“My plan was to stay a lot of places on vacation. I really do need to relax. My doctor said if I didn’t find some way to calm down I was going to have a breakdown of some kind, ha!” She gives a little laugh, as if this is somehow funny. If I gave her the benefit of the doubt, I’d say she’s nervous. If I didn’t, I’d say she’s absolutely mad.
“I need to hear all of this. Now. I mean everything.”
“It’s like I told you. I grew up in the country, single mom, no real options. I wanted to go to college, but I couldn’t afford it, so I moved to the city. New York City, only city there is to move to. So I went and I found a way to afford it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I met some men with money, and they gave me some money.” She’s being vague, but also incredibly specific with an economy of words. “The kind of men who wanted to do dirty things before they went home to their wives. The kind of men who needed to, you know. Anyway, one thing led to another, one guy led to another, I graduated, I got a job in one of their firms because I had an in with the boss, or rather the boss had an in with me.” She glances up at our faces. “Anyway, uh, well, long story short, I stole the guy’s money. A lot of his money. And then I ran the fuck away.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Jason swears.
“Don’t worry,” she says, lifting her hands again in that gesture. “I’ll move on. I basically have to. This is way too close for comfort. They’re on my tail and sooner or later, they’ll circle back.”
“What makes you think I’m going to let you leave?” I interject. Aslin seems to think she’s still a free agent, that my collar means nothing. I know that’s because I haven’t really spoken with her properly, but surely she understands something from context.
“Well, if you don’t, you’ll watch me get shot in the face. They’re going to want to make an example of me. They’re going to want to get my body and, you know… do things to it. I’ve seen what they do to their enemies before. It’s not pretty. Sometimes they can’t decide what mutilation they want to do and then they just do all of them. And you know what they call that? The spaghetti.”
Aslin
They’re going to kick me out of their camp now. They’re not going to want this drama. I don’t want this drama, and I am me.
“I’ll get my things,” I say. “Don’t worry. I can hide nearby until the proper boat comes. I’m used to avoiding angry men.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Jason says. “Sit the fuck down.”
I wasn’t sitting down to begin with, and there’s nowhere to really sit, but under his glower I find myself sinking down until I am sitting cross-legged on the jungle floor.
“Where’s the money you took from this guy?”
“In accounts. Several of them. I split it up from Switzerland to Barbados. It’s safe.”
“Good, because it’s going back.”
“What? No! Do you know how hard it was to steal that money? That was supposed to keep me for the rest of my life. Never work again. I was going to go on this little trip, then buy a house somewhere remote. You know, one of those places that are practically nothing to buy, in one of those places where it costs practically nothing to live. And I was just going to be happily ever after on my own. And everything was going to be fine. I can’t give that up.”
“You can’t keep it either. There are militia being sent to find you. And you’re worried you’re going to be killed and dismembered. That’s not a happily ever after, Aslin.”
“No? Well. It’s not… there are worse endings.”
I’m being defensive, but that’s because nobody was ever supposed to know about this. It’s a secret shame, or it was supposed to be.
“Listen, guys. I’m not worth this trouble. You should let me go. Right now, you’re out of the loop. Nobody knows you ever saw me. But if you make me stick around, you’re going to get sucked in, and then what? Then the men with guns won’t ask questions. They’ll kill you. Trust me, guys. It’s been cute, but this is where it has to end.”
They look at each other, and I’m sure they’re coming to the same conclusion. I am a liability. I bring danger. I’m not just some brat who drinks too much and does what she wants and has an insatiable appetite for being dominated in bed. I’m the kind of trouble no man should ever engage with. That’s what my ex said, right before I took his money, and he was right.