Alex walked the kids back to the house. They were reluctant to go and he couldn’t blame them. It was a sunny, warm day, and they were tired of being cooped up inside.
He knelt down on the dune path, pulled them close. “Soon we can play in the water and build a sand castle.”
“Y la señorita también?”
“Maybe. Maybe she’ll come and play.”
“Ella me gusta.”
“I like her, too,” Alex said.
“Like her, too,” the boy agreed.
Alex smiled. Children were amazing. These two, torn from their mother, kidnapped by a man who told them he was going to be their father, and kidnapped again by Lucky, were already adapting. It gave him hope.
They would survive. Like Alex had.
Rosie was waiting for them on the stairs to the deck.
“You let them come down,” Alex said. He thought he understood why.
“I thought she should know about them,” Rosie said. “She is kind to them and doesn’t even know who they are. They need to learn they can trust more than just you and me.”
“You were right,” he said. “She has a lot of Lucky in her.”
“So do you.”
Alex shrugged and they walked toward the house. “I think I have a date tonight. You better help me pick out a clean shirt.”
Rosie flashed her big smile. “It’s about time.”
“Yeah. I hope you’re right.” He called Lucky and explained what had happened and that Julie and her friends already knew enough to get them in trouble without understanding the rest.
“How?” Lucky asked.
“Asking questions. Pillow talk.” He hurried on. “Not mine, but Les and Bjorn. I think they were right to confide in Kayla and Aggie. Julie is determined to stand by you no matter what. And her friends will stand by her.”
“As stubborn as her mother,” Lucky said.
“And you,” Alex reminded him.
“Yeah. It just seems like one too many loose ends to worry about.”
“That’s why I think I should explain so they won’t blunder into something they aren’t equipped to handle.”
“I should have sent them away the first day.”
“And if Raymond had decided to come after them to force your hand, they would be without backup. At least here, they’ve got us.”
“Oh Christ, what a mess.”
“It’s bound to break soon. But until then, what do you want me to do?”
A sigh. “I guess bring them up to date without specifics and just warn them to stay away from me and those kids.”
“Okay,” Alex said, though he doubted if Julie would stick to those orders. For a nonconfrontational, do-what-she-was-told elementary school teacher, she had just done a big flip-flop. Alex guessed he had to accept partial blame for that one. He was glad in a way, but damn, he had no idea what to expect now.
“And, Scat . . .”
“Yeah, Lucky?”
“If you’re waiting for my permission to court my niece, I’m giving it.”
“Jeez, Lucky, we have bigger things to worry about.” Alex swore he could hear Marie laughing in the background.
“Nothing’s so major that you can’t take time for love,” Lucky said.
“You’ve been listening to too much country-and-western music at the bar. Tonight is all business.” And a confession, he reminded himself. He was interested in Julie. What guy wouldn’t be? But not unless she really understood what he was—had been. He’d tell her and give her the opportunity to tell him to get lost.
“Wow, I can’t believe you said that to Scatterman. He looked totally gobsmacked,” Kayla said as they walked across the beach to gather up their stuff.
“I know, I was kind of crazed. You’re not going to believe what he told me.”
“Maybe not, but let’s wait until we’re away from prying ears.” Aggie jerked her head toward Surf’s Up, where CeeJay had once again taken up residence in the doorway.
“Did she say anything when you came back?”
“No, she hurried inside when she saw us coming.”
“Something tells me the Scatman may have reamed her for it before he rescued us,” Kayla added.
“Don’t remind me,” Julie said. “But some good did come from it, which I’ll tell you about, if you’ll hurry up.”
They returned to the hotel and stopped at Julie’s room.
Aggie opened the cooler. “Just let me get out some water and snacks and we’re all ears.”
“And while she’s doing that, let’s focus on what’s really important.” Kayla went to the closet, Rolodexed through the hangers, and pulled out Julie’s new dress. She held it up for the other two to see. “Thumbs-up or -down?”
“I think it’s a little dressy for the ambience,” Julie said. “Especially after I tell you what I found out after you left.”
