I will say this for Abraham Hill—he is a canny one. Only hours after Alex failed to report to work on Friday, he was already packing his things. He was on the road by the time the police came knocking on Danica’s door, and when they had arrived at his home, his attorney was waiting there with his wife.
The rest of the organization, it seems, was not so lucky. Many of his people have been thrown into jail, and those already in prison have been pulled out for questioning. Danica has agreed to cooperate with the police in exchange for protection for her family, so more and more evidence is pouring into the hands of the police.
But Hill himself remained at large, as did Robert Quick, his right-hand man. It was Quick who followed Alex when he left the city, watching where he went and passing the information on to Hill. He was very discreet, though he was also certain that a newcomer to the organization like Alex would not notice he was being tailed.
Alex may not have noticed, but I certainly did.
This evening Alex let himself into a hotel room for which he had paid cash. He tossed his bag onto the bed, closed the door, and hit the lights. When he turned around, Mr. Hill was sitting on the chair in the corner.
I felt the ice drop into Alex’s stomach, but he managed to smile. “Boss,” he said. “Imagine seeing you here.”
“Oh, I somehow doubt that you’re surprised,” Hill said. He unfolded his hands from over his big stomach, reached into the pocket of his jacket, and drew out a gun, which he set lightly on the arm of the chair. “You won’t mind emptying your pockets onto the bed, would you, son? Slowly.”
“No, sir,” Alex said and took off his own jacket, using the tips of his fingers to remove the contents.
“Remember,” I murmured to him, “he needs to think you are afraid.”
So Alex let his hands shake as he finished the job. He did, however, manage to hit a single button on the phone as he tossed it on the bed. Hill was watching closely, but he didn’t think anything of it—to him, it looked like a normal burner phone.
“That’s everything, sir,” Alex said, stepping back from the bed.
“Mm, and I’m likely to believe you? Robert,” he called.
The door opened and Robert Quick came into the room. He shut the door and started searching Alex.
“You should know,” he said, in that same light, friendly tone that his boss had used, “that we’ve paid the manager on shift very well to give you this particular room and leave for the night. The two other occupants of the place are on the other side of the building and fast asleep.”
“That so?” Alex asked, his voice tight. “How did you know that I’d pick this hotel?”
“It was only logical,” Hill said, watching as Robert lifted first one, then the other of Alex’s arms. “Far from the highway, all but unoccupied, accepts cash. You’ve got a lot to learn, son.” He sighed. “It’s too bad you won’t get the chance to learn it.”
Robert stepped back. “He’s clean, sir.”
A whisper from Taralom told me that we only had a few minutes before the police arrived. I just had to keep them in that room and Alex alive for that long.
Is it not amazing how such a short time can become an eternity?
“Give me a chance to learn what I can,” Alex insisted as Hill got to his feet. “What’s the plan? You can’t shoot me, because there are people here, and a gunshot would wake them up. Are you going to drag me into the woods and deal with me there? Kill me first and figure out a place to put my body then? I’d love to know what you’re thinking.”
Hill shook his head, false sorrow on his face. “It really is a shame. I could have taught you a lot, Alex. But here’s one lesson for you: don’t waste your time explaining anything to anyone who can’t figure it out for themselves.” He buttoned up his jacket and motioned to Robert, who seized Alex’s arms and wrenched them behind his back.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Alex cried, struggling as Robert started to drag him to the door. “Please! Doesn’t the accused always get a last request?”
Hill cocked an eyebrow, and Robert stopped, though he still held Alex fast. “What do you want? We can get you a cheeseburger, but currently I’m a little out of budget for much more than that.” He smiled, but behind his gleaming teeth was a gross, writhing anger, tightly controlled, but so deep and so dark that it made me feel ill to look upon it. I have never in my life seen a soul so lost. “I have you to thank for that, remember?” Hill said to Alex.
Alex swallowed. This was a risk, but he was far beyond the point of playing it safe. “Just promise me that you won’t hurt my family,” he said, and his voice trembled.
Hill was puzzled. “Family? I thought you were a foster child.” He spread his hands. “And if you’re trying to tell me that my people were your family, I have to remind you that you’re the one who ruined that.” He spat the last words between his teeth, a quick flash of the anger before he swallowed it back again.
“Spiller,” Robert said, frowning at the back of Alex’s head. “Sir, he showed a lot of interest in the Spiller case.”
