Flanked Page 18

  But he couldn’t leave without learning something.

  “I need —”

  “I know Navarro told you to pick up those veggies from Cadia.” Aria’s eyes flicked to Joe’s and then away. “You should probably get those before you take the kid ho — back to the place you’re staying.”

  Joe put his hand on Aria’s shoulder.

  She shrugged it off and went back to work.

  ***

  As they approached the greenhouse, Flix stumbled. That Aria girl hadn’t been bluffing; he was so tired. Joe’s hand under his arm was all that kept him from falling. Flix sort of hated the jerk for still being so strong. Joe was like a robot. No exhaustion, no hunger, no emotion. Yeah, the outside of the guy was pretty, but the inside was hollow. Tin Man. Flix snorted and tripped over his own feet again. The vise-like grip around his arm tightened.

  “What’s funny?” Joe asked.

  Flix lightly pounded Joe’s chest with the side of his fist. “It’s all empty in there. You’re like a...a...manbot. Did you ever see those? Follow the lady of the house around and wash her windows and mop her floors and look good doing it, but nobody home on the inside. That’s you. Robot, Joe-bot.”

  “Sleep deprivation makes you an ass.”

  “Huh. Well, you would certainly know, jackass king.”

  From just outside the greenhouse, the weird old gardener lady was watching them, her arms crossed, her mouth set in a thin line.

  What were they doing here again? Flix leaned into Joe and whispered, “Are Devin and Peter here? That would be good. Get them and go home.”

  “I don’t know,” Joe said. “But I know Navarro didn’t ask me to pick up anything from the greenhouse. Aria wants us here for some reason, but...” Joe stepped in front of Flix and held his shoulders. He lowered his voice even more. “I need you to wake up enough to keep your eyes open and your mouth shut. Can you do that?”

  Flix was so tired of the condescension, of being treated like a child. He stuck out his tongue. “Fuck you.”

  Joe shook him hard enough for his neck to pop. “I am not losing Devin because you can’t keep your mouth shut, do you hear me?” His eyes blazed, not at all like a robot. “Get it together.”

  Devin. Flix didn’t want to lose Devin, either. He slapped himself twice on his uninjured cheek. It helped. “Got it. Mouth closed. Eyes open.”

  Joe must have thought that was good enough, because he walked right up to the old lady, still dragging Flix, and pasted on a smile that made him look like he had an extra row of teeth. Flix couldn’t decide whether Joe was trying to appear charming or menacing.

  “Miss Cadia,” Joe said, still with that creepy smile on his face. “Navarro sent us to pick up a package.”

  “Wipe that grin off your face, young man, ’fore I smack it off. People done died last night.”

  The tension in Joe’s body radiated all the way down to his fingers. Much more and he’d snap Flix’s arm in half. The old lady was right, though. A smile was out of place.

  “Sorry ma’am. That was thoughtless of me. Not quite thinking straight.” Now Joe’s eyes were all big and sad, like in one of those weird old paintings hanging in Abuela Carmen’s den. Carmen had said they were fairies, but Flix had always thought they looked like starving kids.

  He shuddered at the memory. He hadn’t thought about Carmen in weeks. Didn’t do any good to think about her now. He did hope his little brother and sister were doing okay, though how they’d have anything to live off of without Flix and Marcus working at Flights of Fantasy, he didn’t know. He hadn’t even seen them since he’d gone to work there. Who’d want a big brother like him, aside from Marcus? He had to stick with the makeshift family he’d wandered into.

  Cadia was saying something about not having any package for Navarro. Joe’s lips were pursed, but he nodded. He seemed to be about to turn to go. No! They couldn’t do that, just leave without even stepping inside. They had to find Devin and Petey.

  Flix squirmed free of Joe’s death grip and lurched forward.

  Cadia caught him in the chest and pushed him upright.

  “Sorry, miss, uh, Cadia.” Flix let his eyes droop, and hoped Joe was the one who’d keep his mouth shut. “I’m so tired. I was up all night, and I had nightmares when I tried to sleep today.” He whispered, “All those bodies.”

  He was gathered into Cadia’s arms. She pushed his cheek down to her warm, earthy-smelling shoulder and patted his head roughly. “You poor young ’un. I s’pose that ratchety old doctor won’t give you nothing for to sleep?”

