Page 68 of Creeping Beautiful

What? What did you hear?

He said Adam.

Tate did?

Yes. He was ticking off names to this girl while they were fighting. Telling her he knew everything. And he said… Jack or Jacks—something like that. And Chek, and Adam. I heard it. So he knows about us. He knows, Donovan. He knows about Wendy, and me, and Angelica. Do you think he got Wendy too? Do you think he’ll come back for me?

…

Donovan?

I’m thinking.

OK. But… Should I go and get Adam now?

Yes. Go get Adam.

SESSION #87 cont.

Close the door, Adam. And where’s McKay?

He took Indie outside.

Nicholas Tate jumped a girl upriver and took her.

What?

She was Company.

Wait. What the fuck are you talking about?

Indie just told me that she and Nate have been hiding a Company kid—a goddamned twelve-year-old Company assassin called Angelica—in Nate’s house, since last fucking summer.

…

Did you hear me?

…

Adam!

I fucking heard you. I just… don’t understand what you just said.

He came for her, or maybe Indie, I’m not quite clear on that. And he got this Angelica girl. You ever heard of her?

No. But how the fuck is Nicholas Tate in goddamned Louisiana? He’s supposed to be down in Honduras running drugs.

Well… I don’t know what you want me to say about that. Indie said this girl came to her and Nate last summer talking about how she was on the run from Nicholas Tate. They hid her in Nate’s house, and today, while they were upriver in some town getting supplies, Tate came, knocked the girl out, shoved her into a boat, and took her away.

…

He said your name.

What?

You heard me. He said your fucking name. Indie told me three names. Jack, and your dude Chek, and then he said Adam. This was your plan, remember? Nicholas and Harper Tate. James Fenici. Sasha Cherlin. This was your fucking plan and the whole thing is in play and you never told me a goddamned thing about this. What the fuck is going on?

I haven’t talked to Sasha in ten years, Donovan. This is not my plan.