Page 141 of Joey

I shake my head.

“Mules,” Johnny says. His voice thick with contempt. “His job was running mules. You know what that is?”

I nod. Because I do. They are mostly pregnant women. They are forced to swallow balloons filled with heroine or other things. High-priced things. Or they stuff them up inside themselves. And then they get on planes or boats, and when they get to the other side the men in charge empty them out. Sometimes they just… cut them open.

“Mules are the lowest of the low in our world. One-time things. Practically worthless. But you can often pay off a debt if you have the right girl to sell as a mule. One that doesn’t look like a mule. A pretty girl who can speak well enough to fool customs agents. This is what you need for the special jobs. Your mother was just a whore. That’s all. And you were a very unfortunate accident that came out of that situation. So you were just a whore in waiting. Your father was a powerful man in the Way, but that doesn’t matter. My father ran the bank. Didn’t save his life. Or mine. Your father was in charge of the money making ceremony with my uncle, right up until the day they died.”

“The Way.” I repeat. “You’ve said that twice now. What’s the Way?”

“All those people you met at the Kanes? That’s the Way.”

“What Way?”

Johnny laughs. “I’ve been trying to figure that out for thirteen years.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m the bank. Nothing more, nothing less. I’m in charge of collecting and keeping the money. So you were going to be a whore. I’d have left you alone if they were just going to make you a whore. But then your father died and your mother’s boyfriend came to my father and said he’d sell you as a mule to deliver a special package in an upcoming run. I was there, in the room, when this happened. Because my uncle died with your father and my father needed a new partner in crime. So I was there.” He narrows his eyes at me. “Your mother and her boyfriend made that deal with me in the end. Not my father.”

I have so many questions. But the first one is… “Why did you buy me? Why did you give me to Miklos?”

He sighs. Heavily. “Because it’s not your fault. It’s not Jesse’s fault, it’s not Joey’s fault, it’s not Zach’s fault. It’s not our fault we were born into this… whatever it is. A cult. A secret society. A political organization. Whatever the fuck it is, it’s not our fault. So I got you out. When my uncle and your father died thirteen years ago my father put me in charge of certain things and one of them was you. So I… I couldn’t do it. They were gonna stuff that shit down your throat and make you get on that plane, and when you got to the other side they’d have gutted you like a deer to get your package. I got you out and then I…”

He pauses. But the pause is too long. So I say, “You what? What did you do?”

“I let the rest die. Getting you out was harder than I thought it would be. There were too many eyes, too many people keeping track, and my father found out what I did because I made Miklos promise to send your mother letters and pictures. To let her know you were OK. My father was pissed. You don’t get to make up your own rules in the Way. So I couldn’t do it again. I just let the rest die and didn’t save anyone else. But I saved you. And believe me when I tell you this—I paid for that. Dearly. I saved you and what did you do? You came back. Why? Why the fuck did you come back?”

“Miklos,” I say.

“No,” Johnny replies. “No. He would not send you here. We had an agreement. And he loved you. I could tell. He loved you. He would not send you back.”

“But he did! He left me a letter, and money, and my real passport, and a private jet—“

“It wasn’t him,” Johnny says, turning around and walking to the window. “It wasn’t him. There’s no fucking way in hell he’d send you back here.”

“Then who gave me all that stuff? And why?”

Johnny turns back to face me. His face dark now. Backlit by the brightness of the sky outside. “I don’t know. But they’re trying to start something. And it’s working.”

“Who?”

“The people who really run this shit. It’s not me. I don’t run anything. I’m just a glorified bank teller. It’s some kind of power play. Some war. They’re not happy with the status quo, so things have to change. And you’re as much a part of it as I am now.” He pauses for a moment. Thinking. “You’re gonna leave.”

“And go where?”

“You’re gonna talk Joey into letting the little girl be—“

“No,” I say. “No.”

“—and the four of you are gonna get on a plane to Tokyo and never come back.”

“I won’t let him do that. He loves that little girl. He needs that little girl, Johnny.”

“She’s not his,” Johnny says. “She, and everyone else out at that estate, they all belong to the Way. Those kids that live out there? Those girls won’t be whores or mules. But their lot in life isn’t bright. Trust me. None of this is what it appears.”

“We could… we could…” But I don’t actually know what we could do.

“We are who we are, Brooke. And that can’t change.” He points at me. “And don’t waste my time telling me all about how people can change. We are who we are and that’s the end of it. I need you to talk sense into my brother, get him and his friends on their goddamned jet, and make them go back to Japan.”