The Reckless Oath We Made(83)

“I was here. I saw the guy, Josh. These are not fancy-pants college campus Nazis in fitted suits. These are real, backwoods, cross-burning racists. The kind of people who tie you to their tailgate and drag you to death. Just for fun.”

“’Tis all the more reason I would see them returned to their prison,” Gentry said.

“Then let’s call the police. I didn’t sign on for some crazy vigilante shit.” I hadn’t signed on for being the only one thinking rationally, either, but there I was.

“It’s not like her uncle is still in the KKK,” Edrard said, like that was the whole point of what I’d said. “Is he?”

“No. He never was. He was friends with these people in prison, because he had to be.”

“Gentry,” I said, but we’d lost him. He was in full-blown campaign mode, scribbling notes on the map with a cheap motel pen. We weren’t getting him back anytime soon, which in some ways made it easier to say what I needed to.

“Zee, I haven’t known you very long, but I feel you may have missed an important element, so I need you to listen to me really carefully. Gentry is my friend. I care about him.”

“We all do,” Edrard said, but I thought it was more likely that Zee saw him as a convenience. Someone to use.

“Okay, great. We all care about him,” I said. “I know you’ve known him the longest, Edrard, but I’ve known him for nearly five years, long enough to say very firmly that he is not all there. I’m not saying that because he’s autistic, so don’t even with that. Autism spectrum disorder is one thing. Plenty of people on the spectrum function really well. Gentry does fine. He has a job. He has his hobbies. But let’s be honest, he also has half a dozen invisible friends who talk to him in his head. Please, will you think about that for a minute?”

Zee gave me a glare that was so malevolent it made me glad Gentry had put her gun away.

“You don’t have to be that way about it,” Edrard said.

“I guess he probably does,” Zee said. “I guess that’s how he sees Gentry.”

“Oh, don’t get all high and mighty with me like I’m being mean or something. You cannot possibly believe he’s capable of making the kinds of decisions that are involved in this. He has no business going on some half-assed rescue mission with you. You need to call the FBI or something, and give them that map.”

Gentry looked up from his trance and said, “My lady, we musten go this even.”

“I know. They won’t stay there. We have to get there before they leave,” she said.

Like I hadn’t said a word.

“Josh, are you really—”

“Stop calling me Josh,” Edrard said. “What are you trying to do?”

Before I could answer, someone knocked on the door. As if it were a totally normal thing to do, Zee took the gun out of her backpack, tucked it into the back of her pants, and went to answer the door.

“Hey, cuz,” said the guy she let in. He was tall like her and her uncle, but a pimply, gap-toothed kid whose eyes were too close together. Top-quality inbreeding. He shook Gentry’s hand, saying, “My man.”

“Master Dirk, well met,” Gentry said.

Then because we were there and he was looking at us, Edrard and I introduced ourselves.

“What are you doing here? Is everything okay?” Zee said.

“Yeah, but I got to thinking, if you needed another hand, I’d go. I mean, we’re family and all.”

“I think that’s a great idea,” I said. “We can go home, and Zee and Cousin Dirk can go do whatever crazy thing they want to do.”

“Thou art under no obligation, Sir Rhys. If thou wishest, thou mayest go at once.” It was maybe the first time I ever heard Gentry sound annoyed. He was so phlegmatic that even hearing him raise his voice was a surprise.

“Gentry,” Zee said. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

He tilted his head the way he did when he was having one of his internal conversations.

“You see?” I said to Zee, but she was watching Gentry like she was waiting for him to finish a phone call. Like it was totally normal.





CHAPTER 40





Zee



I took Gentry into the bathroom, but once we were alone in there with the door closed, I felt stupid. I should have said what I wanted to say in front of everyone.

“My lady, thou art troubled,” he said.

“Yeah, I don’t think your friends want to go, and that’s probably a good thing. Maybe just Dirk and I should go.”

“Sir Rhys and Sir Edrard may do as it please them, but I am thy champion, and methinks more ready to do battle than Master Dirk.”

“I keep thinking about what you said about never hitting anybody in anger before, and I’m afraid this might turn out to be more of that,” I said.

“I am not afraid.” He’d had his head down, but he lifted it and said, “May I kiss thee?”

“Now? No. You need to seriously think about this.” It was nice to say no and have him listen, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

“Nay, I hear thee, but thou speakest naught I know not already,” he said. Not to me, because he cocked his head to the right. If it had to be one or the other, I’d take the black knight over that bitch Hildegard any day. Gentry took a step closer to me, so that he was actually in my personal space. Face-to-face, looking down at him from only a couple inches away, I watched his eyelashes flutter when he blinked.