows it.

They’ve clearly latched on to this because Maddox has shown the most reaction to it. They’re aware that he would do anything for me or others he cares about. But is that enough to make his mother disappear forever?

Maybe not for a person like Maddox, who has a wonderful support system and people to love as well as a job he could lose and years of knowledge about how people like this work… but for someone who has nothing left? Someone who was abused to the point where they’re weighed down with the realization that they could lose it all? Someone like that could easily be pushed over the edge.

“What are you looking at?” Maddox asks. “They write back?”

“Not yet,” I lie, and I don’t know why. Because I don’t want Maddox to read what they’ve said? Because I don’t want him to be manipulated?

I don’t even know if I have the answer, but I feel like I want to protect him from this.

My phone buzzes, almost on command, and I look over at it before realizing it’s an alert from our doorbell camera. And of course the woman on the screen is Maddox’s mother.

She’s sobbing, and even though I can’t hear what she’s saying because I have the phone on silent, I can tell she’s saying something.

Maddox reaches for his phone, picks it up, and then puts it back down. He has to have seen it was her; he gets the same alerts that I do. But he’s literally just going to play it off like he didn’t notice.

I bite my lip before unlocking the back door.

“What?” Maddox asks.

“I’ll be quick,” I say.

“We’re in the drive-through line,” Maddox says as I jump out and hurry off into the restaurant before he can stop me. I mean… what’s he going to do? Leave the running car in the drive-through line? Of course he is… because he’s Maddox.

He catches me just as I reach the hallway that leads to the bathrooms. “What are you doing?” he asks.

“Did you just leave the car running in the drive-through?”

“Sure did. What the hell is going on?”

“I just… needed to step out for a second and collect my thoughts,” I say.

Maddox stares at me. “Hiro.”

“Maddox, I know that you saw your mom on the doorbell camera. And you… you weren’t going to call the police, so I’m going to.”

He looks away as guilt eats through his expression. “I was going to. I just knew she’d be gone by the time anyone got there.”

“Maddox,” I say as I shake my head. “You know this Vali person is fucking with your mind. They sent her to you. They probably sent her there again today. They want to piss you off and make you do something you’ll regret.”

“I’m… going to call the police,” he responds as he closes his eyes. “And I’ve been letting you deal with Vali. I promise that I’m not letting them get in my head. Now quickly call before my mom has time to move on.”

“I am,” I say as I put a call in. Thankfully, they immediately prepare to carefully move out, knowing that the last time she’d engaged with us, she’d had a gun.

“I just… she held a gun to your head, Hiro,” Maddox says when I end the call.

“Yes, and that’s why she’ll be arrested.”

“You don’t understand, my mother gets out of everything. She’ll get out of this too. But she keeps coming back, and what if next time she fucks up and she shoots you in the head, and I could have done something?”

“Do you truly believe that she won’t be arrested or is it just because that’s how your childhood was that you’ve convinced yourself she will get away with it? Maddox, they have proof your mother was in my bookstore. We can show them my ghost video if we have to. You know she’s not getting away with this. If the people at the station knew what she’d done to you, they would grab the fucking pitchforks and watch her burn. There is no damn way she’s getting out of this,” I assure him.

“She gets out of everything,” he says. “My whole fucking life… and back then, I couldn’t do anything. She always gets out of it.”

“Not this time.”

Maddox suddenly looks panicked and it’s such an odd expression for him to wear.

“What the fuck was I doing?” he asks quietly. “What the fuck was I doing? I… just… I wasn’t going to hurt her, Hiro, you have to believe me. But if I scared her a bit… if I made her think twice about ever coming near you again… maybe she’d just go away. Maybe she’d just finally disappear out of my life. Fuck… fuck… I wasn’t… I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me, Maddox. You don’t have to apologize at all. Your feelings are valid. You are justified for wanting to deal with this yourself as you’ve done your entire life . But please… let those of us who care about you do something. You don’t have to save yourself every time.”

“I know. I know this and still…”

I wrap him up in my arms and hold him tightly to me. “Can you do me a favor?”

“What?”

“Let her in the house.”

“Why?”

“Because it’ll give them time to get there. If she thinks we’re not there, she’s going to leave. Bandit and Stella are sleeping in a different room, but she wouldn’t hurt them, right?”

