Rule 7 - Koi

"She should know." I ran my hands through my hair as I paced. "It"s only right."

"I don"t know if her mind can handle this, Koi." Swayze, my best friend, long-time partner in every sense of the word, the rational one of us, stood and came over to me, putting his hands on my shoulders. "I want to tell her just as much as you do, but Dennis's mom needs to be handled carefully."

I inhaled and nodded. He was right. I was hotheaded, while he was the levelheaded.

"Yeah, okay. Why don"t we stop over tomorrow and talk with her and Grace? It"s been a while anyways."

Just then, my phone rang. I pulled it from my pocket, and a chill ran through me.

"Who is it?" Swayze asked.

I gulped, my nerves tightening.

"It"s Grace."Dennis's little sister.

I watched it ring, and when I didn"t answer, she called again.

"Just answer it, man."

I took the call.

"Hello, Koi?" Grace"s panicked voice came through.

I cleared my throat. "Hey, Grace, how are you?"

"Is it true? What the news is saying?"

"I don"t know what they are saying," I told her honestly.

"That the girl, the daughter that went missing... she"s back? You know the one. The one that… that—" She began to hiccup and broke down in sobs.

"Grace." I glanced at Swayze, who had started to pace.

"It"s true! The news said she was just a runaway. Not kidnapped, not murdered, not dead! She was just a spoiled brat who ran away from home. Koi, Dennis is dead because of her!"

I pulled the phone from my ear and let her get out all the emotions that she was dealing with. I knew how she felt about the Risky girl going missing. How her mom felt. How we felt.

"It"s going to be okay. I know it"s hard to hear. We were just as shocked as you are." I tried to comfort her.

"Really? Because you didn"t bother to call or stop by. And you don"t sound like you"ve been crying all day like I have," she accused. "If you were so upset you would have come and checked on my mother. She"s got a heart condition, you know. This news could kill her!"

I eyed Swayze. This was exactly why I wanted to do this in person. Grace Palmer was known for her dramatics.

"Grace," I tried again. "Please, just calm down. It"s going to be fine. Your mom is going to be okay."

"Domino Risky should have died the same day my brother did. If they hadn"t been using every emergency person in the county to look for her, Dennis could have been saved."

She wasn"t saying anything I didn"t already know. Dennis"s accident was the reason both Swayze and I kept coming back every year. It was also the reason he and I became first responders. We weren"t going to let another preteen die at the park simply because no one was there to help.

"I"ve got to go. Mom's calling," she said, and the line went dead.

A knock on the cabin door pulled us from our dark thoughts. I went to it, ripping it open and glaring down at the person who dared bother us right now. Blane, an asshole skater kid with long blond hair and cold blue eyes, smiled up at me.

"You, uh, coming to the bonfire? I heard you two were over at the Risky mansion today. You got to see the girl." He raised his eyebrows.

"And?" I demanded.

"Come on, let"s go and forget about this shit for tonight." Swayze brushed past me, offering me a joint as we started toward the party. "We"ll figure things out in the morning."

The next morning, I rolled over in the grass and blinked. I"d gotten blackout drunk and couldn"t remember anything past that first beer. I sat up and looked for Swayze. There were about a dozen of the other Risky Rush employees scattered in the grass and on the beach. The sun was coming up, and in a few hours, Marisol or one of the other Risky kids would be around to put us to work.

I closed my eyes and tried to collect myself when someone kicked my boot. I looked up and squinted against the bright sky to see who the fuck was coming at me first thing in the morning when I saw it was Marisol. I dropped back to the ground and groaned.

"Fuck off."

She kicked me again. "Come on, grab your boyfriend, and let"s go."

"Swayze!" I called, getting up and dusting myself off. My body was stiff from sleeping outside on the hard ground. I stretched and looked around, finding him near the water. Marisol and I got him up, and slowly, we trudged back to the cabin. The moment our door was shut, Marisol started talking.

"Give me your phones."

"What? No, fuck off." I waved her off and began digging through my suitcase for a clean shirt.

"Give me your phones, and I"ll give you money."

Swayze and I exchanged looks.

"What do you mean?"

She leaned against the poker table and sighed. "I need help. I never thought we"d see my sister again, but now she"s back, and I need help getting rid of her again."

I sat beside Swayze on his bed. My phone felt heavy in my pocket.

"How much money are we talking?"

I could almost hear Swayze"s thoughts. Getting the girl to leave again would solve more than just bitchy Marisol"s problems. Dennis"s family would have some semblance of peace again.

Two birds and all that.

"How much do you want?"

"How badly do you want her gone?" Swayze snapped.

She hesitated and then stomped her foot. "Fine. I"ll give you both ten grand if she"s gone by the end of the season. Twenty if it"s within the month."

I stood. She held out her hand smugly. "Thought so. Give me your phone."

Without another thought, I dug into my pocket and unlocked it for her. Swayze leaped up.

"What are you doing with them?" He pulled out his phone as well.

"I have this app that tracks her phone. Who she calls, texts, takes photos of, searches, all of it. I"m downloading it onto your phones. When she"s gone again, there"ll be an investigation of some sort, probably. I can"t be tied to this."

"Why us?" Swayze asked as she took his and put the app on it.

She looked up at us. "Because I know you want her gone too."

The room filled with heavy silence as we thought back to Dennis, our dead friend.

"What are you expecting us to do?" I asked. She"d been entirely too vague. "Get her to run away again?"

"We need to make sure she will never come back," she reiterated. Marisol took my phone again and was clicking wildly, setting everything into motion. "This records her phone calls too. She"s never had a cell phone, so my uncle ran out and got her one last night."

"The only way you can guarantee she won"t come back is if she"s dead," Swayze said.

Marisol looked up, her face completely devoid of emotion. "I know."

"You"re fucking insane," I snarled. "I"m not going to murder someone for ten grand."

"Fine. Make it a hundred. It doesn"t matter to me. Once she"s gone, I"ll be a millionaire."

"You"re fucking psychotic," Swayze snarled. "I don"t want her here either, but I"m not going to kill a total stranger."

"So then get to know her." She shrugged. "You guys are good with that, aren"t you? Swayze, I know you are." She snickered.

I rolled my eyes. This wasn"t the first time she"d tried using their one-night stand they had as teenagers as leverage.

Swayze and I looked at each other. Were we doing this?

"We"re not killing anyone." I decided. "We can be dicks to get her to leave, but that"s it."

She handed us our phones and pulled out her own. "We"ll see. You use PayPal?"

I began to pace, trying to think about this from every angle. If she ended up dead, it would be traced to us. Marisol would throw us under the bus faster than we could run.

"No online traces. That"s stupid. The trace will be too obvious."

"Really? But ten grand in bills won"t be?" She put her hand on her hip. "I"m taking it from the accident account. If anyone asks, you demanded more money from your eye and kidney, and we decided it was easier than being sued."

My cheek twitched. I stared at her with the one eye I had left. What was I missing here? Her plan made sense. Both Swayze and I had every reason to ask for more money from them.

"You know, since I lost my eye I've become one hell of a shot." I warned. She smiled brightly, ignoring the threat.

"That's great. Use that aim on my sister."

I huffed.

"Ten to start. Twenty when she leaves." I took my phone back and scrolled through the new app before looking back at her. I couldn"t believe I was saying this, but that money could change lives. "And five hundred if she dies."

"Each," Swayze added, looking at me with caution. Were we really doing this?

Marisol grinned and held out her hand.

"Best million dollars I've ever spent."