Livia Lone

17-NOW

It was pretty obvious from the cell phone metadata what was going on between Masnick and Weed Tyler’s wife, but metadata alone might not be enough to ensure Masnick’s compliance. For that, Livia wanted something a little more… persuasive.

So late at night, she started riding up to Bothell, where Jardin lived with her teenage daughter in a two-bedroom ranch. She would park the Ninja in the shadows of a construction site near the house, set the Gossamer to spoof a cell phone tower for any calls coming to or from the two cell phones of interest, and then wait, sitting on a cinderblock, thinking of Nason, crickets chirping in the dark around her.

The first two nights, she got nothing. On the third, the Gossamer lit up with an incoming call. Livia listened in with an earpiece, her heart pounding with hope.

“Hey, you can’t come tonight.” A woman’s voice. Presumably Jardin.

“Damn, are you sure? I was just about to head over.” This time a man. She had never spoken to Masnick in person and so couldn’t be certain, but it had to be him.

“I’m sorry. It’s Vela. Her light’s still on. She hasn’t been sleeping well.”

Vela was Jardin’s daughter-the one she’d been pregnant with when Tyler had been sent to Victorville. The girl was a high school sophomore now. Livia had been right. The woman on the phone was Jardin.

“It’s okay,” the man said. “Nobody’s fault. I was just… I wanted to see you.”

“I know. I wanted to see you, too.” There was a pause, and she added, “Mike, what are we going to do?”

Bingo. And not Mech. That was a gang moniker. She called him Mike, a more intimate form of address.

There was another pause. Masnick said, “I don’t know.”

“He gets out in a week. Why do you think Vela’s not sleeping?”

“I know.”

“I want to tell him.”

“Jesus, Jen, we’ve been over this. That’s just not an option.”

“Then what is?”

“I’ll think of something.”

“In a week? We’ve known this was coming for years.”

“I’ll think of something. I’m not going to lose you. I love you, Jen.”

“I love you, too.”

“Listen, I’m going to leave the phone on. If she falls asleep, call me, okay? I just miss you.”

“Okay. I should go.”

“I’ll think of something. I promise.”

They clicked off. Livia confirmed the unit had recorded the conversation, then removed the earpiece and sat for a moment, stunned despite what she had already suspected.

I’ll think of something, he had said.

Well, maybe he wouldn’t have to. In fact, she might just think of something for him.