I watch her perform all by herself. In front of no one. She even stops, getting irritated with herself when she messes up, and starts over. She wants it perfect.
I let her finish a scene then wander back in and sit on the edge of the stage.
“I practicing my lines,” she says.
“I saw. You're very good.”
She nods seriously. “I want to be on TV. I can dance too. Wanna see?”
“I’d love to see.”
“I'm the bestest in my class. Wait. I need my special tutu,” she says and goes tearing off.
She comes back wearing my pink tie dyed tutu. The one I was wearing when I met Tommy.
She marches up on stage, bows, and does a little choreographed dance. Twirls. Spins. Smiles at a crowd that's not there.
I clap.
“Shh,” Gracie admonishes me. “Not until I yell,
Cut
.”
I run to the stage, swoop her into my arms, and hug her tightly.
“Kiki, you cry too much. Is Kiki sad?”
“Kiki is sad because I miss you.”
“I miss Kiki too.” She lays her head on my shoulder. I automatically sway and pat her back when she’s in my arms. Like I used to when she was little. I take in her sweet scent. A mix of bubblegum, chocolate, and baby shampoo. When she doesn’t move, I realize she's fallen asleep.
I hug her tighter and stop fighting the tears that I haven't wanted anyone to see.
Cooper walks in, sees me holding a sleeping Gracie, and smiles a sad smile at me. I carry Gracie into her bedroom and lay her on her bed. Her hair is all sweaty, so I gently push it off her face. She opens her little eyes and smiles at me.
A streak of wet yellow dog bounds on the bed, licking our faces and dripping water on us.
“Bad Kiki!” Gracie says, now fully awake and drenched.
The dog stops bouncing, pausing only to shake its body and spray water all over. Gracie and I both giggle when Tommy chases the dog. B picks me up and carries me out of the room.
I'm laughing but also wondering when he got so strong. Before, I used to feel like I'd crush him when he gave me a piggyback ride. Now he's solid. Stronger.
We go outside to bounce in the bouncy house. After a while, Gracie climbs into my lap and promptly falls asleep again.
Eventually, Cooper says, “Keatyn, we need to get going.”
I give the girls hugs and tell them I’ll be back soon. Because I don't care what anyone says. I'm coming back soon.
This time, it’s not a happy goodbye. This time when I leave there are tears.
“Don't go, Kiki. Don't go,” the triplets plead.
I’m glad that Gracie is asleep. I don’t want to ruin the end of her birthday. I reach in my pocket and pull out four heart lockets, handing one to each girl and one to Mom. “These are for you girls. I have one just like it. Do you remember that James got it for me for my birthday?”
The girls nod.
“Be really careful, but if you open the heart, there’s a picture inside.
“Kiki!” Avery declares, being the first one to get her locket open. I take her locket and clasp it around her neck.
“I have to go back on my adventure, but I got you these so you would know that you're always in my heart. I love you.”
They cry. I cry. I give them hugs.
Finally, Nanny takes them to their room.
Everyone else walks into the entryway.
Mom gives me a hug. “It was so good to see you, honey.”
Brooklyn says, “I'll walk you to the car.”
He takes my hand and leads me to the car. It's a rare occasion that I haven't planned out a script in detail. That I don't know exactly what I’m going to say.
I smile at him. Run my hand through his shaggy blond hair.
"God, I've missed you," he says and presses his lips against mine. It's a hot kiss, full of a passion I've never felt from him before. He pulls back just as quickly. "I'm sorry. I said I wouldn't."
“It's okay, B. Thank you for today. For being here. For giving me a little happy piece of my life back. You have no idea how much that means to me."
"I love you, Keats. I always will."
"I'm pretty sure I'll always love you too."
Pull the trigger to shoot.
7pm
I’m walking up the stairway to board our plane when a black town car pulls up to a sleek jet that has just landed. A man gets off and starts down the stairs. “Oh my God.”
The man turns in my direction, locks eyes with me, and smiles.
“Cooper! It’s him. He’s just getting off that plane. They were right about me. I led him here. I shouldn’t have come!”
Cooper drags me into the plane and yells at the copilot, “We need to take off. Now!”
I somehow get out of Cooper’s grip and back to the door. I see Vincent is on his phone.
