On Edge (21 page)

The phone incessantly buzzed.

I knew if I didn't answer, Surge would probably call the cops just to make sure I wasn't dead somewhere. I pulled the phone out of my belly pocket.

“What?” I whispered, annoyed at being interrupted when I was so close to proving Haze innocent I could taste the victory.

“Your brother was here. Said he was done with the games and then took the other guys with him to Haze's.”

“Oh, no.”

“Sorry, LL. I tried to talk sense into him but I can't argue with psycho logic. He's determined to kill your boy.”

Damn. Damn. Damn. “Surge, call Haze, tell him to get out of the house. Liv and I will be on our way to him and we'll meet up at the Pizza Pie Pagoda.”

“You find what you need?”

“I hope so! Go. Call Haze.”

I tucked the cell in my pocket, jerked open the Artists' Tantrum drawer and grabbed every piece of paper in it.

A second later I was falling out of the window and yelling for Liv to get in the car. “We gotta get to the Pizza Pie Pagoda now-ish, Liv. Drive like it's your mom's favorite Mercedes.”

***

“What are you looking for?” Liv asked me as we sped down the road.

I sat in the passenger seat sifting through paintings and drawings, trying not to drop anything on the floor. “Anything with Decay's name on it.”

“Oh. Is that who you're looking to blame it on now?”

“Just drive, Liv. We can claw each other's eyes out later, but right now I need to try to keep people from dying.”

I found a couple of landscapes, but nothing that matched the tree in the masterpiece of me. I shuffled through the artwork one by one till I felt my phone vibe in my pocket.

“Did you get hold of Haze?” I asked, shifting a watercolor still life to the bottom of the stack of papers.

“Yeah, girl. I did. I don't think he's going to listen. He's pretty upset.”

“Getting chased around the city will do that to a person.” I glanced down and there, on top of the stack of papers, was the break I'd been looking for. A perfect likeness of the tree next to my bloodied face in all its gnarled branch-y goodness. Jackpot. “But it doesn't matter now, because I got it, Surge, I—”

“No, LL. There won't be peace now. They found Decay.”

“Wait. Who found him? I don't understand.”

“Haze called to tell your brother that the war is on. They found Decay's body behind a dumpster on Harper and Laine.”

My stomach turned and I thought for sure I was going to revisit my blueberry PopTart. “Haze thinks—”

“Your brother and our crew killed Decay, yeah.”

“No.”

“Everyone knows after I was run down, Warp and the crew were looking for some vengeance on Decay. Needless to say, the cops are gonna come calling sooner or later looking for answers, too.”

A funny feeling quivered in my chest. “Did they say how long he'd been dead?”

“Who's dead?” Liv slammed on the brakes, catching a red light. I shushed her with a quick glare.

“I didn't ask. Haze wasn't exactly chatty.”

“Dammit, Surge, we need to know how—Liv, what are you doing?”

Liv grabbed the drawing on the top of my stack out of my hand and rolled down her window. “I'm getting your head back where it should be! Stop looking at pictures and let go of—”

The phone fell to my lap as I made a quick grab for the drawing before Liv could let it sail down the street. Her grip held tight as I pulled, ripping it in half.

“LL?” Surge called to me, but I couldn't move.

There, scrawled across the bottom of the torn art paper in my hand was the name, Livia Menesa. My heart slithered down into my stomach.

Oh, shit.

“LL, what's wrong? Talk to me girl.”

“Holy. Shit.” I couldn't process what the proof was telling me.

Liv. I didn't want to believe it, but my mind was telling me: My deathly-afraid-of-heights best friend, was not only a liar, but a murderer.

Headlights of the passing cars poured over our faces. Her gaze and mine met and held, gauging each other's reaction. Her left eye twitched and I knew she knew I knew.

A stalemate kept us both locked in the moment. Surge was yelling from my lap, demanding I talk to him, but I didn't want to make any sudden movements.

We might have sat there for a century if the horn of the car behind us didn't break the spell. The contours of her face changed from shocked to sad to panicked, and she slammed her foot on the accelerator.

Surge was screaming now. I tucked the phone, along with the torn drawing in my belly pocket.

“Liv, stop the car.”

“No, I have to make you understand.”

I'd seen enough psycho-thrillers on TV to know that was a phrase I didn't want to hear.

Liv jerked the steering wheel sharply to the left, and I knew I had to make my move. If I waited until we were in the cramped space of the alley, I'd be forced to stay in the car or risk bouncing off the wall and getting churned to burger beneath her back tires. I yanked the door handle.

Locked.

My fingers worked against Liv's incessant pushing of the lock button, but the door wouldn't open.

With a scream of fury I threw the other art papers at her face and yanked the door open when she instinctively raised her hands.

