I Shot You Babe (17 page)

That stopped us all short. Trust wasn’t exactly a typical family trait with the Bombays. In fact, it was usually quite the opposite.

“Well, I think that’s bullshit,” Gin spit.

Carolina snapped, “You will not swear around Sofia!” She even covered the sleeping infant’s ears.

“It is bullshit, Mom.” Dak’s temper was rising. “I think there should be a family meeting about this.”

“We’ve never had a family meeting to decide how the council does things. Not in four thousand years,” Carolina said calmly. “The business is evolving.”

“And what if we refuse?” Gin asked. Clearly she forgot that she was the only Bombay ever given retirement. But I admired the fact that she was sticking up for the rest of us.

“Don’t tell me how to do my job,” Carolina snapped.

Dak stood up and pointed at his mother. “This is wrong. And you know it.”

“What do you think, Coney?” Gin asked.

“I think I’m tired of this whole mess.”

Dak frowned. “What do you mean?”

I stood up. “I’m sick of the fact that we can’t get involved with people without the scrutiny of the council, wanting to know everything.”

“And what about your vic, Coney?” Carolina asked calmly. “Why didn’t you clear your assignment?”

It was a good question. A fair one. “I just didn’t feel like it.”

Gin and Dak looked from me to their mother, who stared openmouthed at me.

“Coney, you know the rules,” Carolina said steadily. “We have a client who paid us to have Vic killed. You don’t get to say no.”

I shrugged. “Well, this time I did.” I understood this was earth-shattering. Dekker wasn’t a saint. He was a bad guy. But there was more to it than that. And maybe after four thousand years, it was time to say,
Enough.

“Do not put us in this position,” Carolina pleaded. “I don’t want to sign your death warrant. I don’t want to do that to your mother. She’s already lost Richie.”

“Do what you must,” I said, wondering if she would kill me right then and there.

“Mom?” Gin said weakly as her brother sat down and dropped his face into his hands. “Mom, you can’t take Coney out. He must have a good reason for not killing his vic.”

“You aren’t going to do that, right?” Gin repeated. I knew what was going through her mind. It was the same thing Dak and I were thinking. This would either be the end of the Bombay family business or the end of me. The shock crackled in the atmosphere that hung around us like lead weights.

Romi shouted from the yard, and Louis came running in. “Grandma! Romi got a splinter in her elbow!” He tugged on his grandmother’s sleeve, and she passed the baby to Dak and left.

“Coney, are you really going to stand up to the council?” Gin asked.

“Yes. I’m done.”

Dak spoke up. “You know, our generation of the family has really been through the shit. And I’m willing to go to bat for you, Coney.”

“I thought we’d gotten rid of the bad council,” said Gin, referring to a coup that had forced our grandparents into early retirement.

“Why would Mom behave just like her mother?” Dak said.

My mum was on the council too. Which meant that she knew about this assignment and hadn’t told me. Another wave of shock engulfed me. How could this have happened? And what in the hell were we going to do about it?

Dubanich: “Do you know anything about airplane design?”

Nate: “Yeah, I could give it a shot. You know, you get me a pencil and one of those little rulers.”

—
L
EVERAGE

Dak, Gin and I wasted no time. We dropped the kids off with Diego and Leonie and locked Dekker in Gin’s basement. Afterward we picked up our other cousins Liv and Paris and strategically retreated to my latest Wal-Mart parking lot home. We needed to talk through this newest family development. But in true Bombay form, none of us felt safe discussing it where we might be overheard.

“I’m so sick of this family,” Liv said as she held Sartre in her arms.

“What are we going to do about it?” asked Paris. It was a good question. Something had to be done. The five of us agreed we didn’t want to blindly answer to the council anymore.

“Thank God you got this assignment.” Gin flipped through the file. “I would’ve taken him out without talking to him.”

Dak nodded. “All my files have had a laundry list of bad deeds that would make Saddam Hussein blush.”

“So why now?” Paris asked. We all turned to stare at him. “Why didn’t we fight this a long time ago?”

I ran my fingers through my hair. “I don’t know if you guys should be involved. This is my problem.”

“It’s time. I think I speak for all of us when I say we want retirement,” Liv said.

“I’m tired of the fact that it’s taken for granted that you can’t trust anyone in the Bombay family,” Dak replied. He looked tired. Shock would do that to you.

“I’ve always trusted you guys,” Gin said slowly.

“I don’t want to be responsible for killing off an entire generation of Bombays,” I said. “I’ll do it alone.”

Paris jumped to his feet and started pacing—no easy feat considering there were five people crowded into my RV. “Well, we have to do something. I’m tired of it too.”

