The Rules for Breaking (24 page)

“If the guy watching the house sees this, he might go for Mom!”

“I’ll tell him the house is being watched. Truthfully, I think he’s looking for a way out of helping us. Do we have any idea if Agent Williams is on our side or theirs?”

“I think ours. Sounds like Noah was taken to keep him quiet. Agent Williams is here. He’s in Mandeville, wherever that is.”

“A town right outside of New Orleans. Is Tyler in on this, too?
Can you get out of there? God, I wish you would have come with us.”

“It wouldn’t have made a difference. They would have gotten me back somehow and maybe someone would have gotten hurt in the process. They also talked about somebody named Riley but I don’t know who that is. Tyler was out there with them for a few minutes but Thomas sent him on some sort of errand before Mateo showed himself. He’s using Tyler and Tyler has no idea.” I still hate Tyler for what he’s done and for what he’s doing but a very small part of me feels so sorry for him. He must really look up to Thomas to be involved with this and Thomas is making a puppet out of him, too. I totally believed him when he said he would make sure we were okay. But now I know that’s not a promise he can keep. “Whatever they have planned, it’s for three p.m. today. Agent Williams will be led in when it’s all over. Hammond isn’t the mole either, but Agent Williams will think that.”

“Why do they need you? I don’t get this.”

I quickly tell him about Mateo’s and Thomas’s plan to kill him.

Ethan lets out a deep breath. “The best thing we’ve got going for us is that they don’t know we’re on to them. Check everything you have for a tracker, especially your shoes. It will be small and fit into a tiny space. I’ll figure out how to get out of this house without being followed. You stay put until I can get there. Keep the phone powered on but put it on silent. I’ll be there in two hours.”

“Ethan, don’t come here. Go get Mom. Make sure she’s safe. Find a way to get in touch with Agent Williams and tell him what’s really going on. Tell him to come to the Quarter and to keep his eyes peeled for me. And tell him about Hammond. But you stay away.”

“I’ll make sure someone gets your Mom and I’ll get Catherine’s uncle and his buddy to find Williams, but I’m coming back for you right now. It’ll be hours before they’re even talking about a plan. If I wait for them, it could be too late. I love you. Keep the phone on.”

He ends the call.

I could scream! He’s so stubborn! Why is he risking coming back? He’s hurt and is no match for what’s happening here. There may be no stopping him from coming back, but I will do anything in my power to keep him out of this disaster, so I power the phone off. Tiptoeing back out on the balcony, I listen for anything else I can find out about the plan for today.

The wind picks up again, blowing through the small trees planted in the courtyard, and the door I left open to my room slams shut.

Both men stop talking and look toward my room. I throw myself against the wall and I don’t think they’ve seen me. I crawl back to my room, opening the door just enough to slip through, just as I hear steps coming up the outdoor stairs. I can’t let them have any clue I’ve seen Mateo or know anything they’ve said.

Racing to the bed, I shove the gun and the phone under my pillow and get the covers over me just as I catch a glimpse o
f
Thomas’s shadow fall across the window.

I fake sleep. Let every muscle relax and concentrate on even breathing. I’m not sure how long he stands there because I am terrified of opening my eyes, but after what seems like an eternity, I inch my lids open.

He’s gone.

I’m still lying in the bed an hour later. I can’t quit thinking about the conversation I overheard.

There’s a knock on the door and then Thomas’s booming voice asking, “Are you up?”

I’m still in the bed, mostly buried under the covers mainly because I can’t find the will to get up.

“Come in,” I call back.

Thomas walks in and looks around. He’s here to find the gun. “We’ll be leaving here in a few hours.”

“Where are we going?” I ask.

He shakes his head and answers, “You’ll know everything all in due time.”

Oh, I’m sure I will.

“I’m here. I know you have someone watching Mom. Please tell me so I can be prepared.”

He paces around the room, eyeing every surface. As if I would leave the gun out in the open.

