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~ 18 ~

Off the Grid




Max opened the door while rubbing at his face. I could tell that once again, I woke him from a sound sleep. “Is there a problem?” He asked, opening the door and letting me in.

“I just thought you’d like some Christmas dinner. It’s really good. Brian’s mom made it.” I handed him the huge plate of food and made my way over to the small table and sat down as he followed, stopping long enough to grab a beer out of his small fridge.

“This smells great.”

“It’s really good.” I bit at my bottom lip, suddenly feeling very anxious and uncomfortable. I kind of wished Kevin did come along.

I watched as he dug into the ham and sweet potatoes. He was making it look so good that I almost wanted to go grab another plate for myself. Yes, I have that little self control when it comes to food.

“So, what did you do today?” I asked him when I was pretty certain he would have been content eating his whole meal in complete awkward silence.

“Not too much. Just watched some TV and slept. Did you have a good Christmas?”

I nodded at him, “I got a lot of great gifts.”

“That’s good,” he said sounding indifferent.

“So, who do you usually spend Christmas with? I know you never spent it with us before.”

He took a few more bites of food before he answered. “I don’t celebrate Christmas. To me, it’s just another day.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know what else to say to that. It seemed so odd for someone who was related to me not to celebrate the holidays. My family was so holiday oriented.

“Was my mom the same way?”

He swallowed his last biscuit and chased it with the last of his beer, “Get me another one of those kid, would you?” He gave me the empty beer bottle.

I walked over to the fridge and grabbed another beer. All he had in there were beers and some leftover Chinese food. I handed him the beer and sat back down. He seemed disappointed when I made myself comfortable which once again made me rethink my decision to abandon the boys and leave with this guy.

“So…” I stopped because I wasn’t even sure what I was going to say.

“You know, you don’t have to stay and keep me company. You can go back to your friends if you want.” Boy he really knew how to make me feel welcome.

“I was actually thinking that well maybe we um…should…” I took a deep breath and just said it, “I think we should leave without them.”

He stopped chewing and looked over at me. “Why?”

“I don’t want to put them in danger. So much shit has gone down that if something were to happen to them, I’d never forgive myself.”

He took a napkin and cleaned off his hands, “It’s too late for that. If they do really know where you are, your friends are not going to be safe. They’ll be less protected if we were to leave them behind at this point.”

I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting this answer. Maybe I had watched too many cop shows but I thought for sure that was exactly what he wanted to hear, just me and him without having to deal with the rest of my posse.

“Once again I have to ask who is they and are ‘they’ the type of people to hurt innocent bystanders?”

“I am pretty sure your therapist had nothing to do with anything.”

“So, you’re saying that she was killed just because she was my therapist?”

“No, I’m saying she might have been killed because she was your therapist.”

“What about their families?” Now I was panicking.

“I know you want me to tell you everything will be fine for them, but I can’t guarantee that.”

“Why do they want me so badly? I’m confused! Can’t I just give myself up to them and tell them I don’t know anything?”

He laughed, “No, it doesn’t work like that. You give yourself up to them and they will kill you. Problem solved as far as they are concerned.”

“I want answers.” I found myself saying for the ten thousandth time.

“I can’t tell you anything.”

“What’s the deal with my dad?”

“He’s missing.”

“I know that, is he a bad guy? What did he do that’s so terrible that he had to change his name and my name and hide this whole secret life from me? Did he kill somebody? Are you guys’ mafia or something like that?”

He laughed. Too bad I wasn’t finding any of this really funny. “I know you think this is some kind of joke, but this is my life we’re talking about here. I’m only fifteen friggin years old and you have managed to come here and turn my life upside down without so much as one damned explanation. I deserve answers! What did my father do that was so bad?”

He stared at me for a long while. Long enough that I was sure he was going to reach over the table and stab me with his steak knife. But instead, his eyes finally left mine, “The only bad thing your father did was say yes.”

“What does that even mean?”

He placed his elbows on the table and interlocked his fingers on both hands. If my mother were alive, she would have yelled at him. That was one of Jane Carter’s biggest pet peeves. No elbows on the table. It was sad that I now thought of her as Jane Carter, the fake mom.

“Your father made me swear I would never tell you the truth about things, Nick.”

“My father was going to tell me himself. I’m pretty sure.”

“Some of this might shock you.”

“Believe me Max, I passed shocked about two days ago.”

He nodded at me, “Fine. You’re dad worked for the government. Long before you were born, he was a field agent for the CIA.”

I laughed, I had to. My father worked for the CIA? The man who got arrested as a kid for peeing on a park bench? “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”

But the look on his face told me he wasn’t kidding. “That’s how I met him. We worked together. I’m the one that introduced him to your mother.”

“This makes no sense! My father doesn’t have, I mean he couldn’t possibly do the things someone at the CIA should be able to do. He loses his breath just climbing a flight of stairs!”

That made Max laugh, “By the time you got to know him, he was a little out of practice.”

“Okay, so he was in the CIA. I still don’t get what that has to do with what’s happening now.”

“He was good at his job, so good that he was asked to lead up black ops.”

“Those really exist? Come on, stop playing with me. This is ridiculous!”

He pushed away from the table, “You said you wanted to know the truth. Do you or not?”

“The truth yes, but this?”

He stood up, “Forget it. I knew you weren’t mature enough to hear this stuff.”

