Payback (14 page)

GAIA WATCHED, FEELING DETACHED,
as the young officer pushed Tim's head down and half shoved him into the backseat of the squad car. It was the first real interaction she'd had with the police since the night Heather was slashed. The night everything about her was brought into question. The flashing red-and-blue lights should have signaled something good tonight. She'd caught the bad guy. Hopefully he'd be brought to justice.

Instead they just reminded her of what a general screwup she was. And she immediately thought of Sam.

He'd hated her after what happened to Heather. Had anything really changed since then? Was she ever going to know?

"Gaia?"

She glanced at the ground to her left and saw Charlie's scuffed-yet-expensive brown loafers next to her sneakers. Her stomach responded with an angry twist. She pulled her hands up inside the sleeves of her sweater and blew into the wool, warming her fingers as the car pulled away.

"What?" she asked finally, when she realized he wasn't going to speak again without being prompted. Like she felt like putting in the effort right now.

"I just wanted you to know I had no idea what was going on with him," Charlie said, shoving his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. "I swear I would never --"

"What you did was just as bad," Gaia said coldly, staring across the street at a decaying garbage can. She was totally disgusted with him, but she was sure that if she looked into his pleading eyes, she'd be even more sick. She couldn't believe she'd actually thought this guy could be a friend. That she took up for him to Ed.

Ed. Gaia squeezed her eyes shut. God, she was such an idiot. She'd defended a sex fiend to her one and only friend and practically called Ed a liar. She had some serious explaining to do. Pronto.

"What do you mean?" Charlie said now, sliding over so he was standing in front of her. He tilted his head down to catch her eye, making her look at him. He looked just like a puppy dog sitting under the table, begging for scraps. Gaia wanted nothing more than to kick him in the face. She would have, too, if the police weren't still milling around, asking questions. "I didn't try to force you. You know that."

"I know," Gaia said, a cold edge in her voice. She lifted her chin slightly and stared him down. "But you would have taken points for me."

The surprise in his face was highlighted by the sheer embarrassment. He took a step back, studying her warily as if she might be a witch or a psychic or something. "Who told you?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter," she said, pulling her jacket more tightly around her body. "I have somebody I have to see." She bowed her head and started up the street, steeling herself against the cold breeze.

"Gaia," he called after her.

"We're done talking, Charlie," she said, just loudly enough for him to hear. "We never should have started in the first place."

ELLA WAITED A GOOD FIVE MINUTES
until she was sure Sam was gone. She'd never passed a more frustrating five minutes in her life. Every fiber of her being wanted to open the door, pull him inside, and seduce him as she so easily could.

But now wasn't the time. Not when she looked like a crazed lunatic and had just trashed her own house. Not her most attractive moment. Ella knew her limits.

Slowly she reached for the doorknob and pulled open the door. A little red box fell at her feet. Aw. A gift for Gaia. Ella almost puked from the sweetness of it all. She squatted with difficulty in her tight skirt and picked it up. When she shook it, it rattled noisily. Something with lots of pieces. Not jewelry. Sam obviously wasn't practiced in the art of wooing a girl. But then again, jewelry would be lost on Gaia. Almost everything of any importance was lost on Gaia.

Turning around, Ella whipped open the closet door and shoved the present way into the back. Behind her bagged furs and boxed hats. Behind all the stuff she'd never worn but absolutely had to have. She wasn't sure, at that moment, why she didn't just burn it. Destroy the evidence completely.

But knowing it was there was somehow comforting. It would be a silent reminder of the day she first triumphed over Gaia.

Something she would undoubtedly do many more times to come.

Ella laughed quietly as she closed the door with a click. Her stiletto heel ground into a piece of broken glass, and she surveyed her earlier damage with an amused glance. She could deal with that another time. She strolled into the office and sat down at the computer, hacking quickly into the e-mail account George had set up for Gaia.

Within five seconds she'd found an e-mail from Sam. One saying thanks for an interesting Thanksgiving. So that was how Gaia had found out. Well, things were about to get interesting in a whole new way.

Ella clicked the reply button and typed a quick e-mail. She snickered at her own creativity. But then, Gaia was so awkward, writing like her was easy.

It was almost too easy.