Like in freerunning, I didn't have time to plan, only react. I flung myself out the door, whacking my ankle on the frame. I cried out in pain, but maintained my roll, keeping my shoulder tucked tight to absorb the momentum. I bowled over a cache of rubber trash cans, landing in an awkward sprawl. For a nanosecond I lay there, mentally checking myself for signs of life.

Good, I wasn't dead—though when I heard Liv's car squeal to a halt I added—yet.

I fished in my pocket and pulled out Surge's phone. “Surge?” I managed between panicked breaths.

“LL! Don't think I won't hang up on you. You tell me now what's going on? You're turning me white, girl.”

“It's—Liv. She's gonna kill—me. Call cops,” I couldn't catch my breath. “m'at office place.”

“Wait, what? That don't make any sense.”

Liv got out of her car, clutching something that looked like a short pipe.

There were tears shiny on her cheeks as the neon light pollution played on her face. I was the one in pain, why was she the one crying?

“She's—coming.” I stumbled to my feet.

“Hang in there, girl. The cops'll be on their way. LL, listen to me. Don't be afraid to take a bitch out, you feel me?”

“How could you do this to me, Ellie?” Liv cried. With a jerk, the rod she held in her hand extended to a full on bat-sized life-beater. An ASP baton!

This was probably going to hurt a lot. “Oh God, Surge, I'm scared.” I took a step, and my eyes teared up. The best I could do was hobble away, but there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to turn my back on Liv now.

“I don't want to let you go, baby girl, but I gotta call the cops. I gotta save you, I gotta…Dammit, Emanuella, you survive. Please, baby.”

Surge's voice was so strained with worry I felt I had to fight to save him from a lifetime of if-onlys. “Okay. Okay.”

Liv growled and lunged, lashing out. I raised my fist to ward off the blow and cried out as the baton smashed through the cell into my palm. The hot rush of blood filled my hand and it began to swell. The bits of phone fell from my numb fingertips. I was gonna owe Surge a phone—if I lived.

Grabbing a nearby trash-can lid with my good hand, I blocked her wild swings like I carried a medieval buckler. “Liv, stop!”

She swung the baton down on me. The soft rubber girth took the blow, but I knew Liv would simply readjust and try again and again until she hit pay dirt.

“I thought you would come to me,” she pleaded between strikes. “I thought you were special. We were special!”

“And I thought you weren't mentally deranged. I guess we were both wrong.”

She came at me with a shriek of rage, wielding her weapon over her head.

Twenty-six

Using her anger against her, I let her take another swing and miss. Once she teetered off balance, I drove a shoulder into her side and sent her flailing into the garbage cans.

I ran.

I knew she wouldn't be far behind me, but I liked my chances. I had a bit of distance to offset the handicap of a screwed-up ankle and throbbing hand.

I couldn't wait for the cops to come, but if I could make it to Haze's subdivision, I'd have the backing of my crew. I needed to scale the first building and take the chase to the rooftops where I'd be at an advantage.

With my survival instincts pumping me full of fuel, I made the leap to the bottom rung of the fire escape of the office building. I pulled my knees up to my chest and was looking for purchase when Liv's ASP slammed against the foot of the injured ankle. I yelled, but managed to get my feet on the bottom rung without putting too much pressure on my injured foot, and began ascending the ladder. I chanced a glance over my shoulder but immediately wished I hadn't.

In one swift motion, Liv closed the ASP with a tap against the wall, and backed up a few feet. She let her arms dangle at her sides, her eyes focused on the emergency ladder.

Oh my God, she was going to make the jump. I realized if she was the killer she probably wasn't as fearful of heights as she claimed, but parkour-dabbling? It was too much.

I turned my head back to the wall and ran up the rungs three at a time. The moment I set foot on the tar and paper roof, I knew I wouldn't make the run.

Pain, pain, pain. My foot felt as though it were on fire and five times its normal size.

Keep running. Don't stop.

I felt the panic rise in my throat as I hobbled over to the opposite side of the roof and peered over. The distance looked daunting. In my condition, I'd most likely fall and break some bones on the landing, leaving me easy prey for my deranged ex-best friend.

“You won't make it,” Liv stated behind me.

I turned to face her, trembling with anger. Anger at myself for stalling out, anger at Liv for deceiving me, and most importantly, anger at her for trying to kill me.

Why was she trying to kill me? What did I do? I was about to expose that she killed Heather, but that was only a recent development.

“I told Surge and he'll tell everyone. Killing me isn't going to cover this up. It's over,” I said.

She came closer to me, slicing the air with practice swings of the baton like she was a professional fencer warming up or something. Nothing would surprise me anymore.

“I mean it, Liv. Surge is calling the cops right now! Your best bet is to run.”

