Page 108 of No Capes
Hearing him say it strikes Brynn like a slap. Of course their dad didn’twantto kill Meredith. Both of their parents idolized her, but Phil had told them to, and they could never say no to Phil. Not when he was so powerful. Not when they were so weak.
“They didn’t kill her, did they?” It’s not a question. “Brynn,” he pleads. “Please tell me.”
She’s never seen Fox beg like this. It breaks her heart, how he never guessed, and how different they turned out to be.
“No,” she finally says, the coffee cold against her tongue. “They didn’t.” In the end, they couldn’t. They loved Meredith too much.
The memory comes flooding back to her, a river of regret and something else. Triumph.
“I was with Jamie,” she begins. She looks at Fox but doesn’t see him, only a silhouette begging for truth. “I heard them arguing in the driveway. I went to find out what happened, but they had already stormed inside the house, Dad comforting Mom. You know how it went.”
“Yeah.”
Brynn wishes she didn’t have to remember, but Fox needs her to, and she swallows the part that she wants to forget.
As the door to her parents’ room slams, the anger behind it shaking every wall in the house, Brynn jumps from her bed to find what caused it. Through the hallway window, she sees Meredith Roberts pacing back and forth in the driveway. Why aren’t they leaving for Phil’s speech? Gosh, he would be amazing tonight. Brynn knew Phil well. He sometimes came to speak at the local school where she was taking graduate classes, and afterwards they would talk about her hospitality degree and his ambivalence toward his family’s business. Shecouldn’t be prouder of him for pursuing his political ambitions. It had stung, when Arielle had gotten her hooks in him before she could, and he hadn’t returned Brynn’s affections. It still stung. Meredith must have helped Arielle in a way Brynn’s parents hadn’t.
“Brynn,” Meredith calls through the door. She’s more disheveled than Brynn has ever seen her before, with her black blazer crumpled at the collar and thick red hair falling out of a wide barrette. “Where are Fox and Jamie? You all need to get out of here. Quickly.”
“Jamie’s here. Why, what’s going on?” asks Brynn. Their empty street stretches through the neighborhood, under a foggy sky. A storm would be there soon, but Brynn couldn’t see anything else that was wrong.
“It’s Phil,” says Meredith. “He’s blackmailed your parents. They’ll be okay, but not right now. It’s not safe for you to be here.”
“What?” Phil would never hurt her parents. She steps back from Meredith, who tucks a strand of hair away from her face. Mrs. Roberts was used to being in control, same as Arielle. Brynn moves another step back.
Meredith pushes her lapels to the side, exposing a harsh red mark around her neck. They aren’t quite bruises and would fade soon enough, but any police officer would certainly see signs of a fight.
“Phil told your father to do this,” Meredith says. “It’s not your father’s fault. Phil has powers, Brynn. He’s dangerous. We have to get you and Jamie out of here until we can figure out how to get your parents out of whatever trap he’s set.”
Fire ignites in Brynn’s bones. Meredith has to be lying. If Phil had powers, he would only use them for good. How dare Meredith threaten Brynn’s family after everything they’d done for her?
Brynn takes another sip of coffee. “I told her I’d get Jamie, but when I went back inside, Mom and Dad were still arguing. They weren’t going to kill Meredith, even if Phil was blackmailing them. You should have seen Meredith. She looked deranged. It horrified me that she might lie to the police, if it came to that.” Brynn waits for a sign from her brother that he wants to hear this. Fox lifts his hot chocolate, signaling her to continue.
Instead of finding Jamie, Brynn races into Fox’s room, looking for something she can use, like a baseball bat. There. A meter-high trophy sits by his closet, which she grabs and runs with outside. She doesn’t have much time. Brynn’s hospitality classes had taught her how to clean up after a messy guest, and how to de-escalate a scene. Before Meredith can register why Brynn would have the trophy, Brynn brings it down over her head. It was easier than she thought it would be, and Meredith hits the ground in a second. There’s no blood on the driveway. All the bleeding is internal.
“The trunk was full of your swimming gear,” Brynn whispers. “So I put her in the back of Mom and Dad’s minivan, under a blanket. Dad had all that extra gas in the garage, and I filled a few water bottles with it and put them in the backseat. Water bottles wouldn’t seem suspicious while Mom and Dad drove. I would meet them at the event, put Meredith in the driver’s seat, and stage it like she’d crashed their minivan. It would check out, given how unhinged she was. The woman was in no state to be driving.”
“That’s why the accident smelled like gasoline,” says Fox.
“Yes.” Telling him makes her feel weightless and free, and he could see what she’d done to protect them. “I put a lighter in the back seat so it would be ready too, and planned to leave right after them. I’d fix everything for them. When they stoppedarguing, I told them Meredith had left. They were frazzled and late and mad at each other.”
“The lighter that Gold found. Itwasrelevant.”
Brynn stops, sadness threatening to break through. “What I didn’t realize was that the storm would mess things up. Dad was so angry, the car slipped and spun off the road, and they crashed into the guardrail, right on the side of the van where the water bottles were.”
“And that little spark, with the extra gasoline, made it all explode.” He sets his cup back on the table. He seems far away from her.
“Boom.” Brynn watches him closely.Can he handle this?
Brynn climbs into her own car, when her cellphone rings. “This is the Capital City Police Department. I’m sorry to say this, but there’s been an accident.”That one sentence will haunt her for the rest of her life.
“They weren’t supposed to die. Promise. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Brynn always thought he would forgive her when she told him. That’s how it had played out in her head, but as he sits across from her, after hearing the end, his expression hardens. Brynn shivers as uncertainty builds between them. The store dissolves until the outline of her brother is the only thing she can comprehend.
Please, Fox,she thinks. Does he understand?
Her hands tremble as she sips the last of her coffee.
