Burned (8 page)

I leaned forward and whispered in her ear: “One way or another, you’re going down. Courtesy of Danny, Emily and Emma.”

Her jaw went iron hard. “Nice try. But you got the name wrong.”

“No, I didn’t. You got it wrong.” I glanced over at Eagle Man. “You screwed up hiring her.”

“I’m getting that.”

“You mistook Emily for me,” I said. “She was a friend. I was out that night doing a junk-food run when you came into the house and murdered my family. I saw everything, Meena. Saw you go into the house. Heard the shots. Watched you run out as the flames burned. I’m a witness. What happened when the shooting started? Did you just see Emily’s dark hair and assume it was me? Just decided to shoot everything that moved and hoped you got us all?”

“Josie?” Her head twisted my way. Disbelief gave way to recognition. “Why didn’t you go to the cops?”

“Right. Some distraught teen’s word against the word of a decorated cop. No one would have taken me seriously. You’d burned down the house—probably used a stolen gun. How was I going to prove anything? And I didn’t know who else was in on whatever you were doing. What if you had partners on the force? That would’ve been hilarious, wouldn’t it?
I go blabbing about what I saw to some officer or detective who turns out to be working with you. I’m sure they’d have been all too happy to arrange for me to have an accident while in protective custody. No. No way. I couldn’t trust anyone in blue.”

She stared. Processing. “But the girl—”

“Homeless kid. Off the radar. When she died, there was only me to remember her, to mourn her loss. No one else knew. No one else cared.”

“Two years on the streets? You should be dead.”

“So should you.” I leaned back and settled in. “The night’s still young.” I looked over at Eagle Man, took in the anger that made his body hum. “And looks like it’ll be a fifty-fifty roll which of us will die.”

FIFTEEN

In 2007, severed feet began washing up on the beaches near Vancouver, along the Strait of Georgia. No bodies, just feet. As Meena hit the brakes and we came to a stop by a deserted house that stood by the water, I wondered if my feet would become part of that mystery.

“Get her out.” Eagle Man sounded disgusted. He stepped out of the sedan and took the laptop. “Find out who else she told about the files.”

Three people, and they were safe in a parkade far from here.

Meena opened the car door, pulled me out, cut the ties that bound my feet
and pushed me toward the broken front doors of the house. “You may as well tell me.”

“Yeah, I’m all about doing your job for you.”

She cuffed me on the back of my head. “Who else knows?”

I twisted, looked at her over my shoulder. “In five minutes, the whole world.”

Eagle Man looked like he was going to swallow his face. “Fix. This.”

Meena shook me hard enough to loosen my teeth. “Who knows?”

“Face it. You went wrong on a bunch of levels. But your big problem this time was that you couldn’t go through police channels to watch Vincent’s apartment, could you? Had to do it with your gangbanger buddies, and it took time to get everyone in place.”

“A couple of hours.”

“More than enough time to put my plan in motion.”

“And look how well it worked out for you.” Amusement and victory lifted her voice. “Hogtied and—”

“Hey!” Eagle Man’s roar cut her off. “What is this?” He lifted the laptop. “Where’s the real computer?”

Meena turned. Stared at me.

I stared back. “Who’s laughing now?”

“It’s a shell,” he yelled. “A case and nothing more.”

I shrugged. “There’s a little more in it. Like the
GPS
tracking device from Meena’s computer.”

“We were tracking the wrong laptop!” He slammed the computer against the sedan and sent the plastic pieces spinning into the air. “Where’s the real one?”

I shrugged. The night I’d stolen her laptop, I’d bought an identical copy at the pawnshop. Dressed as a girl, I knew she wouldn’t look, wouldn’t make the connection.

Meena grabbed me by the throat. “Tell him.”

“No.”

“He’ll kill you.”

“I’m already dead.” I wrenched free. “I died the night you murdered my family.”

Eagle Man was coming at me, and coming hard.

