Chapter 23

David

I only hid in a bush once before. That was when I followed Jake all the way home from school. My first mission. What I don’t remember is getting so many scratches. Maybe then I was enjoying myself too much to notice. Today, i had more scrapes on my left arm alone than I could count.

    I couldn’t hear the two men talking one wall away, but if I risked a glance up I saw that they’re lips were still moving which indicated that they weren’t dead yet. It wouldn’t be long before one of the smugglers decided they’d had enough with deals from the CIA.

    I watched as Gary and CJ started walking into the kitchen.  No! No, no! Jo was in there. I kept my eye on the pantry door. Locked on the point of failure. If they found her…

    I didn’t want to think about it. Not today, not any day. If they ever hurt her I would never forgive myself for letting her go in alone. CJ pushed himself up onto the counter still gabbing while Gary made his way over to… the pantry door. My heart sank. However when he reached the door he only leaned up against it and spoke. I didn’t hear but I read his lips saying, Josiphina. I mouthed the word about seven times a day to myself. I knew it. Then, in my despair he turned the knob. One loud knock rang through the house and into my ears. The message was clear.

    I ran.

Chapter 24

Josiphina

The door knob turned. And the door opened.

    There was nothing I could have done to hide. I cringed and did my best to cover my face with my hair. It wasn’t a good plan, but it was all I could do. If I appeared innocent or maybe even sorry, Gary might not throw me across the room as many times.

    At first when he opened the door and saw an intruder his brows wrinkled and his face turned red. Then his face softened, seeing it was me.

    “Jo?” He whispered, almost too quiet for me to hear, “Is that you?”

    I looked up at him, a sad smile crossing my face. He frowned at first but then threw back his head and laughed. The sound reached the heavens, I’m sure of it.

    “My God, Jo, you’re absolutely wonderful!”

    My face burned red and I turned away. “So this was a trap?”

    “No, not in the least!” He kept laughing hard, “Why would we plan a meeting  at the only secret place you know about on purpose?” CJ’s face lit up in a sly grin.

    Gary stopped laughing abruptly and forced me to swallow a laugh I was beginning to muster. “Stand up.” He said.

    I stood, legs shaking. My hands inched up the wall sweating. He was dead serious. “Walk over here.” I didn’t move. I was standing on a cliff and if I made the wrong choice I would fall into an endless doom. My dream came flooding back to me, standing on the cliff with David. He didn’t trust them. He thought they were the source of our problem. Were they?

Gary’s face turned up into a sly smile and his cheeks wrinkled in such a way that reminded me of the Grinch at best and the Devil at worst. Yes. They were. I had made the right choice in my dream to jump. I made a leap of faith, but it didn’t fail me. That dream wasn’t an accident. It was a sign, a warning. I would not make the mistake of falling into his arms.

I used to think that David was my enemy, because he was an agent of the YBYS. But, I was wrong. He was my friend because I didn’t know him. Gary was my enemy because I knew him to well. Or at least what I thought he was. He could be something else entirely. Was that the connection CJ was talking about? Gary may be a good spy, but was he a good man? Was he a man at all? He certainly looked like a beast to me.

  “C’mon it’s okay,” he said, mocking me. How could I think of him as a good father, ever?

There I was on the cliff again. I was not going to budge. He advanced slowly toward me, backing me up against the wall until I couldn’t move any more.

“Touch my face, grab it.” He wasn’t making any sense. “Go ahead, pull my nose.”

“I-I-”

“Just do it,” he yelled.

I hesitated, but reached forward and pulled off his face.