“Excuse me? I’m plenty mature enough. I am just having a hard time believing that my father was a CIA agent. Don’t they do background checks at that place?”

“He made all that stuff up Nickolas. None of it is true. He never got in trouble as a kid. That was for your mother’s benefit.”

“Which mother?” What a sad question that was, huh?

“Jane.”

“Why?”

“He had to create a whole new life after he went off the grid.”

“Off the grid?”

He took a seat on his bed and I turned my chair around to face him, “He worked in the black ops for a while. I did too.”

“So what I’m remembering has to do with one of those black ops things?”

“Yes.”

“What exactly happened?” I felt my heart racing because now I was finally going to learn the truth.

“That I’m not telling you.” Or not! Jesus Christ!

“Why not?”

“Some things aren’t meant to be known. If you remember it on your own, fine. But I’m not going to refresh your memory for you.”

“Okay, so let me get this straight. My father, the man who once got his finger caught in our bathroom faucet, was in charge of a group of CIA black ops people?”

“Yes.”

“And while on a mission, something went so wrong that he had to change our identities and start fresh?”

“Yes.”

“Did we join the witness protection program or something?”

“No.”

“Was my mother involved in this? Did she work for them too?”

“My sister? No, she hated the idea. In fact we spent most of our time fighting about it.”

“So, she knew? I thought no one was supposed to know.”

“She didn’t know.”

“But you just said…”

“She hated the fact that your dad was always leaving to go on these secret missions. He could never tell her why or where he was going or when he would be coming back. Since she knew I was a part of it, she always took her anger out on me.”

“Is that what you were fighting about the day you slapped her?”

He gave me another one of those unsettling stares before ignoring the question, “So, now you know.”

“Now I know? I still don’t know, like for instance how my mother died and why you think people are looking for me and why my father is missing!”

“Okay, I’ll rephrase that then. Now you know a little more than you did before, happy?”

“Not really, no.”

He stood up and opened his door, “I really think you should get back to your friends now before the bible boy comes after me with a bookmark and tries to give me a paper cut.”

I stood up and moved towards the door. There was so much I wanted to say and so many questions I wanted to ask him, but I knew it would be a waste of time. I got as much out of him as I was going to get tonight. But at least it was progress. Maybe he’d tell me more little by little. Maybe there were things I didn’t want to know either. Maybe it was okay to leave some stuff out.

So instead of asking him anything else, I walked past him and said. “I know you don’t celebrate it but, Merry Christmas anyway.” And then I gave him a small hug. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that or not, but he was family and if you couldn’t hug your uncle on Christmas, then what’s the use? Besides, I could tell he needed a hug. Everyone needs a hug on Christmas. Even the worst of people and Max wasn’t the worst of people.

Maybe he was hard and not very friendly, but far from a bad guy and that was a relief. I’m sure it will be to the rest of the guys as well. I decided since we weren’t going to bail on them, that I would just tell them the truth about Max as soon as I got back into our suite.

He actually recoiled when I went to embrace him. I could tell he was picturing me as some kind of leech, but he did put a half hearted arm around one of my shoulders before pushing me away.

“Merry Christmas Nick.” He smiled at me and watched as I got to my own door safely before closing it.

Brian greeted me at the door. “Well you were gone for a long time. One of us was just going to come get you. Make sure you didn’t attack Max.”

I guess Kevin told them about what happened last night. “I just gave him some food.”

“Did he like it?”

I nodded and walked over to the couch and plopped down beside Howie who was on the phone with someone. I glanced over at AJ who was also on the phone standing by the balcony window.

“Where’s Kev?”

Brian pointed at our bedroom, “His mom called, he’s been in there almost the whole time you were next door.”

Suddenly I found myself jealous of all my friends. Calling home and talking to loved ones. I moved away from Howie and on to one of the chairs that were off to the side of the room. “Max is my uncle” I blurted out just as I threw my legs over the side of the chair and leaned back.

Brian looked surprised but not as surprised as I thought he’d be. “You know, I was wondering because I see a small resemblance.”

I nodded at him, “I don’t think he wants anything to do with me though.”

“What are you talking about? If he didn’t care he wouldn’t be here.”

I shrugged at him, “Is it still snowing?” I asked trying to change the subject since I was starting to get depressed again.

“Yup! If we were still in school, and it wasn’t already a holiday we would’ve had a snow day for sure!”

“I am still in school.” I reminded him. Sometimes they forget that I’m not as old as they are.

He nodded and smiled at me. “I think we need to put those antlers back on you.” Just like sometimes I picture Brian as a pet monkey, I think he pictures me as his pet hamster or something.

“No I’m good, thanks.”

He laughed, “You want to play a game or something?”

I smiled, “Sure.” I needed to get out of this dreary mood I was suddenly finding myself in again. Needless to say, Murphy and I were tight these days because just as I thought that, in walked Kevin looking white as a sheet. I knew something was wrong and so did his cousin.

“Kevin, what is it?” He asked alarmed.

Kevin looked right at me, “I’m going to go get Max and then I’ll give you more details.”

He walked out the door and I felt numb knowing that whatever happened wasn’t going to be good. Feeling Brian’s arm around my shoulder tighten let me know he thought the same exact thing.




Chapter End Notes:
Hope you enjoyed! I'll be back next weekend with chapter 19. Thanks for reading and reviewing :O)