Payback (5 page)

Thank you, mysterious bodyguard,
Anthony thought as he rushed over to Aiden. “I’ve got nothing to say to you,” Aiden told him.

“Then just listen,” Anthony said. He’d been working on a list of al the ways Aiden owed Rae, starting with the fact that Rae’s mom was dead because of the agency Aiden had been a part of. But as he stood in front of Aiden, the list slithered out of his mind. “I can’t lose her, al right?” he burst out. “She’s-Rae’s-crap. She’s everything. What she’s done-what she-”

Anthony sucked in a breath. He sounded like a freakin’ idiot. “If you don’t help me track down Yana, Rae could die. And that-”

He pul ed in another breath, trying to find the words.

Aiden didn’t bother waiting. He turned and walked out of the bar.

"Rae, stop, okay?” Mandy said.

“We’re almost there,” Rae answered, without looking at her. She was stil way too new to driving to look anywhere but the road.

“Stop, okay? Please
stop
!” Mandy’s voice rose into a hysterical shriek.

Rae risked a glance and felt her stomach flood with acid. Mandy’s face was drained of blood. She looked like she was going to pass out any second.

“Blinker,” Rae muttered. “Blinker, blinker.” She flipped the turn signal on and checked over her shoulder. “Do you see my blin ker?” she shouted at the car behind her. Somebody honked, but Rae ignored him. She slowed down and glared at the guy in the next lane until he let her over. Then she parked next to-okay, half on-the curb. “What’s wrong? What happened?” she deman ded, taking Mandy by the shoulders.

Mandy didn’t answer, but Rae noticed her fingers tighten their grip on the silk blouse she held. Her nails had started to shred the delicate fabric. “Is it your sister?” Rae asked.

“There’s something wrong with my eyes,” Mandy managed to get out. “I think-Rae, I’m going blind.”

“What?” Rae cried.

“Al of a sudden it’s like I can only see in two circles-like two spotlights. Everything else just went dark.” Mandy’s voice was sha king so badly, Rae could hardly understand her.

“Al of a sudden?” Rae repeated. “You’ve never, ever experienced anything like this before?” Her own voice was shaking a little, too, even though Rae was trying hard to stay calm.

“Never,” Mandy answered. “I was, you know,
looking
at my sister, and when I
came back,
there was al this blackness.”

“Do you have an eye doctor?” Rae asked. “I can take you right now. Or to the emergency room.” Mandy’s face grew even more pale, if that was possible. “If something happens to me, my dad wil lose it. After my mom. And if Emma goes off with Zeke. He’l lose it,” Mandy said in a rush, ignoring Rae’s question. She rubbed her eyes viciously with the heels of her hands.

“Stop it, okay? Stop it. That’s not going to help,” Rae ordered. She grabbed Mandy by the wrists and forced her hands away from her eyes.

“It’s like everything’s dark and there are two flashlight beams and I can only see what’s in the light,” Mandy said, her hands sha king under Rae’s fingers. “What does that mean? What’s going on?”

“And it’s never happened before?” Rae asked. She knew she was repeating herself, that Mandy’d already answered the questi on. But it was too bizarre for something like this to happen just bam! Wasn’t it?

“No. Never,” Mandy answered, her voice rising. She was clearly on the edge. “I told you that.”

“Did you hit your head today or…” Rae couldn’t even think of another possible explanation. What Mandy was describing was so strange. She eased her grip on Mandy’s fingers, slowly letting go and resting her hands back in her lap.

“No,” Mandy said. “You’ve been with me most of the day. I’ve just been sitting around in my room.” She glanced down at the blo use, and it was like something clicked in Rae’s brain.

“How many times have you used your power to see your sister today?” Rae asked. “I mean, just in the car you’ve done it like fi ve times, right?”

Mandy frowned. “I guess. Every time I let go of the shirt, then touch it again, I’m there, I’m here. Sometimes I didn’t even decide to do it. So maybe more than five. I kept checking to make sure that she was stil at Virgin, even though checking every thirty se conds is stupid.”

“That’s got to be it,” Rae murmured.