“Why, Meena? My mother loved you. How could you—” My voice broke. “How could you shoot her? Shoot Danny? He was just a little boy. You took everything from them. From us. And Emily? She was harmless—all she ever wanted was a home.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“You set them on fire!”

“I would burn the world for my daughter!” She grabbed me, shoved me against the porch steps. “Your mom would have told you how sick Dollie is, the medications she needs. It’s experimental—none of it is covered! You think I can afford two hundred dollars a pill on a cop’s salary?” Her hand went around my
neck and squeezed. “Where’s the laptop? Tell me or they’ll kill her.”

Pricks of light sparked in my darkening vision.

“Tell me!”

“Let her go!” Eagle Man’s voice.

Meena’s grip disappeared, and I fell to the ground, gasping for air.

Eagle Man yanked me upright. “The files. Where are they?”

I ignored him, talking to Meena as I struggled to my feet. “That was my mom’s mistake, wasn’t it? Treating you like family, feeling like you were family. What happened? Did she use your laptop? See something she shouldn’t have?”

“She didn’t know—I tried to tell them she was okay—” Meena glanced at Eagle Man. “It didn’t matter. I had to fix it.”

“It was for nothing. She never would have figured out your connection to the gang.”

Eagle Man and Meena exchanged a glance that said whatever had been in
those files, it could do more than prove she was a corrupt cop.

“Where’s the laptop?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

He took a step, lifted his hand and cracked me on the side of the face.

With my hands tied, I had no way to hold my balance or break my fall.

He kicked me in the ribs. “Where are they?”

I retched, grateful there was nothing in my stomach to puke up. “I don’t know. I gave it away.” That day at Bishops Prep, I’d handed it to Jace and told him to make the files public. In exchange, I’d delete the video of Bentley. I’d told him I was giving him the computer as a sign of good faith.

That had been a lie. It was my end game, my final play.

Eagle Man stared down at me. “Finish her,” he said to Meena. He moved to the car. “I’ll deal with you later.”

“I can find the laptop.” Meena’s voice rose with hysteria. “I can fix this.”

He turned. Gave the cop a look only she understood.

Meena sobbed as she dragged me to my feet. “Tell me where it is.”

“I don’t know.”

“Tell me or they’ll kill my daughter!”

Meena made an inhuman sound. Her fists rained on me. She screamed at me to tell her where the computer was.

I didn’t say anything, and after she’d hit me enough times to turn my vision red, she stopped. Became quiet. “We’re all dead. Me, you.”

I didn’t say anything.

“My daughter. You’d let them take my daughter.”

It hadn’t occurred to me that Meena was working for the gang or that they’d use her daughter as collateral, but it was too late now. I was dead. So was Meena, and there was no way to stop Eagle Man from abducting Dollie. “You took my brother. My mother. My best friend.
One for three.” I was just talking, using words to cover my pain. The thought of Dollie being hurt, another innocent victim because of Meena, another fallen child because of me… It was another black mark I’d carry on my soul.

“Let’s go.” She pushed me into the house. Using a flashlight, she traced the architecture. When the yellow beam landed on a column, she shoved me toward it and used the zip ties to chain my hands and feet around it.

“Why don’t you just shoot me?”

“Bullets can be traced.”

“You think the cops finding a body tied to a column will be less suspicious?”

“The fire will take care of the zip ties.”

“Another fire, huh? There’s your problem. No creativity, no imagination.”

“Keep whistling in the graveyard, kid. Lots of transients here. Lots of them start fires to keep warm. It’s the perfect place
to end you.” She hesitated. “Unless you tell me where the files are.”

“Because your gang buddies will let me live? Will let you or Dollie go free? Give me a break and don’t be stupid. We’re all dead now. Anyway, it’s out of my hands. The files have already gone public.” That was the deal with Jace. Release the information on the Internet, and in exchange I’d delete the evidence of Bentley’s theft. If Jace didn’t do what I asked, Vincent had instructions to give the video of Bentley to the cops.

