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“You know they killed Tyler’s sister?”
Hearing it from Lilah gave it a distinctly different spin from the way Chris had said it. But still, despite Michael’s temper, she couldn’t imagine him killing someone. “I know she drowned, in the quarry.”
Lilah stepped close again, and now her eyes were angry. It made her look fierce. “She was my friend. You know she drowned right after that oldest one started hassling her at her summer job? Who do you think chased her into the quarry in the first place?”
Enough pain crept into her voice that Becca had to swallow. “It was an accident,” she said.
“You sure?”
No. She wasn’t. And Becca couldn’t lie to Lilah, especially in the face of such honest pain.
She remembered holding Chris’s hand, feeling the water pull her down, turning her world into nothing but darkness and suffocation.
Lilah moved even closer. “Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt on that one—even though they don’t deserve it. Did you know their parents killed Seth’s parents?”
Becca shook her head.
“Yeah,” said Lilah. “After Michael killed Emily. We just wanted them to leave.” She kept going. “Did they tell you this isn’t the first time we’ve called the Guides to take care of them?”
Becca had to clear her throat. “Chris said you threatened to. Back then. That his parents made a deal—”
“No.” Lilah shook her head. “A few months ago.”
Becca was having a hard time figuring out how to play this. Tyler and Seth were cruel, true bullies. But was she in a position to defend Chris and his brothers? “And?”
“They sent two. The Merricks killed them.”
“I don’t believe you.”
With what we are, it’s easy to commit a crime without evidence. Very easy.
Too easy.
Dismay must have been written on her face. Lilah nodded. “You believe me.”
Becca couldn’t think over the rush of her heartbeat.
“You need more?” said Lilah. “Chris and Gabriel tried to blow up Tyler’s truck Wednesday night. Sure, the cops caught them before they could do anything—but who knows what more would have happened?”
That had been the same night she’d driven Chris home. She remembered the way Chris had slouched into school Thursday. He’d looked like crap, but she’d attributed that to the fight she’d rescued him from. Had he gone out and picked another? “They tried to—blow up—”
“His truck. By lighting bags of fertilizer on fire. Do you know how big those things explode? Do you know they could have killed people? Innocent people.”
Becca stared at her.
“Look it up,” said Lilah. “There’s a police blotter in the Sunday paper.”
She would. When she got home, she would.
He’d fed her that song and dance about how they were being persecuted, when two nights earlier he’d been bombing Tyler’s truck?
“Tyler and Seth—they’re cruel,” Lilah said. “But it’s not because they want to be. It’s because we have to be.”
She took a step back. Becca just stared at her.
“Yeah,” said Lilah, “I don’t think you have to worry about the Guides. I don’t think you have to worry about them at all.” She turned and started to walk away.
Then she paused and called over her shoulder. “I just think you need to worry about the Merricks.”
