Hush Money (7 page)

“No, I said
a lot
of beer. Kegs,
cases, whatever. Party.”

“But—”

“I’ve already got a couple buyers lined up.
We’re committed to this. And it’s not rocket science. Dylan. You
and Rob are going in the store while it’s still open. You’re going
to cover Rob and sneak into the storeroom. Find a place to hang
tight until closing. Jeff and I have been watching. On weeknights
they close up at eleven and everyone is gone before midnight. So
you guys are going to wait until midnight. Then you work your way
out of the storeroom, back to the front of the store. You’ll be
doing your thing and staying between Rob and cameras. There’s an
Employees Only door near the bathrooms, across from the checkouts.
The lock’s electronic and shouldn’t be any problem for Rob, here.”
He slung his arm around Rob’s shoulders, a move that looked more
like imprisonment than friendship. Rob continued to watch his own
feet.

“Behind the door are the steps that go up to
the office. I know someone who used to work there, and she says
there are no cameras beyond the door and all the locks are
electronic.”

“Damn, Marco, how many people know about
this?”

“Don’t worry about it. Once you’re upstairs,
you just shut down the cameras and alarms. Get the keys to unlock
the back door, the one where the employees hang out and smoke. Come
back and let us in.

“Eric, I’m gonna need you to boost us a
delivery truck. Nothing too flashy, something that would be out at
night, but not something anyone’s gonna miss either. You’ll need to
start looking around for that.”

“Right.”

“Once we’ve got what we came for, Eric, Jeff,
and I are leaving in the truck. But you guys need to get back to
the office. I’ll take care of breaking the camera over the back
door while we’re in there. You guys turn all the cameras and alarms
back on—except you’ve gotta disable the sensor on that back door.
If you can’t do it, you’re gonna have to sleep there and leave in
the morning.”

“I can do it,” Rob mumbled.

“Right. So Dylan, you cover Rob, just like
before, on the way out. You can leave the keys in the door like
someone forgot them, or you can pitch ’em in a Dumpster somewhere.
Whatever. Meet us back at the shack when you’re done.”

“I don’t know, Marco…” I started, getting
ready to argue.

“You don’t have to know. That’s my job.”

“It’s one thing to cover Rob hiding out in
the store room in case anybody sees us. Standing still, that’s no
big deal. But moving around like that? Multiple cameras? I just
don’t know.”

“But you’re gonna find out. You’re gonna need
to spend some time in the store, getting the lay of the land.
You’re gonna get back into the storeroom and watch what people go
for, and where they don’t go. Find the best place for you and Rob
to chill out until closing. And you’re probably gonna do a dry run
of the offices, during business hours, before we do this
thing.”

“What the fuck, Marco? I’m not breaking into
any office during business hours. Have you lost your mind?”

Marco gave me a hard glare. “You guys are
gonna want to get into that office before we do this so Rob can
access the cameras and get downloads from all the feeds. So you’ll
be able to find the blind-spots—or the blindest spots. You’ll want
to know where you’re going when we do the job, right? You’re also
gonna log some practice time, you and Rob, moving together, and the
rest of us are going to watch to see how good a job you do keeping
him covered.”

“This is way too complicated. And for beer?
Come on, Marco. Give me a break. You want beer, let’s hit Casey’s.
One camera, one employee…”

“This is what we’re doing, Dylan, and I’m
getting tired of your bullshit whining.”

“Seriously, grow some balls, man,” Jeff put
in, still casually scanning the grounds.

“This isn’t about balls, it’s about brains,”
I told Jeff. “And if you had any at all—but then what do you have
to do but go in the back and put some beer in a truck? Or is Jeff
just gonna be the lookout?”

It was dumb to antagonize them, but damn. I
saw Marco look at me hard before Jeff shoved me into Eric. Then he
was all up in my face, with Eric trying to get between us.

“Knock it off.” Marco grabbed Jeff with one
hand and yanked him off me. Jeff worked his shoulder, trying to be
casual, but I knew that had to hurt. “And you too,” he said to me.
“You wanna know more about the plan, you ask me later. But we’re
doing this, and that’s the end of it.”

