CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - SULLIVAN
Iziah drives, I sit in front, and Uzi, Cyan, and Sadie squeeze together in the back. It’s a predictable arrangement. Uzi wants me to know Sadie is his and he wants to sit behind me.
Needless to say, I’m not worried about either of those things.
“Get off at the next exit,” I tell Iziah.
We drove through Wolf Valley about an hour ago, and it took us an hour just to get there, so it’s a good thing I didn’t just walk out of that house and try to find my own way home. We literally were in the middle of nowhere.
No one’s really been talking, and it got dark hours ago, so the beautiful scenery can’t make up for the fact that this drive is just boring.
“Thomas?” Sadie asks from the back.
“Hmmm?” I say, trying to act uninterested to keep Uzi’s possessive gene from surfacing. I need him compliant and the best way to do that is to let him think Sadie is not what I’m after right now. But she is.
“What are your friends like? Will they… hurt us?”
“Sadie,” I say, huffing down a laugh. “I wouldn’t bring you here if they were going to hurt you.”
“Sure you would,” Uzi says. “But the answer is no, Sadie. They won’t hurt us. They won’t be able to.”
I let that remark go and finish answering her question. “Case is a good guy. I don’t know if he’ll be there or not, but you’ll like him. Everyone likes Case.”
“And Lincoln?”
“Well…” I smile. “He’s a little bit… antisocial. But still, not a bad guy. And Molly will be there. And Sheila. So no, he’s not going to start anything. As long as your boyfriend there doesn’t start shit.”
“If I do,” Uzi says, “I’ll be sure to finish it.”
Sure you will, I think silently.
“How is it possible that the three of you got away so clean?” Cyan asks. She has not said a word since the cabin.
“Define… got away,” I say.
“Well, they never came back for you,” she says. “Didn’t you find that strange?”
“We thought we killed them, Cyan. So no. We didn’t expect ghosts to come looking for us.”
“It was kinda naive on your part, right?”
“What was?” I say, wishing they’d just go back to shutting up.
“Letting yourself believe you got them all.”
“As I said, Cyan, we didn’t know there were two schools.”
“There’s more than two,” she snarls.
“I’ve already gotten that impression. Take a left,” I tell Iziah.
Now he is the only one of the three who intrigues me. He’s been silent too. Only speaking when he’s asking for directions. And I can’t figure out if he’s just subordinate to Uzi—I’ve since learned through conversation that Uzi is the older of the two brothers—or if Iziah is just biding his time.
He slows down as he gets off the freeway, stops at the sign, then turns left towards Lincoln’s house. This is all Linc’s land out here. He’s got hundreds of acres. But the house is hidden down a five-mile private road, which is a little farther up this particular mountain.
“What are we going to do once I’m… reconnected?” Sadie’s asking Uzi this, not me. So I just listen.
“Go home,” Uzi replies. I can’t see him. He’s sitting directly behind me. But I can tell he’s not interested in answering that question.
“Well, you’re welcome to stay the night,” I offer. “It’s late. You won’t want to be driving home tonight.”
I get an incredulous laugh from Cyan. But Uzi says, “We’d love to.” Which means yeah, this guy definitely has an agenda.
I expect an outburst from Cyan over that little bit of news. But she shuts up.
“OK, it’s right up here on the left,” I say.
“Where?” Iziah asks.
“That reflector right there,” I say. That’s the only marking to Lincoln’s private road. Iziah turns left and enters the long driveway. The pine trees lining the road are old and tall. It feels a little claustrophobic on the best of sunny days. So driving up here at night, with just the moon shining through the expansive branches over our heads—well, it’s more than that now. It’s eerie.
Everyone stays silent for the rest of the drive, and when Lincoln’s mansion comes into view, lit up in all its glorious detail with outside lamps, I feel, rather than see, every neck craning to get a better view.
“Does he know we’re coming?” Sadie asks.
“Nope. He doesn’t even know I’m alive. I’ve been missing for, what? A good month, at least.”
“I don’t like this,” Cyan says. “It feels like a set-up.”
“A set up for what?” I ask, just as Iziah comes to a stop in front of the house. But she never has a chance to answer, because spotlights flick on and we’re bathed in light so bright, we all have to shade our eyes.
Iziah’s door opens and Lincoln is there, his weaponized arm gun positioned at his head. “Who the fuck are you and why the fuck are you here in my—Thomas?” Linc says. “Dude, is that you?”
Never in my life have I been so fucking happy to see Lincoln Wade.
“Where the fuck have you been, asshole? What the fuck, Thomas? I should kill your ass. I should lock you up in the goddamned lab and never let you out. I should—”
He’s got a whole litany of things he’d like to do to me, and he never stops talking as he walks around to my side of the truck. When I get out he pulls me into a hug. “I thought you were fucking dead, man. I thought you were dead.”
“Not dead,” I say, prying his arms off me. It’s kinda touching that he missed me, but this isn’t the time or place for a reunion. We have business to finish. “Where’s Case?”
“Home,” Linc says. “But I’ll call him. Sheila?”
“I’ve already alerted him and he’s on his way,” Sheila says from some device on Linc’s person.
I look over at the house and see Molly standing in the doorway, arms crossed like she’s cold. “Molly,” I say. “Nice to see you again.”
She shakes her head at me, like she cannot believe I just showed up out of nowhere after all this time. “I’m fine, thanks,” I call.
“Jerk,” she calls back. But her reaction isn’t as mean as it could be. So I take that as affection. We are siblings after all. She can’t really hate me. Just like Thomas can’t really hate her. I’ve never had a problem with Molly. It wasn’t me who wanted her dead. That was all Thomas.
“Who the fuck are these people?” Linc says, finally taking notice of who’s in my little party.
I cringe, waiting for Uzi to say something back. He and Iziah have already gotten out of the truck. Iziah is walking around the front of the vehicle to join us, but Uzi is only a few feet away. Thankfully, he stays silent.
I don’t think he’s afraid—though he should be. I think he’s a little in awe. It’s hard not to feel awe when you meet Lincoln. Thomas and me? We’re just regular-looking dudes. So is Case. On the outside, anyway. But Lincoln’s uniqueness is on full display. His arm is a weapon. A very powerful weapon that shoots—shit, I don’t know all the details, but from what I saw when they blew up Blue Corp… a whole litany of projectiles can be launched from that arm.
I introduce Sadie first, since she’s the only one of them I care about. “This is Sadie Scott.”
“Nice to meet you.” Her voice is sweet and makes Lincoln smile. Cyan scoffs. “This is my sister, Cyan. And my friends, Uzi and Iziah.” She points them out, so Lincoln won’t be confused about who is who.
“They’re Prodigy,” I say. Because that’s all Lincoln really needs to know.
He squints at them, eyeing each one as he takes them in. Then he lets out a long breath of air. “We should probably go inside.”
I smile at Sadie when she relaxes. Even Cyan relaxes. Iziah was never tense, so he does nothing but follow Lincoln when he walks towards Molly. And Uzi only gets more wound up. His muscles are on high alert. I’d like to reach into his stupid head and see just what the fuck he’s thinking.
But I don’t want him to know I can do that yet. And besides, now that they’re here… I have plenty of time for that later.
Dumb fucks have no idea what they’ve just walked into.