Liv reached out and patted her brother on the arm. There was something about that gesture that soothed me. And I realized that Gin was right: I’d always trusted my cousins—the Bombays of my generation. This was a new thing in the family. As far as I knew, that kind of camaraderie had always been discouraged before.

“I’m not going to kill Dekker,” I declared. “In fact, I’m not going to kill anyone anymore.”

My cousins turned to stare at me. Was the solution really this simple?

“Okay…” Paris spoke up. He was always the most practical and cautious of us. “But how are we going to do that without getting us all killed?”

“Good question,” I said. “We will have to work together.” That sounded good. How would we do it?

“Coney?” Gin asked. “What made you question this particular hit?”

Dak looked at her in that brotherly way that implied she was nuts. “I’d like to think that any one of us would have eventually done that.”

She shook her head. “Not necessarily. I mean, with all the training that’s been forced on us throughout our lives, it’s been ingrained in us not to question anything.”

We all thought about this for a moment. No one wanted to admit it, but she had a point.

“Something about this hit stood out,” Gin persisted in a way that made me itch metaphorically. “What was it?”

I knew the answer. I wished I didn’t, but I did. Veronica made me question the hit. And while I would have liked to believe I was smart enough to think critically regarding assignments, the truth was, we were trained to avoid dealing with the truth when it was inconvenient. Bombays were so brainwashed we might let something like this go by once—hell, maybe even twice—before asking about it.

“I’ve gotten involved with someone who made me realize you can’t judge someone by their file,” I said slowly, unsure how much I should reveal.

My cousins prompted me silently with their stares. There was no easy way out of this. So I spilled my guts. I told them everything. About how this woman made me question everything around me. And how Dekker had become my father confessor. And most of all, how I was just sick and tired of the violence and death that surrounded us.

I went into more detail about Ronnie. There was something very intimate about relating the story of my relationship to my cousins. I guess I’d gone it alone so long I didn’t think I’d ever need someone to talk to. Gin, Dak, Liv and Paris listened patiently as I started with meeting Veronica in Nebraska to our angst-filled meeting when I dropped off the envelope containing Senator Anderson’s sins. I guess I gave them a welcome distraction from our immediate problem. Once I finished, Gin pulled out her cell phone and ordered pizza while Dak ran across the parking lot to score a case of beer.

“Wow,” Liv said softly. The look in her eyes told me she was impressed.

“And you didn’t want to kill him?” Dak asked. Gin punched him in the arm. “Not even a little bit?”

I laughed and took a swig of beer. “Yeah, okay. Maybe I did a little bit.”

Paris stared into space, chewing thoughtfully. “There were rumors of murder after Anderson’s death.” He shrugged. “I knew he was a prick so I never thought anything about it.”

“Well, you can’t serve Veronica up to the council,” Dak said. “That’s a bit of a deal breaker.”

Gin punched him again. “And what about this Drew thing? Why didn’t you give Veronica a chance to explain? Maybe once she found you, she didn’t want him anymore.”

Liv nodded. “You should have told her how you felt, Coney. Maybe that would’ve changed things.”

Paris leaped to my defense. Good man. “She totally played him! This Ronnie never told Coney she was already in a relationship.”

“Love is a little more complicated than that, little brother,” Liv said. “You should never assume anything.”

Gin nodded. “Coney can’t do this by himself. And we can’t let things keep going as they are.”

“But you’re retired!” Dak cried out again. “This doesn’t even affect you!”

Gin shook her head. “As far as you guys are concerned, it does affect me.”

“Okay,” Liv said. “So let’s do it.”

John Smith (at anniversary dinner in fine restaurant): So what do we do, Jane? Shoot it out here? Hope for the best?

Jane Smith: Well, that would be bad because they would probably ask me to leave once you are dead.

—
M
R
. & M
RS
. S
MITH

“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” I said to Sartre as I drove the remaining sixty miles to Iowa City. The guinea pig looked up at me from the passenger seat as if to say she didn’t think she should be riding without a seat belt.

My cousins and I had agreed on this course of action the night before, but we’d had a lot of beer and may not have been thinking clearly. What we were about to do flew in the face of the Bombay family creed. We were confident that Missi would be on board with it, but there were five other cousins we hadn’t consulted. Were we making a mistake?

Sartre
wheeked,
implying that I was driving too fast. Maybe I should have put her back in her cage.

The thought of seeing Ronnie again twisted my intestines in a way I did not find very comfortable. Seeing Drew again was a necessary evil. Seeing them together would probably burn out my eyes. But if I left them here and went off to confront the council, they might just get picked up anyway. The safest place for Ronnie was with me. Unfortunately, the council could use Drew to get to her. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, both had to come with me.