“I panicked and left too soon,” Liv said, sighing as if she were annoyed with herself. “I was so afraid someone would see me because Decay's window tint wasn't dark enough that I didn't finish the job. I should've backed up and ran Surge over again and again until that thug-wanna-be had to be toothpicked out of the tire tread. I'd have shot him but I couldn't risk having the gun on me after shooting Decay.”

All the air was sucked out of my brain, leaving me light-headed. I didn't care anymore why she wanted me dead. She sounded so casual about something so evil that I wanted to kill
her
.

I reached down to the roof, grasping whatever I could wrap my fingers around and hurled stones and chipped pieces of tar at her. “You bitch! Why? Surge never did anything to you.”

The debris bounced off her chest, only one stone scraped across her cheek. She barely reacted, merely flinched and brushed a hand down the front of her shirt to get rid of the dirt like some fucking android.

“How could I get to you with him sniffing his way up your ass all the time, Ellie? Warp's little lap dog on a mission to save you.”

Warp. He was the thing that Heather and I had in common.

Liv didn't receive attention from my brother like she used to. Wrapped up in the school merger and protecting me, he didn't have time for Liv anymore…and after she'd killed Heather and everything…

My laugh sounded dry and empty when it echoed back to me. “You stupid whore! You think my brother will have you after this? He'll know the truth.”

“You think I want your brother?” She pursed her lips together and looked off to the side as though she were replaying the last week or so over in her head. “I guess I could see where you'd come up with that.”

I took a step back, but the rough tip of her ASP pointed into my neck. I froze, waiting for next move while my mind scrambled around for the best way to block her next attack from each conceivable angle.

“I did kill Heather because she was with your brother. You're right-on, there. She stood me up that night. We'd painted a beautiful masterpiece together. We were supposed to finish it and show it to her little brother. Homage to his talent for his birthday, complete with the tree he could never paint quite right. Heather wasn't there, so I started without her and waited. And waited. And waited,” she choked. “I was going to ruin the piece on purpose. Fuck her and her brother, I don't allow anyone to stand me up! And I was going to tell her so when she arrived.”

Liv's face changed from fury to hurt, swinging from mood to mood like an overactive monkey swings from branch to branch. “But when she finally showed up, she looked so beautiful I was ready to forgive her anything. Then she said she had to tell me something, but I had to promise not to tell a single soul until she did. She wanted to tell her brother and her family that she discovered love.”

She stepped around me, keeping the baton pressed against my neck, her voice laced with heartbreak. “I thought I'd already shown it to her.”

Oh! I shivered as the pieces fell into place. “She loved my brother—and not you. You killed her because you came in second? That's so stupid, Liv!”

“Like you'd know anything about coming in second, or third or…last, Heather!” I could hear her momentary lapse of control in the vibration of her voice. She'd called me Heather, but I didn't want to point out her mistake. Whether she noticed or not, I couldn't say. She took a little breath and the silence scared me.

“She was your friend, your best friend. You shouldn't have felt so threatened just because she liked Warp.”

“You don't get it. For months she wanted to practice parkour and begged me to learn with her. I did whatever she wanted because I thought it was something she wanted to do together for fun, as a break from graffiti. But she was training to impress HIM, to become HIS! She gave herself to that asshole when she belonged to me.”

And there was her motive. I'd heard all I needed. Maybe too much. Didn't villains usually kill someone after they revealed their secrets? Just in case it was true, I picked that moment to throw my elbow back into her gut. She stumbled back, giving me precious seconds to throw myself on the mercy of fate.

Two steps to the ledge and I pushed off.

I arched my back and held my arms straight out from my head, focusing my gaze on my ideal landing site, but I wouldn't make it. Already, my momentum reeled me in short.

Mid flight I realized I wouldn't land on the roof but if I reached out, I could grab the edge. The fingers on my right hand had a solid grip but my left hand was too numb with pain to clamp down. I couldn't be sure how strong my hold was.

My feet planted against the side of another office building, catching the rest of my body and taking the hit, but I could feel the gravel dig and tear at my fingertips. I wouldn't last long in the hang.

I struggled to haul myself over the rim, hefting my weight up until I dragged my elbows under my chest to support my balance.

I had to stop and rest with my legs still dangling, waiting for the pain to subside long enough to pull myself over. But time wasn't mine to use.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw Liv backstepping to make a run and knew I had to vault myself onto the roof or she'd kill me. All it would take was a single kick to the face or a stomp on my good hand and I'd fall to my death—like Heather.

“Oh, God. Someone help!” Screaming for my life wasn't something I ever imagined I'd do, but I didn't imagine someone wanting to murder me either.

The blur of Liv as she sailed past me and landed on the roof gave me the adrenaline rush I needed to pull myself over the edge. I fell heavily on the rooftop, at least, but I could barely move.

