Shay Savage - Bastian’s Storm

“Just a sec,” she replied. She grabbed some juice out of the refrigerator and poured Alex a glass before joining me on the couch.

Nervously, I handed the laptop over to Raine. She peered down at the screen, and creases appeared on her forehead.

“What do you think?” I asked. I didn’t know why I was so nervous.

Raine flipped through the online pictures one at a time. I could practically hear her checking off little boxes in her head as she went through the details of the listing.

“What school district?” she asked.

I pointed to the screen where it was listed, and Raine nodded.

“That was my top choice for Alex.”

“I know.”

“What about public transportation?” she asked.

“There really isn’t any,” I said. “It’s a small community—you can practically walk anywhere you want to go. The elementary school is just four blocks away. I figured I could walk Alex to and from school, and when he gets older, there’s the school bus for the middle school and high school.”

Raine nodded again and turned her eyes to me.

“But it’s nowhere near a beach.”

I swallowed.

“Yeah,” I said, “I know.”

“That is your number one item,” she reminded me.

“No,” I said softly, “it’s not. You and Alex are number one.”

Raine looked at me, set the laptop down on the coffee table next to Alex’s drawing, and reached over to hug me.

“I love you,” she whispered into my ear.

The choice was made. At least for now, we knew our direction.

“Did you hear?” John Paul said as he sat down. Before he could explain any further, the server asked him for his drink order.

“Hear what?” I asked after the server jotted down his request on her notepad and walked away.

“About Franks.” John Paul shoved a handful of my chips into his mouth.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“He’s dead,” he said as bits of tortilla chips crumbled into his beard. He wiped them away and swallowed. “Somebody put a hit out on him, and he was taken out last night. Single bullet to the head.”

“No shit?”

“No shit.”

I looked down at the iced tea in my hand and tried to keep my expression blank. If there was anyone I could have confided in, it probably would have been John Paul, but I wasn’t going to risk it. He would never say anything to the organization about me, but that wouldn’t stop him from ratting out Evan, and I wasn’t about to risk anyone finding out he was still alive.

I owed that guy. Big time.

“There’s more,” John Paul said. His eyes darkened as he leaned closer to me.

“What?” I asked.

“Hey there!” John Paul sat back quickly as Raine burst around the corner of the booth and slid in beside me. “Sorry I’m late. My professor wanted to chat after class, and I missed the early bus.”

“I would have picked you up,” I said.

“Aren’t you on the bike?”

“You can ride bitch,” I said with a grin.

“No, thanks,” Raine replied. “You drive like a maniac.”

John Paul laughed out loud and picked up the beer the server had delivered.

“You should see him ride when you aren’t around,” he said under his breath.

“Shut up, fucker,” I snapped.

Raine turned toward me and raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry,” I muttered. I’d been trying to keep the cursing to a minimum with Alex around all the time, but as soon as I got around John Paul, the cuss words just seemed to start flying.

“Everything packed?” she asked.

“Pretty much,” I replied. “Lindsay was finishing the shit in the kitchen when I left. There are a few of Alex’s toys still not in a box, but he claimed he was still playing with them. I figured we could just throw them in his backpack when it’s time to go.”

“What about your stuff?”

“All ready,” I said. I really didn’t have much, which was fine with me. It all fit in one suitcase and a box. I didn’t count all the household stuff as mine. It always felt like Raine’s to me.

Lindsay and Nick showed up right behind Raine.

“Alex hates the sitter,” Lindsay announced immediately.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I felt the muscles down my arms clench.

“Why?” I demanded.

Lindsay laughed.

“Just kidding!” she said. “I think he’s in love. He was drawing pictures of her when I left.”

I relaxed a little, but Lindsay’s idea of a joke made me want to punch her in the face. Her little sister, Laura, was visiting from Ohio and had volunteered to babysit so we could all go out. I hadn’t been happy about the idea of some chick I didn’t know watching my kid, but Raine knew her from when they were kids, so I’d given in, but I wasn’t happy about it.

“Don’t goad him!” Raine snapped at her friend. “That was just rude, and you know it!”

