Bet Your Life (16 page)

“Making money off Harry,” Ryan said. He was rubbing his right shoulder as we walked down the road. “I think I pulled a muscle.”

“You’ll be lucky if that’s all you did.”

“You’re really angry, aren’t you? Most girls would have loved that.”

I gave him a look instead of answering and he responded with a lopsided version of the usual grin.

“You’re hopeless,” I said.

“Not if you meant what you said earlier about maybe giving me a chance.”

“You never stop. Ever. Not for a second.”

“Quitters only have themselves to blame for being losers.”

“Did you get that line off a poster?”

I was waiting for Ryan to come back with a snappy response, so when he didn’t answer me, I looked to see if he was all right. He was staring fixedly at a point a little further down the road as we walked toward it. I looked in the same direction, and saw nothing, and looked again … and at last I saw what Ryan had seen: a figure by the side of the road, in the darkness.

By the time I saw him properly, and knew him, we were close enough to speak.

“What are you doing here?” Ryan asked.

“Waiting for you.” Will stepped out of the shadows, the bruise on his cheek visible even in the moonlight.

“Oh good,” I said lamely. “We can all go home together.” I might as well not have been there. Both of them ignored me as they stared at each other. If they’d been dogs, there would definitely have been growling.

Earlier on they’d started something.

Now it was time to finish it.

11

I stood to one side, trying to think of something—anything—that would put them off fighting. I came up with absolutely nothing I hadn’t said already. It hadn’t worked before and it wouldn’t work now.

Will moved to stand in front of us. He was still ignoring me in favor of staring Ryan down. “So. What part of
one good punch
did you not understand?”

“I had to make it look real.”

“I made it look real, and I didn’t have to hit you to do it.”

“You drew blood. That wasn’t part of our deal.”

“I think you cracked my rib.” Will’s face was still stony. Then, suddenly, he grinned. “Good work.”

“Likewise.” Ryan put out his hand, and for the second time that night they shook hands, though this time it was an altogether friendlier experience.

“Wait. Wait a second…” I was looking from one of them to the other. “That was
planned
?”

Ryan looked sheepish. “Not all of it. Just … when we knew we were going to have to fight. Will didn’t want to.”

“You didn’t either,” Will said.

“True. But if I’d known what you were going to do to me I might have hit you for real. I mean, you hit me in the mouth. I could have broken a tooth.”

“I didn’t hit you that hard. And you hit me first.” Will leaned to the right a little and gave a hiss of pain. He straightened up. “All right. I’m not doing that again.”

“Do you really mean to say you faked the whole thing?” I asked.

“Not everything.” Will pointed at the bruising on his face. “You can’t fake this. But we made it look worse than it was.”

“Why didn’t you just say you weren’t going to do it?”

“Harry wasn’t going to give up,” Ryan said. “It’s kind of a rite of passage—if you’re a guy and you go to his parties, some time or other it’s going to be you. I’d dodged it a few times. Now I’ve gotten it out of the way.”

“He wanted me to fight from the moment I walked in,” Will said.

“Why?”

“You know what people are like. There’s an extra thrill when I do stuff I’m not supposed to, because of Dad.” He looked at me for a moment and I felt a shiver down my spine when his eyes met mine. “I’m sorry you were upset.”

“Upset? Upset doesn’t cover it. I was so scared for both of you. I thought you might really get hurt. Then I was angry with you for fighting. Now I’m angry with you for lying to me.”

“We couldn’t explain,” Ryan said, as if it was reasonable. “We couldn’t take the risk that someone would guess. You made it believable. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry before.”

Will, of course, hadn’t been looking at me at the time. “Jess was crying?” he asked, intrigued.

“Big time. Ugly crying.” Ryan launched into a series of hacking sobs, then laughed at the expression on my face.

“Don’t worry,” I said tightly. “It’s the last time I’ll ever cry over either of you.”

“Oh, come on, Jess.” Will was grinning too. “You were angry that we fought and now you’re angry that we didn’t. That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Feminine logic,” Ryan suggested, and I incinerated him with a glare.

“It’s typical of you to say something like that. And then you wonder why I think you’re shallow.”

