I get on my haunches.
“Down, Mackenzie.”
I bend over like I’m going to jump, inching a little closer to his legs. Then I turn so he can’t see my hand, very slowly inching out the metal quadrant.
“Jump!”
“I will.” My hands are shaking, the palms wet with sweat. I have to do this. I have to hit him directly below the kneecap, in the soft tissue. The right spot, and he collapses. The wrong spot, and I’m dead. After I lie with broken bones in an underground graveyard.
“Now.”
“Right …” I inch my hand back. “After …” I suck in a breath. “You!” I thrust the tool right at his knee, and the simultaneous sounds of his cry and the crack of his knee echo around me.
Directly in front of me, he buckles, losing his balance and tumbling toward the hole. Screaming an obscenity, he grabs for me, but I slip out of his grasp, using the quadrant to poke at his hands furiously, crunching his bones with each stab.
“Goddamn you, Goddamn—” And he disappears, a thudding sound like a person falling down steps, his voice nothing but a moan of agony and despair as he goes farther and farther into the pit.
“No, Rex. God damned you when you killed my brother.” Slowly, I stand up, worried that my shaking legs will betray me and I’ll be following him, but I manage to step away to solid ground.
I think about throwing the quadrant in after him, but then I realize I’m not done being a gladiator yet. I still have to find Molly and Levi, and if I have to kill to save them … Well, I guess I’ve proven I’m capable of that.
CHAPTER XXXIII
I worm my way through more corridors, frantically slamming on the walls as I search for openings. I finally find a stairway that leads up, taking me into a cave, and when I get out, I step into a heavy rainfall.
Still, I’m able to see the lights of the Colliers’ house from where I’m standing.
As I run toward the house, I blink into the raindrops to see a car careening down the driveway.
Levi! In the car that’s going to explode? Is he driving Molly away? I run at full speed, waving wildly as I reach the driveway, but the car’s headed onto the road, the engine and rain both too loud for him to hear me screaming at the top of my lungs.
“Noo—”
A hand snakes around my waist and clamps hard, yanking me into a solid body. “What the hell are you doing, Fifth?”
“Josh.” I barely breathe his name, trying to wrench away, but he holds me tightly. “Who was in that car?”
He shrugs. “Some kids. What’re you doing out here, Fifth?”
I try to step away but he won’t let me go. I can barely look at him, considering I just killed his grandfather and tried to kill his father and I might want to kill him, too.
“What kids?” I ask. “Who was in the car, Josh?”
“Don’t worry. My grandfather already called the cops. They’ll be pulled over before they get far. Sorry, but that prick’s going back to juvie, where he belongs.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head, fury and fear rocking me as the rain intensifies, soaking me completely.
“Molly showed up wasted, so he poured her into my grandfather’s Beamer and took off like a bat outta hell.” He starts pulling me toward the house. “Let’s get dry.”
“They’re going to die,” I sputter, praying this is a surprise for him. Please don’t be part of this, Josh.
His reply is drowned out by the sound of a motor, growing louder, and bright lights bearing down on us. We both start to run, but the black pickup screeches to a halt on the grass. The driver’s door pops open and Jarvis emerges.
I recognize the hood over his head, the shape of him. His voice is thick, like he’s drunk, and he holds his hand over a dark bandana wrapped around his neck.
“Who the hell are you?” Josh asks. As I back away in horror, Josh reaches for me. “Do you know him, Kenzie?”
“He’s—”
“Take her inside, Joshua.”
Josh bristles at the order. “What? Who are you?”
As much as I’d love to stay for the Darth Vader moment, I have to get Levi. “Let me go, Josh!”
“Don’t let her go, Joshua. Inside, now. I’m bleeding.”
“Not enough,” I say, frantically trying to loosen Josh’s grip on my arm and get away.
“No, maybe we should listen to this guy,” Josh says, eyeing Jarvis. “He might, uh, work for my grandfather.”
