Chapter Thirty

Thirty

There are lots of different types of quiet. Peaceful quiet, like sitting alone on a beach in the middle of the night. Stressed silence, while you’re wringing your hands trying to figure out what to say. And then there’s defeated silence when there’s nothing to say.

We were smothered in that last one. From the edge of this swanky rooftop restaurant, I focused on the bright lights of Hart’s building burning through the last of the night. It wasn’t quite sunrise, but the sun was starting to appear on the horizon. The party goes on at Hart’s, and for Team Kenzie.

The rest of my team wallowed in defeat. Mylo was collapsed on a small wicker bench, his head dangling at a horrible angle off the side. Taiyō stared into the distance, looking as if he was replaying every facet of the night on repeat. Noelia was perched primly on a stool at the abandoned bar, ankles crossed with dead eyes, as if she was a doll someone had turned off. The only person who didn’t look completely beat down was Mom, who was applying a top coat to her nails. To anyone else, it might have seemed Mom didn’t care, but I knew she was pretending to have herself together.

The brush quivered in her hand. She swore as she dropped it, slapping a speckle of polish on her leg.

I swallowed hard. Oh god, if Mom was tripping up, then we really were screwed, weren’t we?

Mylo sat up, sending Count a sheepish glance. He rubbed the back of his neck. “So—”

“Silence!” Count said.

I’d never heard her be so directly abrasive before. We were all falling apart.

Count dropped her tablet on table and flexed her hands at her temples. She looked like she could peel the skin off her own face if that would detach her from reality right now.

“You unobservant, amateur idiots,” Count said. “What brilliant work you’ve done. Now we’re all one step closer to the edge of oblivion.”

“Yo,” Mylo whined. “Okay, I don’t think that’s fair—”

“Say something else, Mr.Michaelson, and I’ll have that trailer park you’re from burned down.”

Mylo bit his tongue.

“Why don’t you cool it?” I hopped down from the ledge I’d been sitting on. “Don’t scream at us. We did our best.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?”

“It’s a lot better than the jack all you contributed.”

Count gawked at me. Clearly she still wasn’t used to her toys talking back, but this toy had been wound up enough for one night.

“Are you sure you want to keep speaking to me like that?” she asked darkly. “Keep at it and—”

“And what, Aurélie? You’ll kill me and my whole family? Someone’s already onto that.”

Mom plunked her polish on the table. Or maybe she accidentally dropped it. The way she flinched made me think it was the latter.

I sighed and returned my attention to Count, still fuming, probably even more so realizing that there was absolutely nothing she had to hold over me.

I guess that went both ways.

“Look, we lost,” I admitted. “There’s no use in whining about it now. Let’s move on.”

No use in whining about anything that happened. With the heist or the other team. None at all.

“The final phase.” Taiyō, the only one of us who was still completely dressed, styled hair, pocket watch, and all, stepped in. “What’s it going to be?”

I could always depend on Taiyō to get right to the point.

Count kept eye contact with me, which I returned in total hostility, before turning to Taiyō. “To be delivered shortly.” She surveyed the lot of us. Noelia squirmed on her stool. Mylo continued rubbing the crick out of his neck. “This is the last chance. It’s one to one now. Whatever it is, I have to win.” She nodded to me. “We have to win.”

At that, Count’s shoulders slumped. She picked up her tablet again and retreated toward the access door. I’m sure I was imagining the impossible, but if I’d had to put money on it, I’d have bet she was going to go cry or have an anxiety attack somewhere. Not that it was any of my business.

“She looks the worse for wear,” Taiyō noted, watching her go.

“She’ll survive.”

“Hm.” Taiyō pushed up his glasses. “I apologize. My plan…didn’t work.”

“Don’t apologize. It was a good plan, we just didn’t know all the variables.”

“I suppose not.” He tilted his head toward the stars for a moment. “Another lesson learned, then. Spend more time investigating the interests of the owners of any major establishment. Make sure you know who’s really pulling strings.”

