Page 58 of I Did Something Bad
“Why no lawyers?” She tosses a frown in his direction. “What happens if people find out?”
“People aren’t going to find out.”
This time, with a pointed eyebrow raise, she asks, “And what if they do? We need a backup. If someone finds out, what happens to Khin? What happens to…” The silence cloaks the air like thick netting, but she doesn’t need to finish the sentence.What happens to you?
“They’renot,” Tyler counters with an air of finality. “You wanted to know what the plan was? Well, that’s it. The plan is that nobody finds out.”
Despite his harsh tone, May doesn’t parry. Instead, she stares, and stares—and stares for several more seconds. It occurs to me that she’s waiting for him to change his mind, waiting for him to be sure that this is whathewants to do before she agrees to follow him to the ends of the earth. At last, when she’s certainhe’scertain, she nods. “Okay, then,” she says, confirming my theory. “How are we doing that?”
Tyler looks like he’s ready to try to push her away again, but I can tell by now that May Diamond and I are cut from the same cloth—that look she has in her eyes right now is the exact same look I get when I’ve decided I want something. “We’re going to a bar tonight,” I say. Tyler glares at me, but I respond with a defiant lift of my chin.
“Well, well.” May settles back and gets comfortable in her triumph. “Thank you, Khin. I wouldloveto join you guys.” Someone gives the door several loud raps from the outside. “Catch me up in the car? I’m assuming we’ll take yours?”
We’ve been parked about a block away from Devil’s Lounge for a solid twenty minutes while trying to come up with a plan. Except, in the words of the inimitable Phoebe Buffay, we don’t even have a “pla.”
“Let me flirt with the bartender!” May grumbles, head bobbing in the center space between me and Tyler.
Tyler looks over at me for backup. “Flirting with the bartender isn’t the solution to everything.”
“No, but it could work in this case. We could go undercover—”
“Undercover?!” Tyler gives his hair a violent, impatient rake. “We’re not going undercover! Way to lean into the melodramatic actor stereotype.”
“Oh so, what? We walk in there and,” May puffs out her chest and says in a low, mocking tone, “you introduce yourself as Tyler Tun and ask if anyone will give us any information about this Jared in exchange for a ticket to the movie premiere?”
“You are so in—”
I halt one hand in front of each of their faces. “Stop!Ihave a plan.” I turn to May. “Any bartender you flirt with is only going to be trying to get into your pants. And it’s going to look way too suspicious when people hear that May Diamond was asking around about a specific person who they’re undoubtedly going to later find out is already dead.” Then to Tyler. “Butyoucan’t just waltz in either. Actually, neither of you can.”
After a pause, Tyler scowls as he realizes what I’m implying. “Khin, I’m not letting you walk into that seedy bar alone.”
Protectiveness isn’t always a turn-on for me, but I kinda like it on him. “Tyler,” I say, cocking him a half smile. “You don’t think I’ve walked into seedy bars alone before?”
May props an elbow on my headrest. “It’s annoying, right? There he goes again, thinking that we women aren’t capable of handling ourselves. God forbid we enter a bar on our—”
“It’s not the women going to bars alone that’s the problem,” Tyler says. “It’s themen.”
His gaze lands on me and there’s a dark flash that I hadn’t expected. And then it makes sense. Of course. What happened with his sister.
“Hey,” I say. He looks like he’s starting to drift off to an unpleasant place. I rest my palm on his shoulder and give it a light squeeze.
As though it works, as though I’ve managed to ground him just as he was starting to lose himself, his expression softens, eyes refocusing on me. “Hey,” he says.
“I’ll be okay. And you’ll be right here, listening through the phone.”
I hold his gaze, hoping that each of my silent reassurances gets through.
Nothing is going to happen to me.
This is totally different from what happened with Jess.
I’m not scared because I know you two have my back.Especiallyyou.
“Okay,” he says, his halfhearted nod telling me that he’s anything but. “But the second something seems off—”
I return a firm nod. “I promise.”
I didn’t mention to Tyler that I’m not really a dive-bar person because I didn’t want him to have another reason to freak out, but… I amnota dive-bar person. They’re dark with sticky floors and countertops, and just generally give me the creeps. Nonetheless, I take a seat in the middle of the counter, placing my purse on the stool beside me and my phone on the countertop. I’ve already clocked four white men—two at one far end of the counter, and two in one of the side booths near the entrance—and all of them are not subtle about their interest in me as I settle myself.