I’ve got one card left, and I have to use it. “You think he’s going to help you?” I demand. “You think this guy is going to make your life better, Josh? Make you do things that your grandfather says will give you power and money and control?”
He staggers back at my words.
“Inside!” Jarvis growls.
I manage to twist around, slipping in the wet grass. “Look at him, Josh! Don’t you see the resemblance? Don’t you see? This man, this murderer, this assassin. He’s your father.”
Josh’s hand loosens but not enough for me to get away. Jarvis is silent. Josh pales visibly. And all I can think is that Levi and Molly have about eight minutes left to live.
“What?” Josh says, narrowing his eyes at the other man. “My father is dead.”
“We need to eliminate her,” Jarvis finally says, taking a few steps closer to me.
But Josh moves to block him. “My father is dead,” he says again, grinding out the words.
For a long moment, they stare at each other, two sets of steel-blue eyes locked like swords.
“Not exactly dead,” Jarvis says calmly, a scary smile on his face. “I’ll explain, but first we have some business to take care of.” He lunges at me and grabs my other shoulder. “We have to kill her.”
“Wh-what?” Josh stammers.
“More specifically, you do.” With his free hand, Jarvis reaches into his pocket. “This pill will replicate the symptoms of alcohol poisoning. A bit of a cheat, I agree, but you put it down her throat and I’ll count it as a pass.”
I stare at Jarvis’s hand. I will not take that pill. I’ll rip his flesh with my teeth if I have to.
Josh is staring, too, in speechless shock, pain etched on every feature. “My … mother?”
“She did die in the boating incident.” Jarvis steps forward, letting go of his bloody bandana to reach into his pocket. Out comes the knife again.
“What are you talking about?” Josh’s voice is barely a whisper.
“Later.” Jarvis positions the knife under my neck, the blade pricking my skin, and extends his other hand to Josh. “Put the pill in her mouth, son.”
He doesn’t move. “I’m not your son.”
“We’ll see about that.” Jarvis holds his hand steady in a fist. “Take this pill and put it in her mouth.”
I fight the urge to lunge away, but my pulse is pounding right into the blade. One move and I’m dead. So I just shift my gaze to look at Josh. Tears have mixed with the rain now.
“Do it!” Jarvis practically spits the order. “It’s your legacy. It’s in your blood. It’s your destiny.”
Josh’s eyes widen. “You killed my mother.”
“Sometimes there is collateral damage.” He shakes the knife slightly. “Even girls we’re a little fond of.”
“My mother?” Josh’s voice rises to a bellow now.
“Calm down, son.”
“You bastard!” Josh leaps forward, pushing Jarvis away from me as they both roll to the ground.
I’m free, but I freeze for a second, torn between helping him and going after Levi. I see the knife slice through the air, and I know someone is going to die.
They wrestle on the grass, grunting, until Josh flips Jarvis and slams his head to the ground, pinning his arms.
“You killed my mother!”
Jarvis just fights for breath, staring up at Josh. “You’ll get over it.”
“What?” He lifts him and smacks him down again.
“You’ll get over it,” Jarvis says. “The
rewards are too great. And if you don’t accept that, you’re next to have an accident.”
“Kenzie!” Josh doesn’t take his eyes off the man on the ground. “Get the pill from him.” When I don’t move, he screams, “Get the pill from his hand!”
I know what he wants, or at least I think I do. Without debating, I fall to my knees and grab Jarvis’s fist. Josh twists his hand like he’s going to break the bone, and Jarvis’s fingers unhinge so I can get the pill.
“Put it in his mouth, Kenzie.”
“How?” I ask, seeing Jarvis clamp his lips together.
“Like this.” Josh rises up and slams a knee right into Jarvis’s solar plexus, and the older man throws back his head to howl.
I toss the pill down his throat without hesitation.
“Now, go, Kenzie. I’ll take care of him.”
