Chapter 102

* Lyon *

My phone rang just as I was about to go see what the hell Kat was up to because I hadn’t seen her on the monitor for a good fifteen minutes at this point. Since it was the special phone I used only for the Squad, I didn’t bother looking to see which one of them was calling because they’re all pains in the ass, so what would be the point.

“What?”

“Lyon, your daughter is fucking diabolical.”

“Hold it, nope, I don’t wanna hear it. If Mengele got your ass in some sorta conundrum, deal with it on your own. Call me back when you’re done running around New York like a chicken without a head.”

“No, we’re done, but damn.” I didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to know, really. But when you’re living with a ticking time bomb, it’s best to keep your eye on the stats.

“Fine, tell me, what did my precious little darling do this time?” If I was into medication, I would’ve already overmedicated myself before starting this conversation.

“She had us play a recording of Ryder and Elena’s first meeting in the car with that Janie person in the backseat when I tell you she lost her shit.” He went on to give me all of the details like I cared.

“Why does this sound like you’re gossiping? What the hell have you people been doing over there? Where is the girl? What did she do with her?”

“I’m not sure. We passed her off to Russo at the private airstrip about ten minutes ago.”

Well, she’s fucked! She fell into the clutches of Mengele and that other one; it’s like being at the mercy of Pinky and The Brain, only in this case, both these fuckers are nuts. “So, you’re done there, great; I need more bodies in the Midwest. The women are up to something.”

“What do you mean? Is my wife part of it?”

“They move as a pack. What do you think?”

“Fuck, what now?”

“I don’t know yet, but Arianna is leading the charge, so it could be anything.”

“Oh great, more dead bodies. Should I grab the others on the way?”

“No, they’re staying on those kids for now. Besides, they’re heading that way soon for the concert as well. I’ll have them stay, but you two come back here for a day or so, see your women and kids, and then head out.”

It might not be anyone else’s cup of tea, but I prefer my men to stay on top of their families before doing anything else. I’m fucked if I’m saving the world while my own house is on fire, fuck that. Likewise, I make sure my men do the same. Otherwise, these women would revolt or some shit.

“Fine, we’ll be there in a bit. We gotta go pick up some stuff for the kids.”

“What stuff?”

“Pizza from Di Fara. How does Catalina know about that place? I didn’t think she spent any time in the city.”

“Her Uncle Gabriel must’ve told her about it; who knows, don’t get me involved.” I hung up just as Kat came waltzing in with her latest brood of nightmares, one on each hip. The twins were about ten months old and looked like they were ready for kindergarten already. For someone as tiny as her ass is, she sure does have some big-ass kids, at least the boys; the girls are always like little teacups.

“What do you want?” I know her face, and she looked like she was up to some shit. She plopped her spawn on my lap with a grin. “Here!” I looked squinty-eyed at my sons, Casey and Cade, who were always up to some shit themselves. These two could dismantle a room in sixty seconds or less before taking a break to get up to even more shit.

I keep shooting for a normal kid, but since Caitie Bear, all Kat’s spawn has had something wrong with their arterial flow above the neck. These two are going to beat Mengele to the prison door. I give them until about the age of five, no later than seven, before they do some shit that brings the law down on their ass.

I look at the other kids around here, granted they’re mostly girls, and none of them get up to the shit my kids do. Come to think of it, even my triplets, girls themselves, are criminals in the making. Then again, with Mengele as a big sister, they had to have some skill to survive her shit, so I can’t really blame them, I guess.

“I was thinking we should go on a cruise.” Her sly ass! She knows I feel guilty for leaving her for so long while I was in L.A., and being just back, I would be willing to give her the moon to make up for it. She forgets how well I know her, or she really thinks I’m getting too old to see through her shit like she keeps saying. Like, her ass isn’t getting older too.

“Kat, look outside; there’s a whole ass ocean out there with about six yachts parked on it; choose your pick.”

“That’s not the same, and you know it. You know I’ve always wanted to go on a cruise.”

“And I told you I’m not signing myself up for that shit. A week in the middle of the ocean with assholes I don’t know, somebody is bound to get thrown overboard; who’s gonna take care of you and your brood when they lock my ass up after that, huh?”

She pouted, but it didn’t work this time because I was too busy trying to keep her kids from pulling my face off to pay her much mind. “Casey, Cade, what are you two, cannibals? Stop trying to eat my face.” All the teething rings in this house, and my jawline is still their favorite thing to chew on, damn kids.

“But it’s on my bucket list.”

“Yeah? Well, it’s on my fuck it list, so no.” She paced in front of the desk back and forth, and my hackles rose. Here we go; my bullshit radar was zinging like a son of a bitch.

She really thinks that I don’t know her after all these years, but she’d be wrong. I know her every molecule. No wonder her kids are the way they are, sneaky little shits. She fed it to them in mother’s milk.

When she opened her mouth again, I knew that whatever she was about to say was what she was really after. After twenty damn years, she’s still trying to run game on me. “Fine, what about Disney? The kids are begging to go.”

Not this shit again. “I’m not standing online for two hours in the hot-ass Florida sun in the middle of hell week weather, so you can have two minutes of fun on some stupid ride; I can give you a ten-minute ride right here and now if you’d like. Besides, half your damn kids can’t get on any of the rides because they’re too short.”

All my daughters are tiny; at least my boys got my height, which is good, because one Napoleon complex is more than enough for me to deal with, and Mengele has that shit down to an art. She hissed at me and then flounced her miserable ass out the door, leaving me with the Alfredo Balli Trevino twins.