  Flix stuck out his lower lip and shook his head. “He says I need to grow on up.”

  Joe huffed. “Come on, Flix, you’re being —”

  “You shush on up there, pretty boy. Ain’t got no soul, you white devil.” Cadia patted Flix’s head again so hard he’d need medical attention for a concussion. “It’s all right little man. Miss Cadia’ll fix you right on up. Dumb doctors don’t know shit about the good drugs anyway.” She turned and opened the door of the greenhouse, then ushered Flix inside. When Joe tried to follow, she pushed his chest and sent him back a few paces. “Stay out.”

  Joe made eye contact, and from behind Cadia’s back, Flix flashed him a thumbs-up and mouthed, “Trust me.”

  Joe rolled his eyes. “Fine, little brother. But I’m staying right here and not leaving until you come out.”

  Cadia slammed the door in Joe’s face. “Hmph. Bratty, horn-pricked sissy-phus. He really your brother?”

  “Me’n my twin, Marcus — he’s the one with the hurt foot — we’re a few years younger.”

  Cadia rattled on about Joe’s failings and his appearance as she guided Flix back into the depths of the greenhouse. Everything seemed perfectly normal. Nothing out of place. No Sons, except the old lady. Definitely no Devin and Petey. Wait. No one was in here. At all. Just him and Cadia. He’d only been here a handful of times before, picking up supplies for Navarro — which was how he knew Cadia grew sleeping herbs — but there’d always been workers. Where were they all now?

  He didn’t see much point in playing coy. “Miss Cadia, where is everybody?”

  Cadia was over along a far wall, snipping bright green leaves with a teeny-tiny pair of scissors. Had the light changed, or did she grow a shade paler?

  “Everyone’s done tuckered, sugar. Here.” She marched back to him and thrust the clippings into his hand. “Best head on out to your brother now.”

  Flix thanked her and had to keep himself from running back outside. As soon as he opened the greenhouse door, Joe was on him, his hands squeezing Flix’s arms and shoulders. He seemed to be checking to make sure Flix was still solid.

  “You okay?” Joe’s voice came out low and gruff.

  Flix regretted what he’d said about Joe being a robot. “I’m fine. I’ll tell you as we walk back to the house.”

  It didn’t take long. Flix felt like he’d learned a lot, but when it came down to it, he didn’t have much to say.

  Joe didn’t complain, though. He only listened and nodded. “And Cadia clearly didn’t want me going in. She’s hiding something.”

  “I know, but it’s not like you could stow a guy as immense as Devin in a seed sack, and the whole greenhouse is only that one big room.”

  Joe stopped abruptly. “Where do they store the vegetables?”

  “They eat them.”

  “But they have to have some excess to store up for lean times.”

  Flix turned in a circle, surveying the town, the horrible little shacks stretching out in every direction, except where the bombs had blown them to bits. Nothing in this town was really made for storing food. “They’d have to have a root cellar. My grandma told me about them, but there’s no place here that has a basement or anything.”

  Joe’s eyes lit up, and he stepped in closer. “Underground? Oh, God, Flix, I know where they are.”

  FOURTEEN

  Joe strode toward the wall, Flix and Liliana at his si
de. It had taken most of the remaining daylight to find someone willing to tell him where Sanders was. Finally, an awe-eyed, pimply-faced kid who couldn’t have been more than fourteen but carried a gun thicker than Joe’s arm had shuffled his feet and whispered that Joe was completely marshall and, “Oh my God alive, balls-on about how to treat people.” After all that, the kid told them that Sanders had border duty.

  The walk to the wall didn’t take long. Neither would the conversation. Joe just had to plant a seed, make Sanders cocky.

  And trust that a young woman who’d betrayed her family wasn’t betraying him.

  Otherwise, Sanders would be expecting it. He’d know Joe was a liar. He’d have heard about the visit to the greenhouse. If Joe wasn’t convincing, Sanders would either beef up security around the greenhouse or try to smuggle Devin and Peter out as soon as possible.

