Chapter Twenty-Four

Tomás

Jack had given me instructions on how the exchange would work. I'd check in my coat at the coat kiosk with the pretty brunette, Ruth. I'd give her an alias Jack used whenever he made contact with his dealer. Rod. Just Rod. I thought it was a stupid name, but the girl didn't miss a beat. I handed her my coat and she handed me a plastic tag. The tag would belong to an identical coat with whatever Jack had agreed upon. I should've asked him for clarification on things, but I just wanted to get out of Arcadia.

And that was distribution. I was the mule, dropping off the cargo. And I hated it. The lies. The risk. I shoved the plastic tag inside my front pocket just as Wren sidled up next to me.

"Come on, dude. Let's party."

All Wren did was party.

I hadn't been to a party since the Friday before Daniel died. It'd been an induction for Trinidad Jr. Maddox Brennan had been there, but I hadn't met him that night. Nick had disappeared with T early on and was missing the following day. Didn't show up until Sunday. Dad had burned through my phone leaving messages. I'd been the idiot to tell Nick about the induction. It'd been my fault he'd been there, and Dad had been pissed. It's the reason I hopped into the car with Daniel that day, the reason I let him drive me to our old trailer park place. I thought he'd been protecting me from Dad until things cooled down. Instead, he'd been protecting me from myself. Daniel knew I'd be too nosy to just sit it out if I'd been closer. He knew me better than anyone.

"Hey!" Wren yelled over the music breaking me from my thoughts. "What do you want?"

We had reached the bar and I needed, wanted to get drunk tonight. "Surprise me!" I yelled back.

He ordered a few top-of-the-line bottles and we carried them with two glasses to a table River had commandeered. I searched the place for Kieran and Fox. Wren noticed. "They're busy in the back room," he yelled.

Trying to get Kieran out of my thoughts, I poured myself a good portion of whatever Wren had ordered. It burned nicely down my throat, settled in my stomach. "What about you?" I asked River. "Aren't you going to drink?"

He gave Wren a sour look. "I'm the designated driver."

"Sucks to be you," Wren said with a wink. Then he shot to his feet, grabbed my arm, and hauled me to the dancefloor. It took a few seconds, literally, to be overwhelmed by women. Wren had three over him. I had two. One in front, one in the rear. Kieran hadn't taken the lifeline I had offered him. I would've stayed at Arcadia if he'd just given me some assurance that we could be together. That he wanted me, liked me, loved me. Fuck, my head was tied in knots. He hadn't, so I didn't feel guilty touching the women around me. I even ghosted their lips with mine all the while trying not to think of Kieran in that back room.

I don't know how many women I danced with, how many bottles I drank. Wren was a horse. He'd disappeared once or twice. I couldn't bring myself to take any of them to whatever dark hallway or backroom used to fuck. My dick was not happy.

I finally called it and stumbled my way to the bathroom. Or the general vicinity where I thought the bathrooms were, which was not the case. I ended up in a dark empty hallway flanked by a couple of doors. Shit. This place was like a maze.

The moving lights against the walls made me woozy and I stopped to take a breath, leaned against the wall. A door to my left swung open. It led to stairs going up. I heard voices. Kieran, Fox, and two other guys.

"The takeover has to go down seamlessly. Don't take any chances," A deep voice said. I recognized that voice. Not Kieran and not Fox. My brain churned for the memory.

"I want to see his face. Tristan Brennan isn't going to know what hit him," Kieran said. "He'll be begging me to leave his house intact."

They laughed.

The guy with the deep voice stopped just under the light and I took a good look at him. My stomach clenched, bile rose up my throat. I recognized the shaggy brown hair, the brown eyes, a dusting of a beard grown in patches on his face. His boyish looks that served to divert people from thinking him a threat. But I knew the violence lurking under the surface. I'd seen him expertly shoot and knife his way through the cartel with my father. Talis Alvarez. And last I heard, he'd gone missing.

What was he doing here with Kieran? What the hell were they planning to do to the Brennans? Had my dad been part of that? I couldn't think.

Fortunately, the door shaded me from view, and I waited, plastered against the wall until they walked off. On shaky legs, I pushed myself to move. I needed to get out. I needed to regroup.

There were too many bodies from here to the coat check. I decided to abandon the coat I was supposed to pick up for Jack. I had my wallet, my phone, Nick. I needed help and Nick was the only one I could trust. My brother would help me get somewhere. Hide me. He wouldn't abandon me.

I wiped my face and came back with wet fingers. I was crying. Why was I crying?

Because you fell for the enemy. You fell for Maddox's safety. And for Kieran's dick.

I was going to vomit.