When she was finished, Ella clicked send, then erased the e-mail from the list of sent mails so that Gaia wouldn't find it. Then she stood up and rubbed her hands together, feeling ever so much calmer than she had just fifteen minutes earlier.

This little victory definitely merited a glass of wine. Maybe even a large piece of cake.

Hell, she might even be nice to Gaia later.

In an alternate universe.

WITHOUT THE WIND, THE COLD WASN'T
so bad. It was almost refreshing. It gave Gaia a chance to think. At first when she'd left Charlie's, she'd been determined to go see Sam. She'd even made it as far as the south end of the park. But when she'd looked out at the shadows, looked ahead to the arch, she'd realized there was something else she needed to do first.

Now, standing outside the apartment building, Gaia felt almost calm. Almost at peace. She knew she was where she was supposed to be. There was only one person in this damn city who really cared about her. Who'd put her in front of everyone else. A friend who would hang out by the door every day just to see her face.

That is, if she hadn't totally destroyed the whole thing.

"Hey."

Gaia turned and looked into Ed's guarded brown eyes.

"I just came to say you were right, almost," Gaia said quickly. "And I'm sorry."

The other amazing thing about Ed was it took him only seconds to forgive her.

"FIRST OF ALL, I'D LIKE TO THANK
everyone for coming," Ed said, maneuvering his chair in front of the group of five girls who had responded to his semicryptic schoolwide e-mail. He glanced up at Gaia, who stood as inconspicuously as possible with the others, and flashed her a smile. "I've managed to lie my way into approved use of the PA system for a few minutes this morning, but once the administration figures out what we're doing, you can bet they'll be banging down that door before you can say Operation Exposure."

He earned a few small laughs and giggles, so he paused to bask in the approval. Until Gaia grunted at him, eyeing the clock.

"My point is, ladies," he said, narrowing his eyes and looking them over as if he were sizing up his platoon, "make your comments brief, and make them sting."

He nodded at Gaia, who walked over to the door of the small auxiliary office and stood in front of it like a bouncer at a bar on Canal Street. For now they had the room to themselves, but Gaia was their only line of defense should Principal Hickey decide to come barging in. She wasn't going to beat him up or anything, but she did have some delay tactics in mind. Ones she wouldn't share with Ed, of course.

"Who's up first?" Ed asked, glancing at each of five wary faces. Chrissy Margolis bit her lip and glanced at the others, then stood, pulling down on her batik print skirt.

"I'll go," she said, her face disturbingly pale.

Ed smiled reassuringly, picked up the PA mike, and flipped the switch. The clock read 8:42 A.M. Just about the entire student body should be milling around the halls right now, exchanging last minute homework and gab-bing about last night's
Friends
plot. It was perfect timing.

"Can I have your attention, please?" Ed recited into the microphone. "My name is Ed Fargo, and I'm here to talk to you about a very insidious plague that's running rampant in our school. It calls itself the Stud Club, if you can believe it, and the guys who hold memberships think they're pretty damn suave." He glanced over at Gaia, who rolled her eyes but was obviously concentrating to keep from smiling. "But I have some women here who would like to set the record straight," Ed finished.

Looking up at Chrissy's face, Ed had a sudden logic flash. "You'll understand in a moment why I choose to withhold their names."

As he handed the microphone up to Chrissy, her expression was all about relief. She lifted her chin, tossed back her curly hair, and cleared her throat.

"I'd just like everyone to know that Josh Talbot loses more saliva when he kisses than my dog produces in a year."

The girls behind her laughed, and she handed the microphone off to Gina Waters, who suddenly looked like she had attitude to spare. Ed wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of this one. Gina grasped the microphone as if it were a relay race baton, her knuckles turning white as she brought the mike to her mouth.

"My message is for Charlie Salita. Charlie, my friend, you last about as long as a biscuit in a dog kennel."

She bowed to the applause from the peanut gallery and gave the mike to a scrawny little girl who couldn't have been more than a freshman. It made Ed's stomach twist in a hundred directions to think someone had taken advantage of a girl so frail.

She cleared her throat demurely before speaking. "Charlie Salita. . .," she said, smirking slightly and looking up at Gina, "wouldn't know what to do with his tongue if it came with an instruction manual."