“You boys having fun? Why are you so heavy?” Dafuq did I do starting a conversation with these two? They both started babbling away at me like I understood a word they were saying. Then they started some kind of tug of war, wrapping their legs and arms around each other like maniacs.

Kat’s ringer came through the door next, and my guts headed south. Speaking of knowing what someone is up to, I’ve made it my life’s mission to know Mengele’s tells, and from the looks of it, she was up to some nefarious shit. The way she eyed the twins, I knew they were at the end of whatever dafuq this was.

“What is it that you want, Catalina?” It’s always good to start off pleasant with this one. If I start off calling her Mengele, she’d know that I was on to her and up the ante on her shit. She eyed my lap where the twins were and sighed like she had the world on her shoulders. That’s usually her spot when she wants to con me out of something.

“Daddy! Can I have the twins for a minute? Just a minute.” Now, that made my nuts crawl into my guts.

“What do you want with them?” The triplets had barely made it out alive now that they were old enough to fend her off, but it was a rough couple of years getting her to leave them the hell alone. These two poor things, as big as they are, are no match for Mengele.

“Mengele, what the hell do you want with my kids?”

“It’s nothing bad, Daddy, promise. I’ve been working on something; I’m testing the differences between the twins and Grandpa.”

“The pothead? You can’t use him as any kind of measuring stick; he’s stocked full of that shit you two grow in the backyard.” Oh, right, Mancini did mention that she was working on something called Methuselah, something or the other. I’d better change the subject quickly because she was getting that glassy look in her eyes that meant trouble, and quite frankly, if it came down to it, I’ll let her have them because I’m not in the mood to deal with her crazy shit.

“By the way, what are you and Russo doing with that Janie person?”

“Oh her, don’t worry, Daddy, I won’t kill her.”

“What?” Now, some fathers dealing with their ten-year-old daughter would think that was said in jest, but I know my kid, and she was dead serious as if death had been one of the options she’d considered. What dafuq did Kat do with this kid?

***

* Janie *

“Where are you taking me?” Nothing! This new guy was younger than the other two, but somehow, he seemed even more reserved than they were. He ignored me, too, but whatever, anything was better than being stuck in that car listening to Ryder profess his undying love for that bitch over and over again.

I’d just spent the last half hour in hell; there was no other way to put it. I knew he hated me; I had heard it loud and clear when he did that press conference and told the whole world that the only reason he’d been with me was because he’d been tricked. But being privy to their private conversation was another kind of hell. I know him, for all that he never took the time to get to know me, and I knew that he was being genuine with her.

The pain that caused was unlike anything I’ve ever endured, even the years of his neglect and disdain, and I don’t think I would ever get over it. I felt deflated, lifeless, like I no longer cared about anything and never will again. I’d screamed myself hoarse, but they wouldn’t turn it off, and even after I passed out from exertion and came awake again, it was still playing like it was on some kind of loop.

Not for the first time in the last couple of days, I felt inhuman. Like a piece of nothing that no one cared about. That, coupled with the withdrawals I was battling, played hell on my mind, and I gave serious thought to opening the car door and throwing myself out into traffic just to put an end to it all.

When they passed me off to this guy, I didn’t think much of it; there wasn’t anything I could do anyway, even if I wanted to resist. Besides, the sight of the plane gave me a little bit of hope, more than I’d had in the last few days.

I’d been on a few private planes before, thanks to Ryder, and knew that this one was up there with the best, so whatever this was, it couldn’t be that bad. Maybe they were taking me back to L.A., back to my life. I mean, nobody ever put anyone on a luxury plane to take them into danger before, right?

For some reason, I felt a cold chill run down my spine at the thought. Some of those girls, the ones the little bitch had mentioned, they were probably taken away on luxury jets. My mouth went dry at the thought, but I refused to dwell on that. It had nothing to do with me.

I know she wanted me to feel guilty about that, but it wasn’t my doing, so why should I? Sure, I learned about it at some point, but what could I have done? If I’d said anything, Ryder would’ve been involved even though he knew nothing about what they were using his name to do, and it would’ve caused a ripple effect that I wasn’t ready for.

I stood to lose everything if he’d gone digging into that mess because even though I hadn’t been involved, my dad was. If Ryder had learned about all that and gone looking for answers, there’s a possibility that he would’ve stumbled onto other things that I didn’t want him to know about.

The thought that I had lost anyway whispered in my head, and I felt that desolate feeling again. How does anyone survive this shit? It felt as if someone or something was scraping my insides with a knife. Raw, open, and bleeding out. I think I was as close to wanting death as it was possible to be.

I looked up in surprise when the stewardess brought me a nice meal after the guy disappeared somewhere and felt a little hope that at least these people were going to be nice to me. “How did you know that I like this?” I looked down at the dish, and though I was no longer hungry, it brought tears to my eyes that someone had taken the time to find out what I liked.

She didn’t answer either; she just turned and went back the way she came, and I never felt so alone. Music piped into the cabin suddenly as the plane soared into the sky, and for the next few minutes, I sat there, food forgotten as my heart broke into a million pieces.

No, this wasn’t better than the car; this was worse, much, much worse. At least in the car, there was a chance of escaping, but up here, thousands of feet in the air, there was no escaping the hours of listening to Ryder and Elena sing to each other over the years that we’d been married. I’d heard the rumors that they’d been communicating through songs the whole time but had never believed it until now.

By the time the plane landed, I was like a zombie; I had nothing left. I no longer cared where they were taking me or about anything else, for that matter. It barely registered that I had seen the man in the lab coat who came to meet us somewhere before, maybe at the hospital a week or so ago, but who cares? Nothing matters anymore.