  Everything hinged on believing Aria had sent Joe to the greenhouse for a reason. It could be a trap, but that didn’t make sense. If Sanders really wanted to attack Joe, nothing was stopping him. He didn’t need to lure Joe anywhere. The most logical explanation was that Aria really was trying to help.

  He’d seen the trap door before, though he’d never realized what it was. As early as his first trip to the greenhouse, he recalled that piece of plywood laid on the ground with a handle sticking out of it. A root cellar, like Flix had said. A perfect place to hide someone — as long as whoever might be looking for them didn’t get too close.

  That had to be where Devin and Peter were.

  One way or the other, Joe would find out soon.

  As Joe neared the wall, Sanders stared at him. His posture was loose, arms dangling, shoulders relaxed. He was holding the Bowie knife Joe had given Devin their last night in Austin.

  Joe wanted to punch him, but he schooled his reaction, played the part, took deep breaths. He needed to get this right. On the other hand...

  He rushed forward and shoved Sanders against the wall. “I know you took them.”

  Slick, sharp metal pressed into Joe’s side.

  “You want to back on up now, José,” Sanders said. “We wouldn’t want your pretty face to get as messed up as your little friend’s there.” He waggled his fingers in a wave toward Flix and jabbed the knife a little tighter against Joe’s ribs.

  Joe felt a slow sting and then the trickle of blood on his skin. He pushed hard enough to ram Sanders’s back against the wall before letting go and stepping away. “I know where they are. I will get them back.”

  He’d expected Sanders to leer, to taunt him, to give him enough cover to fling his misinformation, but Sanders didn’t. Instead, he said, “I’m sorry, son, but those boys would’ve hurt you in the end. It’s better this way.”

  Joe deflated. The breath rushed out of his lungs, and his fingers and toes tingled. He glanced past Sanders and the Sons, to the huge metal wall that divided the land. On the other side, Devin and Peter and their whiteness belonged. They would find homes and jobs and maybe even families. They could build a life. The best Joe had to hope for was an immigration pass he wasn’t sure he’d earn and maybe a glimpse of the man who’d left him behind nine years ago.

  Flix moved next to him, wedged his bony shoulder right up against the back of Joe’s. Regret gathered in Joe’s stomach and reached out for Flix like lightning finding its target. How had Joe dragged this boy — because Flix was a child, no matter how much they pretended otherwise — more than 300 miles, with 600 more to go, for Joe’s own little-boy fantasy about finding his father?

  Joe and Flix and Marcus would suffer, and Peter and Devin would thrive.

  Flix pushed harder against Joe’s shoulder, vibrating against him, then opened his sassy, yappity mouth. “Devin would never leave Joe. And we are not better off without them. Listen here, you slimy-haired dickwad. Those people matter to me, and I do not give a shit what their skin looks like. You’re as bad as those government racists who left us behind. Now, give us back our friends.”

  Sanders snorted, and there was the leer. “You’re a piece of work, little plastic boy. You’re lucky I’m even giving you a chance. Aria’s told me how it was down in Austin. White men raped you. And you’re ready to bend on over and give it up for a couple of bastards who’ll ditch you as soon as something better comes along? Spare me.”

  “Don’t talk about things you know nothing about,” Lil snarled. In the crisp wind, her fiery hair blew around her like a halo. “We spared Aria from that life. She could never understand what we went through.”

  Joe appreciated both Lil’s righteous anger and Flix’s devotion, but he had to intervene, to get the conversation back on track. “I want my friends back. Are you going to give them to me, or are we going to raid your compound and get them ourselves?”

  Sanders tilted his head and twisted his pursed lips like he was getting ready to spit. “We saw the flyers. Flights of Fantasy. They want you back. The white boys. The little twins. But especially you. The reward for you is twice as high.” He narrowed his eyes. “You must’ve been all the sick men’s favorite. Or was it just the boss who liked you best?”

  Joe swallowed, and swallowed again, but his throat still felt sticky and raw. That last time Boggs had touched him, pinned him down and forced his mouth open, he’d been so scared. But not for himself. For Devin. And that feeling, that surge of protectiveness that Devin had hated and Joe had fought against, exploded front and center right now and gave him the strength he needed. “We’ve heard where your base is located. We know what to look for. And we’ll come.”

