I stare at the empty road ahead of me, my chest aching. So much that I can’t speak.
“You can’t give up.”
“I’m not giving up.” I swallow the huge lump in my throat. “I’m just letting go.”
“Then don’t let go, asshole.”
“It’s too late, Paterson. I already have.”
I hang up, dial another number, and put it back on speaker so I can drive.
It rings three times and then Mitch Valentine answers. “Are you good to go?”
“I’m good to go,” I reply, my voice hoarse.
“Good. We’re all set.”
I exhale, my gaze hard on the road as I focus ahead.
“Romero?”
“Yeah?”
There’s a pause. “You don’t have to do this.”
My hands grip tight to the steering wheel. “There’s no other way.”
“There’s always another way.”
I shake my head even though he can’t see it. “Not this time.”
“Good luck,” he says quietly.
I hang up.
MAC
The beginning…
“Mac! Get your butt down here this minute!”
I ignore the command. My time is better spent cutting the hair off my Barbie. It’s not that I don’t like her long, voluminous locks. She’s just too pretty. She needs an edge. A rocker edge. Which is why I drew tattoos down the left side of her arm and changed her name to Bon Jovi.
I wonder if we have any hair dye?
“Mackenzie Valentine! I asked you to chop those onions a half hour ago!”
The sound of heeled shoes clicking their way up the stairs reaches my ears. “Jared said he’d do it!” I lie quickly.
“No. I asked you.”
My mother’s firm voice is close now, and I turn my head. She’s standing in my bedroom doorway, her arms folded and lips pinched so tight a screwdriver couldn’t pry them loose.
“Why?” I growl. “Because I have a vagina?”
“Eww,” Jared complains, choosing that moment to exit his bedroom, which sits opposite mine. He gives his floppy brown hair a flick, the style a lame version of Nick Carter a la Backstreet Boys. “Girl germs.”
“Ugh!” I roll my eyes. “Find a more original insult, assface!”
Mum’s intake of air is sharp and competes with the sound of my older brother’s laughter. “Mackenzie!”
“Arrghh!” I launch Bon Jovi at Jared’s head, and her booted foot catches him in the eye. A girlish shriek escapes his lips before they press in a thin line. He picks Bon Jovi up off the floor and shoves her down the front of his pants.
My stomach rebels when I realise where my poor doll now lies. I dry heave. “Mum!”
“Onions.” She jabs her finger in the direction of the kitchen downstairs. “Now. And, Jared, please remove Mackenzie’s doll from your pants.”
I concede the battle but not the war. Tomorrow is a new day after all. I stomp down the stairs, passing by my other two brothers, Travis and Mitch, both of whom sit at the kitchen table doing homework. Mitch is the eldest at sixteen. With dark hair, tanned skin, and green eyes, he thinks himself God’s gift. Trouble is so do the girls in his class, which reinforces his warped belief. Travis, with his blond hair and green eyes, is next at fifteen. Fortunately, he spends most of his time go-karting so he bothers me the least. Then there’s Jared at thirteen. With brown hair and green eyes, this brother is the most evil of the three; my days are spent planning counterattacks and shoring up my defences against him. I’m the youngest at the sweet, tender age of eleven, but I’m also the only girl and in this house that makes me Ruler of the Kingdom.
“Do-gooders,” I mutter under my breath as I pass by the dining table.
In the next second I’m flying through the air like a missile. I crash into the sideboard, rattling Mum’s treasured china display.
“Mackenzie!” Mum whips out, turning. “What is wrong with you?”
I rise to my feet, ignoring the throbbing pain in my right hip. Mitch’s smirk damns him as the culprit. Fool. Oh dear eldest brother of mine, will you ever learn? Poker face is a weapon in this house, and you are yet to perfect it.
“I tripped over the leg of the chair.” I smooth my hair, tucking long blonde strands behind my ears. I feel Mitch’s eyes burn into my back, waiting for the fallout as I follow Mum into the kitchen.
Soon, I promise silently and pick up an onion from the chopping board. “Mum, there’s something I want to talk to you about,” I say, slicing the ends off the vegetable.
“Mmm?” she murmurs distractedly, her back turned as she takes a tin of chopped tomatoes from the cupboard above.
“I saw Mitch kissing a girl by the school gate this afternoon.” A total lie but Mum’s attention latches onto the comment like a suction cup, her brow furrowing into deep grooves. “Does that mean she’s his girlfriend? Are they having …” I lower my voice to a whisper and widen my eyes “… sex?”
Mum sucks in a sharp breath, horror darkening the emerald green of her eyes. It’s all I can do to hold in the burst of laughter as I peel the outer layer from the onion. I accidently take off three thick layers leaving half behind, but I begin to chop regardless.
“Of course not,” she tells me and presses her lips in tight, white line.
“Because they’re not married?”
“That’s exactly right,” she confirms, her eyes shifting to my eldest brother with a spark of determination.
Payback is a bitch, Mitch, I murmur silently, chuckling at my own rhyme as I go back to chopping, finishing when they’re diced to Mum’s specifications. As I’m leaving the kitchen, she doesn’t just call in Mitch … she calls in all my brothers. I hover for a few moments outside the door, eavesdropping as she makes a start on the birds and the bees speech for yet another year. Then I disappear up the stairs, happy.
Fifteen minutes later my brothers regroup in Jared’s room and begin plotting my demise. I know because I’m hiding out in his wardrobe in the dark. It stinks in here like sweaty socks and old apples. I sigh silently, my ear to the door as I listen to their pathetic plan.
It’s just another day in the Valentine household. Taking each other down is a long-standing tradition in our family. But while we stand against each other inside these four walls, outside of them we stand united. Our motto? Never mess with a Valentine.
“Kids, I’ve been called in on a case,” Mum yells up the stairs. “Mitch, can you take over dinner for me?”
That means it will just be the four of us for dinner. Mum is a social worker and Dad works as a Chief Inspector for the Sydney City Police and he’s on shift.