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PROLOGUE
"I can't believe you right now! You know it's too dangerous!" Her mother's shrill voice yelled, startling Mykie awake.
It wasn't uncommon to hear her parents argue. Things had been tense, ever since her sixth birthday.
That was a few months ago.
At first, she thought it was because her dad forgot the cake on the way home, but when it kept happening, she suspected something else was going on. Something she wasn't supposed to know about.
She'd never heard her mother yell so loud before or so late at night. It put her on immediate alert that something was wrong.
Mykie rolled out of bed and was careful to creep over to the door. She knew she'd get in trouble if anyone knew she was out of bed. She pulled the door open and looked around through the crack to make sure no one was upstairs. Once she was sure the coast was clear, she poked her head out the door.
"I promise that we'll be quick, Ara. No one will know that we were there," her dad said, his voice calm. Mykie knew that voice so well. Dad meant business, but he could only be so patient. He never yelled at Mykie, but he would give her a look so disappointed that she wished he would just yell, so she'd have an excuse to be mad too. He was too reasonable of a talker, which was, Mykie suspected, the reason he had so many good friends that listened to him. It wasn't often that he had them over, and they were always nice to Mykie, but they seemed to look up to her dad.
She wondered who he was talking about, though. Who was "we", if he was talking to her mother? Why couldn't someone know that they were at the place that they were going?
"I'm worried that we don't know everything. They don't talk to me as often as they used to. Why would they tell me such a big thing was happening tonight? What if they told me the wrong thing on purpose?" her mother stressed.
"Ara, if I waited to know every single detail about the matter, they'll be at our door before we can be at theirs. Trust me, Love. I know what I'm doing."
It was quiet for a moment, so much that Mykie almost questioned if they moved into another room and if she should move closer to the stairs to hear better. She was about to move when she heard sniffles and the creak of the first bottom stair. She quickly shut her door until it was just a crack, hoping her mother wouldn't notice. It allowed her to see a certain angle of the hallway, but not the whole thing.
"He's going to get himself killed, at the rate he's going," her mother muttered.
Mykie heard the opening and closing of her parent's bedroom door. She waited for a moment to see if it would stay closed, or if her father would come comfort his wife. She was glad that she did because her mother came out two minutes later dressed differently. Instead of just her usual blouse, she was wearing a blue leather jacket with a bird on the back and dark jeans. She'd never seen her mother wear jeans. When Mykie asked her why all the other young moms wore jeans and not her, she always said they were too constricting to move around the house. Mykie had asked her about the jacket, too, one time when she was in their closet playing dress-up, but her mother only took it, put it far back into their closet, and said not to touch it again.
Mykie thought it was strange, especially since her dad always let her play with his black one. She wanted to try the blue one, though. Birds were cooler than snakes, in her opinion. Some birds even ate snakes. She read it in a book once in the school library, and when she told her dad, he laughed his butt off and told her that the best snakes were smart enough to get away from the birds.
She watched for as long as the crack allowed as her mother walked back down the hall toward the stairs, muttering to herself. Once the hall was clear again, Mykie opened the door further. She knew it was a risk as she moved over to the banister of the stairs, but she wanted to know more. Where would they be going so late, and why did her mom think it was so dangerous?
If they were going, she wanted to go, too.
Below, she saw her mother and father standing together, but someone else was with them. Chance Lauder. He had yet to talk, but was he the "we" her dad was talking about? They had met a few times when he had babysat her for her father, but they weren't close. He was eighteen and they had nothing in common. He wouldn't play tea party with her when she asked, and he was always worried about something whenever he was babysitting her. She supposed that was why he and her father got along so well.
Mykie knew they worked together, but he didn't look like he was old enough to do the work that her father did. He was a businessman, he told Mykie once. She supposed Chance was maybe his assistant. An assistant could be pretty young, right?
"We need to go tonight, Ara. It can't wait any longer," her father stressed.
She saw her mother pinch the bridge of her nose and take a deep breath. "If you insist on going, I'm coming with you. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I wasn't there."
Chance and her father seemed to look at each other before her father walked closer to her mother, who was now out of sight of the stairs. "If that is what you think is best, then I want you to come. Someone needs to stay with Mykie, though."
Mykie stepped back from the stair railing, afraid her name would trigger them to look up at the stairs to where she should be in her room.
Chance spoke up, surprising her. "I'll stay with her. If you're not back before she needs to get to school, I'll explain that there was an emergency and that you'll both be back soon."
Would they really be gone for that long?
Mykie heard a sound that she suspected was someone hitting another person's shoulder.
"Thanks, Chance. I know I can always count on you," her dad said. "And you're sure the information you heard is correct? Everything is riding on what you heard and what they told Ara."
Mykie took this moment to step back up near the stairs. Her father had his hand on Chance’s shoulder, holding it firmly. Chance must have seen the movement upstairs, as he looked up just in time to make eye contact with her. She couldn't read his expression, but he seemed like his thoughts were running a mile a minute.
"Yes," Chance said after a moment of silence, looking back at her father. "What I told you is everything I know."
Her father was studying his face before he lifted his hand, patting Chance's shoulder one more time. "Great. We'll head out, then. When I get back, we'll discuss that paperwork you were talking about for the club?"
