Lunatic - Necessary Evils # 6 - Ch 14 (Patreon)

Mac“No. No fucking way.”“Adam, it’s the smartest move,” Noah said, giving his fiancé a patient look Mac had only seen mothers use when appeasing toddlers on the verge of a tantrum.Adam crossed his arms over his chest, his sleeveless T-shirt emphasizing his muscular arms and driving home the size difference between him and Noah’s slighter build. “I don’t care about smart. It’s too dangerous.”Mac sat on a dining room chair, facing the back of the seat, legs sprawled. He was staying out of this fight. He wasn’t willing to be the reason anyone put themselves in danger, especially not Noah, who seemed like a good kid. He glanced at Archer who was kicked back, his booted feet on the dining room table in a look weirdly reminiscent of his public persona. Maybe it was hard for him to drop the act even though everybody knew about it now. Or maybe this was just part of who Archer was all along.“It makes the most sense,” Archer said, tone bored. “You’re being aggressively overprotective again.”Adam grabbed Noah’s arm, hauling him close and wrapping both arms around him, squeezing him as tightly as Noah had that stuffed animal he’d brought with him. The boy didn’t even flinch at the possessive gesture, just sighed as if this was something he endured often.Adam didn’t seem to notice. “I have to be overprotective of him. You people only care about the mission. And sorry, not sorry, but I’m not sacrificing my future husband for the sake of your current one.”The look Archer gave Mac almost made him laugh. It was that look he’d seen other couples share but had never actually had the opportunity to participate in himself. The ‘these people are ridiculous’ look. The one that said I’m so glad we’re not like this. But Mac was like that in some ways. He wouldn’t sacrifice Archer for anybody else, and, deep down, he knew Archer felt the same.Archer thought the best course of action was to send Noah into the church undercover to see if he could find a way into Egan’s office to plant a bug. It was the fastest way to know what they were up to, and whether it stopped with just those three and Mac, or if this was part of a much larger conspiracy.Archer dropped his feet to the floor, sitting up straighter. “Nobody is asking you to, bro. He’s going to walk into a church on a busy street and pretend he’s watched a couple of racist YouTube videos and wants to join their cause. We’re not asking him to strap a bomb to his chest. The worst thing that could happen to him in there is a paper cut.”Adam somehow clung even tighter to his fiancé. “They’ll recognize him.”Archer shook his head. “Noah is the least visible of all of us. You’re a camera whore, but Noah isn’t.”Adam rolled his eyes. “He’s famous because I’m famous.”“But is he, though?” Archer asked. “You’re a former model. The only reason people know you now is because you’re the slacker son of Thomas Mulvaney. The average person doesn’t know what a billionaire’s significant other looks like.” He looked to Mac. “Help me out here, darling. Do you know what Jeff Bezos’ wife looks like?”Mac’s eyes went wide at Archer’s casual endearment, but he did his best to recover quickly, shaking his head. “I don’t even know what he looks like,” he admitted.Archer waved his arm. “See? Noah will be fine. Put him in jeans and a red ball cap and he’ll fit right in. Look at him. Look at those freckles. They’ll eat him up with a spoon in there.”“What if they figure out he’s Mexican? You haven’t seen their recruitment videos. They’re not fucking around. They want to torture and kill people just like him.”Mac got Adam’s point. Sending someone of Mexican descent into a place specifically targeting immigrants was a bold choice.Archer shook his head. “Do you think these morons look past skin color? They see all Mexicans the same way. Their tiny brains can’t fathom that light-skinned, light-eyed Mexicans exist. They can’t see past their own hatred. Noah has no discernible accent. He was raised here in the States almost his entire life. They’ll see that fair skin and those freckles and they’ll never question it. You know I’m right,” Archer said. “You just hate being away from him for any length of time because you’re codependent and borderline toxic.”If Archer had said that to any other person, they might have kicked his ass. Adam didn’t so much as flinch. He just continued to stare down his brother.“Noah doesn’t do field work,” Adam said, jaw thrust forward.Archer rolled his eyes. “But he could. He’s perfectly capable. You’re the liability here. We can’t have you rushing in there like a fucking maniac at the first hint of trouble. Noah knows what he’s doing.”