  He didn’t give Sanders a chance to goad him more. He turned and left the hateful man standing in the sun.

  “It won’t draw his men out of town, you pretending like his hideout is still there,” Lil said.

  “I don’t need it to,” Joe said. “All I need is for them not to expect me at the greenhouse.”

  “Us.” That was Flix. And when Joe glanced his way, Flix’s big brown eyes blazed. “Us.”

  Joe wanted to argue, wanted to protect Flix as surely as he’d wanted to protect Devin that day back in Boggs’s office. But he needed Flix.

  “Us,” he repeated.

  ***

  Sitting at Lil’s kitchen table, Joe made the plan simple.

  Navarro didn’t like it, and he was loud in saying so, but Joe didn’t care.

  At dark, Navarro, Lil, Sadie, and Marcus would head out toward the spot where the Sons’ compound had been. Lil had even strong-armed two of her mayor’s deputies — slight, dark-haired boys, just like Joe and Flix — into going with her. After fifteen minutes, they’d start back toward town and Joe and Flix would head for the greenhouse. Stun the guards. Rescue Devin and Peter. Rendezvous with the others. Run like hell.

  Joe could devise a more elaborate plan, but it wouldn’t stand any better chance of working. All he really needed was a cool head and the element of surprise. And his friends’ safety. Back at Flights of Fantasy, he’d believed, mistakenly, that he’d be able to live with trading off the safety of others in order to keep Devin safe. He didn’t plan to be so selfish again.

  Sanders wouldn’t retaliate against Liliana and Navarro; they were both too important to the town. And Sadie was safe — she was just a child, a sister of one of the Sons’ own. Of course, that hadn’t stopped them from hurting Navarro. Joe took a shaky breath and said a quick prayer.

  The last shimmers of the setting sun sank below the horizon. Joe pushed away from where he’d been leaning against the windowsill. “Let’s go.”

  He’d expected more complaining from Navarro. He got a kiss on the forehead instead. Navarro’s sharp eyes narrowed, but all he said was, “Be safe.”

  Lil squeezed Joe harder than she needed to and kissed his lips. Sadie hugged both Flix and Joe and stayed uncharacteristically quiet. The little family and the two deputies trudged outside, and when Marcus headed that way, Flix caught his arm.

  “Stay out of trouble, Marc.”

  Marcus grinned. “
You got the dangerous job, hermano. I got a boring walk across the dirt. On crutches.”

  Flix glanced toward Joe, and Joe caught the worry in his eyes. “Look,” he said to Marcus, hoping to ease Flix’s fears, “you should have a boring walk, but if something goes wrong, get away as fast as you can. Come back here, grab the backpack with the food, and head north. Don’t wait for us. We’ll catch up.”

  Flix nodded gravely and threw his arms around Marcus, who shoved Flix away and punched his shoulder. He hesitated, then punched Flix again. “Be smart. Listen to Joe.”

  The way Flix rolled his eyes and said, “Always,” made Joe want to smack his smart mouth. Nerves, he supposed; that and Flix’s unmatched ability to annoy him.

  Marcus left, and Joe and Flix stared at each other. Joe had been able to keep calm while the others had been in the house, but now? Now his pulse rushed in his ears, and his hammering heart beat “Devin, Devin, Devin” into his brain.

  Had it been a mistake to wait? Should he have charged into the greenhouse as soon as he figured out where Devin and Peter were being held? No. Cadia was already suspicious of him. She would have stopped Joe before he could get close. Better to plan, to wait. The Sons wouldn’t hurt Devin and Peter. They’d need them whole to get their reward from Flights of Fantasy. They also wouldn’t have moved their captives during the day, either, not when anyone could see and report back to Lil or Navarro. Devin was there, under the greenhouse, safe and sound, and all he needed was Joe to come for him.

  “Fifteen minutes is a long time,” Flix said, breaking Joe from his ruminations. “Maybe we should just go?”

  “We need the Sons to see us leaving, to think we’ve gone looking for their compound. We need them to let their guard down. We have to give it time.”

  “Yeah, but” — Flix bounced on the balls of his feet as his eyes flitted around the room — “do you think it was smart to give Marc and Lil the rifles? We might need them.”