I wave at him to get his attention. Then I raise my middle finger to my lips, kiss it, and hold it out to him. Then I mouth,
Come and get me.
I don’t even care if it pisses him off.
I want him pissed. I want him to follow me.
I want him far away from my family.
Vincent bounds down the stairs and starts running toward me just as the door is shut and the stairs are rolled away.
I grab my phone, hit 911, and call Garrett.
“Is he there?”
“He’s at the airport in Vancouver.”
“Your locket says you’re at school.”
“I took it off. Doesn’t matter. He’s coming toward our plane. He left Miami. Must’ve heard I was here. Call the airport. Say it’s a national emergency or something. Just get us off the ground.”
“What’s your tail number?”
I run to the cockpit and ask the pilot as politely as I can, “Can you please give him our tail number?” I hand him my phone. Then I run and look out the window. Vincent is standing outside the plane, gesturing big with his hands, and screaming into his phone.
I think he’s trying to get them to roll the stairs back.
“Cooper?”
Cooper nods at me and grabs a black bag that he didn’t have on the way here. He unzips it quickly, pulls out a matte black gun, and hands it to me. “The safety is on. Click here to unlock it. Pull the trigger to shoot. There are fifteen bullets in the magazine. If something happens to me, shoot until you take him down. Do
not
stop shooting.”
He pulls two more guns out of the bag. A smaller one, which he shoves into the back of his pants and a larger one that he keeps in his hand. “God dammit. I knew I should have taken you to the gun range.”
The copilot walks back with my phone. “I gave it to him but all flights have been temporarily grounded.” Then he notices the guns in our hands and says, “What’s going on?”
“She's a federal witness,” Cooper quickly lies. He pushes the copilot's head down even with the window. “That guy out there is the mob's contract killer. We have to take off now. Because when he comes to kill her, he'll kill you too. Won’t think twice. Get us ungrounded. Now.” Cooper even pulls out a badge of some kind and flashes it at the copilot. “Move,” he says.
The copilot gets on the headset and speaks to the tower. “We’re requesting an emergency takeoff.”
“Emergency takeoff? You mean landing?” the tower replies.
“No. Take off.”
“Can’t right now.”
Cooper grabs the headset. “This is Cooper Steele, NSA. There is a possible terrorist suspect standing outside our plane. He just arrived from . . .”
“Miami,” I whisper, as Cooper says, “Miami.”
“A flight did just arrive from Miami,” the tower replies, sounding confused.
“Apprehend him and clear us for takeoff,” Cooper commands.
“I can apprehend him but I'm afraid I can't clear you for takeoff. Only the . . .what? Yes, sir. You are cleared for take off.”
Quickly, we are moving down the runway.
As our wheels leave the ground, Cooper’s phone rings.
“Fuck,” he says before he answers. “Yes. I know, sir. Right, but . . .” Sigh. “It's on me. Yes, I understand.”
He disconnects the call and shuts off his phone as we climb into the air.
Then he stands up, takes the gun out of my hand, and puts it back in the bag along with his.
“What the hell were you thinking? He didn't know you were in here until you called attention to yourself.”
“He was going to the house.” I picture Gracie sleeping in my arms and feel sick. “I couldn't let him.”
“He put something in one of your sister’s backpacks, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
He runs his hand across his buzzed hair. “Garrett just fired me.”
“Bullshit,” I say.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, bullshit. Although I appreciate everything he's done for me, and although he may think he is, Garrett is not the boss of me. He works for me.”
“It seems personal to him.”
“It's always been personal to you. And it just got more personal because you met my sisters.”
He nods.
“You were right, Cooper. About me being the weakest link in my security. I need you to teach me all the martial arts stuff you know. And how to shoot. You're not leaving school.” I roll my eyes and give him a grin. “The girls would all be grieving for days.”
After we level out, the co-pilot comes back. “We were just informed that our flight plan was changed. We’ll be landing at Santa Monica airport in a few hours.”
“Santa Monica?” I ask after the pilot goes back into the cockpit.
Cooper shakes his head. “That’s where Garrett is meeting us. He’ll be getting you back to school.”
I get up and pour us each two fingers of scotch.
I set the glass in front of him. “Drink.”
“I can't drink on the job.”
“Technically, you just got fired. Drink.”
