good. Simplicity brought order and peace.
“Did you love them?”
Isabel rolled her eyes.
“What kind of question is that?”
“Were they good to you?”
This time she didn’t respond.
Pike lifted the vest. Once the panels were split, they were no longer guaranteed to stop a bullet. He strapped it on anyway.
“I joined the Marines when I was seventeen. That age, a parent has to sign. My mother was scared, so I made my father. I told him I’d kill him if he didn’t sign the permission.”
Isabel stared, and narrowed her eyes.
“No way. Did you really?”
Pike slipped the Python into its holster, and clipped the holster onto his hip.
“I threatened to beat him to death. I would have.”
“You actually threatened to kill your father.”
Pike remembered the day well. They were in the kitchen. Pike and his father. His mother was in the yard, hanging clothes. The old man had just gotten home from work. He poured a triple shot of Old Crow over ice. He was raising it to his lips when Pike stopped him.
Pike said, “Yes.”
“You can’t be serious. I don’t believe you.”
Pike cocked his head.
“No?”
Isabel doubled down.
“No.”
“What do you remember most about your mother? A special thing. In a word.”
Isabel didn’t hesitate. She didn’t have to think.
“Singing. She sang to me. When I got bigger, we sang together. Around the house, on walks, in the car.”
She smiled, enjoying the memory, and repeated the word.
“Singing. I remember her singing.”
Pike tried to imagine Isabel and her mother singing. He couldn’t quite build the image, but singing was a fine memory.
Isabel said, “Now you.”
“My mother?”
“In a word.”
Pike didn’t have to think, either.
“Bruises.”
Isabel’s smile collapsed. She shifted uneasily.
“I’m sorry.”
Pike shrugged. Those things happened years ago.
“Nobody enters the program for fun. Whatever they told you or didn’t, they were hiding from bastards like Hicks. Your folks did a good job.”
Isabel stared at him quietly. She adjusted her glasses, glanced away, and wet her lips.
“He asked why I hired a bodyguard.”
“Hicks?”
“I told him I didn’t. He called me a liar. I told him you weren’t. He said you had to be my bodyguard. You sure as hell weren’t my boyfriend.”
She adjusted her glasses again.
Pike said, “You okay staying alone?”
“I live alone. I’ll be fine.”
“There’s food.”
“I’ll watch TV.”
Pike clipped a speedloader to his waist, and zipped his go-bag.
“You’re sure?”
Isabel flushed and made a face.
“This is kinda embarrassing. I am an adult.”
Pike picked up his keys and readied to leave.
“What he said? Hicks? He’s an asshole.”
Isabel smiled.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll stay in touch.”
“I wish I could see his face when he realizes I’m gone. He’ll be really, really mad.”
Pike didn’t think Hicks would be angry. Hicks would be scared. He had fallen behind, their roles were reversed, and Pike controlled the battle space. Whoever Hicks worked for would be mad. His boss would be livid.
On the far end of the table, Spot’s cell phone began barking. Woof-woof-woof, woof-woof-woof. A ringtone.
Isabel said “OhmiGod! Someone’s calling!”
The barking stopped. A few seconds later, the other phone buzzed. Boris’s phone had been set to vibrate, and now it buzzed so hard the phone crept across the table.
Zzz-zzz-zzz.
Pike and Isabel went to the table and watched the phone. It reminded him of a fly with a damaged wing, unable to fly, carving a desperate circle as it died.
When the phone stopped buzzing, Pike stowed the phones in his go-bag and left.
40.
Hicks
Hicks headed back to the mansion, pissed off and irritated with the cowboys. The old man was a bugfuck psycho, but the time crunch was real. Hicks had sent Ronson and Stanley to search the girl’s home. They should have finished while he was with Riley, but neither had called. Hicks dialed Stanley to raise hell. He got Stanley’s voice mail.
Hicks immediately called Ronson.
Another recording.
Hicks’s irritation flashed into worry. Stanley and Ronson were pros. Hicks had taken five scores with Stanley and eight with Ronson. They would have answered.
Hicks had left a dude named Wallick to stay with the girl. He phoned Wallick next, hoping he’d heard something.
Voice mail.
Hicks angrily slapped the dash.
“Does everyone suck?”
If those guys were outside smoking dope again, he was gonna shoot someone.
Six minutes later and totally pissed, Hicks turned uphill toward their house, and saw a helicopter circle the ridge. Its searchlight flashed like a lightsaber, probing the houses below.
Hicks slowed to a stop. He watched the chopper, and felt queasy. Horns blew behind him, pissed-off neighborhood chumps anxious to get home. Hicks pulled to the side, and watched the circling bird. LAPD Air Support. He couldn’t tell whether the chopper was over