“What? What’s it?” Mandy asked, the irritation in her tone dissolving back into pure fear.

“I have this side effect when I do my fingertip-to-fingertip thing,” Rae explained.

“Right. You said you get numb spots,” Mandy said.

“Yeah. And maybe that’s what’s going on with your eyes. ’Cause the two little circles of vision-that’s weird. So weird that it ma kes weird sense if it’s a side effect of using your power. If it is, and it’s like mine, it should wear off pretty fast-in less than a day.”

“Do you real y think that could be it?” Mandy asked.

“It kind of makes sense, don’t you think?” Rae said. “Maybe you should give it a few hours to find out if you start to see a little better before you go to the doctor. You don’t want anybody thinking you’re having some kind of psychosomatic deal. Believe me, the mental hospital is not a place you want to spend time.” She released Mandy’s wrists. “So how about if I take you home? We can hang there for a while, see if I’m right.”

“We’re almost at Virgin. I real y want you to see what you can find out about Zeke. If my eye thing is what you think it is, it do esn’t matter what I do, right?” Mandy shook out her hands, then smoothed her long hair away from her face.

“As long as you don’t use your power,” Rae agreed.

Mandy handed over her sister’s blouse, quickly dropping it on Rae’s lap before she had time to connect to her sister. “I can see wel enough not to walk into wal s. Let’s go, okay?”

Rae placed the blouse on the backseat of her dad’s car. “Okay,” she answered. “But if it starts to get worse or if you start to feel dizzy or anything-”

“I’l tel you, and we’l go straight home,” Mandy promised.

Should I be driving her straight to a doctor?
Rae wondered as she put on the turn signal to reenter the traffic flow.
What if I’m
wrong about what’s going on with her? What if a vessel in her head is about to burst or something?

Rae flashed on the image of Mandy in Rae’s old room at the hospital. It could happen. Mandy could end up there if she started babbling about temporary blindness, especial y if she freaked and spewed about her power.
We’re talking a few hours to see if
she gets better,
Rae reminded herself. She checked the traffic in the closest lane. When it was clear, she inched her way back out onto the street.

“Sorry to park so far away,” she told Mandy when she’d driven the three blocks to the Virgin Megastore and maneuvered the car into a space at the back of the lot. “I’m not such a great driver yet. I like to have empty spaces on both sides.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Mandy climbed out of the car. Rae got out as fast as she could and hurried over to her.

“How does it feel to be standing up? You okay?” Rae asked.

“Fine,” Mandy answered. “And the circles, I think they’re getting bigger. I can see a little more.”

“Great, great,” Rae exclaimed. “You going to be al right crossing the parking lot?”

“Let me use you as a guide dog just in case.” Mandy grabbed Rae’s arm with both hands.

“And we’re off,” Rae said as she started across the lot, going slowly so she didn’t steer Mandy into any parked cars. Final y they made it to the massive front doors, and Rae ushered Mandy inside. Immediately Mandy started turning her head back and forth, searching for her sister. “Let me help,” Rae offered. “What does Emma look like?”

“Kind of like me,” Mandy answered. “Same color hair, but hers is real y short, with bangs. Brown eyes, like mine. A little tal er.

Bigger on top.” Mandy gestured toward her chest. “And Zeke-longer hair than Emma’s but brown, too. I don’t even know what co lor his eyes are since he spends most of his time glued to Emma’s face. And he-”

“I think I see them.” Rae took Mandy by the shoulders and turned her slightly to the left. “On the next level up. Is that them?”

Mandy tilted her head back and forth. Rae figured she was trying to get her spots of vision lined up right. Then she nodded, her mouth tightening. “That’s them. Let’s go.”

Rae guided her over to the escalator. When they got to the top, she steered them over to Emma and Zeke.

“Hey,” Mandy said, her voice real y loud. “What are you guys doing here? I wasn’t expecting to see you two.”

Not exactly subtle,
Rae thought, slapping a smile on her face. “Hi, I’m Rae. A friend of Mandy’s.”

Emma gave her a look, like, Why are you friends with a fourteen-year-old? Zeke’s eyes, which appeared slightly glazed over, traveled lazily up and down her body.