Kayla returned the dress to the closet. “So tell us what happened.”
“Every detail,” Aggie added, and handed Julie a bottle of water. “He sweeps you out of the boat and into his arms . . .”
“He hauled me out of the water, said we have to talk, dragged me across the beach—okay, perhaps I exaggerate—sits me down, and proceeds to confess that he . . . Well, do you remember when Lucky brought that street kid home? He stayed with us for a while?”
“Yeah. Lucky found him in an alley. He was the lookout for some street gang.”
“Well . . .” Julie waited.
“No-o-o,” Aggie said.
“Scatterman?” Kayla asked.
“One and the same,” said Julie. “How could I have not recognized him?”
“Wow,” Aggie said. “Maybe because then he was a dirty, foulmouthed delinquent and now he’s Mr. Hunkadorable.”
Julie snorted water out her nose. “I wouldn’t go that far. But he has cleaned up rather well.”
“Still has an edge,” Kayla pointed out. “As long as he’s learned to tame his temper.”
“Well, he still has one of those, too, but it hasn’t turned violent that I’ve seen.”
“Yet,” said Kayla.
“He’s totally loyal to Lucky so that’s in his favor.”
“They’ve been together all this time?”
“I don’t know. He started telling me and then the kids—the ones I saw on the beach before—appeared on the deck and came running to him. They were the ‘contraband’ I saw them delivering in the middle of the night. Someone had kidnapped them from the mother. Lucky extracted them from the kidnappers and brought them here to their aunt, who’s Scatter’s housekeeper. They’re hiding them here.”
“Hiding?” said Kayla. “They’re expecting trouble?”
“It sounds that way.”
“So that’s why they’ve been trying to get rid of us,” Aggie said.
“They? Les and Bjorn, too?”
Kayla and Aggie nodded.
“Not at first,” Aggie said.
“But in the last day or two. That’s probably why they’ve made themselves scarce lately,” Kayla said.
Aggie nodded. “Les told me some stuff but not that. I guess he didn’t trust me.”
Julie studied Aggie’s face. She was always up for a lark, ready to roll with the punches, but now she seemed genuinely hurt. “Because he cares about your safety.”
“Sure,” said Aggie, but she didn’t sound convinced.
“So are we about to be under attack?” Kayla asked.
“I was going to make him tell me the specifics,” Julie said, “but between the kids and then you guys showing up, I didn’t have a chance to ask him. That’s why I invited him for a drink.”
“Jules, that wasn’t an invitation, that was a command.”
“Man, how the tables have turned. Scatter was that crazy kid? I can’t get over it. He was like a wild animal,” Aggie said.
“You thought he was cute,” Kayla reminded her.
“I did not. Or maybe I did. In those days I thought most guys were cute.”
“We were only nine.”
Aggie looked down her nose at Kayla. “Evidently I saw his potential.” Her cell rang; she picked it up, listened. Ended the call. “Looks like it’s going to be a triple date tonight.”
“See. Business, like I said.” Though Julie had to admit she felt a smidge of disappointment.
“More like he brought in reinforcements,” Kayla said, and reached back into the closet. “So . . . maybe leggings and a T-shirt.”
As it turned out, Julie’s “date” was a three-couple powwow on the state of things in Lucky’s Beach. Julie was okay with that. Having thought about it, she wasn’t quite ready to pry Scatter’s life story out of him. She had a feeling that it hadn’t been pretty, even after Lucky pulled him off the streets the first time. It might be easier to take in the company of friends, but right now she wanted to find out what was happening in Lucky’s Beach.
Scatter wasn’t the least bit surprised that they were being joined by Julie’s “posse” as well as his.
Aggie and Kayla stopped a few feet away, shook their heads.
“I would have never guessed,” Aggie said, giving Scatter the once-over.
“Pretty amazing,” Kayla said. “You look really different.”
“Yeah, I’ve been told already,” Alex said. “Taller. And cleaner.”
They both zeroed in on Julie. “You didn’t say that.”