The smile disappeared off Ryan’s face. Will bit his lip to stop himself from laughing. “She got you, friend.”

I turned on him. “Don’t think I’m not cross with you. I don’t even want to look at you, let alone speak to you.”

“Jess,” he protested, “give me a chance.”

“To do what? Tell me I’m an idiot for minding what happens to the two of you? I don’t think so.” It was frustrating that the tears were welling in my eyes when I had specifically said I was not going to cry over them again.

The two of them exchanged a guilty look. For longstanding enemies, they had a lot in common.

“I’ve had it with this conversation. I’m going home.” I turned and stalked off down the road.

Ryan caught up with me first. “I said I’d see you home.”

“I can’t stop you following me, but I don’t have to talk to you.”

“OK. Fine.” He walked along beside me, while Will came up on the other side. “We’re not forgiven.”

“I’m not surprised.” To me, Will said, “I’m sorry.
We’re
sorry.”

“We are. We really are,” Ryan said.

“I thought the two of you hated each other.”

Will looked uncomfortable. “Hate’s a strong word.”

“We just hadn’t spoken for a while,” Ryan said.

“Like eight years.”

“Something like that.”

“Well, I’m honored to have been present when the double-act got back together.”

“Quite a big evening, one way or another,” Ryan said. To my dismay, he went on to say, “Did you find out anything useful?”

“I was a little busy.” I hoped Will wasn’t paying attention, which was futile.

“What’s going on?”

Very reluctantly, I said, “I want to find out what happened to Seb. His little sister asked me if I could help, and she’s friends with Petra, so I thought I’d ask some questions.”

“Because that worked out so well the last time.”

“It’s not like the last time. I’m not personally involved in any way, and no one is dead. I’m just finding out what happened so she can stop worrying about why someone put him in the hospital.”

Will looked pained. “Jess, if someone hurt him deliberately, they’re not going to want you to tell the world what they did. They’ve got every reason to try to put you off. And from what I heard, Seb was pretty badly injured.”

“Yes, but the consensus is that he deserved it. And your dad doesn’t want to know what happened. He’s still selling the car-crash line. I don’t think he’s going to want to take it any further even if I do find out what happened.”

“So why put yourself in harm’s way?”

“Because there has to be a reason why he was attacked. Beth needs to know if he deserved it or not.”

“And you can’t stand not knowing now that you’re sure there’s a mystery.”

“I’d like to know what there is to cover up. Is that wrong?”

“Stupid, maybe? But in character.”

“Oh, thanks a lot.” I could hear Ryan laughing beside me. “Because you would just walk away.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“But you think I should play it safe.”

“I’d prefer it.”

“Too bad,” I said.

Will nodded. “OK. So it
is
you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I wasn’t sure if you’d had a change of personality to go with your new look.”

My face burned. “Nope. Still me.”

“And you still won’t listen to common sense.”

“If that’s what you call it.”

“Remind me not to get in your way, Jess. Ever,” Ryan said.

Will looked at him over the top of my head. “Yep. Not worth it.”

“Absolutely.”

“Let her have her own way.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

I gritted my teeth. “Are the two of you finished? Or is it going to be like this all the way home?”

“All the way home, I should think,” Will said.

Ryan nodded. “All the way home.”

“Well, at least you could make yourselves useful.” I thought for a second. “You said it was a rite of passage to fight at Harry’s parties.”

“Not just Harry’s,” Ryan said. “It’s always his idea, though. Any time that gang are all together, there’s a fight.”

“Like on Saturday night?”

Ryan shrugged. “Probably.”

“There was a party at Guy’s house before the disco.”

“So I heard. I wasn’t there, though.”

I turned to Will. “Were you?”

“I was at home.”

“Did Guy get into a fight?”

Will looked at me for a long moment. “What makes you ask that?”

“When I saw him up close, in the kitchen, I could see he was covered in bruises and they looked pretty recent.”

“He was in a fight on Saturday night.”

“With?”

“Don’t jump to any conclusions.” Will warned me.

“Say it.”

“Seb Dawson. But it was before the disco and Seb walked away. Guy didn’t leave him with a fractured skull.”