“Noah. Doesn’t. Do. Field. Work,” Adam reiterated, emphasizing each word like Archer was a moron.Noah placed a hand on Adam’s arm. “Babe, I can do this. I’m just going in and having a conversation. They’re not gonna question me. At least no more than they would anybody else.”The change in Adam’s body language was startling. Adam had been holding Noah hostage in his arms for almost the entirety of the conversation, but the moment Noah reached up and touched his forearm, all the tension seemed to drain from him. “It’s not that I think you can’t do it…”Noah glanced back over his shoulder at him. “I know. I get that you’re afraid I’ll get hurt, but it’s hardly the scariest thing I’ve ever done.”Adam scoffed, giving Noah a scornful look. “Yeah, and the last time you went off on your own, I found you with a gun pointed at your head.”“That was three years ago,” Noah reminded him.“Yeah, and who knows how many other times it would have happened if I wasn’t there to protect you,” Adam said, sullen.“Yes, yes. I owe my life to you,” Noah teased. “Now, can we please get on with the plan? We’re on a tight timeline. Thomas said Mac and Archer have to be back on base in six days. That’s no time at all.”“Noah’s right. We’re on a time crunch. And he’s our best bet. We’ll put a mic in his ear. We can listen the whole time. If he’s in trouble, he can just say the word and we’ll get him out of there. This isn’t Waco. We’re not sending him into a gun-filled compound with armed guards,” Archer said.Adam arched a brow. “We don’t know that.”“Okay, enough,” Noah finally said, though not with any malice. “I’m going to do this. I’ll wear an earpiece. You guys can sit outside at a reasonable distance, and if I get into trouble, I’ll use a safe word and you guys can come in guns blazing. We’re wasting time here.”“What’s the actual plan, though?” Adam asked. “Noah goes in there, talks to this Egan dude, and then what? He’s not exactly going to spill all the horrible shit he and his buddies are up to. He’s not going to tell Noah how he killed some guy in the desert and now has a hit on Mac. What’s the end game here?”“Do you think you can get close enough to bug his office?” Mac asked. “He might not tell Noah, but a guy like him loves the sound of his own voice. If he’s willing to go on stage and tell his parishioners that he wants to kill gays and brown people and burn women at the stake, imagine the shit he’s bragging about behind closed doors.”Noah shrugged. “I can try. If nothing else, I can suss out who the major players are in the church and then we can go old school.”“Old school?” Archer asked, amused.“Yeah, Dad doesn’t want us torturing the major players because they’re too visible, but there’s no reason someone else in the inner circle couldn’t go missing. Someone less visible? Torture seems to work in our favor almost a hundred percent of the time,” Noah said with the same tone he’d use to discuss the weather or dinner options on a Tuesday.This was Mac’s family now. Torture and espionage were his new normal. He’d spent most of his life wanting to have a family that noticed him, while running from the fucked up family who didn’t, only to come full circle and find a whole new crazy family with the same fucked up issues as his own. Only this time, he was right in the middle of all the controversy. Life was fucking wild.“Just don’t push too hard,” Mac said. “If you go in there like you’re fishing for information, you might tip them off.”Noah nodded a little too enthusiastically. “Yeah, I know. I’ll play it cool.”Mac didn’t know Noah well enough to say whether he was truly capable of that or not, but since Archer didn’t appear worried and he clearly cared for Noah, Mac imagined he meant it when he said it would be fine.“What are you going to tell them?” Archer asked.Noah shrugged. “That’s the easy part. I’m going to tell them the truth…just not the whole truth.”###“Coms check,” Noah said.Mac sat in the backseat of the Jeep, grateful for the limo tint on the windows. Thomas really did think of everything. He pressed the button on the mic. “Check.”Archer sat in the driver’s seat with Adam riding shotgun, watching closely as Noah crossed the street, hands in his pockets. They’d gone back and forth on how he should dress for his role as wannabe radical, debating whether to dress him like a bible salesman or like the teens they’d passed in the parking lot of the Dollar General.In the end, they’d gone with the latter. It was far easier to radicalize young males. They needed Noah to look vulnerable and angry. They’d chosen a pair of faded jeans, a sleeveless shirt much like Adam’s but they’d cut down the sides to reveal his ribs. A red ball cap he’d bought from a gift shop a block from the house hid Noah’s two-hundred-dollar haircut and completed the look of disaffected youth.Ironically, the church wasn’t a church at all but a former department store they’d rented out and turned into a sprawling meeting house. The storefront was still glass but they’d frosted it over, making it impossible to see inside. The low visibility was agitating Adam even more than he was earlier. He sat, body tensed, tracking Noah like a predator.Mac was the keeper of the mic. Nobody trusted Adam not to backseat drive, whispering commands into Noah’s ear, which would only distract him and cause him to lose focus. They could all hear, but only Mac could respond if needed.When the doors closed behind Noah, Adam blew out a breath through his nose. “If anything happens to him, I’ll burn that whole building down.”