Khai hated climbing balconies.
Apart from the obvious danger of falling off and breaking his neck, it also made him feel like a thief. And he wasn’t a thief. Unless, taking information that wasn’t directly given to you could count as stealing. Could it?
No.
That wasn’t stealing. Just because you had the information didn’t mean the person you took it from was now without it. That was the beauty of knowledge, so many people could have it at the same time and it would still keep its value.
His muscles ached as he pulled himself up the rope attached to the metal railing of the fifth floor balcony. When he was a kid, he always wanted to be Batman. But Batman lied. This stuff was not nearly as easy as it looked. He missed the days when every building had a fire escape. These new fancy buildings with their fire stairs and special exits made life difficult for people like him.
He let out a slow breath as he climbed over the edge of the railing onto the dark empty outdoor terrace. The glass doors were closed, but the curtains were pulled to the side. It appeared to be as empty as it had been ten minutes earlier when he had cased the place from the building directly across from it. Still, he watched for five minutes before trying the sliding doors.
Static crackled in his ear as he slipped inside the condo.
“Boss, you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here, Max,” Khai whispered quietly. “They’re still sitting tight?”
“Yup. Got eyes on everyone.” Khai could hear Max chewing in the background. Probably carrot sticks. His wife had him on a diet. “Everyone just sat down to dinner.”
“Great.” Khai moved through what looked like a living room down a hallway.
“Speaking of which, isn’t your brother expecting you for Thanksgiving dinner?” Max asked.
“I told him I would be a little late.” Khai peeked through the first doorway and moved out when he saw the Transformers bedspread.
“A little?”
“Yes, a little,” Khai hissed back. “I should be there by seven thirty.”
“Boss, it’s seven right now.”
Khai tipped open another door and spotted shelves and a computer. “Bingo.”
“Huh?”
“Actually, I think I might be early,” Khai slipped inside the room. “Call me if anything changes.”
Khai moved the mouse. The screen lit up. The password screen didn’t surprise him. He had three on his computer and they were set on a timer. If you didn’t input all three passwords within sixty seconds, you got locked out of the system for twenty-four hours. He had even gotten himself locked out once because he hadn’t put in the passwords fast enough. It had been annoying, but his security was worth the inconvenience.
He powered the computer off. Inserted a DVD into the drive then rebooted the PC, booting it directly from the disk. Within seconds, he was looking at the passwords for the computer. Another restart without the DVD, a quick input of the password and a picture of a family greeted him from the desktop. His fingers stilled as he looked at the picture for a long moment, a man about his age, a younger woman with smiling eyes and two little boys.
That could have been him. Could have been his life.
He could feel the anger simmer inside, but before it could heat to a boil, he opened a file explorer window and got down to business.
“How’s it going?” Max’s voice crackled in his ear again.
“I’m almost done,” Khai watched the last file copy onto the thumb drive, before pulling it out of the computer hard drive. “How do the stairs look?”
“Clear,” Max said. “But I wouldn’t risk it.”
Khai sighed as he restarted the computer. He stuck the thumb drive into the pocket of his black jacket. “Balcony it is.”
Going down was significantly easier than climbing up. Within minutes, Khai dropped to the ground and jogged across the grass to the street a few meters away.
“Okay, I’m clear,” Khai slipped into his car and started the engine. “And it’s only seven-twenty. Guess who’s going to be on time for dinner?”
Max snorted. “You’ll probably have a better time than I do. You know Linda is making me eat Tofurkey? Who does that on Thanksgiving?”
Khai laughed as he pulled onto the road. “A wife who wants her husband to make it into the next decade without a heart attack.”
“Yeah, well I’d rather die happy.”
“Not your choice, my friend.”
“Don’t I know it,” Max snorted. “Happy Thanksgiving. See you tomorrow.”
“Happy Thanksgiving.”
Khai smiled as he pulled out his earpiece and tossed it into the console between the front seats. Max complained but Khai knew the man was happy. Max would have sat down to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if it meant he got to sit with Linda. Though he was younger than Khai, Khai had never met a man more happy to be settled and tied down to one woman.