I cracked a smile. “At least this’ll make a great story for your students.”

He fake rolled his eyes.

I spared the sky a glance too, watching a particularly attention-hungry star swell and shrink in the distance.

“I know I said I only owed you if this casino heist worked out, but…” I sighed, locking eyes with Taiyō. “As long as I’m still alive at the end of this, I’ll hold up my end of the deal. You honestly deserve more than that for the short notice.”

Taiyō looked genuinely stunned for a moment, before giving me a fond sort of smile. Weird, I’d never seen that on him before. “Is this one friend taking pity on another?”

“Are you too proud for my pity offer?”

“I’m never too proud to turn down something of overwhelming value. Thank you.”

I wrung my hands. “You know, if you ever do get to cash in on this offer, if you want, I can see if Mom would take my place in our deal.” I couldn’t help but glance at her, watching the view from the perimeter of the rooftop.

Taiyō looked taken aback. “Why?”

“Well, I mean…she’s Rhiannon Quest. Bigger name, better plays. She wins.”

“But tonight she’s sitting in failure like the rest of us.”

Okay, fair point.

“Ross, even if your mother somehow managed to swoop in and save the day, I wouldn’t want to trade you in for her. That wouldn’t be a smart move.”

A breeze stung my eyes. Taiyō read the why? in my expression.

“I trust you more than her, and that’s worth something more.”

I bit my lip, preventing it from wobbling. Trust over viciousness. Loyalty over lies. Maybe that route could be just as effective as Mom’s.

“Oh!” I scurried past Taiyō to the couch Mylo was sitting on, pushing him aside as I grabbed the purse I’d been carrying all night. Mostly empty now, but there was something left inside.

“Aw, do you need a tissue?” Mylo teased. I shoved him with one hand as I found the box with the other.

“Here.” I held the leather box out to Taiyō. Skeptical, he cracked it open.

Taiyo laughed.

“What is it?” Mylo pressed.

Taiyō lifted the black-rimmed glasses out of the box, replacing his current pair with them for a second. They weren’t identical to the pair I broke on the train six months ago, but close enough.

“You never did bill me,” I said.

“I’ll put the prescription lenses on your tab.” He blinked half a dozen times before putting his actual glasses back on.

Mylo squirmed. “Argh! I hate not being in on the joke!”

“Thanks for your help, Taiyō,” I continued. “But you don’t have to stay for the final phase.”

“Yes, he does!” Mylo jumped up from his seat, his hair finally looking more tousled than orderly. He ripped off his loose bow tie and pointed at us with it in hand. “He’s on the team now. Teams stick together.” Mylo gave me a look that said something like don’t ruin this for me .

“You don’t have to stay,” I reiterated. Sorry, Mylo. Code of honor first.

“I’d like to stay, if only to see who ends up taking the victory here, though I stand by my thought that neither Count nor Baron deserves it.”

Ditto. But like Baron said, it wasn’t about deserving it to the organization, but who could get the job done best. But, if I was hypothetically an organization member, was that person even Baron or Count?

A thought, small but powerful, shocked me. “Taiyō, you’ve got a pretty expansive list of industry contacts by now, don’t you?”

“I do. I had quite a bit of time to add to it while I was in the hospital last year. But it’s primarily Eastern contacts.”

I paced, fiddling with my ponytail. “I bet if we added your list to my family’s database and the Boscherts’ we’d have a pretty complete-ish contact list for all the major players in the world.”

“A great big contact form for criminals. That’s cool. Why are we talking about this?” Mylo stretched and cracked his neck.

“Taiyō, I know you just said you’re down for the final phase, but could I ask you to do something else instead?”

“Where is this going?”

“Maybe nowhere,” I said. “But I’d like to see who everyone would really be behind.”