Julie shrugged. “I’m afraid I did, but it’s true.”
“We thought it was about time we filled you guys in on what is going on,” Les said.
Scatter looked like he might argue, but after a long silence he walked past them, took Julie’s arm, and steered her across the parking lot. For a charming bartender and working therapist who dealt with people all day long, his own social skills were a little rough around the edges.
The other four fell in behind Julie and Scatter, Les and Bjorn ushering the girls along as if they all knew where they were going.
Evidently they did. A block later in the opposite direction from the hotel, they turned down an alley and into the doorway of what appeared to be a pub, though there was no obvious sign outside. It was a smallish room, with dark paneling and a darker wooden bar. The bartender nodded and pointed to a round corner booth in the back.
They scooted into the banquette, not the usual alternating male and female, but Les in the middle and Bjorn and Scatter on the outsides. Julie kept telling herself not to read more into their actions than there was, but she couldn’t help but notice that Les had a full view of the front door.
Stop it, she told herself. It did absolutely no good. This whole trip had suddenly taken on an air of undeniable intensity, and she wondered if she had done the right thing in deciding to stay.
They ordered drinks and food, then Aggie and Kayla told them about their visit to the day camp, which brought a look of surprise to Scatter’s otherwise deadpan expression, and about getting stuck on the sandbar.
“It was CeeJay’s suggestion.”
“For which she’s been duly reprimanded,” Les said.
Dinner came and they fell silent. The pub might be run-down, but the burgers were excellent. Several customers left; it seemed the pub catered to locals and most of its diners were early birds. A few people lingered at the bar.
“Since you won’t leave town,” Les said without preamble, “we think you should know what’s going on. We’re expecting a certain individual to show up to collect a . . . package.”
Julie didn’t know whether to duck and cover or roll her eyes.
“I don’t think it will lead to . . . any serious altercation . . . but you girls need to stay mum, and don’t get in the way.”
“Jeez, Les,” Aggie said. “Why did you bring us someplace where you have to talk in code?”
“He enjoys it,” Bjorn said. “Besides, this is the safest public place we have.”
Les gave him a look. “Look, girls, just keep your eyes out for one ugly mother, and go to ground when you see him.”
“How will we know if it’s him?” Aggie asked.
“The air will grow cold.”
“Metaphorically,” Bjorn said. “It’s probably not going to happen; it’s been a week and he hasn’t come after the kids yet. He may have just cut his losses, but we haven’t heard anything, so we’re playing it safe, as you should.”
Julie looked to Alex, who hadn’t said anything.
He caught her eye. “But if he does, go straight to your hotel and stay there until you’re given the all clear. Do not try to intercede or help. Everything is in place. Any variable could unravel the whole operation. Understand?”
Julie nodded.
“Maybe we should just leave town,” Kayla said.
“A little late for that,” Scatter said.
“Okay, that’s it,” Julie said. “Are you trying to scare us?”
“Yes.”
“Anyone for dessert?” Les asked.
No one was.
The conversation evidently was over. The guys didn’t even quibble over who was paying the check. Alex just told the bartender to put it on his tab and they went out into the night.
Les and Aggie and Kayla and Bjorn walked down the street like couples out to dinner, their arms around each other, laughing and enjoying the late-evening air. Alex and Julie walked side by side not speaking. She was having trouble shifting gears from beach vacation to cloak-and-dagger operation.
And what she’d wanted to do tonight was sit down just the two of them. Hear about how he and Lucky and these guys all ended up in the same town and in all this trouble. But mostly she wanted to hear about what had happened to him since he’d run away all those years before.
They fell behind the other two couples.
Finally Julie said, “Are you really worried?”
“Nothing we can’t handle.”
“Then why is Lucky acting so furtive and adamant that we leave?”
“He’s just overprotective.”
Julie groaned. “I figured as much. For two people so unalike, my mother and uncle are two of a kind when it comes to me.”
“You should be thankful.”
“I am,” she said, taken aback. “It’s just he was always such a free spirit.”