I don’t waste one second. I run straight to Jarvis’s truck, which is still running. Gripping the giant steering wheel like it’s a bus, I peel out to the driveway, heading in the same direction Levi went, imagining the route he’d take. I slam on the accelerator and pray they’ve hit every light and that I can get them in less than … seven minutes.
That’s all they have left.
I turn onto Route 1 and pass a 7-Eleven, considering all my options. I could go in, make a call, get the police—and that would take so long they’d be dead. I press the gas harder, fly past a much slower car, and power into the left lane spraying water, fussing with the windshield wipers to get them up to high speed.
The rain makes it that much harder to find the white BMW. I squeeze the steering wheel and let out a long, low howl of pain, my whole being electrified with the need to get Levi and Molly out of that car.
There’s almost no traffic and I’m hitting sixty, but the big-ass truck doesn’t hydroplane like my old Accord. Gauging where I am by the stores I recognize, I have a few more lights before the turnoff to Molly’s house.
I run a yellow light, then another, then whip over to the right to take the next turn, weaving through some residential streets just as I see a white sedan cross in front of me, heading back to Route 1.
Is that him? I follow, just about to flash my brights frantically when I see him turn again. What the—
Oh, God. Of course. Levi thinks I’m Jarvis in the black pickup. He thinks I’m following him.
He’ll never stop for me!
I whip to the left, taking a side street, praying he’s headed back to Route 1. Each thump of the windshield wipers matches my heart, slamming against my ribs, ready to explode.
“Levi!” I scream into the night, my voice echoing in the truck.
I barrel onto Route 1, rolling down the right lane, squinting into the night, when I see him approaching the intersection. I have to beat him. I have to stop him.
I’m flooring it, sweating, grunting, bracing to beat him there, and I have him. I’m going to do it. I get to the middle of the intersection and slam on the brakes, somehow stopping the truck as the BMW keeps coming faster and faster.
He’s going to hit me!
I push the window button and lower the passenger side down so he can see who is driving, screaming his name, willing him to stop. All I can see is the two white headlights bearing down on me, coming closer and closer. I squeeze my eyes shut and brace for impact, hearing the screech of brakes and horns and preparing for the jolt … that doesn’t happen.
I open my eyes to see Levi stick his head out the driver’s window, rain drenching him. “Kenzie! What the hell are you doing?”
“Get out!” I holler, throwing my door open. “Get out of the car! Both of you!”
He climbs out just as I reach him, spitting water out of my mouth. “Get Molly out, too! The car’s going to explode!”
We both run to the passenger side, where Molly is passed out. I yank the door open and he scoops her up in his arms.
“Hurry!” I scream. “Get away from the car! Away!”
Together, we bolt across the street, Levi carrying Molly and jumping over a guardrail and rolling to the grass just as the night lights up and rocks with the power of a deafening explosion.
Levi is on top of us, his body pressing Molly’s into mine as the sound and heat roll our way. I manage to open my eyes and peer through his elbow and over Molly’s head, looking straight at a set of golden arches next to the road.
For a moment, I can’t breathe or think or do anything except embrace the reality that I am alive.
And so are my two closest friends.
CHAPTER XXXIV
The graveyard where Conner is buried sits on the side of a hill overlooking the farmland of western Pennsylvania. The trees have shed almost all their leaves now, but a rare late-autumn sun warms my face as I climb out of my car and stand by the door.
“You want company?” Levi asks from the passenger seat.
I look at him, then glance at Molly in the back. “Do you guys mind giving me a few moments alone?”
“Not at all,” she assures me. “We’re here for moral support.”
I give her a grateful smile and reach to give Levi’s hand a squeeze. “I’ll just be a minute.”
But it takes longer than that to meander through the cemetery, pausing to glance at names and dates, fighting that sense of injustice because almost all of those birth-to-death dates span many, many years.
But not Conner’s. He didn’t even make two decades.
I reach his grave and know instantly that Mom and Dad have been here recently. Since we learned the truth about Conner’s death, they’ve been up here a lot. Together.
I eye their work, noticing the plot is neat, the flowers fresh, and the last leaves from a nearby maple have all been raked away.