“You’re lying.”

“Google your name.”

She did. Then she smiled. “Nothing but commendations.”

My heart turned to ice as she grinned at me.

“Looks like your buddies didn’t come through. Looks like I still have time to save Dollie and myself.”

No. It couldn’t be. Then I realized that if Bentley could hack a car system,
he had the skills to find my phone and delete the video. And once that was done, Jace didn’t have to help me.

Hope
. Another way to spell
dead
.

Meena dropped the lighter and set the wood on fire. “Give my regards to your family,” she said and walked out the door.

SIXTEEN

The smoke billowed; the flames rose. I’d figured Meena’s end game would look like this, and I’d taken precautions. A knife in my sock and another one in the waistband of my underwear. Only I hadn’t counted on how fast the fire would move. Or how much the smoke would cloud my vision. I tried to cut the ties, but my eyes stung and my lungs burned.

I heard a noise behind me. Three figures came into view. I blinked, coughed.

Raven knelt by me, cut the ties. “Newb.”

Jace lifted me over his shoulder. “Idiot.”

Bentley stood watching. “The world is full of infinite possibilities,” he said. “You dying isn’t one of them.”

“Jerks.” My voice was hoarse, weak. “You tracked the laptop
GPS
. You were supposed to put the files on the Internet.”

“While they burned you?” Jace gave me a shake. “You think we’d let you go on a suicide mission?”

“You didn’t know it was.”

“I knew it. You knew it.” His voice softened. “We’re a team, whether you like it or not.” He put me in the backseat of an
SUV
that still had the new-car smell.

“How many cars do you have?” I asked.

“Wait till you see the clubhouse,” said Raven.

I lost track of time. When the
SUV
came to a stop, I opened my eyes and gaped at the view. Calling these guys filthy rich
was a total understatement. We were in a garage big enough to need a postal code. Jace came around to the side door. I opened my mouth to tell him I could walk, but he put his arms around me and pulled me close. I kept quiet and enjoyed the ride.

He took us to a living room that I was sure did second duty as a football field. The place looked like it was waiting for a photographer from a home magazine to do a glossy spread. It was kind of creepy, actually. Perfect. Unlived in. Unloved.

I glanced at Jace as he walked away and tried not to think about him and love.

A couple of minutes later, he came back. “We need to clean you up. Lie down.”

I ignored the smirk on Raven’s face and the flood of warmth that heated my skin. The first-aid kit in his hands said he wasn’t going to go all soft and romantic on me. I lay face down on a leather sofa while he cleaned the cuts.

I heard Raven and Bentley talking about the laptop and going through the files.

“Payments,” said Raven. “Looks like she was helping the Vëllazëri deal drugs and was helping them avoid any raids.”

“There’s more,” I said, thinking about what Eagle Man had said about Dollie. Thinking about Amanda. “It goes beyond drugs.” I raised myself on my elbows. “What now? Upload the files to the news outlets? Take it to a police station and hope some cop listens?”

Jace shot me a look. “You’re kidding, right?” He took the laptop. “We send it directly to the police chief.”

Raven shook her head. “Figures you’d know him.”

“Wait.” I moved to him, leaned over his shoulder. I went into the Sent folder of Meena’s mail app and copied her address.

“Seriously?”

I ignored his question and pasted
Meena’s address in the Cc section. Then, in the body of the email, I wrote, “On behalf of Emily and Danny and Emma and Amanda and Josie.”

Jace gently squeezed my hand. It hurt, but it was a good hurt. A second later, I heard the
whoosh
of email being sent.

“Delivered to the police chief’s private email,” Jace said with a sarcastic grin. “And I thought there was no benefit to being a member of one of Vancouver’s most powerful families.”

Stretching, Raven said, “I helped you, noob. Remember that when I come calling in the favor.”

SEVENTEEN