Marco took a step back and looked around,
scanning the grounds to see if anyone was taking too much notice of
us or the scuffle. Then he smiled, and was looking off in the
direction where Joss and Kat were sitting on a rock wall near the
street.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I see some ladies
who need my attention.”

I pushed away from the wall, ready to follow
him, but Eric grabbed my arm. I looked at him. He shook his
head.

I got the message.

Not the time to mess with him.

I knew he was right. And I hated it.

* * *

Joss

“It wasn’t how it looked.”

“Really? ’cause it looked like you and
Marco—who I
thought
you didn’t like—were getting all cozy up
there in the stairwell, that you knew Jeff was messing with that
girl and you did absolutely nothing about it. Do you really have
something against Trina? Did you think it was funny, or you just
didn’t care?”

I opened my mouth and closed it again. I
didn’t even know which of those to deal with first. I thought about
the look Trina gave me before she left, the one that said she
thought I’d enjoyed watching Jeff mess with her because I hated
her.

“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t do anything and you
had to get involved, ok? I was having some of my own problems at
the time, and if Trina didn’t make any effort to help herself, what
was I supposed to do?”

“She was scared.”

“So was I!”

Kat gave me her piercingly assessing look
again. I’d never thought of myself as prone to blurting out stupid
things like that, but I wasn’t used to talking a whole lot. I
realized I had people avoidance almost down to an art form. I never
had to have personal conversations unless it was deflecting my
parents, which didn’t count.

“Anyway,” I said, trying to redirect, “I’m
sorry for what I said to you after. It was cool, what you
did—whatever it was. You stand up, and that’s cool.” How many times
was I going to say ‘cool’? “It’s just I’ve been on Marco’s bad side
for a while now and I know it’s a lousy place to be. You’ve pissed
him off twice in two weeks.”

“Which gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling
inside.”

“See? This is what I’m saying. You’re not
taking me seriously.”

“Why Joss, it almost seems like you
care.”

What was I supposed to say to that? She was
teasing me, but it was friendly. I didn’t know how to deal with
that. So I decided it was time to shut up.

“I made him blind.”

“Beg pardon?”

“When I grabbed onto Jeff, I concentrated on
how pissed off I was and he went blind. Just temporarily. Like
maybe a minute or two.”

What the Hell was wrong with this
girl?
“Why did you tell me that? That’s exactly what I’m
talking about. It’s like nothing I said to you on Saturday sunk in
at all. It’s bad enough you’ve got a Talent, but you’re in Fairview
now. I told you we’ve got way more than other places and it’s
always on people’s minds. I’ve seen way too many kids disappear
because they were careless, because they trusted the wrong people.
So don’t be stupid.”

“Yep,” she grinned, “you like me. We’re going
to be really good friends.”

“That’s great,” I said, getting up from the
stone wall we were sitting on, “I always like it better when the
school day ends with a threat.”

“Hey, you’re funny!”

“Of course she is.” I cringed the moment
before Marco’s arm landed across my shoulders. “That’s our Joss.
It’s cool that I find you two together, because that means Joss
gets to see more of this unfolding drama.”

I groaned inwardly. When Marco started waxing
like that it meant he had been thinking too much.

“What I’ve been thinking,” he continued, as
though he could hear my thoughts, “is that I am now in possession
of valuable information. And before you both insult me by playing
dumb, I’ll spell it out: Kat, here, has a Talent. She blinded Jeff
when she grabbed him this morning.” Marco snickered. “You really
scared the shit out him—for the whole two minutes it lasted. He’s
really
pissed at you, by the way. He was ready to tell
anyone who’d listen until someone came to haul your ass off to
State School.”

“Marco, I don’t even know what you’re talking
about.”

“See, that’s what I mean about the playing
dumb and insulting. But that’s ok, because you’re cute when you’re
helplessly screwed. So, like I was saying, Jeff’s ready to blab
your secret all over town, but don’t worry, because I stopped him
from doing that.”

I wanted to say
Gee that’s nice,
or
something snarky, but I couldn’t bring myself to open my mouth.

“And that’s really nice of me, right? I mean,
standing between you and Jeff like that—well, really, between you
and the State School and who knows what they do there. Seems like
that ought to be worth something.”