As I watch Thomas open drawers, I still try to process what is going to happen today. Mateo will double-cross Vega. Thomas will take over Señor Vega’s position and Mateo will take over Thomas’s. Win-win for them both.

“So who will be the big boss after today? You?”

He doesn’t answer but I see a small grin on his normally emotionless face.

“Is it that easy? The other cartels will let you just slip into his place?”

I need him talking.

He smiles a little bigger and my stomach turns. “I’m not sure easy is the word. Let’s just say I’ve spent a number of years preparing for this day. In the end, it should be a smooth transition.”

He walks to the dresser on the far wall and peeks in each drawer there. When he goes into the bathroom, I slide off the other side of the bed and crawl to a set of drawers he’s already checked. Slipping the gun inside, I pray he won’t check this area twice.

I make it back in the bed and under the covers just as he comes out of the bathroom.

“Get up.”

“Why?” I ask, hoping my voice sounds confused. “What are you looking for?”

He doesn’t answer, just motions for me to get out of the bed.

Once I’m out, he throws back the covers and searches the bed, the pillows, and even underneath.

“You aren’t worried about Mateo being there?” Even knowing what I do, this plan is dangerous but I’m hoping to distract him.

“No. Mateo is an amateur. I will kill Señor Vega. And Mateo. And anyone else in the room.” He shoots a glance in my direction. He’s come up empty and I try not to smile. “Stay here until I come get you. I’ll have Tyler bring you some food.”

And then he’s gone.

Rules for disappearing
by Witness Protection prisoner #18A7R04M:

Know when to call in reinforcements.

New rule by Anna Boyd:

Never involve innocent people if you can help it. Just because you’re fighting for your life doesn’t mean they should have to as well. Plus, it’s just rude.

second Thomas leaves the room, I hop out of bed. I could tell he didn’t want to leave without finding the gun, but unless he was going to come out and ask me about it, there wasn’t much left he could do.

I’ve got a few hours to get control of what’s happening or I could very well be dead. I think he fully intends for me to get caught in the cross fire. I will be nothing but a loose end at that point.

And then he’ll go after Ethan and Teeny.

First, I need to find the tracker. I grab every single item I brought with me from Ursuline and throw it into a heap on the floor. Starting with my clothes, I inspect every inch of them, paying close attention to the thicker areas like collars and pockets.

Nothing.

I grab my tennis shoes. They are the only shoes I’ve had since the island. Taking the soles out, I dig around the inside of the shoe until my finger runs across a hard part in the toe of the left one. It takes forever to get it out but once I do, I know I’ve found it.

It’s small, not even as big as the tip of my pinkie finger, and looks almost like a button battery.

So this is how Mateo followed us to that souvenir shop. This is how Thomas has known every single thing we’ve done since we left the convent.

I stare at the tiny thing in my hand. What to do with it? For now, I’m going to keep it on me so I don’t alert him as to what I know, but at some point I’ll have to figure out the perfect way for it to help me disappear.

Thomas is sending Tyler away but I’ve got to get to him first.

I checked the doors in my room and they’re not locked. That doesn’t mean I can make it out of this compound, though—there are still the double wooden doors that lead to the street and the small door Mateo came through the night before. I’m not sure if there’s any other way out of here.

I need to find Tyler.

I retrace the steps that lead me downstairs. Searching the rooms I’ve found him in before, I come up empty. I don’t know where he sleeps in this place but that doesn’t stop me from looking.

The fifth door I open is a jackpot. Tyler is there, throwing clothes in a bag, and doesn’t seem very happy about it.

He looks up when I open the door and I say, “You can’t leave.”

“I have to. It’s part of the plan. The plan to make everything right.”

I inch inside the room and shut the door behind me. I need to do this just right. To say what I need to say just right.

“So you just blindly follow whatever he tells you to do, and you believe everything he tells you no matter what? I’ll be right in the middle of a confrontation between him and Vega and Mateo and you really think I’m walking out of there alive? Excuse me if I think that’s the stupidest shit ever.”

