Chapter 30

CHAPTER THIRTY

JJ

Mason answered the phone, and I moved near him. "Hello?"

"Good morning, is this Mr. Columbus?"

"Yes, this is Lewis Columbus."

"Very good," the woman said a bit snappily. "I'm Penny Ballard. Mr. Reese said you'd like a tour of Alicia House?"

"Oh, yes, very much. My husband, Clark is here; let me put the call on speaker. We're looking to invest in the house to help the girls."

"Is that right?" Penny's voice lightened. "I wasn't aware."

I was itching to go into the kitchen and hear the plan to grab Wes and get some answers, but this was important too.

"Yes, Mr. Reese described the home as a wonderful haven." Mason rolled his eyes at me as he spoke.

"Thank you for saying that. Tell me when would work for you?" she asked and I looked over to Noel and Gabe.

Noel tapped his watch, which I took to mean ASAP. "Tomorrow?" The twins weren't able to find out much about the house with all they had to do, unfortunately.

"That soon? Okay, yes, I have time at one if that works for you both?"

Mason answered, "Perfect, if I can just have the address?"

Once we got the details, we ended the call and rushed into the kitchen to find out what was going on.

"How'd it go?" Shep asked once we entered.

"Tomorrow at one."

He nodded curtly. "Okay, so I went ahead and pulled up information on Wes. Issue is, the address is likely the real Wes's."

"I don't understand." I plopped down on the kitchen chair. "How did this happen?"

It was Nick who answered. "How I see it is, Four came into Saintly Sweets and his tracker pinged there because we don't have the blockers at the shop."

"We covered that part." I was exasperated.

"Right, excuse me for thinking you'd like me to start from the beginning of my thought."

I gestured for him to go on.

"Right. When Four didn't show up when he was supposed to, maybe, they checked the tracker. Maxwell's house and the shop were likely the only two that made sense, aside from the place Angel removed it but that happened a couple of days later. I'm not sure how, and personally I don't think it matters, they intercepted the real Wes for the interview and replaced him with the Wes that's currently employed at the shop. Maybe hoping to find Four there or at least get information."

Mason snapped his fingers. "The message Wes gave you, Shep, about that meeting. He was setting us up to go there, so they could follow you to where Four was."

All of it made so much sense now.

"Wes can't be much older than Four? He claimed he was in high school, though." I turned, searching for Four. He was sitting on the stool by the island. "Did you recognize the man on the screen?" He hadn't gone to the shop since that first night, so he hadn't seen him.

"Yes. That's Two."

"Two." Another Weapon.

Four looked at me. "Yes. He's trained to infiltrate and if necessary, kill."

"But if the cell phone was his, does he also work at Harper Reese?" Nick asked.

Four turned to him. "Two is in a more advanced tier. One of my trainers said he was a genius and often times was called in for complex jobs. I'm simply a Weapon. I'm only called in to terminate."

This was all sorts of fucked up. "Max, this isn't by chance that guy you offered to help, is it? Mark Spriggs?"

Max shook his head. "No, Mark was older."

"I have an idea." I faced everyone. "To do it, we need to open the shop and have everyone come back. Wes will arrive, and we can grab him then. We don't need to find him—we just have to bring him to us."

"Tomorrow." Gabe nodded. "You and Mason go with me to Alicia House. Shep, you and Angel get to the shop, grab Wes, and we'll have to remove the tracker before coming to the safe house. Nick and Noel, stay behind to monitor the area and keep an eye on all of us through your weird tech so we can all get out of this safely."

"That weird tech keeps you all alive, and if we weren't so overloaded with work we'd have more intel on this Alicia House and the other venues where happiness goes to die and angels cry. Seriously, guys, it's too much for just the two of us, we're going in blind too much," Noel snapped, but we didn't have time to fight.

"You're right, and after this is over we'll figure out a new way to handle this." Mason said.

"What do I tell Lizzy? I told her the shop was closed." Shep sighed.

"Easy." Mason smiled. "Tell Lizzy to call him and say you wanted to meet with everyone to discuss a new schedule you're implementing due to the family emergency that has disrupted your life. You don't need Darby and Lizzy there, like JJ said. Just him."

I side-hugged my friend. "You're so smart."

"Okay, yeah, that all works well." Angel snorted. "Who knew this would actually be so organized?"

"Miracles happen every day." I laughed.

While everyone finalized things, Shep and I made dinner. Four was watching intently as I cut a carrot, so I handed him one and a knife.

"Want to give it a try?"

He looked at me with wide eyes and, dare I say, happiness. "Yes, please."

He took a couple of slow cuts and peered up at me.

"Exactly like that. We need a few of them and also some potatoes cut. Up for it?"

He nodded and proceeded to cut the carrots quickly and with perfect precision. I tried not to think about how easily he could wield a weapon and the damage he could do. Right now, I focused on the fact that he was taking a skill he learned and using it for good and not bad.

Shep watched Four like a hawk—not because he thought Four would hurt me. No, probably for the same reason I was watching him. There was a lot going on inside his brain, and anything could trigger an episode. Shep had told me the other night that Four could realize all the bad things he'd done in his life and hurt himself. And that was why we didn't take our eyes off him.

Every one of us sat together at dinner. There was some discussion about tomorrow and the fact that we would all be split up into three groups. But mostly, we shared a lot of stories with Max and Four about how Mason and I met, and we even brought up Heather and Andrew.

I watched Four's expression as Gabe explained what had happened to them, and he nodded a few times as if he understood the words Gabe wasn't saying.

That night as I was in Four's room, ready to tuck him in because he loved it so much, I asked him a question through the bathroom door because I was too chicken to ask to his face.

"Four, I wanted to ask you something and you can choose if you want to tell me, or maybe you'll decide it's something you want to discuss with Aziza."

He opened the bathroom door, and I realized we were going to have this conversation face-to-face.

"What did you want to know?"

"Tonight, when Gabe was telling you about Heather and Andrew and what they went through at the hands of their own parents, you appeared to understand."

"I did." He slipped under the covers and watched me.

"Were you…did they sexually abuse you, Four?"

His brow dipped a moment before he shook his head. "No, not like that. I knew pain like Heather and Andrew, and I understand how it all made them feel inside. But never that."

I hated that he'd been hurt at all, but was relieved at the same time that he'd been spared one horror.

"Thank you for telling me."

He didn't say anything, so I gently squeezed his hand and got up.

"JJ."

I turned to look at him. "Yeah?"

"Tomorrow. Be careful. Listen, don't react. And promise me if you are in trouble, run. Always run and don't stop until you're safe."

This boy. "I promise you, Four."

He rolled onto his side and whispered, "Good night."

"Good night."

I shut his door and leaned against it for a beat. Why hadn't he run if he'd thought running was the only way out?