“He’s dead!” Link notes what my rage refuses to register. “He’s dead.”
“It was too quick,” Connor says, while I’m staring at my own fists covered in blood.
He’s right. That man deserved to suffer more than what he got.
Link pulls me to the side, offering me a towel to clean up my hands, and for the next two hours, I watch him and Connor take care of the body. Link burns all the belongings while digging up information about the still nameless man whose expiration date I set. Across the room, Connor dismembers the body to dissolve it in lye, all the while singing and dancing to the upbeat tune of “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” by Justin Timberlake, using the bloody electric saw as a microphone.
Eventually, Dean and Carter join us. Dean’s talking to me, but I can’t make out what he’s saying; my brain’s a million miles away from this place.
I hear Carter, however, saying how I did the right thing.
Which part was right?
The wrong schedule?
The doubled security meant to protect nothing?
Calling on Kyle when he wasn’t supposed to be there?
Or killing too quickly the man who left him to burn?
All I see is a series of wrong decisions that are my doing.
“You wanna go home? We’ll take care of everything here,” Dean asks, and a single word stands out from the rest—home.
It’s past one in the morning when I check my phone for the first time all night and find two texts waiting.
Summer
Really?
Then another one from 8:20 p.m.
Summer
You fooled me into thinking you care for me. This is your payback now, isn’t it? Congratulations! You win.
Grabbing Dean’s blazer that’s hanging from a chair to cover the bloodstains on my white shirt, I leave the house in a hurry.
I have to get to Summer. She’s my home.
Chapter 31
Summer
At well past midnight, there isn’t a single text or call from Atlas. And when the screen turns black, my own fractured reflection stares back at me.
My mom used to say, “If you play a game, you can lose.” But I’m not ready to lose just yet.
Taking a deep breath, I slap a Band-Aid between my thumb and index finger and stare at it like it might solve my problems.
I think it’s time for me to utilize that idea I had stashed away about messing with Mason’s business to get Gabriel back here. And I know exactly how to do that.
If the transport department takes a blow, Gabriel will come running home for sure.
The path to revenge through Atlas might seem closed, but I’m not stopping. I’ll find another way to get to those people. But I need them both here.
A surge of determination born of desperation makes me grab my phone and dial a number.