“The only reason I’m going along with this plan is because he promised me that this is the only way to keep you alive.” He drops his hand and looks toward his bag. “You have no idea how much I hate that I had any part of drawing you back into this with the journal and flowers.”

“Why did you do that? You knew I would think it was Thomas the way you signed it. You knew there was a good chance the suits would find out about it. What were you thinking?”

“When Thomas came home with the journal, he threw it on the table and said, ‘I guess you did make an impression on her after all. She feels bad for leaving you behind in Florida.’ I know it was wrong but I wanted to read what you wrote.” He finally looks up at me and says, “I missed you.”

“So you and Thomas both read it,” I say it more as a statement than a question.

“Yes. I read it. And then I felt terrible. I’d been checking in on you after you left Florida.” He holds his hands up when he realizes how bad that sounds. “Not in a creepy way. Everything looked fine on the outside. I had no idea how it was for you, or how bad things really were. That’s when I decided you needed it back. I could tell how important it was to you.”

I don’t say anything so he keeps talking, swaying back and forth. “The note was a mistake, I know that now. But at the time, I just wanted to tell you in some way that I hoped things were better for you. That I hoped the nightmares were gone. I know I couldn’t sign it with my name and even if it was left unsigned, you’d assume it was from him. In some way, leaving it with just a
T
meant it was possible you might think of me. I know that sounds stupid.”

“But why the flowers?” I ask.

He gives me a crooked little smile and says, “Because they’re your favorite.”

I can’t look at him without my stomach turning. Something is so very wrong with him that he can’t see this for what it really is. But I truly believe he is the only reason I am still alive.

“If you leave, there won’t be anyone here to make sure I survive what’s happening this afternoon. He plans on killing me. And my family.”

This gets his attention.

“No. He promised me you would be safe and he promised he would let you go when it’s over.”

“I think there’s a lot about this plan that you don’t know. I was on the balcony early this morning when you brought Thomas the phone. There was a man, hiding in the shadows. Then Thomas sent you away.”

The pair of jeans he’s holding fall back to the pile of clothes he just picked them up from.

“He sent you away so you wouldn’t see who he was meeting with. It was the assassin, Mateo. The one ‘after us.’ The same man who shot Ethan in the arm. The one Thomas is supposedly trying to kill. He was here and they weren’t acting like enemies. Not at all.”

He’s shaking his head, looking confused. “No. That’s not possible. All this that we’ve done is to stop him from killing us. And you. He wouldn’t lie to me.” He storms toward me, grabbing me by my upper arms, lifting me off the ground. “You’re just saying this to turn me against him. But you can’t. We’re all we have. We only have each other.”

“Is that what he told you? Is that how he talked you into going along with such horrible things?”

He drops me to the ground and I fall on my butt. He returns to his packing just like before.

“Tyler, listen to me. I heard him talking to the other man. Did you know he put a tracker on us?” I pull the small round device out of my pocket and hold it out in my hand for him to see.

He glances over but is still quiet.

“He told Mateo that you were pathetic for keeping the same number just in case I called. He said you were stupid for freaking out like a five-year-old girl when the crowd formed at the convent. He said he was getting you out of town before any of this starts just in case I get caught in a little cross fire. Maybe if I got killed, it would toughen you up.”

His eyes pop to mine and I know I nailed it. He’s heard this before.

“And I’m not the only innocent person who will get hurt by all this. He said they would go after Teeny and Ethan when this was over. Clean up the loose ends. Did you know that? And Hammond isn’t the mole. Thomas is setting him up. Do you know who the real mole is?” I ease down on the bed next to him. “Tyler, you’re better than this. Help me. Be on my side.”

He drops his head in his hands and starts crying. It’s so incredibly awkward, I’m not sure what to do, so I put an arm around his shoulder and give him a there, there, kind of pat on the back.

He sits up abruptly, wiping his eyes quickly. “We need to get back to Ursuline. There’s something there I want to see.”

