Payback (10 page)

Aiden.”

Anthony nodded. Rae walked over to the bed and sat down next to him. She took his hand, and he noticed she was careful not to let her fingertips touch his. She hadn’t put the wax back on them yet. “It doesn’t matter,” he told her, looking down at their clas ped hands. “You know everything about me, anyway.”

“Stil , privacy,” Rae answered. She let out a sigh. “So.”

“So,” Anthony said back.

“I guess we should talk about it.” Rae’s grip on Anthony’s hand tightened.

“Yeah,” he agreed. The whole ride back, they’d listened to the radio in silence or made stupid little comments about nothing to each other. But they couldn’t keep pretending nothing had happened.

“Got to be the agency people who kil ed him,” Rae said.

“Yeah. They must have found out that he was hiding Yana.” The smel of blood and urine fil ed Anthony’s nose again as he tho ught about Aiden. The smel of death.

“And that he was trying to help me,” Rae added. “Clearly they knew that I was in contact with him.” Her eyes strayed to her desk.

The note was hidden inside.

It’s like I helped kill the guy,
Anthony thought.
I begged him to help Rae, and now he’s worm food.
“Don’t start thinking it’s your fault or anything,” he told Rae, talking to himself as much as to her. “The guy helped us, yeah. But it’s not like he was clean.

He was there when they were doing the experiments on your mom. He knew Mercer was kil ing people. And he didn’t try to stop it.”

“He stopped the agency from kil ing me. Or whatever they were going to do when they busted into that motel room where I was meeting Mercer and kil ed him,” Rae reminded Anthony. “They would have at least locked me away for the rest of my life.”

“Yeah.” What else could he say? He wanted to say something bril iant, something that would somehow make everything okay, but there was nothing.

Anthony let go of Rae’s hand so he could wrap his arms around her. He pul ed her close enough that he could feel her heart be ating against his chest. The clean grapefruit perfume she always wore fil ed his lungs as he breathed in, and it washed away so me of the death smel .

He could deal with the fact that Aiden was dead. It wasn’t like he was happy about it or anything, but he could deal. Aiden had sort of had it coming.

But if Rae-he cut off the thought before he could complete it and buried his face in her damp hair. She tightened her arms aro und him.

Freeze time,
he thought. He didn’t need anything else to happen to him in his life.
So just somebody freeze time now.

*

Go home and act like everything’s normal. Easy for her to say,
Yana thought. She walked across the lawn toward her house. It looked different to her.

Like she’d been away for a mil ion years. But it had only been a couple of weeks.

Wonder if Dad even noticed I was gone,
she thought as she unlocked the front door.
Probably,
she decided when she saw what a sty he’d made of the place. He had to have noticed there was no one fol owing him around with a shovel.

So I’m supposed to have a normal life
-
except for my power-training sessions,
Yana thought. She shut the door and stepped into the living room. That’s what Ms. Cascone had told her.
I guess that means I should
-

“Yana? Is that you?” Before she could answer, her dad strode into the living room and got in her face. “Where in the hel have you been?”

Like you care,
Yana thought. “At a friend’s. You’re always saying how you want more privacy for you and what’s her name, so I thought I’d give you two a little honeymoon.”

“If you’re not going to be here, I expect a cal ,” he told her, sounding like he was doing an imitation of a dad on a sitcom. Which he probably was. It wasn’t like he had a clue on his own.

“Fine. Next time I wil . Sorry,” Yana said. She could thought-implant him and end this conversation right now, but it felt like her brain had freezer burn.

“You don’t sound very sorry,” he went on. But his dad imitation was already getting shaky. He missed his French toast and his meat loaf; she was sure of that. Other than that and the cleaning thing, she could have been locked in her room for weeks for al he knew.

“I am sorry,” Yana answered. Even to herself she didn’t sound sorry, but she kept on going. “It was inconsiderate.” That’s what a sitcom dad would want to hear. “I real y won’t do it again. Now I’ve gotta go to bed. School in the morning.”

Without giving him a chance to reply, she stepped around him and headed straight to her room. It felt different to her, too. Smal ler. But God, she was glad to be there. She’d been sure she’d never get out of the Wilton Center alive when she’d realized that

everyone in the agency could somehow block her thought-implanting.

Didn’t matter. She had permission to go there every day. More than permission. The goons would probably hunt her down if she didn’t show. And somehow she was going to figure out a way to take the whole place down. For her mom. And for herself. And even for Rae-not that Rae would ever let Yana within a hundred miles of her again.

Yana shoved off her shoes without untying them, then stripped off her jeans. She fel into bed, wearing the T-shirt she’d had on for way too many days. Al she wanted right now was sleep. But her bed didn’t feel right. She rol ed onto her side so she was fa cing the wal and rearranged the pil ow under her head. It didn’t help. She flopped onto her back. The new position didn’t feel comfortable, either.

I should be able to sleep on a pile of rocks,
Yana thought.
That’s how tired I am.
But she felt al itchy. Maybe she should have changed the T-shirt. Yana sat up and flicked on her dim bedside table light.

Movement from the other side of the room caught her eye, and she froze. Had they fol owed her? She blinked, looking over in the direction of her desk.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. The pen on her desk, it was writing al by itself.
You fell asleep,
she told herself.
You don’t re
member, but you fell asleep, and now you’re dreaming.

The pen stopped writing and dropped off the desk. It bounced when it hit the floor.
You fell asleep,
Yana told herself again. But it didn’t feel like she was asleep. Her skin had broken out in goose bumps. That didn’t happen in a dream, did it? And things didn’t look so sharp and clear and basical y
normal
in a dream, did they?

“You know you’re not dreaming, so just stop it,” she said aloud. She forced herself to stand up, then she walked over on tremb ling legs to the pen. She picked it up. It lay stil in her hand, the plastic barrel cool.