···

After explaining exactly what I was thinking to Taiyō and Mylo, and securely emailing Taiyō the Quest contact log, all there was left to do was politely ask Noelia for the Boscherts’. Despite it being a biggish ask, I felt like she was going to say yes. She’d disappeared about half an hour ago, and it took a few minutes before I heard her voice behind the back wall of the bar.

As I approached, I heard an unfamiliar man’s voice. On instinct—I swear thieves don’t try to be eavesdropping pricks, but when it’s in your blood, you really can’t help it—I quieted my steps and just barely peeked around. Noelia sat with her back to the wall, posture perfect, holding her phone in front of her. Her face was expressionless as she watched the screen, but the hand that wasn’t holding her phone was practically shaking with how tightly it was clenched in her lap.

“I just…don’t understand,” the man went on. And then he sighed in that stupid, condescending way that trash parents, at least in the TV shows I’ve seen, always do. The way that says more than words ever could how disappointed they are and that it’s all your fault.

It really made my stomach churn.

“Perhaps you should have chosen the other team in the first place. I sent you there to work with Diane.”

“Yes, Papa,” Noelia bravely interjected. “But you’re the one who always said how much you respected Rhiannon Quest from your Gambit and that she’s super efficient, and so I thought—”

“I know what I said.” He sighed again. “I didn’t send you to America to enter another Gambit at all. Clearly you and this team can’t handle another. Perhaps you should come back before you lose a second. Or were you planning on quitting again?”

Screw this guy.

Noelia blinked one too many times, and I hoped that the prick on the other end couldn’t see the faint sparkle of tears in her eyes. “I thought I was doing what you’d want me to last time,” she said quietly. Her voice cracked at the end.

“Again with the tears, Noelia?” he sighed.

“I’m not crying. I’m apologizing.”

“Apologies don’t help anyone, actions do. But you can’t give me that, so I really don’t have anything else to say to you right now. What am I supposed to do with someone who can’t perform, Lia?”

She shrugged, but I imagined that was only because she didn’t trust her voice not to quiver.

That’s enough of this.

I stormed into the little nook, startling Noelia. She frowned. “What are you—”

I slid to the floor next to her, grabbed Noelia’s phone, and angled both of us into the frame. “Hi, Mr.Boschert. What’s going on with you today? Besides reaming your daughter, that is?”

Noah Boschert, for the most part, looked exactly how I pictured he would. Annoyingly bright and tidy short-cropped blond hair And what I was beginning to assume was trademark Boschert family blue eyes and fair white skin. I was sure to match Papa Noah Boschert glare for glare.

“You must be Quest’s daughter.”

“What gave it away?”

He looked over to Noelia. “I don’t like being overheard, Lia.”

“I didn’t know she was there!” Noelia tried to take the phone from me, but I caught her attacking hand and pulled her tight. Noelia’s posture slumped, giving up the fight.

“Don’t tell me this has become personal, Noelia. Is that why you have been floundering so much lately? You think you’ve become friends with these people?”

“Not—” Noelia insisted.

I squeezed her tighter, so much so that our faces were practically smushed together.

“ Best friends, Mr.Boschert. More than that, I think. We’re like…like sisters. Even if Lia won’t admit it.” I pinched her cheek tauntingly. She slapped my fingers away, and her face went red, not just from the pinch. She glanced aside.

Papa Boschert paused for a second, and so did I. But she didn’t deny it.

I freaking loved Noelia Boschert for that.

“You see,” I went on after the brief lull, “we’re such best friends, such sisters, that I was thinking if anything ever happened and Lia, I dunno, wasn’t appreciated enough in the Boschert family, we’d love to have her as part of the Quest family.”

I flashed him a delighted smile. Noelia tensed in my arms, looking from the screen to me and back again.

Papa Boschert went a shade paler, and that was saying something. He opened his mouth, but closed it in favor of a grimace. Again, a beat of silence, while he waited for Noelia to interject.

And again, she didn’t. Not for a second, at least.

Then she took a little breath and straightened up. “Noelia Quest isn’t as catchy,” she said.