He grabs a dark hoodie and baseball cap out of his bag and throws it at me. “Put this on.”

There’s no car or ducking in the backseat this time. No, this time we’re on foot as we slip out a side door that puts us in a narrow alley that dumps out on a narrow street.

I’m afraid to push Tyler too hard right now because I think he could flip either way. We left the tracker inside the house, buried under some clothes. From what it sounded like when they were talking, the tracker gives a general area of where it is, but not the specific location.

“What’s at Ursuline?”

We’re walking fast. I wasn’t wrong when I thought the Quarter felt small. In the few times I’ve been out of these streets, I keep seeing the same groups of people walking around. The bride-to-be from the first night, the group of guys Ethan nearly puked on. We all seem to be roaming the same streets over and over.

“Thomas tries not to keep any records. Nothing to prove what he is or where he goes or anything that can be used against him. But sometimes there’s just no way around it. He fell in love with New Orleans, the French Quarter especially, years ago. This is one of his favorite spots to hide out in. He loves the craziness of this town and the history.

“Anyway, there’s a room on the third floor of Ursuline with nothing but filing cabinets. I saw him walk in there with a large envelope and come out empty-handed just after we arrived. It was something he didn’t want me to see. And he’s been going over there a lot in the last two days. Something is going on over there.”

We walk two blocks to the convent. I didn’t realize just how close the house was to Ursuline. It’s so different seeing it in the light of day. It looks nice. And harmless. It’s hard to believe that’s where he was keeping us.

“Come on, we can get in through the back.”

It’s not empty inside like the night we fled. There are two tourists here, being led around by an elderly guide.

“I can’t believe he held us here when there are random people coming in and out.”

Tyler walks to the end of the hall to a narrow staircase. “He says the best place to hide is where no one will think to look. The second floor is nothing but storage and no one ever goes up to the third floor. And with an old building like this, you can’t hear anything down here.”

“So do they think he’s a priest?” I ask.

Tyler lets out a laugh. “Yes. And they love him here. This is where they keep records for this whole area and any priest can come in for research but none of them ever do. He talks to them in a French accent. He tells them what they want to hear and they do whatever he wants no matter how stupid it is.”

And then he stops. We’re halfway up and he leans against the wall.

“Just like me. He talks to me like a brother because he knows being part of a family is what I want more than anything. And I do whatever he wants, no matter how stupid.”

It’s almost like I can see the lightbulb going off over his head.

“At least you know now. At least it’s not too late to change things. You can help me and my family and that means something. You mean something to me. No matter what, you protected me and for that I will always be grateful.” I may still think he’s crazy, but I’d rather he be crazy on my side.

He grabs my hand and squeezes it softly. “Thank you for that. And thank you for being here with me now. I don’t think I could stand up to him alone.”

“You can. You’re way stronger than you think.”

“Let’s hope so.” And then we’re bounding up the rest of the stairs.

He flips the lights to the room with the shower and I stagger back.

The bed is gone, as is the nightstand, but the desk remains. Above the desk is a large corkboard—and it’s what’s on the corkboard that makes me want to vomit. It’s the last year of my life played out in pictures and maps and notes.

“What is this?” I ask.

“It’s how he tracked you while you were in the program, using the information he got from his sources. He must have printed everything out and brought it here.” He pauses a moment before saying, “This must be how he’s framing Hammond.” He points to a stack of correspondence, notes with Hammond’s name all over it. “There’s a lot he hasn’t told me. I never knew he had so much information until now.”

I walk to the wall slowly. There’s so much stuff there my eyes have trouble focusing.

Then I realize there is some sort of pattern. The grouping at the top are pictures of us in our first placement—Hillsboro, Ohio. There is a picture of Teeny and me in the small backyard, a picture of Mom coming out of the front door of the small house, and one of Dad and Agent Williams talking through the window. There’s also a sheet of typed paper, just like the one the suits gave us when we got to a new placement, summing up our new identity.