“He’s good. Have a little faith in him,” Archer said.“I have faith in him. It’s the rest of the world that always lets him down,” Adam muttered.“Can I help you, son?” a male voice said over the speaker.“I sure hope so,” Noah said, with a Texas accent so on point Mac turned to look at Archer in surprise. Maybe he was better equipped for field work than the Mulvaneys realized. “I saw those videos online. I came to help.”There was a long pause, then the man said, “Are you looking to become a member of our congregation?”“If it means helping get rid of the infestation coming into our country, I am,” Noah said with a venom in his voice that turned Mac’s stomach.He knew it was the type of racist dog whistle these people thrived on, but it was still shocking to hear someone like Noah say it with such anger.“He’s really good at this,” Archer said, glancing at Adam, who still stared at the closed doors.From Mac’s angle, he could see the .45 on Adam’s lap and the way his fingers casually hugged the grip. He was more than ready to go in there and kill for Noah, even if it would blow up the entire Mulvaney empire. It was foolish, but Mac admired Adam’s devotion to Noah over all other things. It was weirdly aspirational.The man laughed at Noah’s words. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, son. While I appreciate the sentiment, you need to be careful.”“Careful?” Noah asked, lowering his voice like he thought the man might be hinting at something.They’d watched enough of those YouTube videos for Mac to know the man talking wasn’t Egan. Egan spoke every word in a sort of conspiratorial tone that made people paranoid. Hell, he was paranoid. He talked about anybody who wasn’t exactly like him as if they were the enemy. Mac wasn’t sure if the man truly believed it or if it was part of a much bigger, deeper plan. Either way, the man Noah encountered wasn’t him.“We’re always looking for people to join the fight, but not everybody here is…aware of the war we’re fighting at the border. Some of the ladies here are just worker bees. We like to keep them away from the more…unpleasant aspects of our work. If you understand my meaning.”Mac rolled his eyes. What a fucking tool.“Oh,” Noah said, drawl on full display. “I get you. Sorry.”“It’s perfectly all right,” he said, sounding like he clapped Noah on the back or the shoulder maybe. “You know what? Let’s go back to my office and talk.”Adam somehow grew even more tense when Noah said, “Alright.”They could only listen to the sounds of the people inside as the man led Noah through the building, and they could only guess how many people were in there based on what they heard. Quiet barely-there conversations, office machines purring, women laughing, doors opening and closing. The sound of shoes scuffing over tiles.There was the squeak of hinges and then the sound of a door shutting. “Where’s Pastor Egan?” Noah asked. “Don’t I get to meet him?”The man gave a low chuckle. “I appreciate the enthusiasm, young man. But, as you can imagine, Pastor Egan has a lot on his plate. I’m in charge when he’s not in. My name is Mel Boseman. Talking to me is like talking to him. Now, tell me why you want to help us with our cause.”Mac snorted. Cause. Yeah, right.Archer was already pulling out his cell phone. “Calliope, I need a complete rundown on a man named Mel Boseman. He’s part of Egan’s church.”“On it. Give me ten.”She disconnected as Noah seemed to bristle at the man’s question. “My reasons are my own,” Noah snapped. “Does it matter?”Again that low, almost condescending laugh. “Well, son. We get a lot of people in and out of here saying they’re ready to commit to doing the lord’s work, but when push comes to shove, they lack the courage of their convictions. If you want a good man like Pastor Egan to take your request to join seriously, you need to explain your reasoning.”Noah seemed to shift in his seat. “You won’t tell nobody, right? Nobody but him?”“What’s your name, boy?” Boseman asked, not unkindly.“Darryl. Darryl Miller,” Noah said without hesitation.Damn, the kid was cool as a cucumber.“Well, Darryl, I promise your story won’t go any further than me and the pastor. And you can trust my word,” Boseman said.Mac wouldn’t have trusted the man if he told him the time while standing in front of a clock. Everything about his tone said he was a snake oil salesman.Noah coughed, then cleared his throat. “Yeah. Um—yeah, okay. Sorry. This is just hard.”