Gina let out a cheer of approval and high-fived the girl, who was giggling crazily at her own audacity. Gaia even cracked a smile, and Ed couldn't help thinking that it looked like Gaia was agreeing with the frosh. So she
had
kissed Charlie. Ick. Ed's life couldn't possibly get more unfair.

The freshman held the microphone out at the same instant the doorknob started to rattle. Ed's heart jumped and started racing at a pace that couldn't possibly be healthy. He shot Gaia a questioning look.

"Keep going," Gaia said, glancing at the lock. "They definitely have a key."

"When Chris Parker isn't sucking in, he has a gut that small children could use as a trampoline," the next girl said quickly, her eyes flashing with triumph as she passed on the mike.

Ed could hear the jangling of an overstuffed key ring outside the office door. His heart was in his throat. At this point lifelong detention was a given -- he just wanted all of the girls to get in their insults before they got busted.

Mara Trauth grabbed the microphone, watching the door from the corner of her eye. It started to open, and Gaia grabbed the knob, slamming it closed again and using all her weight to pull against it. "Come on," Gaia urged through clenched teeth.

"That's your delay tactic?" Ed hissed, glaring at her.

"Now you understand why I didn't want to share it," Gaia deadpanned.

Ed turned his attention to Mara, who didn't seem to be breathing. "Um . . . uh . . ."

He hit full panic mode when he realized she was shaking and her hands were sweating profusely. She looked at him wide-eyed, like she was asking for help, but Ed had no idea what he could do for her.

"It's okay," he said, going for the calming-guidance-counselor tone. "Just say whatever comes to your mind."

Swallowing hard, Mara took in a shaky breath. "Dan Swarski smells like year-old goat cheese."

Her brow knitted, and she looked at Ed. "Was that okay?"

Ed nodded with a grin just as the door flew open and Principal Hickey burst in with his army of Village School rent-a-cops. The man looked like he'd just eaten a plateful of red-hot chili peppers.

"My office," he said with a growl. "Now."

They were big-time busted, but as Ed looked around at the gratified faces of the women around him, he knew it was worth it.

He only wished Heather had joined in on the fun.

HEATHER LICKED THE TIP OF HER
pinky and smoothed the end of her left eyebrow, leaning in close to the scratched-up mirror in the school bathroom. As always, her exterior was calm and flawless, but inside, her heart was pounding like a dance club bass beat.

And for the first time in ages, it was because she was waiting for Ed.

She had something she needed to say to him, and just thinking about what he'd done that morning -- what he'd done for her -- made her pulse do strange things. So here she was, hovering in the deserted bathroom across the way from the detention hall, waiting for Ed without looking like she was waiting for him.

When she heard his wheelchair in the hall, her breath caught momentarily, and she shook her head at her reflection. There was definitely something wrong with her. Something deep-seated and possibly pathological. But there was no use analyzing it. Right now, she had a mission.

Shaking her hair back from her face, Heather swung open the door and walked out into the hallway just before Ed turned his chair into the detention hall. What a coincidence.

"Heather," Ed said. She was sure there was a hint of excitement in his voice. Just a tad.

"Ed," she said, totally surprised to see him. "What's up?" She smoothed down the front of her white button-down shirt and half smiled.

"Nothing," Ed said, glancing into the classroom. He moved down the hall slightly, out of sight of anyone inside, and Heather followed. "How are you?" Ed asked.

"I'm okay," Heather said nonchalantly. "Listen, I've been meaning to thank you for what you did this morning," she said in a whisper.

Ed grinned. "Charlie really got the brunt of it, didn't he?" he said, completely satisfied with himself.

Heather smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. "Yeah, he did." Her heart was still racing, and it brought a blush to her face. She was heading into dangerous territory. If he noticed anything was different about her, there would be no going back. "So, anyway," she said. "Thanks. For everything."

"You're welcome," Ed said seriously, lacing his fingers together in front of him. "I didn't do it for you, you know," he said, a flash of mischief in his eyes.

Heather smiled back. "Yeah, I know," she said with a laugh. "I'll see ya," she said, and turning on her heel, she started off down the hall, her head holding itself high for the first time all week.

She knew exactly why Ed had done what he did. Why he'd gone to all that trouble to round up those girls and give them a chance to skewer the assholes who had used them. The assholes who had used
her
. He'd done it because he was a good person. And he had a good heart.

And because he still cared about her.