Speaking of women...
Khai unlocked his phone and pushed speed dial 4. It rang three times before the sound of music and loud voices filled his car.
“Shouldn’t you be with your family now, mister?”
Khai smiled at the sound of Portia’s voice. “I’m on my way now. Happy Thanksgiving, PJ.”
He heard a door close then the background noise disappeared. “Happy Thanksgiving. Which house are you heading to?”
“Kristoffe’s. He’s got real turkey. Plus, my nephews made me cross my heart and hope to die, so I have to show up.”
“Ahh. So the nephews are the ones who have you under control. Maybe I should talk to them, get some pointers.”
“You will.” His grin stretched wider at the thought. “One day.”
“Well, don’t let me keep you,” Portia said. Was it his imagination or was there a tinge of softness in her voice just then?
“Okay. Just wanted to call and wish you the best. Remember to save me some turkey.”
“I will, if I can wrangle it away from Derek. We made two this year, hoping to satisfy the masses. But my cousins and uncles eat like a football team.”
Khai laughed as he pulled into his brother’s driveway and shut off the engine.
“You might have to settle for some pumpkin pie.”
He grinned. “I’ll be by for mine on Sunday. Go enjoy the rest of your night.”
“Bye, Khai.”
A knock on the window caught his attention. He turned to find two small pale faces pressed against the glass. He made a face back then opened the door and grabbed them both in his arms before they could run.
Their screams echoed like music in his ears as he kicked the car door closed and carried them to the front door where their mother was waiting.
“Mandy, what are you feeding these boys?” Khai asked as she made space for him to carry the squirming bundles inside. “They weigh a ton.”
“Oh, those are the Rochester genes right there,” Mandy closed the door behind him. “Those little monkeys have been growing like weeds.”
“Well, I think your excellent cooking has something to do with it,” Khai embraced his sister-in-law after putting the boys down. “Happy Thanksgiving, Mandy.”
She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “Happy Thanksgiving, Khai. For a moment we thought you wouldn’t make it on time.”
“Not a chance.” He shrugged out of his coat. “Everyone start yet?”
“Is that my loser kid brother?”
An older, bulkier copy of Khai with white blond hair came into the foyer and grabbed him in a hug. Khai slapped his brother on the back with a laugh.
“Old man, good to see you,” Khai said stepping back from him. “And apparently there’s a lot more of you to see than usual.”
Mandy rolled her eyes as she headed towards the dining area. “Tell him again. Maybe then he’ll stop eating like he’s nineteen instead of thirty-nine. And you wonder why my children look like mini linebackers.”
Kristoffe patted his thick middle. “It’s those Rochester genes. Even Khai’s packing on a bit.”
“I am not,” Khai followed Mandy to where everyone else was. But when she glanced back at him and stopped, he knew his claim was about to get refuted.
“You do look a little bigger there, Khai,” she raised an eyebrow. “Who’s feeding you in New York?”
Khai sputtered. “What?”
His brother laughed. “Oh, someone’s blushing. Who is she?”
“I thought we were supposed to be having dinner.” He motioned to his nephews. “Squirt and Squid, get in here.”
By the time the family settled around the table and Khai’s brother said the grace for dinner, it seemed like everyone had forgotten about the source of Khai’s healthier physique.
The dinner was loud and noisy with Khai, his brother and sister-in-law, his nephews, and his sister-in-law’s cousins and their kids who were also in town for the holiday. They could barely hear each other over the clink of plates and forks, the yell of kids and the sound of laughter. It was absolute chaos, and Khai loved it. He loved his big noisy family and he wouldn’t have had Thanksgiving any other way. Well...maybe one other way.
“What are you smiling about?”
Khai looked up and found Mandy watching him suspiciously. The kids were in the living room watching TV with Mandy’s cousin watching them, while Kristoffe and the other men washed dishes. It was just he and Mandy left sitting at the table, and she was eyeing him like a mystery.
