“I’ll hang back,” she says.

“Brock’s on his way.”

“The three of us will get her back, Case. We’ll be drinking toasts after work tomorrow night, Mae asleep on somebody’s feet like she always is. I’m feeling it. We’re going to own this thing, just like those waves at Mavericks.”

For twenty-five years, it’s been pure Jen Stonebreaker to encourage her sons to face what she’s afraid of. So long as they’re not.

And just a few weeks from now, to tow Casey into the deadly heart of her own fear. Can she save him from John’s fate?

Of course I can, she thinks: that’s the whole point of the Monsters. To beat what I’m afraid of. To slaughter the fear.

She won’t let Casey sense it.

“I told Brock and Mahina not to bring guns,” he says.

Always the pacifist, Jen thinks. Always the peacemaker, the good, the fair, the God-fearing.

“And?”

“He said don’t worry.”

But worried she is, knowing that Brock’s heart will always beat with anger, no matter how many churches he founds, or “sermons” he gives or disaster victims he helps out.

Jen sighs, says nothing more on this topic.

Almost noon, sheltered by the flowering walls in his fragrant backyard in Laguna Canyon, Casey zips the last thousand-dollar bundle of bills into his backpack, takes pictures and video.

“Heavier than I thought.”

“Two-point-six pounds,” says Brock, just back from gassing up the Go Dogs Econoline.

“Don’t tell me how you know that,” says Jen.

“My colorful past,” he says.

Mahina hefts the backpack by its handle, nods. “Feels like power.”

Casey gets the Barrel bar napkin from his wallet and a pen from his shorts pocket, then sits and dials Bette Wu. He’s on speaker so everyone can hear.

“Bette Wu. Yes?”

Casey says his full name, quietly, then listens and writes.

She gives him the slip number for Empress II in the National City Marina.

“Let me guess,” says Bette. “You are on the speaker with your mother and brother and his wife.”

“Yes, I am. Is Mae alright?”

“Yes, and hello, everybody! I have read so much about all of you. A family of celebrity American surfers!”

Brock leans into the phone and whispers a profane curse.

“I recognize that voice and ’tude, Brother Brock! I love the Breath of Life Rescue Mission. People need anger. And comedy.”

Jen crowds close: “Don’t hurt Mae, you conniving bitch.”

“Mae’s fine, Jen. No worries! But there is now another small wrinkle.”

“No more of those,” says Casey.

“Very easy and simple, though,” says Bette. “Jen, we have business to discuss. So you come with Casey to deliver the money. See? Easy wrinkle! Casey, Jen, and the money. In Casey’s truck. We see any police, any car that is not your truck—then Mae goes overboard. We see Brock or Mahina, or the Go Dogs van, then maybe Mae runs away and we can’t find her. We find guns or phones on you … well, you know what happens. Okey dokey?”

Casey pictures Bette from last night in his bar. He’s never felt real anger before, at least nothing like this. Bette Wu has more wickedness in her than anyone he’s ever met. His first brush with evil. She seems to be made of it. To enjoy it.

“Mae misses you so much,” she says. “We will be watching for you, Casey and Jen!”

She rings off.

11

Casey steers his pickup out of Laguna Canyon toward the toll road, headed south for San Diego, Jen beside him, the cash-stuffed pack on the cab’s back floor.

Over the Pier 32 National City Marina, skies are blue, and a brisk breeze pings the lanyards and halyards of the pleasure yachts.

Empress II sits heavy and workmanlike in slip 41-B, with her fading blue and red paint, well-used outriggers, and her tag lines swaying loosely in the wind. The coiffed motor yachts seem to ignore her.

Casey hoists the pack and strolls toward the vessel, his mother beside him. He’s dressed as he almost always dresses, and it’s perfect for the role of ocean-bound young adventurer that he’s now suggesting: tan corduroy board shorts, flip-flops, a black hoodie with Day-Glo orange draw cords, and wide-temple sunglasses.

Jen’s got on shorts, a T-shirt, a windbreaker, ankle-high trekking shoes, her orange bowl of hair partially contained in a black-and-green paisley bandana.

Casey sees Bette Wu standing atop the hold, phone to her ear. Mae stands beside her, tail wagging, her aging eyes recognizing Casey at this distance. Casey feels his eyes tearing up, feels like his heart is trying to get out and run to her.

Smoker, whom Casey had jettisoned just yesterday, a cigarette in his mouth and a pistol in his waistband, holds open the lower boarding gate with a bored stare. Casey starts up the ramp, Jen behind him. He looks up to see Mae propped up on the gunwale, looking down at him, smiling between barks with that big open smile Labs get.

Now aboard, Casey kneels and gets a mauling from Mae, kissing her forehead and kneading her ear joints. Mae howls emotionally. Jen kneels too and just about gets knocked over.

Bette, dressed in snug black tactical garb and red mid-ankle Air Jordans, leads them down a short steel gangway and into the cigarette-smoke- and incense-infused galley. The ship seems bigger than Casey remembers from his initial search for Mae. There’s a row of portholes along the port and starboard sides, the thick plexiglass bearing the scars of years. Through which Casey sees the gently swaying blue-green bay, a ketch coming into its slip, the marina ships bobbing at dock. Hears the Empress II generators moaning away, their vibrations coming through his flip-flops. Keeping their catch frozen, he thinks, and their lights on.

Seated at the head of a heavily shellacked table is the Kings fan his mother described—Bette’s alleged father. To his right sits a handsome Latino in a trim suit, a leather briefcase open on the table just a short reach away. Casey notes the black grip of a stainless-steel pistol peeking out from under the fastener file folders, and a yellow legal pad bristling with handwriting.

Bette pulls out a chair and sits to the left of her father, who is hatless now, but again clad in black-and-white Kings hockey team warm-ups, with a jungle of gold around his thick neck.

He offers a half smile, nodding to Jen and Casey. “As you know, I am Jimmy Wu, Bette’s father. I have many interests. Such as King Jim Seafood. All the very best seafood, always fresh. I am famous in seafood distribution in Southern California. I have big social following. I have YouTube. I have ads on TV late at night. My colorful trucks are all over the place. This is my attorney, Octavio Benitez. Mergers and acquisitions. Octavio.”

Benitez rises as Jimmy completes the introductions, but sits without shaking Casey’s offered hand. “A pleasure to meet you both.”

They sit and Benitez fixes first Jen, then Casey, with dark, amused eyes.