“He still is, but not when it comes to people who need him.”
“I don’t exactly need him, I just . . . love him.” There, she’d said it. Since seeing him again, even with all the baggage he seemed to be carrying, she’d realized she loved her uncle and she wanted him to love her, too.
He’d always been so elusive when she was young, had disappointed her so many times. It wasn’t until she’d come to Lucky’s Beach that she’d begun to remember the good times, the supportive times.
“Why did he always take care of others first?”
“I don’t understand the question.”
“It seemed like he cared more about people like Bjorn and Les and runaways like you than he cared about us. Mom said he came to take care of us, but she ended up taking care of him.”
Alex stopped. “Is that what you think?”
“Was I wrong?”
“The first intelligent question you’ve asked since you came here.”
“Don’t talk like a therapist.”
“I’m talking like someone who Lucky pulled out of an alley before I was beaten to death by my own gang. I needed him.”
“We needed him, too.”
“No, you didn’t. Louise wouldn’t let him do anything to help her or you. She wanted to be the one taking care of both of you. So he helped people who needed help. Real help.”
“Like you.”
Alex shrugged.
“Then why did you run away?”
They started walking again. “I didn’t think you’d notice.”
“I did. It was such a shit thing to do after all he and Mom had done for you.”
“I don’t expect you to understand.”
“Try me. I teach fourth grade, you’d be surprised at the things I understand.”
He hesitated, breathed out slowly, controlled. “It was too much temptation.”
“Huh.” She tried to see his face, but he’d turned away, looking into the shadows.
“I wanted to belong there more than anything I’d ever wanted. I wanted you to be my family. It wasn’t going to happen. Even in the state I was in I knew that, so I left before it became more . . . painful . . . the idea of it ending, as I knew it would.”
“You made sure it did.”
“Yeah.”
“Lucky left soon after that.”
“He came after me. Took me to California with him.”
“You were a minor. He could have gone to jail for kidnapping.”
He gave her a patient look. “It didn’t matter to Lucky. He took a chance. He’s never been afraid of taking a chance.”
“Unlike me you mean.”
“Maybe. It didn’t really matter. No one was looking for me. A throwaway. That’s what they called us. Kids dropped off on a corner, the side of a highway—left by parents or whoever used you last.”
He said it matter-of-factly, as if it had happened to someone else and not him. It made it sound even more awful. Throwaways. Marie had mentioned them before.
Julie thought of her own comfortable life. The children in her classes. She was beginning to think a dose of reality of how others were sometimes forced to live would go a lot further in molding useful adults than all the apps you could fit on an iPhone.
Her students deserved mentoring and love, too, but just not from Julie. She was like them. She was beginning to understand that now. She was just too much like them.
“I kept running away,” Alex said. “Hell, I’ve lost count of the times, but he always came after me.”
“Why?”
“’Cause that’s the way he is.”
“What I mean is, why you?”
“Dunno. He just did and finally it worked. And FYI, I wasn’t the only one. Eventually I gave up trying to destroy my life, got my GED, a part-time job, went to community college, and got a degree in psychology.”
“To pay him back?”
“To pay the world back.” He breathed out a low laugh. “Anyway, it was the least I could do, don’t you think?”
“And you moved back here to follow in his footsteps?”
“It’s just what I do.”
“Except is it what you want to do? It sounds—and don’t get mad—a little like a hostage situation.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You living your life to pay back Lucky.”
“Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing? Paying back Louise?”
“No—I’m preparing myself for my future.”
“Louise’s idea of your future.”
Julie’s breath stuck. Was that what she was doing? All that work and preparation, was she living her own life or—
Without warning Alex grabbed her, pushed her into the shadows, pinned her body with his. She didn’t have time to react, lash out, or even wonder what was happening.
“Shh,” he whispered into her ear. “Don’t move, don’t make a sound.”
He released her and was gone. Julie didn’t move. She couldn’t hear footsteps or breathing, only the sound of waves echoing through the silence. And for the first time ever, Julie Barlow feared for her life.