I pulled off of I-80 and coasted into the very edge of the city. Stopping at the first car rental agency I found, I traded my RV for a black Kia minivan. What? Obviously I’m beyond the whole image thing or I wouldn’t be driving a motor home, in the first place, and I’d have a rottweiler instead of a guinea pig in the second.

It only took fifteen minutes before I pulled up in front of Ronnie’s house. This would have to be done very carefully. Carolina would have had time to alert the rest of the council to do…what? I had no idea, but I knew better than to underestimate them. Many a Bombay has been quite surprised to find their mother bursting through the door to gun them down. It has been known to happen.

This plan had me torn up inside. I wanted to help Ronnie because…well, because I loved her. I also did not want to help Ronnie, because she loved someone else. Oh, the philosophical questions.

Looking both ways, I raced up to the house and knocked on the door.

Veronica answered. “Cy? What the hell is going on?

I pushed past her into the house. “Where’s Drew? We’ve got to get going.” I worked my way through the rooms while she followed.

“Stop! You can’t just barge in here and make demands like that!” She grabbed me by the shoulder but I shrugged her off. “Cy! Dammit! Listen to me!”

I spun around to face her. “Ronnie. You and Drew are in danger. I need to get you out of here right now.”

She folded her arms over her chest in a move I’d seen so many times before. “Don’t be ridiculous. Why would Drew and I be in danger?”

“You met the kind of people I deal with back in Ulaanbaatar. I’d consider trusting me if I were you.”
Yes. Trust me. Not like I can trust you, Ronnie. But you should trust me.

She went pale, and I could see the name
Arje Dekker
on her lips. For a moment I thought I saw an unasked question in her eyes. She wondered what I had done with him. Something stopped her from asking.

“Drew?” she called. “Drew! We have to run an errand!”

Drew came down the stairs wearing nothing but a pair of jeans and deck shoes. His physique was flawless. The boyish way he smiled at me made me feel sick. I said nothing as he pulled on a T-shirt and followed us out to the van.

“Sartre!” Ronnie squealed as she scooped up the pig and buried her face in its fur. Sartre purred with glee. I drove the car as the woman I loved showed the man she loved
my
guinea pig.

“Where are we going?” Drew finally asked. He must have been incredibly trusting. Why on earth would he get into a car with a man he didn’t know without asking before we left the house?

“Yes, Cy.” Ronnie narrowed her eyes at me. “Where are we going?”

I could see Drew frowning in the rearview mirror.

“You mean you don’t know?” he asked her.

Veronica looked at him, then me. She chewed her lip. In spite of myself I thought that was pretty damn adorable.

“Ronnie?” Drew asked. What kind of moron was he? You don’t get into a vehicle with someone you don’t know to go to an unknown location!

Veronica decided to answer him. “Remember when I told you about that guy who jumped me in Mongolia?”

“Is he after you?” Drew asked with surprise. Of course he’d be shocked. This was a man of education. In his world, men didn’t beat one another up. They used words. And I used to be one of those bozos.

“No,” I answered. “It’s someone else.” I glanced at Ronnie to check her reaction. Fear played across her features. She must have thought I’d killed Dekker eventually. Of course, she couldn’t possibly know that I’d kept him alive for relationship advice and then refused to kill him.

“Then where are we going?” Drew was starting to grow a pair now. I wanted to hate him. I really did. But this wasn’t his fault.

“Someone else is after you. We are going to the airport to board a private plane there.”

Veronica and Drew simultaneously shouted, “Who?”

I said nothing, because there was nothing more to say.

Ronnie grew angry. “Who is after us?”

“No one is after you…yet,” I said finally.

“But you said—” she started.

“I said nothing specific.”

She looked at me, then glanced back at Drew, who now leveled his gaze on me. Well, really on the back of my head.

“It’s just safer if you come with me,” I said through gritted teeth.

“What? Why? Who would threaten our safety?”

We pulled up at the airport. It only took a moment to clear security and make our way to the hangar where the Bombay jet waited for us. As we boarded, I introduced Veronica and Drew to Gin, Dak, Liv and Paris.

My cousins started talking to Drew as I made my way toward the back of the plane.

“That’s it, Cy!” Ronnie whispered urgently. “You are going to tell me what’s going on, and you are going to tell me now!”

I turned to face her. “Did you tell Drew about me? Did you tell him what happened in Mongolia?”

She looked taken aback. “What are you talking about? And why is this all about you? You’re the one who showed up demanding we go with you! Tell me right now who is after Drew and why!”

The look in her eyes stopped me short. She still had control over my emotions. And as much as I fought it, there was no denying that I was in love with her. “Apparently, I am the one who is a danger to you.”