Austin and I hustled out of the house. The sun had set, and now the moon hung overhead. The night was so clear, and the moon was so bright, that I imagined I could see it hanging on a wire, like the moon off a TV set—just styrofoam that would crumble in your hands, but it sure was beautiful. As we pulled away in the Charger, Austin settled his hand on my knee. That was nice; he felt solid, real, and that was a nice change to the lies and half-truths we’d been swimming in.
“I know I should have kept my mouth shut,” I said.
His hand tightened on my leg, and he chuckled. “What did Lawayne say?”
“He said if I drop this whole thing, if I stop looking into it and give them what I have, they’ll leave me alone.”
“What?”
“He said they wouldn’t hurt me.”
“That’s . . . man, that’s great news.” He laughed again. “God, Vie. That’s amazing. Let’s celebrate.”
I didn’t know how to answer, so I brushed the back of my hand up and down his arm and waited for him to speak again.
“I guess it’s not great news,” Austin said, and his stiff tone betrayed both a sense of hurt and frustration. “I guess you want to keep going with this.”
“I have to.”
“Vie, Mr. Warbrath was a fucking pedophile. What he did—whatever he did—it must have been horrible. He deserved to die.”
Struggling to think of what to say, I unbuttoned the cuff of his shirt and slipped my fingers under the cloth, enjoying the feel of warm muscle and smooth skin and the fine blond hairs on his arm.
“So what?” Austin asked. His struggle to moderate his tone, to understand what I was thinking instead of shutting me down, was obvious. It’s like how his hair, I thought. Like how his hair curls across his forehead when it dries: it’s beautiful and it’s him and he probably doesn’t think anything about it at all. “Is this some sort of moral thing?” Austin said.
“Like, do I believe that Mr. Warbrath deserves justice, even though he was an awful human being? Not really.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t understand it. He was a pedophile. He was a terrible person. Why did they kill him?”
“Didn’t you just answer your own question?”
“It doesn’t make sense, though. Imagine you’re Makayla. You’ve been doing God knows what for the mob for a couple of years. You’re sent back here to do something—we don’t know what, but Lawayne says it’s important, a big deal. Why risk everything by killing a pedophile chemistry teacher? Unless you have a serious reason to do something, why risk ruining your cover?”
With a frown, Austin withdrew his hand from my leg and ran it through his hair. “So you’re saying they killed him for some other reason? Something that might tell us what they’re really up to?”
“Please don’t be mad.”
“I’m not mad.”
“You’re shouting.” And then, in an attempt to be meek, I added, “Just a little.”
“Ok, I am mad. I’m furious. This isn’t fair, Vie. You shouldn’t have to do all of this. You should get to have a normal life, not a fucked up history of being tortured, not spending your junior year hunting down psychopaths and serial killers and mobsters.”
“I don’t want you to be in any danger—”
“Oh for God’s sake,” Austin said, the anger in his voice finally going up in sparks like the finale of a fireworks show. “You’re not going to do this alone. That’s the end of the discussion, or I will drive to the sheriff right now and tell him everything.”
“Considering the possibility that he’s part of this, that might get us both killed.”
“Well, I’d rather take that risk than have you go sneaking off like you did when you thought you had to take care of River by yourself. Or like you did with Luke. So you better open that pretty mouth right now and promise me you won’t do anything without talking to me first.”
I slid my hand up his sleeve again, tickling the inside of his wrist. “Pretty mouth?”
“I’m going to count from five.”
“Ok, fine. I promise I will ask for help and not try to do everything by myself.”
Letting out a breath, Austin leaned over and pecked me on the lips. “That’s better. Now we just have to figure out what to do next.”
“First, we need to talk to Becca. I want to see what she can find out about the Biondi. We know that they’re here because of something Mr. Big Empty offered them. Maybe we can figure out what.”
“Besides his psychic abilities?”
“Not besides. What I mean is, maybe we can figure out how they plan on using him. Or if they’re already putting him to work.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Austin said. “He can possess people, right? Control them?”
“Right. But they have to be hurt pretty bad before he can really get inside them.”
“So they’re going to use him to take over someone powerful.”
“That’s kind of what I was thinking. I’m hoping Becca can figure out some possible targets.”
“Ok. What else?”
“We need to talk to Stroup-Ogle. If she knows anything about Belshazzar’s Feast, we need that information.”
“Ok.”
“And I think we need to keep an eye on Kaden.”
In a carefully neutral tone, Austin said, “Why don’t you explain that one?”
“He was there the night Mr. Warbrath was killed. He was in the science hallway alone before we even got there. I know he fainted when we found the body, but that could have been an act. I’m not saying Kaden is helping them willingly, but maybe he’s being controlled or manipulated or blackmailed.”
Austin’s hand dropped onto my knee again, and over the Charger’s rumble, I could hear the embarrassment and amusement in his voice. “I might know something about that.”
“What?”
“Kaden wasn’t down there because he was doing something wrong. I—I asked him to do something.”
“What?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“What did you want him to do?”
Laughing, Austin squeezed my leg. “Let it go, ok?”
“You’re sure?”
“Trust me.”
I gave him a suspicious look, but he only laughed and slid his hand higher up my thigh. “All right,” I said. “That’s all I can think of except trying to keep an eye on Hailey and Makayla.”
“It sounds like a very good plan. And now I have one of my own.” Emmett pressed down on the accelerator, and the Charger leaped forward along the desolate stretch of highway. “I’d like to take my boyfriend to a nice dinner.”
“That’s the best plan I’ve heard in a long time.”
That was when the lights and sirens started behind us.