When we land, Garrett pulls Cooper aside. They’re having a very animated conversation.
I walk in between them. “That’s enough, Garrett. There’s no reason to yell at him if you’ve fired him.”
“The hell there isn’t. I can’t believe the two of you pulled a stunt like this.”
“Garrett, calm down. Cooper planned everything out. He’s really smart and he did a really good job. You need to hire him back.”
“What? No.”
“Um, yes, Garrett. Otherwise
you're
fired.”
Garrett's head practically does a 360-degree spin. Almost like a horror movie.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Garrett says, now completely pissed off.
“Garrett, you know I appreciate everything you've done for me, but I have to put my foot down on this, just like I did with Cooper. I need both of you working together to help keep me safe. My rehearsals just ended and Cooper is going to start teaching me martial arts.”
“And how to shoot,” Cooper says with a grin.
“Because even though school is pretty secure, I’m the weak link.”
“The weak link?”
“Tell him, Cooper.”
He does and then, finally, they shake hands.
Garrett gives me a hug, then dangles a set of car keys in front of us and says, “Drive from here to Vegas. Spend the night. Catch a charter there.”
Cooper and I get into the car and drive away from the airport.
“I don’t want to go to Vegas tonight.”
“We don’t have a choice.”
“Sure, we do. It’s past ten, we’re exhausted, and it’s over a four-hour drive. It’s not safe.”
“Where do you want to go then?”
“We’ll stay here in Santa Monica.”
“Vincent can check our flight plans.”
“If he does that, he’d go to Malibu. Shit. I wonder if he knows B was in Vancouver? Hang on. I need to call him.”
I push B’s number. “Hey, are you still in Vancouver?”
“Yeah, spending the night at your parents’ and then flying to my next tournament.”
“Where’s that?”
“Portugal. Then Hawaii for the Thanksgiving break. You doing anything? You could come.”
“I don’t think that would be very smart, B.”
“Yeah, I know. Wishful thinking.”
“Thanks again for spending Gracie’s birthday with her.”
“No problem. Bye, Keats.”
I hang up. “He’s not coming home. And I know just where to stay. Let me call and see if they have any rooms.”
Cooper and I get to the iconic Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica and check into the Presidential suite. It was all they had available and I would pay just about anything to stay on the beach tonight.
After we get checked in, I immediately swing open the balcony doors and take in the fresh ocean breeze.
I get a crazy idea that Cooper will probably never agree to. But I check anyway. I pop on Facebook and pull up Mark’s profile. He always posts the night before where they are surfing in the morning.
There across my phone are the words:
Manhattan Beach is where it’s at.
“You better get some sleep tonight,” I tell Cooper. “We’re getting up at sunrise and going surfing.”
Cooper stops drinking the beer he just pulled out of the refrigerator. “No, we are not.”
“Yeah, we are. We’re going to Manhattan Beach. It’s nowhere near Malibu. Some of B’s old surfer friends are going to be there.”
“I think it’s a bad idea.”
I smile at him. “So’s going to sit out on the beach right now, but I’m still going to do it.”
“I’m coming with you and you’re going to pretend to be with me. Understand? Like we’re a couple.”
I grab his hand. “Come on then, sexy. We’re going to make out in the moonlight.”
I drag him down to the beach and plop down in the sand.
He wraps the blanket he took from the suite around us.
I close my eyes and take it all in. The smells, the sounds. All of which feel like home.
Except.
Not quite.
“Tell me about your sister,” I say to Cooper.
He shakes his head. “It’s not a pretty story.”
“I’m sure it’s not. Please. I need to know.”
“She broke up with her boyfriend because he was cheating on her and that’s when things changed. He started showing up at her apartment unannounced. Standing outside her car waiting for her after work. Sending her flowers and leaving her notes. Of course, she told him they weren’t getting back together, and that he needed to leave her alone. He did for a few months until she started dating again. Then, one night he was waiting for her when she got home. He told her she was his and that if she ever even looked at another man, he would kill her. Before he threatened her, she considered him more of an annoyance, but after that, she was scared. They tried to get a restraining order at that point, but didn’t have any proof. So, she started noting all the times he was around. Saved his cards and letters. Finally got a restraining order. Two days after he was notified of the order, he went to her apartment, raped her, and killed her.”