Hill’s brows shot up, and then he burst out laughing. “Oh, really, Alex? How could you be so predictable?” Wiping his eyes, he stepped up to Alex and put his heavy hands on his shoulders. “You poor stupid kid. Did you really start thinking that if you could help that sweet old lady and her kid that it would make any difference for you?” He cupped Alex’s face in his hands, squeezing so that Alex flinched with pain. “You’re still alone. You’ll always be alone. And when you die, no one is going to give a flying fuck.”
For a moment, caught in the shadow of those horrible eyes, Alex’s spirit faltered. It rang too much like truth to him—the same truth that he has told himself in the mirror for much of his life.
“No,” I cried, and I flung out my wings with such force that both Robert and Hill cringed, though they did not understand why. “You are known and you are loved, Alex,” I called to him, stooping to put my own hands on his shoulders, my touch lighter than Hill’s, but still felt. “And you are not alone.”
Still bent in the hands of his enemy, still under those cold eyes, Alex nevertheless stood tall, his head lifting. “You’re wrong,” he said. “And you know what, Mr. Hill? You’re also fucked.”
I swear, I did not have anything to do with it. It was just that perfect that in that moment, a screech of tires was heard outside, and blue and red lights began to flicker on the ceiling of the room.
Robert swore and dug in his pocket for his gun, while Hill spun around and scooped up the phone on the bed. “A tracker,” he growled and forced a laugh, dropping the device to the floor and crushing it under his foot. “Very well played, Mr. Able.”
“Not ‘son’ anymore, sir?” Alex asked, made brave with relief. “And I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he added as Hill returned to the armchair to pick up his gun. “You wouldn’t want to give the cops a smoking gun, would you?”
More police cars were pulling into the parking lot below, and a voice, tinny with amplification, rose up to rap on the window. “Abraham Hill! Robert Quick! You’re under arrest! Come out now with your hands visible.”
“Only one way out,” Alex said as Hill looked at the one window next to the door that overlooked the parking lot. “Nice place for a trap, isn’t it?”
Hill shook his head and took hold of Alex’s collar, nudging the barrel of his gun under Alex’s chin. “Yes, yes, you’re very clever and we’re all impressed. But you know what you also are? A hostage. Now, Robert, open the door.”
“I’m not going with you,” Alex said before Robert could move.
Hill ground his teeth and glared down at him, that anger beginning to crawl up his throat.
Alex set his feet and got right into Hill’s face, ignoring his racing heart and the weapon at his neck. “You’re going to jail for a long time,” he said, “because that is the only way I can be sure that my family is safe.”
As he spoke, I was thinking of what Ero’an had told me about how the bright weapons are the most effective against the darkest souls. I leaned into Alex, raising every sweet memory of Miranda and Evan to the front of his mind, filling his heart with love and determination.
“They are going to be okay,” Alex went on, amazed that his fear seemed to be draining away, “and you are going to suffer. And that’s going to happen if you have to shoot me right now. But I’m not ever,” he hissed, “going to help you do anything terrible again.”
And his words, glowing with fervor and love and self-sacrifice, burned down into Hill’s soul like acid, and it broke all the bounds of control that he had built. The anger of decades, that hideous anger that came of never, never having enough, burst out, and Hill forgot the gun in his hand and struck Alex across the face with the other, so hard that both he and Robert lost their grip on Alex, who fell against the wall. As Alex gasped and looked up, Hill aimed the gun into his face.
“Fair enough,” he said and pulled the trigger.
But I had hold of the weapon, and it bucked to the side for no reason that any of the three men could see, and at point-blank range Mr. Hill missed his target, and the bullet went flying through the thin wall.
In the stunned silence that followed, Alex had time only to smile before the door burst open, splinters flying around the broken lock.
Abraham Hill was arrested with Alex’s blood on his knuckles and a smoking gun in his hand, which even his expensive attorney will have trouble explaining. Robert Quick was also arrested, and he went quietly; his spirit had not the same darkness of Hill’s, and it was filled with terror at what had happened in that hotel room, what he also could not explain.
And Alex? He was also taken in by the police, but under far more amiable terms. His bruises were treated, he was not handcuffed, and before he got into the car, he was permitted to make a call on a cell phone loaned to him by one of the local police. Miranda cried and begged to come and see him, and in the background Evan asked question after question.
“No, no, they’re bringing me back anyway, so there’s no need for you to drive all the way out here,” Alex laughed. “Really, I’m okay. I’m totally fine.” His voice was tinged with awe, and he looked up at the door to the hotel room with wide eyes, recognizing that a miracle had happened, and had happened to him, no less. “And everything is going to be fine, I know it.”
For a minute, it seemed like he looked right at me. I smiled and wrapped my wings around him, and his eyes filled with tears.
“I know it,” he repeated, and it was true.