“Stop that shit,” Nick scolded his girlfriend under his breath. “What’s wrong with you?”

John Paul snickered behind his beer bottle.

“Sorry,” Lindsay said.

She seemed to mean it.

I took a deep breath and looked at Raine as she reached over to put her hand on my leg. Part of my trying to be civilized around her friends involved her sticking up for me a lot. I didn’t like it, but it was probably better than having me react with any of my violent tendencies.

We ordered, and everyone started with the small talk as we waited for our food. I still sucked at small talk, but I was getting better at sitting back and pretending I was interested. I’d already lived through two evenings with Lindsay and Nick without biting their heads off. This would make it three, and I planned on surviving the encounter.

I made it all the way through the meal. I even talked to Nick a bit about his latest escapades as a flight instructor. I couldn’t have cared less, but every time I talked nicely to him, it made Raine smile.

“So who’s up for a club?” Lindsay asked as she looked over the dessert menu.

The last thing I wanted was to go to some bar, even if I was trying to prove that I could do all the things Raine wanted to do and still keep my cool. I did have my limits, but I didn’t have to voice them.

“I really need to finish my packing,” Raine stated. “I’m sure Laura would like to join you though.”

Thank you, Raine.

We paid the bill and headed outside to part ways. Before we could, John Paul called me over for a cigarette. Raine rolled her eyes, but she was happy enough to chat with Lindsay and Nick a little longer before we headed back to the condo.

“We got interrupted.”

“Yeah,” I said as I lit my smoke, “what were you going to say?”

“It’s about Landon.”

“What about him?”

“Well, he is basically the next logical dude in succession after Franks,” John Paul said. “The thing is, they’d been arguing—arguing a lot. People knew about it, and now everyone’s convinced he put out the hit on Franks.”

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. “What’s he going to do?”

“It sounds like he’s made a run for it,” John Paul said. “No one’s seen him since this morning when Moretti made the accusation.”

I considered the information for a moment. Normally, I would have thought Landon was too difficult to track, and he’d never be found by anyone. However, I had found him, and I wasn’t a bounty hunter. If I could trace him, maybe someone else could, too.

My thoughts shifted to Evan Arden. If anyone could find and locate Landon, it would be him, but he was dead as far as Moretti was concerned.

Wasn’t he?

Would he have gone against everything he seemed to believe and contact Moretti to let him know he had survived? Had he even gone as far as to tell him about the hit on Franks and to plan to blame it on Landon the whole time? Just how devious was this guy?

I had no idea.

The whole line of thinking made me uncomfortable, and John Paul was giving me a bit of a look, so I swallowed and focused my thoughts elsewhere.

“Landon could be in trouble,” I said.

“I know,” John Paul agreed. “That’s why I’m leaving. Tonight.”

“I’m not getting involved,” I stated. “No fucking way.”

“Not asking you to, bro,” he said. “I just wanted you to know.”

“I appreciate it.”

We shook hands, and John Paul walked off toward his car as I rejoined Raine and her friends.

Lindsay decided to stick around for a bit and keep Alex occupied so Raine and I could finish the packing. The whole condo was a fucking disaster of boxes. I didn’t know how we had managed to accumulate so much shit in the brief time we’d lived here, but I was sure it wasn’t mine. I blamed Lindsay and the effect her addictive shopping habits had on Raine.

They had both bought a shit ton of stuff for Alex, too. The kid had more toys than he knew what to do with, and all he cared about was drawing and playing with any kind of blocks you put in front of him. He was either going to end up in art school or engineering school.

I made sure Alex and Lindsay were occupied with a movie on Disney before I snuck off to the bedroom. Raine’s ass was sticking out of the closet and making me want to grab on to it for a little ride. I didn’t though.

Focus.

I took a deep breath, but it didn’t help. My hands were shaking a little, and I rubbed them against my thighs to try to make them stop. Maybe I wasn’t ready for this. Maybe I should just wait until we were all moved in to the new place. Right now, it was too easy for her to grab her stuff and take off if I fucked this up.