“Take your time,” Boseman said.When Noah started talking, his voice trembled. “When I was little, real little, we lived in Columbus, just across the border in New Mexico. When I was four, two men came over the border and took me from my mama in the middle of the day. Just snatched me from my yard and threw me in the trunk.”Noah fell silent. Mac looked between Archer and Adam. Archer’s expression was grim, Adam’s was fury. This was the truth Noah had said he’d tell. His truth. Jesus.Noah once more cleared his throat. “They abused me…sold me to others. They eventually got bored of me and dumped me but not before the damage was done.”“Disgusting,” Boseman muttered. “They’re all monsters.”Noah sniffled. “They ruined my life by being somewhere they didn’t belong. I’ve been waiting my whole life to ruin theirs right back.”Mac locked eyes with Archer, who shook his head. He didn’t want Mac asking questions.“See, that right there is what I’m talking about. They’re vermin. They come over here and do nothing but cause harm. I think Pastor Egan will be…sympathetic to your plight, if you catch my meaning.”“Yeah,” Noah mumbled. “Um, could I trouble you for a glass of water?”“Uh, yeah,” Boseman said. There was a click and then the man said, “Cheryl Lynn?”They waited while the man called for the woman who Mac could only imagine was the keeper of the water. Silence stretched. Then the man said, “I swear that woman is never at her desk. Probably gossiping with Ms. Michelle in the nursery. I’ll just go grab it myself.”“If it’s not too much trouble,” Noah said, voice stuffy like he was on the verge of tears.As soon as the door clicked, Noah asked, “Where should I put this thing?” His tone didn’t hold even a trace of the sadness from seconds ago. Give this kid a fucking Oscar.“Somewhere not super obvious. Avoid the desk. Look for something with dust on it. Something he’s not likely to suddenly get rid of,” Mac said.“Got it,” Noah said.They listened as he moved about, hearing his soft exhale as he fell back into his seat. Adam’s phone rang, Noah’s face appearing on the screen. Adam frowned but answered quickly. “What’s wrong?”Noah didn’t answer right away.They listened as the door to the office opened and Boseman said, “Here you go.”That was when Noah started talking to Adam. “Yes, ma’am, I do know what time it is. No, ma’am, I didn’t forget. I wouldn’t do that. I just had to make a stop. I’m already there, I promise. Practically right around the corner. You can probably already hear my truck. Five minutes and I’ll be there to get you.”Noah was clearly already working on his exit strategy. He disconnected and they listened as he said, “I’m awful sorry but I forgot I have to pick my mama and grammy up right now. I forgot it’s Bingo night. Could I maybe come back and talk with you and Pastor Egan again? You think he could use someone like me?”“Well, I can’t say for certain, son, but I think you should come back on Sunday for sermon and we’ll get you face to face with him so he can see for himself what a good boy you are. Now, go on, you don’t want to keep your mama and grandmama waiting.”“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”Archer put the Jeep in drive and headed around the corner and down the block to their agreed meet-up spot. Mac wasn’t sure Adam breathed again until Noah hopped into the back beside Mac, a huge grin on his face.“How’d I do? Not bad, right?” he asked.Adam tossed his gun into the glove box then spilled over into the backseat, leaving Mac no choice but to wait until he’d squeezed himself into place before maneuvering himself into the front seat with great difficulty. Archer snickered at Mac when he finally clipped his seatbelt into place, sweaty and red-faced from the effort.“What? It’s not like I could hop out of the car and jump in the front seat?” he said, defensive.“I didn’t say a thing,” Archer said, amused.Mac rolled his eyes, but then grabbed his hand, lacing their fingers together.In the backseat, Adam clung to Noah. “Are you okay?”“Yeah, why?”“Trudging all that shit up again,” Adam said.Noah scoffed. “I’ve told this story so many times it feels like it belongs to someone else by now. I just hate that I had to imply it was border jumpers who hurt me.”“Technically, it was,” Adam said. “They just crossed into Mexico to take you.”“And nobody ever brought me back,” Noah said, sounding a little sad and tired. “Let’s not go there. Check to make sure the bug is working and then stop somewhere we can order food. I’m starving.”And that was the end of it. Just like that, Noah had moved on from his tragic backstory, snuggling against Adam and talking excitedly about what had just happened like he’d just made his acting debut. Mac supposed he had. He just had to hope something good would come from it.