Page 108 of Worse Than Wicked
I don’t know what he knows, but I’m assuming it’s enough. He knows what Baron is like, because he’s just like him. He knows what Baron does, because he does it too. They all do.
Did.
I swallow hard and look away from them both.
“But when did they even meet?” Harper asks. “And why are you calling her Jane?”
“I thought that was her name,” I say. “Tell me what she said. Tell me exactly what she said when she came here.”
Harper draws back, and I know I was too intense, too weird.
Instead of telling me I’m a freak, though, she just picks up the pack of cigarettes and takes one out. “I think this calls for an extra smoke,” she says, lighting up before speaking to me. “She said… She was ranting, like, all in a rushed panic that didn’t make sense. I don’t even know everything she said. She said they had to go, and she kept saying, ‘right now.’ She said someone was waiting in the car, and they had to get out right now.”
“A baby,” Royal says, taking the cigarette from her. “She said the baby was waiting.”
She wasn’t lying. She really had it.
“Yes,” Harper says, nodding. “She definitely said something about a baby, and something about the forest? And then she grabbed Olive and they ran out. She barely let her say goodbye before she dragged her out the door. Olive wanted to get her stuff, but Blue told her there was no time.”
“She gave you that number,” Royal says, handing the cigarette back.
“Oh, shit, yeah,” Harper says, tucking the filter in the corner of her mouth and digging into her pockets. She finally comes up with a torn scrap of paper. “She said she couldn’t thank us enough, and if we ever needed anything, to call this number and tell them we’re a friend of hers.”
We all stare at the scrap, weighing its meaning, its significance, its impact on the rest of our lives.
“Should we call it?” she asks, glancing at Royal like she’s afraid of his reaction.
He knows Blue killed his brother. He knows Baron will kill her if he finds her.
“Can I see it?” I ask, holding out a hand.
Harper hands it over with all the trust in the world, like she’s never considered that I might already know what to do. I crumple the tiny scrap, pull out the pack of matches that Baron gave me when he told me to burn the house, and I light one. I hold the flame to the paper.
“Whoa, what the fuck?” Royal barks, jumping up.
I turn away, so if he grabs me, he won’t get the hand with the paper. By the time he could get it, it’ll be too late.
But he never reaches me. Harper stops him with a hand on his elbow. In the two seconds of contemplation before he pulls free, the flame has swallowed the paper.
Royal glowers at me, like he’s not sure whether to throttle me. There’s nothing any of us can do now, though. I’ve made the choice for all of us. They could beat me up, but it won’t bring the number back, and I have a feeling they didn’t memorize it, if they even looked at it before Harper shoved it into her pocket in the chaos of Blue rushing in, grabbing Olive, and running out.
“You should have gone with Baron,” Royal says to me.
“I don’t think he wants company.”
“Well, too fucking bad,” he says, leaning down to kiss Harper’s head. “I’m going to find him.”
“You know where he is?”
“I’ve got his location,” he says, striding off toward the garage.
I marvel at that. I didn’t think Baron would let anyone know his whereabouts. I didn’t even know if his twin had hislocation. But Duke wasn’t his only brother. Baron has two more. They all love each other as well as they can, in their broken ways.
Just like they love us.
I sit down beside Harper.
“Smoke?” she asks.