Yana set the pen down on her desk and stared at it, waiting for it to move again. It didn’t. Maybe she real y had been dreaming.

What was she thinking? Of course she had been. It was the only explanation. She pul ed out her desk chair and sat down. She needed to rest before she took the few steps back to her bed, that’s how weak her legs felt.

I’ll just put my head down for a few minutes,
she thought. Then she saw it. The note. The note the pen had been writing.

Stay away from the Wilton Center if you value your life.

Yana parked her Bug between two SUVs, then climbed out and slammed the door. “Welcome to the world of boring rich peop le,” she muttered. If she had the money that the people at this school had-Yana shook her head. She shouldn’t be thinking about that bul , especial y not after what that kind of thinking had almost made her do. She shuddered, reminding herself that she was here for a reason. And just where was her reason? Yana scanned the groups of people leaving Sanderson Prep. No. No. Nope.

Did I get here too late?
She looked from face to face to face.
Ah, there you are.
Yana strode across the parking lot. Anthony saw her coming and rushed to meet her. Before she could say a word, he shoved her against the nearest car, another SUV, of course.

“What are you doing here?” he burst out. “I’m tel ing you right now, you even think about hurting Rae, I wil kil you.”

Yana tried to pul away, but Anthony’s fingers were digging into her shoulders. “Look, I found out the-”

“What kind of twisted bitch are you?” Anthony demanded. “You’d actual y kil an innocent person for something you thought her mother did? Are you brain damaged?”

Yana squeezed her eyes shut and tried to let his words wash over her. But he was saying al the things she’d been thinking.

“Al Rae wanted was to be your friend,” Anthony continued to rant. “That’s it. And you-”

“If you don’t want to find your hands around your own throat, let me go,” Yana said. She opened her eyes and stared at him. He stared back for a moment, his brown eyes hot with anger. Then he released her and took one step away. “You have no right to judge me. Your mom’s stil alive,” she told him.

“And that excuses everything?” he asked. “That makes it okay that you-”

Yana didn’t want to hear whatever he was going to say next. “My dad said you were looking for me. That’s why I came here,”

she interrupted. “I want you to stay the hel away from my house and my father. And stay the hel away from me.” That was al she had to say to him. She never wanted to see his face again. When he looked at her, she couldn’t take what she saw in his gaze.

Everything she’d already told herself so many times was right there in his eyes. Yana turned and started away from him. But he grabbed her by the elbow and spun her back to face him.

“I don’t care what you make me do to myself,” Anthony said, his voice low and harsh. “There’s no way I’m leaving you alone un less you kil me. I’m going to be watching you every second. And if you even think about Rae-”

“I’m not going to do anything to Rae,” Yana burst out. “If you would just listen, I was trying to tel you that I found out the truth. I know that Rae’s mom didn’t kil my mom. I’m going to leave her alone. I’m going to leave you al alone. Al I want is for you to le ave me alone, too.”

Anthony didn’t answer.

“Wel ?” Yana snapped.

“Oh, was I supposed to actual y believe something you said?” he asked. “Everything that’s ever come out of your mouth has be en a lie. Everything you’ve said to Rae. Everything you’ve said to me. Al lies.”

“Wel , people have been lying to me, too,” Yana muttered.

“Not me. Not Rae,” Anthony replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Right, not you two. You’re friggin’ saints, okay?” Yana shot back. “I’m not. My mom is dead, and the people who kil ed her are not going to have a chance to do it to anyone else. But you and Saint Rae can just go on with your lives and be fabulously happy.” Yana glanced at some of the prepsters mil ing around. “Although don’t be surprised if she dumps you for one of the whi te-bread rich boys eventual y.” Yana turned around again and walked away-fast, so he couldn’t grab her again.

“You’re going after the agency?” Anthony cal ed after her.

Yana kept walking. She had to get away from here. Away from him. She couldn’t spend another second thinking about Anthony or Rae or anything else except finding a way to take the agency down.

“Yana, that’s suicide.” Yana heard Anthony hurry up behind her. He didn’t touch her this time, and she kept walking. “They just kil led Aiden Matthews. And they made it clear they’d kil Rae, too, if she didn’t keep her mouth shut about them.”

Yana took another step. Her foot slipped off her platform sandal, and she stumbled. Before she could catch her balance, she fel , skinning her knee on the asphalt of the parking lot. Tears stung her eyes. She blinked them away. But more kept coming, and a trail of snot started dripping out of her nose.

Stop it,
Yana ordered herself.
Now.
She wiped her sleeve across her eyes and nose, hard, and shoved herself to her feet. Then she turned and faced Anthony. “Aiden’s dead?”

“Yeah. And Rae got a warning that if she even talks about the agency, she’l end up dead, too,” he answered. “They’d have no problem squashing you like a cockroach.”

“I can’t believe he’s dead. I was with him… He was…” Yana’s words trailed off. She couldn’t remember what she’d meant to say. Her brain was al fuzzy al of a sudden. She bit the inside of her cheek until the pain pul ed her out of her personal fog. “They kil ed him because they thought he helped me, right?”

Anthony shrugged, not looking at her. “I doubt they were happy that he quit. Or tried to. I don’t think it’s real y a place you can le ave.”

Blah, blah, blah. What he was real y saying was yes. The inside of her nostrils began to sting, and she knew in another second she’d be bawling again. “I gotta go,” she muttered. Her car was just a few feet away. Al she wanted to do was get in it and get out of the parking lot before she lost it.

Aiden helped with the experiments,
she told herself.
It’s not like he didn’t deserve it.
A scalding tear splashed down onto her cheek. Yana reached her car and yanked open the door.

“Don’t be stupid, Savari,” Anthony cal ed as she slid into the driver’s seat.