I reached the exit sign. Hoping an alarm wouldn't sound, I pushed myself out. The only sound that followed was the door snicking closed behind me. Some clarity returned to my head. Kieran had taken everything from me. Even my heart. But fuck him. I wasn't going to be his toy, his pet. I wasn't going to be the keeper of his secrets. He could go to hell.

We were in a populated area. I could see gas stations, motels, restaurants. And it was snowing. Fat, thick flakes stuck to the ground, the snow reaching my ankles. Cold as shit, I pulled out my phone, moving at a crisp pace down the alley toward civilization. My feet already cold. My body shivering.

I was looking down when I heard a car brake in front of me. A piece of shit sedan slipped to a stop and the passenger door opened. Jack stuck his head out. "Get in. Let's get out of here!"

I didn't even think twice. Relief spread through me, and I jumped inside the car. He couldn't take off with the inches of snow on the ground, so he cruised into traffic.

"What the hell are you doing here? How did you get out?" I said, my jaw clacking from the cold.

He gave me a wide smile. "I took a chance." He scowled. "Where's the coat?"

"I left it."

He slammed on the brakes and the car fishtailed before stopping. I planted my hand on the dash to keep from slamming into it. "What the fuck?"

"We need that coat!"

"I'm not going back in there!" I yelled back. "You go get it then."

He considered that for two seconds. I thought he was going to toss me out of the car before he cursed and started back into the street.

We took the 87 to Albany, making several stops along the way. The roads were bad and Jack kept needing to use the bathroom. He'd come back jittery as fuck afterward. High as a rat on steroids. I took the wheel after the first stop.

"Take it easy on that stuff," I finally said.

"Fuck off," was his response.

I drove feeling slightly uncomfortable in the tight space. I scratched my chin, my mind spinning with questions. "Why did you have me act like a mule if you were able to get out of school and do it yourself?"

He chuckled. "Because I wouldn't have been able to get you out. The Ark Boys have the Benjamins. I don't."

It still didn't answer why he had me be a mule for him, but I didn't push it. I was out of that school. It's what I wanted. Except now, I had to figure out what the hell I was going to do, and that made me dependent on Jack, at least until I got a hold of Nick.

I gave him a sideways glance, but he was already focused on the landscape. I didn't know why it all felt off, as if I were missing something important. No surprise there. I ignored the feeling.

He directed me into a neighborhood street full of dilapidated houses. A fresh powder of untouched snow made it look as if the street were abandoned. No kids out making snowmen, no people shoveling. The little number of cars lining the curb all looked abandoned.

"Turn into this one," he said.

I turned into a short driveway leading to a framed house leaning as if it carried the weight of eternity on its roof. The whole place looked sadder than where I lived at the trailer park, and that hadn't been great either.

The house had once been a light blue, now it was splotched with something that looked like tar. The couple of steps to the front door looked as if a giant had pounded through. The windows were filthy, and the area littered with old broken pieces of someone's childhood. Plastic cars, balls, a rubber tire buried under the snow.

"What is this place?" I asked.

He laughed and shook his head. "We're going to crash here tonight."

"Dude, we'd be safer crashing in the car, in the middle of the road."

"Not with those fuckers after you. Come on. Trust me." He smirked and something in his eyes made my skin crawl. He leaned over, pulled the key out of the ignition, because it was that type of car, and got out. Using a set of keys, he opened the front door and disappeared inside, leaving the door open for me.

Kieran's words slammed into me. The students at Arcadia were killers. Within the boundaries lay protection. Outside, anything was game. And here I was with a student who was possibly a killer, following him into some creepy abandoned neighborhood and an equally creepy abandoned house.

My fight or flight response kicked in too late. Or maybe I was too drunk to feel it. Dad always warned me that one day my sense of curiosity was going to get me killed. I'd hear gunshots, and I'd be the first one to poke my head out the door to see who got shot. Two guys fighting in the park with knives, yup. I was there calling their stupid names to stop with this shit and fight like men. I'd gotten my ass chased for that one.

Thinking about being chased, I wondered if Kieran knew I was gone. If he cared at all. They had to be back by dawn. I looked at my watch. They had a few hours to make it. The time it'd take to get there from the bar. They were probably speeding there now. Left me behind. Because who cares about the idiot. I was just a pretty face. Good for nothing else.

I needed to stop living in my head.

Jack wanted me to trust him. Someone who wanted to kill you wouldn't say that, right? And why would anyone want to kill me? I was nobody. Not even my mother would care. Stupid. I was so stupid. "Get a grip," I whispered and got out of the car. I sure as hell didn't look like I belonged in this neighborhood dressed like Kieran.

