Page 35 of Off the Grid
McKenzie shut her mouth as the wakes washed over her. He was right. And she was being a brat. All things considered, her life hadn’t been that bad—and there were plenty of people who had it much worse. Her father was still alive, and she could visit him as often as she liked. Her mother was, well, her mother. She had a great job, good friends, a beautiful apartment, and enough money in the bank to never be concerned. A few tough years as a teen did not a sob story make.
“Sorry,” she whispered, glancing over her shoulder. His eyes were glued to the sky. “I’m prying. You don’t need to tell me.”
“My mom raised my brother and me on her own,” he said, as though he hadn’t heard her. There was something wistful to the tone. “She was an immigrant and she didn’t speak very much English, but she never let that hold her back. She cleaned houses. She worked for a department store for a while. She babysat around the neighborhood. Her favorite job was as a barista at the coffee shop in this botanical garden, because she loved looking out at the flowers all day. She worked two jobs most of the time and kept a tight lid on the finances, trying to save as much as she could so my brother and I could live out the American dream.”
“She sounds like an amazing woman.”
“She is,” he agreed, flicking his gaze toward her. His eyes sparkled in the fiery light of the setting sun. “But she’s also a proud woman, and I think that’s why she got so mad when I threw everything she gave me away.”
He paused. McKenzie extended her hand, offering him an almond, which he took and chewed for a few seconds, lost in thought. The muscles in his jaw clenched, but she waited, knowing it would do nothing to push.
“You see, my brother was—well, still is—a genius. I always knew it. He understood computers before they were even a thing. While I was learning how to do email, he was going into the back end of the software and making adjustments to make it run more smoothly. I knew he was going places, and I didn’t want anything to hold him back. So when I got to college, I signed up for the naval ROTC and gave all the money my mom had saved up back to her, so my brother could have it instead. Oh man, was she pissed.” He sucked a long breath through his lips, sounding like a boy again, and then tossed a wicked grin in her direction. “She didn’t speak to me for months. You’ve never seen angry until you’ve seen Latina-mom angry.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
He laughed—not at her words, but at whatever memory played on behind his eyes. “She said so many curse words in Spanish to me that day. I mean, there were some I’d never even heard before. Half were things I think she made up. But mostly, I think she was scared. She left her family behind, her life, her culture, everything she’d ever known, to come to a strange country so her kids would be safe, and then I turned around and did the one thing that pretty much guaranteed I wouldn’t be. I liked being a marine. I liked the brotherhood and I liked believing in something bigger than myself, but I hated the fear I saw in my mother’s eyes every time I said goodbye, the worry in her voice every time we spoke over the phone. When my four years were up, I spoke to some of the officers at Quantico about my options. The marine base also houses the FBI Academy, and they recommended me to the bureau. The job still has its dangers, clearly, but I’m not in a war zone. My mom’s always been proud of me, at least I think, but now she can be proud without being so afraid, which is a compromise I was more than happy to make. And I like the work I’m doing—it’s rewarding, it’s challenging, it’s always changing and it’s important. I get to put evil men in jail for a living.”
He shrugged casually.
Is that what the guys who put my father away thought they were doing? Just taking another evil person off the street? Just locking up another monster?
Something in her face must have betrayed her thoughts, because he turned sharply toward her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay,” she cut him off. She didn’t want to talk about her father, what he may or may not have done. Not now. One messed-up parental confession was enough for the evening. “So what ended up happening with your brother? Did his genius pay off?”
Humor filled Leo’s face, making her muscles loosen. “The little bastard went to MIT, wrote an app while he was still an undergrad, and sold it a few months after graduation. He used the money to build a start-up that was later bought by a major corporation, and now he lives out in California. He’s worth millions.”
In any other situation, she would’ve spit out her drink. As it was, she glued her lips shut and choked on her Gatorade for a few seconds, until she had it under control enough to swallow. Every ounce of liquid was precious. “Are you serious?”
He held his hands up. “No joke.”
“I hope he didn’t forget where he came from.”
“Nah, he’d never. He bought me my first Harley-Davidson. She was beautiful. Red paint, silver rims. The engine purred like a cat in heat. I’ll never forget the first time I rode her—right back to the dealership. Then I gave him a noogie and told him not to waste his money on me again.”
She wasn’t surprised. He was exactly the same as the mother he’d described—proud. Too proud to accept a gift like that from his little brother. Too proud to accept her gratitude. If everything he’d told her was true, and she was beginning to believe it was, he possessed that rare sort of kindness that truly didn’t want or expect anything in return. The act of having done good was enough.
McKenzie looked away, back to the bag for another handful of almonds. She was a little damaged, she knew, but being around someone who seemed so put together, so flawless, so noble, made her feel all the more broken.
“My mom, though, was more than happy to accept his gift,” Leo continued with a delighted sigh. “He bought her a small house near him, so she’d be somewhere safe, with a backyard, so she could grow all the flowers that remind her of home. She won’t let him pay anyone to clean it or cook for her or anything like that, but she says she earned that house after putting up with the two of us for so long.”
“I’m sure she did.”
McKenzie brushed her palms together, trying to wipe off the dirt and crumbs. Her only solace was that it was so dark she couldn’t see the grime she was sure was caked all over her body. Leo put the little bit of food they had left into his backpack, then put it under his head like a lumpy pillow. The air was cooler without the sun, and it brought a shiver to her skin.
He mistook it for fear. “We’re pretty safe out here, all things considered. I wouldn’t worry.”
“I wasn’t.”Until you said something…McKenzie shifted her gaze to the trees, which were little more than silver and shadow, streams of moonlight cased in folds of darkness. The leaves rustled. Sticks snapped. The wind whistled, an eerie sort of cry. She turned back toward Leo. “I’m fairly confident that as soon as you fall asleep, every animal within a one-mile radius will run away in fear.”
“Ha. Ha.”
She shrugged. “I’m just saying.”
A breeze swept through the clearing, bringing goose bumps to her skin. McKenzie rubbed them away.
“Come here.”
She glanced down to where Leo was stretched across the ground. Starlight brushed his skin, outlining the contours of his biceps, highlighting his cheekbones and his jaw, a face that could’ve been cut from stone. He held an arm to the side, an open invitation.
