Shadow of a Doubt VI: Innocuous

Mike and I were huddled around Don's laptop, hunting for anything else we could find on bombs, opiates, and Mohawks. Turns out, in the couple months we were tramping around the forest, Don had fingered seven more 'mysterious' explosions happened in otherwise unremarkable areas: four in and around the City, two in Cali, and one in Texas. All of them were written off as gas leaks or drug labs gone haywire, exactly the same excuses used for the Foot Labs, and no article ever showed photos of the scene post-bomb. Semtex, we learned, at least when it's old or cooked up clandestinely, doesn't leave any particular mark or trace once it blows. Most other explosions, like those in actual accidents, are pretty easy to find the cause. That meant one of two things: either a lot of meth cooks and gas stove owners got careless in the last few months, or the cops and firefighters knew about these places beforehand and covered them up on purpose.

Looking at the addresses, the bombs all went off in places we'd seen the Foot work before: waterfront warehouses and high-rise penthouses. Out of the blue, I heard shouting coming from downstairs, and we broke our gaze on the screen to look toward the doorway as stomps approached us. Leo stormed up, an angry glare so animal on his face it made Mike stifle a startled yelp. Before he could trudge in, Donny practically flung himself over Leo's shoulders.

"Can you hear me? That's not what happened Leo, no one's kissing anybody! Raph didn't do anything!" He pleaded, before the unfazed Fearless plucked him up by his sash and tossed him to the floor.

"Then what did he do on our birthday…" an accusatory finger lifted toward Mikey. "...and what just happened in the kitchen?"

"You were both drunk as fuck, and neither of us knew you were all strung out and shit." I stepped in front of Mikey as he gasped, unresponsive. "That's what happened."

"Okay." He seethed. "And no one bothered to let me know. Alright. Then what about thirty minutes ago?" Don and I raised our eyebrows.

"What are you saying?" I growled, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Mike's face start to pale to ghost white. "What's he talking about, Mike?"

"I…Uh…" his eyes shifted from corner to corner. "I said some…pretty mean stuff. And did something I promised I wasn't gonna do again." Now he looked to his toes. "And I'm sorry."

"At least you were more fun when you were fucked up all the time." Leo's eyes were scrunched tightly shut as he recited. "Feel free to join me in the shower if you come to your senses."

"I said I was sorry!" Mike practically bawled. "And you said I was taking orders from Raph, like I couldn't possibly think for myself!"

"Before you run off and try to kill yourself like last time…" Leo finally opened his eyes. "Can you not see how that would fuck with me? As if the kiss alone wouldn't have done that enough."

"You fucking kissed him again?" I screamed in his face, leaning in as he cowered back. "What's wrong with you, Mike?" My fist willed its way through the wooden wall, and the whole room went silent as a ringing phone echoed from downstairs. All of us flew down the hall and into the kitchen, where Don hit the speaker button just before the last ring.

"Hello?"

"Sorry to bother you this late, boys." The gruff voice confirmed what we'd been told: the only people who knew our number or whereabouts were Witness Protection and their superiors. "Unfortunately, there's been some complications in the case."

"What kind of complications?" Donny gulped.

"The homes of a couple court officials were destroyed earlier tonight. Everyone's okay, but the time they're taking off is going to drag out the trial by a week or so at least. We're increasing security, and alerting the Coast Guard to keep a more constant presence around your location, just to be safe."

"Out of curiosity, sir, we shouldn't expect anyone to come ashore unless it's for a delivery, right?" I hoisted myself onto the countertop. "Just for my own sense of well-being."

"That's correct, unless they perceive you're in trouble. Then they'll do whatever's necessary to protect you."

"That's reassuring, thank you." Mike shot back. "And my condolences to your co-workers. What was it that happened to their houses, exactly?"

"Oh, it's tragic, really. Still under investigation, but I'm hearing they both look like gas leaks."

"Give them our best wishes." Don clicked to end the farce. "Okay, there's definitely a serious conversation that has to happen between Mike and Leo in the near future, but first we need to get the hell out of here."

"Oh, you all decided we're leaving?" Leo grumbled.

"What I was trying to tell you earlier was that Raph and I overheard radio chatter earlier from the guys with the bombs and money. They found out about Raph taking the money, and they're meeting again about two hours down river from here. The Coast Guard, or whoever they're smuggling the bombs for, has now blown up nine buildings across the country since we've been back to the Lair. And hearing that the very same Coast Guard is about to show up here in droves, I'd say it's in all of our best interests to get all our belongings onto the boat and get the hell out of here."