Might as well do this now,
Rae thought. She reached out and shook Emma’s hand, feeling like a dork because who shook hands? Then she grabbed Zeke’s hand and let her grip slide low enough to bring her fingertips into contact with his.

And she was in a bubble. A liquid-fil ed bubble. She could see out through its lime-green wal s, and everything out there lo oked… pretty. Pretty. And lime green. And sort of bendy. Look! There was a bendy lime-green squirrel over there. Look how its tail stretched out, out, out, bending, swaying, like it didn’t have even a thin little tailbone in it.

The squirrel turned its head toward her. Its eyes were bendy, too. They bulged out, out, out. Until they looked like they were go ing to pop. If they popped, Rae’s bubble would pop. She knew it.
Knew it.
And the squirrel knew it, too. The squirrel wanted it to happen. Because the squirrel knew that if her bubble popped, Rae would die. And the squirrel, the pretty squirrel, it wanted her to die.

Its eyes swel ed out even farther, like two water bal oons getting fil ed from a hose, ful er and ful er and squishier and squishier.

They were going to pop. They were going to pop!

Pop!

Rae blinked, and the world was fil ed with color again. Mandy had her hand on Rae’s arm.
She must have pulled my fingers
off Zeke’s,
Rae thought. From the squinty-eyed look Emma was giving her and the smirk Zeke had on his face, Rae figured she’d held his hand a little too long. Maybe a lot too long. Thank God Mandy’d broken her grip. If that squirrel had-
The squirrel
wasn’t real,
she reminded herself.

“I need to go to the bathroom. Come on, Rae,” Mandy said.

“We’re heading out. So I’l see you at home,” Emma told her sister.

“Oh. Oh, wel , Rae and I were thinking of going to get pizza at that place you like across the street. You want to-”

“We already ate,” Emma said, her voice cold.
Probably because she thinks I was flirting with her possibly soon-to-be hus
band,
Rae thought. “See you at home,” Emma repeated.

“Okay,” Mandy said. She let Rae lead her to the bathroom. The second they were inside, Rae leaned over the nearest sink and splashed cold water on her face. She wanted to wash the memory of that evil, freaky squirrel out of her mind. Not that the water would make it from her face to her brain, but somehow it helped, anyway.

Rae straightened up and grabbed a paper towel. As she dried off, she realized there was a numb spot forming over her left eyebrow.
I wonder if I can get spots inside, like on my liver or my kidneys or
-

“So?” Mandy said, practical y hopping up and down with impatience.

“So, so I didn’t get that much,” Rae admitted. She wasn’t going to lie to Mandy, even though she sort of wanted to. “I’m pretty su re that Zeke was on a pretty strong drug cocktail. Al I got was a bunch of psychedelic garbage. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Mandy answered, her voice limp and her whole expression deflating.

Rae’s chest squeezed. This girl she barely knew had done so much for her-Rae had to find a way to make sure she didn’t let her down.

“Turn left here. Then pul into the dentist’s office parking lot,” Aiden instructed.

Anthony fol owed the directions in silence. He and Aiden hadn’t talked during most of the trip. Aiden had basical y told him whe re to turn and nothing more. But Anthony didn’t care. Al that mattered was that Aiden was in the car, period. He stil could hardly believe Aiden had walked out of the Elbow Room, gone straight to Anthony’s Hyundai, and gotten in.

“This is it. This is where I kept her,” Aiden said. He got out of the car. Anthony scrambled out and fol owed him to the office door.

“Dentist office. Good cover. No one would wonder why there was screaming,” Anthony joked. Aiden didn’t crack a smile or even give a forced “ha.” He just unlocked the door and led the way inside.

“You’re going to be disappointed,” Aiden said as he locked the door behind Anthony. “There’s nothing to see here.”

“You didn’t think you’d left any clues when you cleaned out your apartment and bolted, remember? But al it took was one push of the redial button to start tracking you down at The Score,” Anthony answered.

“Yana didn’t have a phone in her room,” Aiden told him. “And she was drugged up the whole time I had her here.”