Once inside, the first thing I noticed was the smell. Even from the door, the stench made me queasy. I covered my nose. The walls were bare, the drywall shredded like torn flesh, revealing the bones underneath. Glazed with something sticky, the floor creaked when I moved. Everything had a layer of dust, the busted TV, the tattered sofa, the coffee table. The place sounded dead. No static hum from electricity. The little light in the place came from the streetlamp outside.

The source of the smell made an appearance in the kitchen. A dead woman lay on the floor.

I hissed and threw my forearm over my mouth and nose, stumbling back, not wanting to get a better look but unable to look away. She'd landed face up, her eyes sunken. A knotted bush of dirty blonde hair on top of her head, her skin had mottled purple, a syringe sticking out of her thigh. I turned away too late. I couldn't unsee.

Jack stood close behind me, holding me in place. "That's my mother," he said into my ear. "I wanted you to see."

He shoved me forward. "Fuck, Jack, what the fuck?" I shrugged out of his grip and stormed for the front door, slamming his shoulder on the way. Bile started to rise up to my throat. I needed air. I pulled on the knob, but the door wouldn't open. I planted my hand on the frame and my eyes made out the brand-new lock. I needed a key. I tried it again and again. It didn't even move.

I was screwed.

I started to turn when something slammed into my head. Pain exploded down my neck, my spine, and I fell on all fours. My brain scrambled, my body spiraling.

"Not so cocky now, are you," he hissed out. A discombobulated voice outside his body. The room continued to spin. The back of my head felt wet and sticky. Liquid dripped down my jaw. Red droplets fell onto my hand.

I turned my head to try to look at him and got an inkblot instead.

"He ruined my life!"

His words made no sense. But I knew I had to move, get my bearings, my head straight to figure shit out. But the wavy world in front of me didn't stop. I heard a ping on the floor and two rings landed next to my hand. My dad's and Daniel's sigil ring. Their souls.

"I stole them. I thought you should take them with you to whatever hell you end up in."

I fisted the rings tight just as he kicked me hard. I fell over onto my back. I couldn't move my mouth, my tongue to ask what I did to him. I must've done something to hurt him. My vision came and went, pain pulsed everywhere.

I shut my eyes against the world.

"Get up," he said with another kick. "I want you to look at the camera when I kill you. I want him to see."

I had to crawl to the sofa, use it as leverage to get to my feet. As a member of La Sagrada Sangre, we died fighting.

But you were never a member, Tomás. The reason you hadn't died with your brothers and father. You hadn't taken your vows.

No. I hadn't.

And are you sure your dad and brothers died fighting? That little voice in my head asked. Only Maddox would know. The Maddox you couldn't kill.

I squeezed the rings in my palm, feeling the metal bite into my skin. The room tilted, blurred, came back. My stomach churned.

Jack stood with a gun in his hand. He wiped his nose on his forearm, shaking like a tweaker. He'd been doing drugs all night. Jittery as fuck.

"Did Maddox send you?" I asked.

He glared at me, a crazed, feral look on his face. "Maddox? You think I'm working for the Brennans? You idiot. Maddox killed my father! Everything went to shit after that. My mother turned into a junkie. I got put in foster care. And then I get a break. A scholarship to Arcadia and then … then … I was so stupid!" He punched his temple hard. "The scholarship came from him. Him! He wanted me at Arcadia. He paid for everything as if I could be bought by the fucker who ruined me!"

My world turned cold.

I took in Jack's dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, the dark rims under his eyes. I saw myself that day when I tried to kill Maddox. Maddox had saved me, but he had ruined me too.

I felt sick.

"He did that!" Jack cried out, pointing at the kitchen. At his dead mother.

The gun came close to my face. I wondered what I'd look like after he shot my face off. Would my mother recognize me? Would Kieran care?

I understood Jack's anger.

"Jack," I said. "I get it. He killed my dad and my brothers too."

Jack shook his head. "Bullshit. You live in Arcas. You're one of them!"

Them.

While Maddox had sent Jack to Arcadia with the pretense of a scholarship, he had adopted me, changed my name, made me an A-lister. He put a target on my head, and I had let him.

He wiped his nose. His movements jerky, uncontrolled. The gun arm shaking.

"I'll go with you," I said in a last attempt at surviving him.

"What?"

"New York. Let's find Maddox. Do it right." I lied. I didn't want to die in this place. Maybe after trying to kill myself twice, the first time by bodyguard, the second time by drowning, this was Fate setting things right.

Jack shook his head, but I could tell he was considering it. "Fuck you. There is nothing better than this." His face hardened, turned colder.

"I'm not a Brennan," I said.

"You ain't anymore." Jack lifted the gun and pulled the trigger.