“You were supposed to make it all better,” Liv said, panting with exertion. “But then you were hiding shit from me too. You were seeing Heather's brother, fucking him in some closet like a dirty skank!”

Even breathing hurt. I was done. My only weapon was my voice. “No. I never!”

“I don't believe you.” She came closer and took the ASP out of her back pocket, flicking it open to its full lethal potential.

The blunt object slammed into my side and I screamed again, hating the sound of my pain as it bounced off the cityscape and came right back at me.

“I don't believe you, Ellie,” she repeated, looking so sad. “I put myself out there for you, taking out that mutinous gymnast bitch.”

Holy hell. She shot Wenda, too? I didn't want to hear any more. “Liv, stop.”

“You disappointed me! We had a moment, didn't we? You held me in my room and made me think everything would be okay. Things were over between you and Haze and we could be together.”

Tears of pain spilled down my face, and I hated that I wasn't strong enough to stop them. Maybe I could at least make use of them. “I never…meant to hurt you. I'm sorry, Livia.”

“I'm sorry, Livia,” she mocked, sniffling as she wiped her free hand across her nose. “The same thing Heather said!” She sobbed. “But she wasn't sorry. Just like you're not sorry! You kept lying to me and lying to me. Do you have any idea how much it hurt knowing I'd have to kill you, too?”

“What's the point? Everyone will know what you've done.”

“Funny how a gang war cleans up a lot of messes. With Decay dead, Haze is going to come running with his crew to meet your brother and friends—how likely do you think it is they're going to start talking things out when they see each other?”

It was like she hit me in the gut, but this time it wasn't with her weapon.

She'd killed Decay, and tried to kill Surge, all to start a war. She'd arranged everything…all to silence me and to keep her murder of Heather a secret forever.

The worst part was that I wouldn't be the only person to die. Warp and Haze would kill each other, their boys striking out until none who knew the truth were left standing.

Well, one would be.

Liv.

The death toll would make national headlines and the story would be used for public service announcements but no one would ever know the truth.

“Somebody help me!” But I knew even if someone heard me they wouldn't be able to pinpoint where the yelling was coming from. They'd only arrive in time for the cleanup.

“LL?”

I heard his voice and experienced a fleeting moment of relief. Even though I couldn't see him, I knew he was there.

Liv's head snapped up and she tightened her grip on the baton, as if anticipating killing him, too. Okay I wanted someone to help me, but not him. I couldn't bear the thought of him dying trying to save me.

“Haze! Run. G-get help,” I yelled and threw a feeble kick at Liv's ankle. She hopped backwards, easily evading my pathetic attempt.

My battered foot and tired legs no longer able to hold me up without serious effort, I rolled to my knees and lifted myself to see over the parapet of the roof. Sure enough, Haze stood on the roof of the office supply building beside ours, the one I'd told Surge about. Also the one I'd just leapt from.

Figures.

My head lolled back, revolting against the effort it took to keep it upright, but I wanted to see him until my eyes shut down forever.

I tightened my hold on the rim of the parapet with one hand and reached for him with the other. Haze. My Brennen Craig.

I saw him turn his head to the side for a moment as though he were trying to collect himself. I could only imagine how much of a mess I looked. My fingers were bleeding all over the place, and I was sure I was smeared with blood too.

“Manu…”

“It's okay.” My voice hiccupped on a sob. “It'll be okay.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head.

Liv coiled a hand in the back of my hoodie and hauled me up to my feet, bracing my weight between the roof edge and her body. “This is your fault, Brennen! If you'd just stayed away from her—”

I could barely stand, so I had no delusions about how easy it'd be for her to shove me to my death. I also knew I didn't have anything left in the tank to work a little traceur magic and save my ass this time.

“Emanuella!” I heard my brother yell my name and glanced over my shoulder.

Liv spun us to face him and cussed.

“Liv,” Warp yelled, “what the hell are you doing? Let my sister go.”

“You,” she screeched, “you took Heather from me, once, but this one stays with me.”

My body jerked as she pulled me toward the roof's edge.

“No!” My brother yelled. “Liv, wait, let me explain. Heather and I, that was just a phase for her. She cared about you much more than she did me. There was this time she told me all about—”

I stopped listening.

From the corner of my eye I spotted Haze taking a few steps back from the ledge like he was going to try to make the jump. Risky for someone new to parkour and I doubted he'd be able to land faster than Liv could throw me.

The fact he wanted to rescue me did make me smile. So did my brother's lies to Liv and my crew's words of encouragement murmured in the background. Actually, everything made me smile. I guess facing my death made the last few moments of my life seem glorious.

“Not this time,” Liv was saying. I tried to focus.