“Noelia Boschert-Quest? What do you think, Mr.Boschert?”

“I rather like it,” another voice added.

We both turned. Mom was standing on the other side of the bar wall, arms folded, looking down at us. I angled Noelia’s phone so Papa Boschert could see as well. Mom gave him a little twinkle wave. Her freshly top-coated nails caught the light as she wiggled them.

“Hi, Noah. Still drowning puppies in your free time?”

“Still cheating your way to victory?”

“I agree with Ross,” Mom said, tastefully ignoring his last comment. “I think the Quest family wouldn’t mind such a stellar member.”

Surely Mom wasn’t serious. It was all a bluff. But still, it was nice to know she was willing to go along.

“I see…” Papa Boschert said. “Noelia, let’s talk later. After someone wins your little game.”

After we saw if my family made it out alive or not.

He ended the call. Noelia let out the heaviest breath ever and rubbed her face for a few seconds before taking her phone back.

“Threatening to steal me away if I don’t get treated better? Noelia Quest? That’s your idea of helping me?” she said.

I squirmed. “Sorry. I should have asked before just butting in, but your dad was being a prick, and I’ve really had it up to here with—”

She lowered her hands, and her face was slick with tears, but she was smiling through them. “Merci,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

I could have made a joke, I guess, but instead I just pulled her in for a rib-breaking hug. She giggled and returned it.

“Thank you as well, Ms.Quest,” Noelia said to Mom, standing. “But I don’t forgive you for what you did to Ross.”

“Lucky for me, a Boschert’s forgiveness is very low on my wish list.”

With that, Noelia dipped away.

I leaned back and eyed Mom. “Look at you, being uncharacteristically generous.”

“I’m not a one-note vessel of evil, you know.”

“Not convinced.”

“Funny.”

Mom took a cautious step into my space, and I actually welcomed her. One-note vessel of evil or not, she was being kind tonight. Well, to me at least. It was almost perplexing how she managed to be vicious with one person and Mom of the day with me.

I added a new note about Mom on my If I Live list.

Figure out how Mom manages to be two people at once.

“I’m not actually inviting her to be a Quest, by the way. That, baby girl, was what they call a bluff.”

“No duh, Mom.”

“Noah will buy it anyway, though.”

“How do you know?”

“He’s always been afraid to call bluffs. He’s a coward underneath all that bravado.”

I stretched out my legs. “Why’d you trick me into thinking Noelia hated me when we were kids?” I asked.

Mom shook her head. “I don’t really know. Maybe I was scared for you. Friends are dangerous. They can shatter you. I thought it was best if you learned that early on.”

Just another reiteration of the famous line: Don’t trust anyone .

“Noelia wouldn’t have,” I said. “Never did.”

Mom tucked some hair behind her ear. “That’s how all the friendships I’ve had ended.”

“Because you were the one who ended them like that.”

“Yup,” she said. “But who ever said there weren’t other people like me out there?”

Ruthlessly efficient. That was how Papa Boschert described Mom. But was there really anyone as excellent at that as Mom?

No, I was sure of one thing. There were no other Rhiannon Quests out there.

“Not everyone, though,” I said. “Not everyone in the world is untrustworthy.” I weighed my phone in my hands. When I unlocked the screen, my call log, with Kyung-soon’s and Devroe’s numbers, was still up.

“Sure.” Mom flicked her nails. “Maybe…you should call your boy.”

My head snapped up to Mom. She rolled her eyes. “Don’t look at me like that. I just figure getting past your beef with him might make forgiving me that much easier.” Mom dropped into a crouch, putting her eye to eye with me. “That’s the difference, baby girl—it’s only an ulterior motive if they don’t admit to you what they’re doing. If someone tells you what they’re going to do, it’s not really backstabbing, is it?”

If the queen of backstabbing said so…

Mom suddenly swooped in to kiss to my forehead. I screwed my lips together but didn’t try to push her away. When she left me alone, I unblocked Devroe’s number and called.