Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six(106)

Leo kept her safe, and was always there. He showed her the stars, and was always the first face she saw when she looked out into the audience at school plays, graduations, swim meets.

Now Hannah finally understands what Sophia meant.

There will need to be a conversation, probably many long, hard, and unpleasant conversations. Most of them will be about Mako and who he is, what he’s done, what will become of him. Some of them will be about Sophia and Leo and the choices they made. Sophia will drink. And Leo will be emotionally absent. But they’ll get through what comes next together. Hannah believes that.

They are still in the vacation rental. That skull surrounded by bits and pieces of bones. The black eyes stare at her. She hates this place.

Henry comes to sit across from Hannah where she’s curled up on the couch.

Cricket has gone to lie down on Hannah and Bruce’s bed. Soon they will all go to Liza and be there for her. She is fighting for her life. Liza has lost everything, and whatever mistakes she might have made, she is still family. Hannah will take care of her through whatever comes next.

Hannah is hurt—some bruising, a bandaged injury on her arm where a bullet grazed her but didn’t penetrate. She has refused more medical attention. She can’t be laid up right now, her family will need her. She’ll have to get home to Lou and her daughter, to her parents.

The road ahead is long and dark.

She can see the man in front of her, who is related to her brother, but not to her, is in pain. He rests his forearms on his thighs, his head hanging.

“I’m sorry about your sister,” she says. Trina. Mickey’s half sister, too.

He looks up and she sees Mako’s eyes, Catrina’s eyes, it sends a little jolt of recognition through her like it did when she first met Joshua.

“That’s—very generous. Considering what has just happened to you.”

“Family, right?” she says with a light laugh.

“Yeah. It’s messed up.”

Bruce stands by the fireplace, staring at the flames. He did what he had to do; she knows this. She married an honest, hardworking man who cares for his family and always, always does the right thing. Like her father—like her Dad. She has no idea what her biological father was like and she doesn’t need to know. The first thought she had about Bruce was: he’s safe. She chose him as the foundation on which she wanted to build her life, her family.

She doesn’t love that he lied to her and hid this huge thing from her. She doesn’t love that he worked with the FBI to take her brother down. But she understands it.

Could she have been trusted with that information? Or would she have worked to save Mako from the fate he had designed for himself? She can’t answer that and doesn’t want to.

But she’s done cleaning up Mako’s messes. In fact, she herself has some penance to do. What had Catrina called them—Hannah and Cricket? His handmaidens. That was a painful truth that she would have to face.

Why had she done it?

Hidden Mickey’s darkness?

She could say that she was afraid of him, or that she didn’t really know what he was capable of. But that wasn’t the whole truth. There was more, another layer—a fidelity, a love that let her see past his darkness to the squalling, helpless infant within. She wanted, in some great sense, to take care of him. It was a wrong impulse, she knew that. But it was a true one.

Henry is talking, telling her about himself, about Catrina, about how he and a private detective had been investigating and finally realized what she’d been doing. She’s listening, trying to understand the winding, twisting path they’ve all been on, the one that has entwined them all together. A strange and unhappy family.

When Bruce comes to sit beside her, the power finally comes back on. Outside, the rising sun is painting the wet world golden. The storm has passed.

He leans into her, burying his face in her neck. It’s the first time she’s seen him cry.

Bruce gave the FBI a back door into Mako’s network, allowing them to collect evidence against him and some transaction Mako completed tonight gave them the final piece they needed to come and take him down.

But Mako was the agent of his own destruction.

She loves her brother, but he was a bad guy. And if he was going to be punished for things he’d done, then it was his fault, not Bruce’s. Bruce hadn’t betrayed their family. In a sense, he’d saved them. He’d chosen right over wrong. A thing that Hannah is ashamed to admit she has never been able to do when it came to Mickey.

She wraps her arms around Bruce.

“Forgive me,” he whispers.

She already has.





48


Henry





Christmas 2018


The table is set and Piper is nervous. She’s banging around the kitchen, her movements efficient and quick for someone carrying a watermelon in her belly. He passes through and asks what he can do. The air is rich with aromas—the ham in the oven, the potatoes on the stove, the flowers on the table. Music plays softly. Bing Crosby and David Bowie sing the 1977 remix of “The Little Drummer Boy” and “Peace on Earth.” Piper’s an old soul. She hums along.

“What can I do?” Henry asks, putting his hands on her slender shoulders. He feels some of the tension there relax. He places a kiss on her head and she smells of eucalyptus.