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“I don’t know,” she says, shrugging. “Maybe. One of them was some guy named ‘Arber.’ He showed up at my front door and said he was there because you led him to me.”
I flatten my palm over my beating heart. “I did not lead anyone to you, Noelle. I swear. I’ve been working to keep you and Ashley out of all of this!”
“Not like that. They found me because they wanted to break into Timofey’s inner circle. His men are apparently very loyal. And Timofey wasn’t letting anyone near you. So they thought they’d get to you through me.” She crosses her arms over her chest, and she looks thinner than I remember. “Or they wanted me to get to you for them, I guess. They wanted me to turn you against Timofey and try to get Benjamin away from him.”
I take a step away from my friend. Suddenly, I realize how exposed I am here, standing on the open street. We should have had this meeting in a more secluded location.
“And what did you tell them?” I ask, fearing I already know the answer.
Tears well in her eyes. “I didn’t have a choice, Piper. They were going to send me to prison.”
I remember my own afternoon spent in a jail cell. If Timofey had that power, I’m sure the Albanians do, too.
“I would have fought for you. I still will,” I say. “They can’t lock you away on false charges and get away with it. We can fight back and—”
“You don’t understand.” Her voice breaks around the words. “They aren’t false charges, Piper.”
“What did you do? It can’t have been that bad. People don’t go to prison for jaywalking or stealing a pack of gum. You have to—”
“You never asked how I met Wayne.”
The change in subject is abrupt. “Yes, I did. You said you met him at work.”
“Yeah. I met him at work,” she repeats. “When he was there investigating my company for fraud.”
I stare at her, the ability to speak having momentarily escaped me.
“I did some bad stuff, Piper. Faked some numbers. Swept some stuff under the rug. Then the FBI came and I was sure it was over for me. But… we hit it off, Wayne and I, and he helped me hide some of my involvement.” Noelle puts her hands on her head, almost as if she’s trying to shove the truth back into her skull. “But the Albanians dug all of it back up. If I don’t do what they say, they are going to make sure Wayne and I are ruined. At best, we’ll be fired. At worst, we’ll go to prison. I didn’t have a choice, Piper. I can’t go to prison.”
So this is what it feels like, I think.This is what it feels like to have everything you think you know about the world shatter in front of you.
“You’re the good one,” I whisper.
“What?”
“Ashley is the fucked-up one,” I say a little louder. “She is the one who calls me for bail money and cancels plans with me to go get beat up by her shitty ex instead. You… you are supposed to be the one I can count on.”
Her face screws up in anger. “And you’re supposed to be the one who is always there to lend a helping hand. Yet when I need you most, you don’t seem to care! I called and told you exactly what you needed to do, but you screwed me on that, too.”
I don’t understand what she means, but then it hits me.
“The wedding rehearsal.” I clap a hand over my mouth, the words coming out muffled. “You called and told me to get out. You said it would be dangerous. I thought you were worried, but that’s not it, is it?You knew what the Albanians had planned.”
The way her mouth puckers tells me I’m right.
I thought Rodion might have been the rat because he showed up just before the shooting.
But it was Noelle all along.
“I could havedied,” I hiss. “All you had to do was tell me on the phone what was going on, and I would have left. Instead, you risked my life so you wouldn’t have to go to prison.”
“I thought you would listen to me!” she argues. “I made you promise you’d try to escape.”
Some small part of me wants to give her the benefit of the doubt. Noelle was trying to protect herself, Wayne, and me all at the same time. I can’t fault her for not doing it flawlessly. She tried her best.
But another part of me—a part that seems to be growing bigger everyday—is tired of accepting whatever scraps are left over once everyone has served their own needs.
I’m worth more than that.