“All this, assuming I had a clue what you’re
talking about, which I don’t.”

“See, I’m betting that it doesn’t matter if
you admit to what you did or not. Jeff knows you did. I saw you do
it. So what you’ve got to ask yourself is: will anyone believe us
if we tell? Now…you might want to tell yourself that you can toss
your hair and flash a smile and talk your way of—whatever. But
really, we’re talking about two witnesses vs. a suspected Talent
who
allegedly
used her ability
against
another
person. I’m thinkin’ that plan’s not going to work too well for
you.

“So here’s what I’m offering: my silence, and
Jeff’s silence, guaranteed, your freedom and secrecy secure, for
the low, low price of just $500.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I’m. So. Not.” Marco was dead serious now.
“You think about it. You get the money together. You’ve got two
weeks. Now bye-bye, see ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya!” He ruffled my
hair and pushed at my head as he walked away, enough to make me
take a step to keep my balance.

“Gawd, what an idiot,” Kat said,
disgusted.

“What are you going to do?”

“Nothing.”

I swear I wanted to grab her and shake. Hard.
“What do you mean,
nothing
?”

“I’m not paying that bastard so he can go
enrich the porn industry, or whatever. Screw that. And screw
him.”

“Kat…”

“I don’t know, Joss. I need to think about
this. But I’m not paying him.”

Suddenly I could tell that she was shaken. I
decided to back off.

“I could help. I’ve got some money
saved.”

Kat looked surprised, then smiled, but not as
brightly as she usually did. She touched my arm, briefly. “Thanks,
Joss. That’s really nice. I told you we’d be friends, didn’t I?” A
horn beeped. “Look, that’s my mom. I gotta go.”

She got in the car and they drove off,
leaving me alone on the sidewalk, thinking about how the last thing
I wanted was a friend with a Talent who would get herself hauled
off to the State School.

Joss

You realize, of course, that you are a
complete idiot.

Well, conscience, I’d say that much is
obvious.

Such were my thoughts as I made my way from
the safety of my stairwell down to the cafeteria at about half past
lunchtime. Truth be told, ever since I’d had to share my space with
Marco, all his limbs, and his unfortunate idea of entertainment, I
was really soured on what had been my own little corner of Fairview
High for the last few years.

Needless to say that the cafeteria was chaos
as usual, and yeah, it scared the crap out of me. But at least this
time I had a clear objective in my sights, and I was more wary of
skirting too close to the muck like I did last time.

Kat was sitting with the same group she had
been with the other day: Heather, Maddy, and Elizabeth. Maddy’s
brother Matt was there too, straddling a backward chair between
Maddy and Kat and talking intently to his sister about something.
Maddy raised a gloved hand—part of her unique style was to always
wear these thin, leather cyclist gloves—and gave Matt the finger
with a sneer on her pixie-like features. And that’s when they
looked up and saw me standing there, rather awkwardly, holding my
books in front of me in that way I remembered I shouldn’t but
couldn’t change now.

Not so much a sense of
everybody knows
your name and they’re always glad you came,
so much as startled
bewilderment from everyone at the table. But Matt immediately got
up and spun the chair around.

“Want my seat, Joss? I was just leaving.”

I felt my face getting hot. “Oh, no, you
don’t have to—”

“No, really, I’ll be contemplating twinnicide
if I spend another minute with this brat.” He cuffed Maddy on the
back of her short, platinum hair. “Take it.”

“Um, thanks.”

Matt wandered away and I thought, not for the
first time, how different they were. Him big, kind of brawny, but
with that whole prep-school wannabe thing he had going. Her small,
and slight, but also edgy, looking like a punk-rock fairy. And
really, Matty and Maddy? Naming your daughter Matilda is bad
enough, but the naming police ought to come and shoot their
parents.

“So, Joss, cool to see you. What brings you
to the cafeteria?”

That’s a good question, Kat. What the hell
was I thinking?
I’d been so into talking to her about what had
happened after school the day before that I hadn’t even thought
about the fact that I’d never be able to get a private word in this
place.
Great.
I casually turned my head to glance around the
room and saw several people look quickly away, including Dylan, and
made a note-to-self never to do this again.