Page 46 of Wayward
I grab another. I’ve definitely seen this one before. Maybe it was thinking about the ski resort and Emily, but this is Emily’s high school in Vermont, a picture of the main building. It’s like a stone castle. I’d know it anywhere. In the background is the mountain that the freshmen climb on their first day, and then the seniors climb again down the other side of the mountain the day they graduate. And that’s when it hits me.
Zambrano. Thayer Zambrano. He’s that asshole boyfriend of Emily’s. The one she had her freshman year. He was a senior. Fuck me. How could I have forgotten . . . I was training in Utah, but still. He told her he loved her and then dumped her when he graduated. Just like I said he would. Because Thayer and Iwere?are?the same age. And I know the type. Because I was the type. Damn. She sent me links to sad YouTube videos the entire summer. Dad took her to Europe to cheer her up. But she wanted to go to Thayer’s apartment in London and convince him to not break up with her. He wouldn’t see her . . . fucking hell. That’s how my dad met Ed. That’s how this whole hell started.
“Whoa, mate,” Zane says, not in a whisper.
“What?”
“You’re bleeding.” Zane takes the broken picture frame out of my hand and turns in a circle. “I need to stash this somewhere.”
“Give me that picture,” I say.
He puts the frame on the desk and hands me a tissue. “Stop the bleeding first.” He raises his eyebrows at me.
It’s not a big cut. I’m able to wrap the tissue around my finger and slow the bleeding.
“What makes you so mad about a castle? Not even a bloody good one. Well, I guess it’s bloody now.” Zane’s working on extracting the picture from the broken frame.
I ignore his joke. “That’s how the Zambrano family met mine, or rather Emily. It’s her boarding school. Their school, I guess. Thayer’s an asshole she dated in high school. He broke her heart, and my dad took her to some estate in Switzerland?no, Albania.”
“Well, at least we know now why he’s not killing us. He's still got a thing for Emily,” Calvin says. “We don’t need to worry about it now. The coast is clear.” He has the door cracked.
I can’t look away from the array of photos behind the sofa. I step back over to look at them again.
“Here.” Zane hands me the scratched photo, then crouches down and shoves the broken frame under the desk. “Hold up. There’s something down here.” Zane pushes on something, and a wood panel drops, clanking loudly to the ground.
“What is it?” Calvin asks.
“Not sure. A file.” Zane puts it on the desk, flipping through it. “Why do rich people think that paper is more secure?” Zane’s forehead creases in his code-breaker stare.
“Because it usually is. What did you find?” I tuck the picture in my pocket.
“This is Ed’s office. And this is a list of people with marks next to each name. Pound signs, check marks, and downward arrows. I’m not sure what they mean. Should I take it? Fuck that, I’m taking it. The head asshole has tried to kill me at least three times now. I might as well give him a reason. The wanker.” Zane tucks the file into the back of his pants.
“Are you two ready?” Calvin glares at us.
“Yeah.” I nod. “No, wait.”
“Wait? Why?” Zane asks.
I take a couple more of the framed pictures and bring them over to the light on the desk. I can’t shake the feeling that there’s more here. “This one. This one is the same cross that was in the black and white photo we found on theRock Candy.” The picture is of the inside of a simple cathedral. But the rustic cross matches the one in the other picture.
“Maybe? It’s clear that Ed is the one who set up the sabotage of theRock Candy. Though I’m still not sure he’s the one who ordered it.” Zane takes the photo from me and hands it back. “Creeps me out, mate.”
This time I slide the photo out of the frame. I fold the photograph and put it in my pocket next to the other one of Pine Green Academy.
“We need to get going. I don’t want to stay anywhere for too long,” Calvin says.
“Agreed.” Zane moves to the door next to Calvin.
Calvin puts his hand on the door handle. “Up or down the stairs?”
“Down. The kitchen is definitely down, and that’s where we’re going to find Esmerelda.” Zane turns and asks, “Your finger good?”
“It’s fine.” It’s mostly stopped bleeding.
“You’ve got some rage in you. Save it for Zambrano’s men.” Calvin opens the door and walks out into the hall like he belongs here. We’re down the worn wooden stairs. The hallway here steps away from the hillside. But Zane was right?this is the direction of the kitchen. And my stomach is turning traitor.
The corridor opens up into a small commercial-style kitchen. There’s a lot going on. Four Thai males hustle around. A tall woman with gray hair in a chef’s jacket and floral scrub pants is chopping so fast her fingers are a blur. She’s absolutely not from here.