“Is that what Guy told you?”

“It’s what I heard at the fireworks.”

“Me too,” Ryan said. “Seb got punched in the nose. He had a massive strop about it. He stormed off—said he didn’t want to fight anymore and he wasn’t going to bother with the disco. He said he had somewhere better to be.”

“He was mortified that Guy got the better of him,” Will said. “Guy’s not exactly tough. Seb was expecting to walk it.”

“What were they fighting about?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, Will. It has to be something that really matters to Guy to make him fight like that. According to him, you’ve been sharing all your problems with him. Don’t tell me he hasn’t done the same with you.”

Will frowned. “What did Guy tell you?”

I couldn’t tell him. “Nothing. Your turn.”

“Guy doesn’t take life too seriously, but that doesn’t mean he’s shallow. He has a massive crush on someone—and before you ask, I don’t know who. He’s been after her for years, literally, and never got anywhere. He had more sense than to tell anyone about it, but Seb saw him with her and worked it out. About a month ago, while Guy was away at school, Seb pulled her and sent Guy pictures. He went crazy, as you might expect. Seb did it to annoy him and it worked.” Will shrugged. “That’s the kind of person he is.”

“The more I hear about Seb, the more I think someone did the world a favor,” I commented.

“There’s no justice in half killing someone because they’re a dick.”

“So says the policeman’s son.” Ryan’s tone was mocking and I glanced at Will, worried that the look on his face meant we were about to have Round Two of their fight, this time for real. It took him a second, but Will got control of himself.

“The point is, Guy didn’t hurt Seb. Not seriously, anyway. He got the better of him in their fight and Seb went off in a huff, and as far as anyone knows, no one saw him again until he was scraped up off the pavement.”

“And you have no idea who the girl is.”

Will shook his head.

I turned to Ryan. “What about you?”

“No idea,” he said regretfully. “I’d tell you if I knew.”

“Can you try to find out? Both of you?”

“Why is it relevant?” Will asked. “I told you, he walked away.”

“I don’t know. I’m just trying to make a list of people Seb upset. It might actually be easier to make a list of the people he
didn’t
annoy.”

We had reached a corner and Will turned to walk downhill.

“Hey, where are you going?” I pointed in the other direction. “It’s this way.”

Will raised his eyebrows. “Yeah, you could go that way. If you wanted to walk a lot further than you need to.”

“But that’s the way we came.” I turned to Ryan, puzzled. “I’m sure we came down there.”

He looked sheepish. “Mm. We did.”

“But—” As I said it, I remembered what he’d told Hugo. “The long way round?”

“Might have been.”

“I really wish I had a working sense of direction,” I said bitterly. “You tricked me.”

“It was a nice night for a walk.”

“If you like the cold.” I started down the road Will had chosen, shaking my head. “You really are something else.”

“Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

“I don’t blame you, for what it’s worth.” Will was walking backward. “Who wouldn’t? Especially when Jess is looking like that.”

“You’ll trip.” I said it flatly. It was too late for him to give me a compliment. I hated the dress. I hated my makeup. I yearned for jeans. I wanted to be at home, right now, and I started walking faster as Will turned round and walked beside me, silent now, as was Ryan. The evening was so over.

We came to the corner of my road and Ryan stopped. “This is where we say good-bye.”

“Are you going?” I asked.

“
I’m
not. He is.”

“I’ll walk you to the door,” Will said.

“No need. I’ll do it.” Ryan put his arm around my shoulders. “I said I would.”

“It’s not far out of my way.” Will’s eyes were on me, waiting for me to say what I wanted. But what I wanted was to stay out of it.

“You should get home, friend,” Ryan said.

“I’ll be there soon enough.”

“Sooner if you go straight there.”

Ryan’s grip on me was tight and getting tighter. I winced. “Look, Will, there’s no need for you to make a detour. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He looked stubborn. “It’s already tomorrow.”

“Later, then. Go and rest.” I yawned—I didn’t even have to pretend to be tired. “I’ve had it, I’m afraid. I need to go to bed.”

“Let’s go.” Ryan pushed me gently in the direction of Sandhayes.