toxin | parker | book two

CHAPTER FIVE

[ANGRY GREEN BEAST(S)]

•

The next morning, Mari decided she was going to contact Louis. After bringing the idea up to Natasha over breakfast, the conversation went like this:

"Not by yourself."

"No, probably not."

"Absolutely not." Natasha looked at Mari sternly. "If you should see him, you'll be accompanied by me at the very least."

"And the prison guards and such," she added.

"Well, of course. When do you want to see him?"

"As soon as we can. I think the lawyer said we have to call ahead of time, since there are specific visiting hours and specific protocols for time windows after the sentence was called..."

"Do you have anything specific you want to talk with him about?"

Mari churned her bowl of fruit with her fork. Watching it, she said, "I want to ask him why he went from us to him, why he didn't tell us, what changed, and the best way to attack his father, Mister Zollas."

"Alright."

Mari looked at her watch.

"I should head to the gym. Nina will be up any minute."

Natasha nodded sadly. "One day, and one day soon, she'll know. She and your mother will know. As soon as we get Louis and Mister Zollas away for good... I promise."

Mari nodded, set her dishes in the dishwasher, and went off to the training facility a few floors down.

Peter was off to school, shortly.

During the time between his arrival and the start of school, MJ met him at his locker. She picked up the weirdness about Peter.

They made small talk, long enough for her to lead him out to the courtyard in the middle of all the buildings. In a private area, she sat him at a picnic table and said seriously:

"What's up with you? You're acting weird again, like how you were when your lab partner killed herself."

"She was in a car accident," he said sharply. "An accident."

"You didn't answer my question." She crossed her arms.

"Sit?" he asked. She sat. Students were clearing out and it was obvious that time was drawing nearer to first bell.

In a low and serious voice, Peter said, "She's alive. It's a complicated story, but she's alive and she has an ability and her father and brother tried to kill me and Steve tried to kill her, but it wasn't her. It was her twin sister that her father kept in Spain when her mother and her sister and brother and her moved here. So she faked her death but came to us and now the Avengers and her brother and father... and you... are the only ones who know she's alive. Her brother's in prison for something or other but her father is kicking it back at his sandwich shop, and we have to put him away so we can tell everyone she's alive—"