He backed into a space in the shadows of some trees, the front of the truck facing the entrance to her section of the complex. He cut the lights, but moved the gearshift to drive and left the engine running. Just in case. It was the same place he had parked when he’d come to build Dash’s loft. But everything was different then.
She started to get out, but he took her arm.
I’ll take you and Dash somewhere safe, he signed. While I make things right with the director.
She looked at him for a long moment, then signed, He sent you to watch me. No sign for a question. Just a statement.
Manus nodded.
To fuck me?
Manus couldn’t meet her eyes. His hands floated helplessly for a moment. Then he managed, No. I didn’t tell him about that. Until…
She tapped his leg to make him look at her. Until what?
When I realized he black-bagged your apartment. That he knew anyway. And knew that I’d been lying to him. I shouldn’t have lied. But… but…
He couldn’t finish. Didn’t know how. He looked around, still seeing nothing, still feeling uneasy.
He wanted to tell her she needed to trust him, she needed his help. That he had to get her somewhere safe before he contacted the director, before this whole thing got any worse. That more than anything else, she needed to give him that thumb drive. Because as long as it was out there, the director would never stop.
But he didn’t know how to say any of it. All he could manage was I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I’m going to fix it.
How?
He shook his head, wishing he had an answer. You need to go in. Make it fast. Apologize to the nanny and send her home. And only use sign with Dash. Tell him to grab whatever he needs for a hotel. I think the director is watching but he doesn’t know much sign.
What if he has an interpreter with him?
That’s why you need to be in and out fast. Just grab some clothes, a pair of shoes, and some cash if you have it, that’s all. I don’t know how much time we have.
She nodded and turned to get out. He put a hand on her arm.
Wait. Take all three phones with you. And leave them inside when you go. He handed her his and Delgado’s.
Why?
The director would expect all of us to be moving together. And… I don’t know. Just a feeling.
What kind of feeling?
How could he explain something like that?
A bad one. Hurry.
CHAPTER
38
As soon as Evie was inside, Manus put the pickup in park, cut the engine, and got out. He wanted to believe the director would never hurt him, but his gut warned that if there were any opposition, they would be looking for his truck, and that he should therefore be somewhere else when they found it.
There was a long cluster of mulberry bushes on a grass berm ten feet behind the pickup. Good concealment. But if Manus was tempted to hide there, someone else would be, too. So he went past the bushes into the line of trees just behind them, crouching close to the thick trunk of an old maple. There was a slight breeze, but other than that the night was still. Manus mirrored that stillness, retracting, retreating, letting himself fade away as he had when his father would come home drunk, when being overlooked, remaining unseen, was the only way to survive.
A few minutes went by. A middle-aged woman came out through the entrance, about fifty yards from Manus’s position. She looked Latina, but she was backlit by the building and Manus couldn’t be sure. She walked to a dark Honda Civic near the front to the lot, got in, and drove off. Manus had a feeling she was the nanny.
Another minute ticked by. He saw headlights approaching along the access road to the complex. Big lights, high off the ground. A truck or SUV.
A moment later, a black Suburban turned into the parking lot. It passed several empty spaces, paused in front of Manus’s pickup, and then continued slowly on. Manus tried to see inside it, but the windows were smoked and he couldn’t make anything out.
The Suburban backed into a space at the end of the parking area, about thirty feet from Manus’s position. The lights went out and the front doors opened. Two large men emerged, both wearing dark suits, neither of them remarkable but for a certain tension in their posture and gait, and for the sunglasses they wore despite the weak light of the parking lot lampposts. They strolled toward Manus’s truck, their heads swiveling as they moved, each hitching up his pants as though adjusting for something heavy around the waistband.
Manus understood the director had sensed something was amiss. These men were here to keep things running smoothly. And what would that entail, when they realized Delgado had been sidelined and Manus was helping the woman?
You’re looking for a thumb drive, he could imagine the director instructing them. Retrieve it. Whatever it takes.
Manus had always assumed the director relied entirely on Delgado and him for contract work, but realized now that was naïve and even narcissistic, a product of his need to believe the director was as devoted to him as he was to the director. He felt bitterness welling up in his chest and throat and willed it away. He didn’t want to feel anything. Someone was here to hurt him. He would stop them, the way he always had. That was all this was. He would figure out the rest later.
One of them peeled off fifteen feet short of Manus’s pickup and eased into the cluster of mulberry bushes at its far end. Manus nodded, knowing he’d been right not to use the spot himself. The other kept coming, taking up a mirror-image position at the other end of the bushes not ten feet in front of where Manus crouched.
They were watching the front entrance. The director must have told them he’d tracked Delgado, Manus, and the woman all going inside. They’d confirmed Manus’s truck was empty, and now they were waiting for everyone to emerge from the building.
Maybe he was wrong about what they had come for. But it didn’t matter. They weren’t here to help. And when they saw Evie coming out alone with Dash, they were going to move in. She and the boy would be in the crossfire. Manus would have lost the element of surprise. He couldn’t let that happen.
He knew he was making things worse. But maybe he could still explain. He hadn’t killed Delgado, only disabled him. And only because Delgado was doing things the wrong way, and wasn’t going to find the thumb drive. And these men… he didn’t know who they were, or who sent them. Not really. If it turned out they were the director’s men, then it was a misunderstanding, and Manus would apologize and explain. If he could just get Evie to give him the drive, and make her promise never to say anything, he could still make things right. He had to make things right.
He could have dropped the man in front of him with the Force Pro, but the sound would alert the man’s partner, as well as all the neighbors. So instead, he eased the Espada out of his pocket and unfolded it with both hands, holding open the safety catch to prevent the blade from clicking when it locked into place. There was nothing between him and the man directly ahead other than soft, manicured grass. No branches, no gravel, not even any mulch. He moved forward, letting the heel of each boot slowly take his weight, then rolling along the outer sole as they’d taught him at the Farm. He kept the knife back along his thigh lest some stray light glint off the surface of the blade.