Page 31 of Off the Grid
He’d been a street kid, then a marine, then a federal agent. He’d seen people get shot, and he’d done the shooting. He’d had much better times, and much, much worse. Situations like this had lost their ability to faze him, but to McKenzie this was all new. In the past twelve hours, she’d been kidnapped, held hostage, shot at, run off the road, and now lost in the middle of nowhere, yet she persevered. The sight of her being so strong made his helplessness an even more bitter pill to swallow.
His brother used to say he had a hero complex—a joke laced with both appreciation and concern. Leo didn’t think it was that, but he never told Manny otherwise. He took the hit with a smile on his face and a laugh on his lips, the same way as always. Because in order to explain the truth, he had to go back to a time his little brother probably didn’t remember, one Leo loathed to revisit.
The apartment they’d grown up in had been small, with a kitchenette that was little more than a closet off the living room, a bedroom for his parents, and one for him. The hiding places were few and far between. Under the bed was Leo’s favorite—the curtain his sheets and comforters made was almost enough to make him feel protected. But there was no spot so safe he didn’t hear the smack every time his father’s fist landed true, the cries that spilled from his mother’s lips, the crash of their already meager possessions shattering upon impact. After Manny had been born, it became easier in some ways, because Leo could focus on his brother instead of the horrible things happening on the other side of their bedroom door. He’d keep his palms flat over Manny’s ears and hold him close. He’d wipe the tears from his brother’s cheeks and kiss him good night when it was mercifully over.
Helping Manny became Leo’s lifeline—which was probably why he snapped the first time that fist turned in his brother’s direction. It had been Christmas Day. Leo stood by the door waiting for Manny with his new baseball bat and glove, dying to get outside. His mother sat at the dining table preparingtamales. The pork had been slow-cooking all morning, and the entire apartment smelled of chili and cumin. His father was on the couch, watching basketball with a beer in his hand.
Come on!Leo shouted toward their room.
Manny jumped through the door and juggled his new set of toy cars in his hands as he ran down the hall. He was still so young and gangly, all flailing limbs and enthusiasm without a lick of control. Leo remembered it as though it happened in slow motion, even though he knew it wasn’t possible, but it seemed that way. Manny tripped on one of the baseballs Leo had left on the floor. His small body flew. Leo remembered thinking,No, no, no, as his brother crashed into the TV. The screen wobbled, teetering on the old wooden stand, before toppling to the floor.
No one moved. The silence deafened.
Then his father roared.
Their mother jumped to her feet, trying to reach Manny, but she was too far away. That fist stretched back. Even though he was small, a boy with hardly any muscles at all, Leo reacted. He raised the bat and swung as hard as he could, slamming it into his father’s arm. Bone crunched as his father wailed, spinning on his eldest son. Leo saw red. Every ounce of fear and frustration fled the cage he’d crammed them into. He was a child possessed and his father was a half-drunk old man. There was no contest. He swung the bat again and hit his father in the side. Then again, and the man crashed to the floor. He yelled at him to get out. He screamed at him to leave.I’ll kill you if you ever come back. I’ll kill you!
Their father fled.
Leo never saw him again.
Manny had been too young to remember, but Leo would never forget. He’d never spoken about it with his mother. The closest they’d come was later that evening, after she’d put Manny to bed. She walked into the living room, sat next to him on the couch, and took his hand, squeezing it so hard she cut off circulation. The silence spoke louder than words ever could, and they sat there together for hours. Neither of them slept. They just watched as the sky outside shifted from dusk to dark to dawn. It was the first time he could remember looking into his mother’s eyes and finding no trace of fear within them. It was the first time he realized how life-changing one action by one person had the power to be. It was the first time he understood how moving it was to see gratitude in another person’s gaze.
Leo became a man that day. But no matter how old he grew, he never forgot the boy hiding deep inside—the one hiding under the bed, helpless, alone, and terrified out of his mind. The one with nowhere to go, no way to help, and nothing to do but sit there and listen.
He’d vowed to never be that person again.
“McKenzie?” he called ahead, breaking the quiet that had settled between them.
There were facts he couldn’t change. They were in the woods. They were tired. They were lost. They had no idea where they were going. Food was low. Water was nonexistent. The sun was going down. And members of the Russian mob were probably still after them.
But there was one problem he could still do something about.
“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” he said, stepping a little faster as she slowed to let him catch up.
“What about?” Her tone was cautious.
“What you saw in that garage.”
Relief flooded her expression as she turned to look up at him. The meaning was clear—business, she could do. Personal, at the moment, was off limits. Leo was just fine with that as he shoved those dark memories back down and settled into a more comfortable role—federal agent.
“Did those men say anything to you?”
She shook her head and shrugged. “Not really. One asked if I wanted water, but that was it.”
“Was there anything distinct about his voice?”
“It was deep, a bit gravelly. But no.”
“Did he have an accent?”
“Not one I could place.”
“Did they speak any other languages?”
“I think so, but I’m not sure what it was. It could’ve been Russian, but I don’t know enough to be positive.”
“What did they look like? Would you recognize them in a lineup?”
