What Happened to the Bennetts(91)

A door opened to our left, and a light emanated from the doorway, illuminating Tig in profile. He looked like an older version of Dom, with a neat balding head, round dark eyes set close together, a strong mouth, and a jawline with a cleft.

“Tig?”

“Yo.” Tig smiled quickly. “Go downstairs.”

“Thanks.” I hurried downstairs, and my heart leapt at the sight. Dom stood with a smile beside Lucinda and Ethan, who were already in motion toward me.

“Jason!” Lucinda rushed to me, her arms raised, tears in her eyes, with Ethan by her side. I swooped them both up, feeling all of my senses exploding at once, love, gratitude, fear, and relief.

I kissed Lucinda’s hair and held Ethan close, his spiny back racked with sobs in his Call of Duty T-shirt. I could feel the warmth of Lucinda’s skin under my palm in her sundress. We clung together, and I never wanted to let them go. My family.

“Dad!” Ethan buried himself in my side, and I released Lucinda to hug him, wiping his tears away, then looking down into his face.

“It’s okay, honey, it’s going to be okay now.” I held him again, meeting Lucinda’s eye. Uncertainty flickered behind her teary gaze, and I knew why, but I wasn’t about to go there now.

“I love you,” she said, with a shaky smile.

“Love you, too,” I heard myself say.

“Your face is all bruised! And your hair’s gone! What happened?”

“I’m fine.” I waved it off, then looked at Dom, throwing open my arms and giving him a big hug. “You saved their lives!” I let him go. “Thank you!”

“That’s why I make the big bucks.” Dom burst into laughter, then he gestured behind me. “Jason, meet Uncle Tig.”

“Tig!” I threw open my arms, but Tig raised his hands, laughing.

“I’m not a hugger.”

“You are now,” I said, hugging him anyway.

Dom gestured to the men. “Lucinda, Ethan, let me introduce you to Tig’s friends, Leonard Richardson and Skeet Dunwoody.”

“Nice to meet you.” Lucinda smiled, extending a hand, and while they exchanged introductions, I looked around.

The cellar was chilly and musty. The walls were of damp plaster painted a grimy white and falling off in clumps. The floor was concrete, though it had been swept. A makeshift kitchen had been set up on the left with an old white porcelain table and wooden stools, a dorm-size refrigerator, and a hot plate on an orange crate. A laptop powered by heavy-duty extension cords and power strips led to a fuse box. Four heavy blankets and mismatched pillows sat under the stairway, makeshift beds. It killed me to think of them, hiding here in fear.

I returned my attention to the group, still smiling from the introductions, and I watched their faces fall as they read my expression. “Guys, we have to get you out of here.”

Dom nodded gravely. “That’s the truth.”

“Did you send your family out of town? I tried to call your wife at Rosemont, but they said she had a sick sister.”

“It’s a cover story. She knows the drill.”

I felt relieved. “And I guess you heard about Wiki.”

“Yes.” Dom’s eyes narrowed. “He must have been with them all along. For the record, I didn’t know we were running Milo.”

“I know that,” I said, meaning it. “But for the record, can they flip Milo without telling us? The victim’s family?”

“Yes. It happens more than they’ll admit.” Dom frowned. “But I can’t figure out what’s going on.”

“I’ll fill you in, but first tell me what happened at the house, when Milo and the others came. How did you get Lucinda and Ethan out?”

“I was in our apartment, keeping an eye on the monitor. I saw something funny in the woods out back and just then I got a call from Wiki. He said he was calling from the fish store and started in with his usual science class—you know, mollusks, shellfish—but he sounded nervous. I thought, ‘Something’s wrong.’?” Dom’s expression tightened, suppressing the anger he must have felt at Wiki’s betrayal. “I realized he was trying to distract me from the monitor.”

“So what did you do?”

“I kept on talking, I didn’t want him to suspect anything. I went to the house and got Lucinda and Ethan.” Dom glanced in their direction. “To their credit, they moved fast and we rolled out.”

“That’s amazing.” I wanted to hug him again, but didn’t. “I’m so grateful, Dom. Thank you.”

“Hey, all I did was follow procedure.”

“For once, I’m good with that.” I had a nagging question. “What about Moonie?”

Dom glanced at Ethan, pursing his lips. “Sorry, he took off after a rabbit while we were leaving. We called him but he didn’t come back. We had to go.”

“I get it,” I said, pained, but Ethan looked down. I ruffled his hair and drew him close to my side. “Don’t worry, honey. We’ll get him back somehow.”

“You think?” Ethan looked up, hopeful.

“Bet on it,” I told him, confident all out of proportion, for some reason.

Dom continued, “I brought Lucinda and Ethan here to let the dust settle. Nobody at work knows about Uncle Tig. I didn’t know where you were, but I knew I’d mentioned him. I was hoping you’d remember.”