“Nothing.” Khai tried to wipe the smile off his face.
“Uh-Uh, I know that smile,” Mandy grinned. “Who is she?”
“Why do you guys think there’s a she?”
Mandy smirked. “I’m a woman. I know these things.”
“There’s no one.”
Mandy gave him a look that told him she didn’t believe him. “Okay.”
They sat in silence for a couple moments before Khai turned to look at her.
“So is it true that Christians can’t date unbelievers?”
Mandy burst into laughter. “So that’s what’s going on.”
Khai rolled his eyes. “Well, are you gonna laugh at me all night or answer me?”
Mandy shifted in her chair to face him. “Yes, it’s true.”
Khai frowned. “What’s the big deal?”
“Well, when someone makes the decision to follow Christ, they decide to walk this life with Him. It’s kinda hard to do that while walking with someone who doesn’t believe in Christ also. It would feel like being constantly pulled in two different directions.”
Khai nodded. “Okay. So her rejecting me was not about her not liking me?”
Mandy shook her head. “No, it was probably just about her choosing to put Christ first.”
Khai sighed. “What does that even mean anyway? Choosing Christ. Is that choosing to believe in God? I believe there’s a God. Isn’t that enough?”
Mandy smiled. “It’s more than just believing there is a God. The Bible tells us demons believe and tremble. It’s not about knowledge. It’s about relationship. God doesn’t want you to just know who He is. He isn’t a politician looking for votes. He wants to have a relationship with you. He wants to be a part of your life and for you to be the one to invite Him in. He made you, He has the blueprint for how life is supposed to play out for you to give you the best out of it, but only while in relationship with Him does He get to share that with you.”
He wrinkled his nose. “You sound like Portia.”
“Portia, eh?” Mandy grinned. “That’s her name?”
Khai smiled ruefully. “You know she has an eight o’clock rule? Can’t be at her house after that.”
Mandy nodded. “Sounds like my kind of girl. Kristoffe and I had an after-dark rule.”
Khai laughed. “Yeah, he told me about that. No dates indoors alone after dark, right?”
Mandy nodded. “Helped make our engagement a really short one.”
Khai leaned his head back and closed his eyes. It seemed like every way he turned he was running into people who were talking to him about God. If he was a gambling man, he would bet it meant something. But he didn’t want to think about that right now. Not when he had things he needed to finish. Maybe in a few years.
“I’m surprised you were even attracted to a Christian woman,” Mandy said.
He shrugged. “She’s not just any woman. And it’s not just attraction. She’s an amazing person. She’s been through so much, but she has so much grace. And even though she has all these crazy rules, I respect her for it. And I respect the way she cares about me even though we can’t date, even though I don’t believe like she does.”
“You know what that is, Khai?”
He looked over at his sister-in-law.
“That’s the love of Christ in her, reaching out to you. That’s God working in her life. When you have Christ walking with you, you can weather any situation because through His power you can overcome it.”
Khai nodded. “I can see that in her. In you and my brother. How you made it through...everything.”
Mandy nodded even though her eyes fell to her lap briefly. He knew she was thinking about the loss of her and Kristoffe’s first child, who died in the hospital days after being born. It had been a hard time for both of them, but they made it through and were stronger together now than before. Khai knew their faith had been a big part of that. He had seen the prayers by the bedside when they were hoping that baby Gracie would make it. He had seen the prayers for strength when she hadn’t and he had seen the peace that developed in them afterward as they prayed for God to keep them through it.
“I admire all of you, your strength,” Khai said.
Mandy shook her head. “Not our strength. God in us. He is our strength.”
She reached over and touched his hand. “He can be yours too.”
Khai felt the restlessness. It was like the jitters he got whenever he was high up somewhere he shouldn’t be and made the mistake of looking down. But he couldn’t look down now. It would be a long free fall down to that place Mandy was hinting at, and he wasn’t sure he was ready to let go yet.
He stood and leaned over, kissing his sister-in-law on the cheek. “Maybe one day.”
One day.
Just not any day soon.