“No, trust me, my mother gave no shits about her kids, but she’d do whatever to help a pet,” Maddox says.

“Okay. I doubt she’ll even know they’re in there. I have some money slipped in a book next to our bed. Direct her to it and let the police do their job.”

Maddox hesitates, clearly not wanting to allow her into our house, our safe haven invaded by his nightmare, but eventually he nods.

I pull out my phone and click on the app as I see that she’s already walking down the sidewalk. If Maddox waits a few more seconds, she’d probably be too far to hear him. With a deep breath, he presses the microphone button.

“What do you want?” he asks.

Her head snaps around and her tears that’d been drying up come back in full force. “Honey. Honey, are you home?”

“No, I’m not.”

“That man made me do it. I’m so sorry. I’m so very sorry. He made me do it. I thought he was a nice man, but he was just like your father. He manipulated me. Then he told me I owed him money and if I didn’t pay him, he’d hurt me. He’s really going to hurt me. Look at me,” she says, pointing to her rather darkly bruised face that I’m one hundred percent positive Reggie caused. “He did this.”

“How much do you need?”

“Not much! Five hundred… that’s all.”

“Why the fuck would I give you five hundred dollars? What have you ever given me?” Maddox asks.

“Please, honey. Please, I’m so sorry. You know it wasn’t me. I protected you. I kept you safe from your father’s temper. I shielded you. You don’t know how much I shielded you from. How much I lost to keep you and your brother safe.”

“If I unlock the door and tell you where the money is, you promise that’s all you’ll take?”

“Yes! You know that’s all. I was desperate, love. I did it out of desperation because I was so scared.”

“Okay. Give me a second. But if you take anything else, I’m going to be pissed.”

“Of course I won’t,” she says. “I love you, baby. Momma loves you so much.”

And it kills me when she says shit like this. It kills me that Maddox was never blessed enough to have a mother who said such a thing and meant it… and I got lucky enough to have two and a father who did.

I reach out and squeeze his hand, and it’s like that’s what he needed to be able to take a deep breath and unlock the door.

He directs her to the bedroom before going, “See the closed door?”

“I do!” she says.

“Do not touch anything else.”

“I wouldn’t.”

The police cars flash onto the doorbell cam. Their sirens aren’t on, but as I tell them what room she’s in, they head inside to get her while Maddox watches. She looks shocked at first and then I hear her screams. “You sick son of a bitch. I knew you were a?—”

I press the mute button, and Maddox looks up at me.

“Well, I guess that’s that,” he says.

“You okay?”

He glances down at the phone as they drag her out of the house. “I don’t know. Watching her flail around is making me feel a bit better. Can we record this so I can watch it whenever I’m feeling down?”

“I really don’t think that’d be healthy,” I say.

“Fine, fine. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome… but you really don’t need to thank me. That’s what your fiancé is here for. I’m the brain and you’re the brawn.”

He gives me a soft smile and I’m relieved to see it. “Oh?”

“Definitely.”

“I see…”

“Well, I’m actually the brains and brawn, but I didn’t want you to feel bad.”

“You’re definitely the brawn,” he says with a grin. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.”

“I’m still going to thank you.”

Keaton and Reggie appear. “All rise, for King Keaton has arrived,” Reggie announces.

“We’re already standing,” I say.

“Ah, that you are. Keaton was afraid you guys would be horizontal… if you get what I mean, though I told him with Avery hanging with you guys, it’d be quite awkward, but I see she’s not even here.”

Keaton clamps a hand over Reggie’s mouth since it’s clear he was prepared to start throwing in some hand motions as well. “I have a list of names. Some might not be completely correct. The woman cruised by some of them, but she did hover around the area you were looking for a bit.”

“Perfect. Keaton has some names,” I explain.

“Finally, some good news. Reggie, my mom’s been arrested, and she also has a beautiful bruise on her face caused by you,” Maddox says.

Reggie gasps. “Finally. I’m going to go laugh at her miserable ass. Brb.”

“Reggie promptly ran off to… and I quote, ‘Laugh at her miserable ass.’”

Maddox grins. “I’ll have to join him when we get back to Clinton.”