Page 57 of Devil's Retribution
Chapter 22
Emma
Once Viktor left, I tidied away our breakfast things, helped Nick clean up and get dressed, and did some reading practice with him before he went to play Minecraft. I got busy answering emails, making brief phone calls, and lying through my teeth when I needed to. My first call was to Darcy. She picked up practically on the first ring.
“Babe, I missed you!”
Trying to keep my voice calm, I started on lie number one. “I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch, it’s just been such a crazy couple of weeks.”
“Crazy? That’s a fucking understatement!” she exclaimed.
“What did the news reports say?” I asked. I’d been too wrapped up in everything going on with my bastard uncle to check out any media websites. My life was enough drama for me.
“They were thinking gangsters of some kind. There were high-powered weapons involved. Maybe even a guy with a sniper rifle. Can you believe that?”
I nodded, and realized she couldn’t see me, “This is Los Angeles, so yes, I’m afraid I can.”
“So what happened next?”
I took a deep breath and let it go slowly, lie number two. “You know how well I sleep. I didn’t hear anything until the cops started knocking on my door. They took me and Nick to my uncle’s home while they investigated the shooting.”
“How’s Nicky doing? He must have been terrified.” Darcy asked.
I gave a dismissive laugh, I didn’t have to lie here, “He’s a tough kid, he’s taking it in his stride. Like me, he slept through it all.”
“I guess that boy has been through a lot in his life already.”
I took another steading breath, now for the final lie, the big one. “Yeah. My uncle didn’t take it so well though, you know how he’s always been so protective of me. He never wanted me to leave his home. I guess having the cops turn up in the middle of the night and finding that I could have gotten myself caught in the crosshairs of a gang fight was too much. He ended up collapsing and had to get rushed to coronary care. He’s still in hospital but he’s doing better.”
“That’s good news, hon. How long until I can see you? We need to have a proper catch up.”
“Um, maybe give it a week? I’m a complete mess and I won’t even be able to move back home until things are cleaned up and fixed up.” I paused, then added, “I miss our chats too, I’m sorry I’ve not been a good friend lately.”
“Don’t give me that! After what you’ve been through, honey I’m impressed you’re still keeping your sense of humor,” I heard her give an order, so I guessed she was at our favorite coffee shop. Her voice came back, “You’ll keep in touch daily until we can actually meet, right Emma?”
I smiled. “I’ll definitely keep in touch. It’s good to talk to you again.”
“You too, sweetheart. I was so relieved to hear from you. No slacking off on me, right?”
Of all my friends, Darcy was the one that I suspected I would eventually tell at least some of the truth to. But even there, I would have to be careful. I doubted she would have much tolerance for the whole kidnapping story. I wouldn’t have, in her shoes.
The housekeeper had to cancel, which nixed my first interview of the day. I spent that time with Nick, teaching him a little math and coaching him on what to tell his friends and teachers when he went back to school.
“So I have to lie?”
“No, you don’t have to lie, just don’t tell them everything. They don’t need to know that we stayed in Viktor’s special place. Just say that there was a family emergency with Uncle Charles and Mommy had to go away to help and you had to come too.”
“But why lie?” He gave me a sad, big-eyed look and I sighed, feeling guilty about putting all this on him at such a young age.
“It’s to protect us, and to protect Viktor too. He does a lot of secret work and people don’t need to know he was involved.”
I brought had brough Nick an apple and a glass of milk as a snack from the kitchen, and I sat there working on a tall glass of iced tea.
“Secret stuff? Like he’s a secret agent or something?”
“Kind of.” I smiled a little. “You’ve got the basic idea.”
“Okay” He took a mouthful of the milk.