Canary by Tijan
Ash
The guys showed up and the body disappeared. I couldn’t tell you a time. That had ceased for me. I was in zombie mode. Nothing mattered at the moment.
Then Gus was licking me, trying to squish me with his wiggly body.
There was a lot of Gus.
I showered.
Raize helped me change my clothes.
In the days that followed, I remembered being told to eat, so I ate. Being told to drink, so I drank. Being told to lie down, so I did. I couldn’t fall asleep on command, but Raize had taken to holding me in his arms at night. That helped. It wasn’t normally like that. We slept together, but usually there was space between us. He liked to be free in case he had to jump out of bed.
And Gus had taken to joining us on the bed some nights. Other nights, he went with Jake.
“Where are we?” I asked Raize one day.
He and I were sitting on the patio in the backyard of the house where we’d been staying. It was nice. There were mountains around us, a creek down the path.
Raize looked over to me, and I looked down. There was a blanket on my lap.
That felt nice, too.
“We’re in West Virginia.”
That made sense. By the mountains. We must’ve been in a valley. Did they have valleys? I didn’t know much about West Virginia.
“Why?” I asked.
“We did a lot of bad shit. We need to lay low.”
Oh yes. Right.
I blinked a few times. “How long have I been like this?”
“A week.”
A week?Wow.
I remembered what Bronski had said…
“My sister…”
Raize’s bench squeaked, and I was momentarily shocked by that because one, he’d moved and made a sound, and two, he’d sat in a chair that squeaked. The world was ending.
Also, I’d just made a joke. The world really was ending.
“We need to have a conversation about your sister.”
Well, duh.
Right?
Wait…
“What about?”
“Your sister is alive.”
“That’s what Bronski said.” Goddamn Leo Dipsicky. What a name. “I got the wrong boss.”
He frowned. “What?”
“The wrong boss. I thought I did my research right. I didn’t want to be too obvious and come in through Brooke’s boyfriend’s boss. But I got the wrong boss, under the wrong brother.” A tear slid down my cheek. “I had it wrong the whole time.”
“Listen.”
Razie moved to sit next to me, and I didn’t know how I felt about that. Raize wasn’t a comforting guy.
He proved my point because his voice came out rough, like he was uncomfortable, too. “You’re right that if you’d gone in under Leo’s direct boss, you would’ve been flagged. You wouldn’t have made it past the car doors. They would’ve killed you. Your face is too much like your sister’s. Unless Leo worked you both, it wouldn’t have been approved. They have certain protocols to cut down on getting caught. Certain types of girls they prey on.”
Prey.
Protocols.
Fuck them. Just, fuck them.
“Tell me you killed them,” I said softly. “You killed them all. Tell me you did that.”
His tone was gentle. “I killed them. Leo. His boss. All of them. Your sister’s newest pimp. I got them—anyone who knew enough to be a threat under Maxim and Igor. The operations had been weeded out before, and I worked it so Igor thought he was getting hit by Maxim, and Maxim thought it was retaliation for the 63rds.”
“They never suspected Roman?”
“No. He’s the youngest and kept his operations under wraps in Russia. They never knew how large he’s gotten. Now he’s moving everyone over here, almost everyone. The streets are going to be in chaos for a while. Cops, FBI, whoever, Roman kept everything off the grid. We had new burner phones every day. New ways to communicate. I was his lone wolf here, and now we’re gone. We’re supposed to stay low for a few more months.”
My mind whirled. “Wait. You said Brooke’s new pimp?” My mouth went dry. How many had she gone through?
Did I even want to know?
Yes. If she went through it, the least I could do was hear it.
“Roman sent in the authorities. Anonymous tip, though. They don’t know it came from him. He doesn’t run girls. It’s a market he loathes, so all those girls got swept up by the cops. They should be classified as sex trafficking victims, but there’s always a risk that the government will get them wrong. Call ’em regular working girls.”
“What’s the difference?”
“A lot, actually. One can get resources, help. The other gets charged, and if a new pimp moves in, they’ll be back to work within the day.”
“My sister?”
“She was charged with prostitution.”
“Oh my God.”
“But Roman sent in some information. They’re watching to make sure her charges are changed.” A pause. “There’s a couple other matters.”
“What?” My voice cracked.
My sister was alive. I had to run down my list again, but I was fairly certain Raize had single-handedly taken care of most of them. What else could there be?
“Your father.”
It took a few seconds for his words to penetrate. “Huh?”
“You said your dad was a drunk.”
“He was. Our mom died, and Brooke started going off the rails. My dad kinda went with her.”
“He went to rehab.”
“My dad went to rehab?”
Raize nodded. “He went three times.”
My mouth dropped open. “Three?”
Whoa. Wow.
“What’s the problem with that, though? That’s good, right?”
His eyes were hooded, guarded. “It is, but people who come out of rehab after it finally stuck sometimes become problems. We need to know if he’ll become a problem or not.”
“Oh.” I shook my head. “I don’t know. We—we weren’t close to him, ever. My mom’s death wrecked him. He was gone by the time she died, but we all saw it coming. But then Brooke was gone, and I cared more about her than him. I chose to go after her.”
Brooke.
I could taste the tears sliding down my face, but that was it. The salt.
Raize moved in, his hand cupping the back of my neck, and he lifted me onto his lap. This felt more like Raize, except the cradling was still new.
I relaxed, resting my head against his chest.
I grabbed ahold of his shirt. He was wearing a gray Henley. I always liked when he wore these.
“Do you want us to bring her here, too? She’s not—”
“No.” My answer was immediate and strong. I sat up. “Brooke and I were never close, but I loved her. We grew up together. I know the trauma she’s endured, and she can’t be here. She’ll be a liability. Knowing she’s not still there, still doing that work, that’s good enough for me.”
He cupped the back of my neck again, moving my face to meet his gaze. “Besides your dad, is there someone we can call for her?”
My throat swelled. “Maybe. Let me think about it.”
“Okay. We’ll wait.”
My chest lightened. Relief swept through me.
“I never got to blow up Oscar’s building.”
Raize stiffened before a bark of laughter erupted from him. His arms tightened around me. He buried his face in my neck.
I liked that feeling. I liked that sound, too. I wanted to hear more of it. I reached for his hand, entwined our fingers, and settled into him. “Thank you.”
“Yeah.” He squeezed my hand. He ran a finger down the side of my face, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “You wanna stay Ash? Since we all know your real name now...”
I shook my head. I’d stopped being that girl a long time ago.
“I prefer Ash.”
But not Ashley. I wasn’t Ashley.
“Wait. You said a ‘couple other matters.’ What’s the other one?”
He seemed to hesitate a moment. “You.”
“Me?”
“Other reason we were sent to West Virginia is you. You were reported missing.”
I couldn’t—that didn’t make sense.
Then he added, “A neighbor reported you. Not your dad.”
...the girl got off the bed and walked toward me.
She held her hand out. “My name is—”
