AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You should be in school,” he said, then looked at the clock. “You should be asleep.”
“I know,” I said, putting my money on the counter. “I’ve got family troubles.”
“No trouble ever got fixed late at night,” he said. “Midnight is for regrets.”
I don’t like to think about that as I sip coffee and twiddle my thumbs, but everything else I’ve got to think about, I like even less.
Barron’s only a half hour late. He pulls up and rolls down his window. “Okay,” he says. “Where do you want to go?”
“Somewhere private,” I say, getting into the car.
We drive a couple of blocks until we come to an old cemetery. He pulls onto the pebbled road, past a NO TRESPASSING sign.
“Look,” I say. “I get that you have something on me. You could run your mouth. Tell people what I am and what I’ve done. Hell, you could scream it from every rooftop. I would be screwed. My life would be over.”
He frowns. I can’t tell if he’s considering what I said or just scheming.
“The thing is,” I say, “I could change my face and start a totally different life. All I’d need is a name and a Social Security number. I’m pretty confident that Mom raised me well enough to commit a little identity theft.”
He looks startled, like he’d never even considered that.
“I don’t want to be a murderer,” I say.
“Don’t think of it like that,” he says, leaning over and picking up my coffee from the cup holder. He takes a long swallow. “The people we’d be taking out aren’t good guys. Let me explain how this would work. The Brennans don’t even have to meet you. They’ll just get to see your work. I’m your agent and accomplice and fall guy. I help you set up the crimes, and I hide your identity.”
“What about school?”
“What about it?” he asks.
“I’m not leaving Wallingford.”
He nods, lip curling up. “Now that Lila’s at Wallingford, I just bet you don’t want to leave. It always comes back to her, doesn’t it?”
I frown. “So why couldn’t I do this on my own? Cut you out?”
“Because you need me to do the research,” he says, clearly relieved to be asked a question he can easily answer. “I’ll make sure we find the right person on the right night. And, of course, I’ll make sure the witnesses don’t remember anything.”
“Of course,” I echo.
“So?” he says. “Come on. We could make a lot of money. And I could even make you forget—”
“No,” I say, cutting him off. “I don’t think so. I don’t want to do it.”
“Cassel,” he says desperately. “Please. Look, you’ve got to. Please, Cassel.”
For a moment I am uncertain about everything.
“I don’t,” I say finally. The inside of the car feels stuffy, cramped. I want to get out. “Just take me back to Wallingford.”
“I already took a job,” he says. “I was so sure that you’d say yes.”
I freeze. “Barron, come on. You can’t manipulate me like this. I’m not going to—”
“Just this once,” he says. “One time. If you hate it, if it goes to hell, we never have to do it again.”
I hesitate. After I changed Barron’s notebooks, he became the brother I always wanted. There’s always a price. “So instead of pizza night, we’re supposed to bond over murder?”
“So you’ll do it?” he asks.