If headstones are supposed to represent a person’s life and character, then we really missed the mark on this one. Unlike Conner, his grave is unassuming, with a tiny stone flat in the ground. It says his name, his dates of birth and death, and one simple word: Unforgettable.
I stare at the carved letters, then let my knees fold so I can sit on the grass next to him. I try to think of a joke or at least something witty, but my eyes are filling up, and heck, I’m not Conner. He always knew what to say.
“I miss you,” I whisper, closing my eyes to see his face. His square jaw, his laughing eyes, those big white teeth always exposed in a smile.
I wait to hear his voice, but there’s only a bird singing in the distance and a breeze in the bare trees. If only I could remember his voice.
“I want to give you something, Conner.” I reach under my hair and slip my nail into the necklace clasp. “I guess it’s more like I want to get rid of something.”
I let the necklace fall onto the grass, then lean over and cup my hand to dig a small hole in the dirt by the stone. “Some things need to be buried,” I say. “Regret, second guesses, doubts, and guilt. I want them buried forever so that I can stop thinking about me when I think about you.”
The words make me smile. I never realized that was what was bothering me the most. Memories of my brother were so clouded and crowded by self-hatred that I could never just enjoy the life he had.
“We got the bad guys, Conner,” I add, leaning over his grave to run my fingers over the word Unforgettable.
But that’s not what I came here to talk about. I’m here to let go of my guilt and start a new relationship with my brother. Instead of feeling only pain, I want to remember him as the amazing boy he was.
“You probably wouldn’t like my boyfriend,” I say to him. “Not until you get to know him.” I blow out a breath and think of all the things I want to tell him, finally free to come here and not imagine him watching and blaming. “Oh, and guess what? Because all those FBI agents had to go through your room and all your stuff, Mom’s decided to put the house on the market and she and Dad are going to get another one together. Isn’t that—”
“Kenzie!”
I turn at the sound of Levi calling me, pushing myself up and brushing off dirt to see hi
m and Molly standing by my car talking to two men.… No, that’s not a man. That’s Josh Collier, who I haven’t seen since the night I left him on his lawn three weeks ago.
I put my hand on my chest, stunned by the sight of him. We’d been told he was in special custody and working with the FBI, but that’s all I’ve heard. Of course, the vacuum of information surrounding the events has been suffocating. All those deaths and not one of them has been in the news as murder.
The FBI gagged us. No one knows the truth about all those accidents except a few of us, and for some reason, that’s how the authorities want it. I squint into the sunlight and look at the other man in dress clothes. Speaking of the FBI … I can now spot a fed from a mile away. Levi gestures for me to come down and I hold up my hand to let him know I will.
Turning back to Conner’s grave, I sigh. “I need to go, big bro.” I reach my hand out as if I can touch him, my heart aching for one last hug. “I’m happier now and I hope you are, too.” I take a few steps away and turn back once more, still waiting for the sound of his voice in my head. His baritone. His laugh. His constant talking. After fourteen years of hearing Conner’s voice, why can’t I remember it?
But I can’t hear anything. “I love you, Conner.”
The only answer is the wind. I jog down to the car, unable to take my eyes off Josh. He looks bigger, stronger, bolder. His jaw is set and his eyes look angrier than I can ever remember. Well, except when he was beating the crap out of his father.
He doesn’t nod or acknowledge me when I reach the car, but the older man holds out his hand. Light hair and gold-rimmed glasses give him a more intellectual look than the average FBI agent.
“Salve,” he says in greeting, pronouncing it correctly, with the v as a w.
I laugh softly. “A Latin-speaking FBI agent?”
“There are plenty of us in the bureau,” he says. “I’m Special Agent Stewart with Art Crimes. I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. Your parents told me I could find you here.”
I cast a quick look over my shoulder to the graveyard. “I was just visiting my brother.” Finally, I catch Josh’s eye. “Hey.”
They All Fall Down Page 26