Leo just blinked, perceiving how elegantly he'd just been undermined.

"Glad I didn't unpack yet." I swung myself back to my feet. "See you on the boat in five."

Like clockwork, everyone gathered their luggage (really just our phones, weapons, clothes, and Don's laptop) and some supplies from the house and stashed it in the cabin of the boat.

"Why do you think they told us there was only a canoe here?" Mike asked, setting the hefty radio Don had used on the countertop. The whole cabin was about the size of a bedroom in the Lair, the queen-size bed only about five feet away from the galley and the door to the deck.

"Nothing makes sense about this place." I spat, grabbing the binoculars and heading to the bow as Leo turned off all the lights in the boathouse and hopped aboard. Now cloaked in pure black, Don hit the button by the bay door to make clack upward, and grabbed my outstretched hand to climb on deck as each ascending slat bathed us in another inch of moonlight. Once the racket stopped, I peered out through the binoculars onto the water for signs of any boats or lights. "Nothing out here." I muttered in a low tone.

"Good." Don whispered back, and I followed him to the bridge. "I found the user's manual online, and it looks like this is a hybrid model. We should be able to keep it in low gear and stay silent."

"Didn't realize they made Priuses for water now." I mused.

"Only for ecologically conscious millionaires." He flicked on a few switches as he consulted the diagrams on his phone. "Or smugglers trying to keep quiet. Who else would paint a motor yacht matte grey?" Pushing the throttle slightly forward, the boat crept forward, the only noise coming from the gentle ripples of wake behind us. I paced around to the back of the boat and pressed to close the door once we'd cleared it, and we were off.

Despite having never (to my knowledge) captained a ship in his life, Don's big brain didn't disappoint as he steered us between islands and through channels to keep us as invisible as possible, splitting his focus between the GPS and the subtle murmur of Leo and Mike's conversation in the cabin.

"So…are you still angry with Mike?" he interrupted the silence of the river.

"Yeah…You kidding me? The first time, he says it's a drunk fluke, and I believe him. Now, he does it sober, and makes me think he was lying to my face when he promised it wouldn't happen again."

"I can see why you'd be upset."

"To think I walked into the shower and locked lips with him right after he did the same to Leo…Yuck." I spat overboard for effect. "Better not catch crazy."

"I don't think that's how 'crazy' works." Don laughed to himself. "You're really that revolted by getting close with someone other than Mikey?"

"I didn't say that." My eyes narrowed. "Just prefer to know who's spit I'm swapping. Why you asking?"

"Just curious." He turned his eyes back to the GPS. "When Mike told me what he did with Leo on our birthday, he mentioned telling you. You said something about doing the same thing to me for revenge?"

"That…uh…" What the hell was he digging at? I crossed my arms. "Yeah, I said that. Mostly to get Mike jealous. But that don't mean I'm gonna start acting like him and forcing myself on you. As far as I'm concerned, Mike is…mine. and I don't know the nitty-gritty of what you and Leo got going on, but this is the longest he and I have gone without a fight, and I'm not looking to give him a reason to go off."

"Hold on." Don turned his concentration away from the wheel. "When you say Mike's 'yours', do you mean it in a poetic sense, like 'I am yours and you are mine", or in a proprietary sense, like he's an object?"

"I mean it in a 'however the fuck I wanna mean it" sense. Fuck, Don, I open myself up to you and you just keep pokin' around?"

Apparently, I was starting to shout. Don held a finger up to shush me, and both Leo and Mike turned in their seats to look toward me, having heard through the cabin windows.

"You didn't answer my question." He practically whispered.

"Shit, Don, you're asking me the difference between love and greed. I know you've got a better answer for that than I do. What we have, and what you two have, it's not something I can compare to what's 'normal', like what Casey and April have. And it ain't what Splinter taught us when he used the word 'love'."

"Love was something we all shared." He stared into the moon's reflection in the water. "

"Damnit, he got to you too?" I half-joked.

"Just playing devil's advocate. Trying to wrap my head around what's making Mike do what he did. Plus, for what it's worth, the first time Leo and I tried anything, I didn't imagine it'd unfold into two separate marriages. Seemed like just fooling around at the time."

"Wait, seriously?"

"I don't know about you, but when my sex drive first kicked in, I was willing to feed it any and every fantasy my mind could churn out. I'll admit Leo was at the forefront in the beginning, but…well, I mean, look at you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I blushed.

"To quote you, 'however the fuck I wanna mean it'."