Bargains and Betrayals (32 page)

I nodded, choking the thought down as I guided her out of the ruined bathroom. “I just eliminated someone who was going to kill us both.” Standing just inside the Colonial’s back door I caught my breath. “Let’s not talk about it.”

Eyes shut, I leaned against the wall, Sophie leaning against the door.

Now
we’d all be okay. And least physically.

There was a
creak—
the door flew open and Sophie disappeared.

“Sophie—?” Words blew out of my lungs in a gust as I was yanked out the back door and fell onto the lawn with a grunt.

Sarah laughed and landed with her knees beside my ribs, pulling back a hand to hit me.

“Play nice, Sarah.”
Derek
. “I’m not quite finished
here
.”

Ahead of us I heard a hiss and, straining my neck, I saw Derek kick someone on the ground.
Cat?
Stepping away from her, Derek circled Sophia. I snagged Sarah’s arms and twisted, rolling and shoving her so I was on top.

“Don’t you touch me, you freak of nature!” Sophie snapped, winded but still able to climb to her feet.

Derek laughed. “Takes one to know one.” He rushed her, tapping her head with his fingers.

“Soph!” I shouted, but her knees gave way and she collapsed.

“Pitiful,” Derek muttered, looking at her crumpled form.

Taking advantage of my split attention, Sarah rolled me, snarling like a wild dog. Derek’s new little pet—
she
was who Wanda had meant.

“Sarah, stop!” My hands and hers linked, she leaned all her weight on me, trying to pin my arms back. “This isn’t
you
!”

“No, you’re wrong. You lied to me, Jessica Gillmansen. You fed me a string of lies about who I was and what I’d been,” she growled. “You tried to make me something I wasn’t supposed to be. To make me as miserable and guilt-ridden as
you
.”

“Sarah, you can be whatever you choose to be—”

“Quit trying to talk your way out of this,” Sarah snapped. “Get dirty, for once—Pietr likes girls with
spunk
.”

That was it. Remembering every time she had pushed herself at Pietr, every time I had helped her … With a shove of my hips and twist of my back, I tossed her.

She landed in an ugly heap.

“Sarah!” Derek shouted.

“What?” I demanded. “Can’t you fight your own frikkin’ battles?” Regretting the challenge, I sprang to my feet, looking for a weapon. If I needed to fight Derek, I needed to do it without getting into his reach—without getting touched.

Otherwise?

Over
.

One touch and Derek could get in my head again, mess with my body’s controls. My gaze raked the area, searching … There was an old greenhouse and garden behind me, probably kept up to make things appear more normal. I rushed to the garden, staying clear of Derek’s hands and Sarah’s limp form.

Maybe there was—a shovel? A hoe? Nothing. Didn’t people leave their tools lying outside in the suburbs? I glanced toward the greenhouse. “Sarah,” I called, “you okay?”

“No, you whore, I’m not!” She staggered to her feet.

Exasperated, I puffed out a breath, eyes on both Derek and Sarah to see who was the more immediate threat.

“You lied—”

“You’re right. I lied. I lied about not wanting Pietr. I lied about all the moments and kisses we stole behind your back. And I hated myself for every bit of it. And I lied about the day of the accident. But it all stops here. Now. Do you remember what I told you about June seventeenth?”

“That I was in a car crash. That I was lucky to be alive.”

“So true. And I wasn’t just referring to the accident then. Do you know why?”

Her brows knit together and she shook her head slowly.

“Because the first day I visited you in the hospital, when you were still comatose—I had my hands on your pillow. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to
fluff
it.” Raising my hands, I pantomimed, remembering. “I was going to press it over your face—”

“Why?”

“Because the biggest lie I ever told was a lie of omission. And I made everyone in school take part in it, too. I told them we all deserved a second chance—that we could have a fresh start with a better Sarah if they just gave me time.… It took some work. I wasn’t sure Jenny and Macie would keep the secret but, in retrospect, I should’ve known. They replaced you the moment they found out you were hospitalized!” I laughed.

From the corner of my eye I watched Derek. His eyes grew darker and I knew he was juicing up, using my anger and Sarah’s confusion to feed. I exhaled and eased back from emotion.

“I even got your parents to help me convince the police to drop all charges and wipe your record clean of your real role in the accident.”

“What?
Why?
”

“Because you killed my mother.”

Sarah gawked at me. “No,” she whispered. “Those were nightmares … Liar! Tell the truth, Jessica!”

Did she mean the nightmares she’d had right before Pietr and I made our relationship official? I blinked. There was no turning back now. “Your joyride cost my mother her life. She made me pull you out of your Beemer before she’d let me help her. She was all about forgiveness, redemption—she made the best parts of me—and you killed her!” Remembering Derek, I gulped down a breath and advanced on her.

“Instead of suffocating you, I did what I thought was the opposite of destroying you—but it was just as bad. I gave you a second chance—tried to make you into someone my mother would have liked … respected. To justify her loss.”

“I wasn’t driving—” she insisted. “No, your mom was…” She whipped around to stare in horror at Derek. “That night—you and I…” Clutching her head, her fingernails dug into the scar that proved she’d been part of an accident no one talked about because second chances were more important than past mistakes. “Ohhh…”

“Sarah—Sarah!” Derek yelled, starting toward her.

“No.” Focusing on Derek, her eyes narrowed; her words became clipped. “You were there,” she said. “You told me there was no way in Hell I could—” She pressed her hands together on her head and doubled over, screaming like something tried to break through her skull. “Oh…” She gagged. “In the nightmares, I’m not driving.” She straightened, her eyes fixed on Derek, “
You
are.”

He chuckled, a low, sick sound. “I’ve been
driving
for years,” he admitted with a helpless shrug. “Just not in a physical sense.”

Sarah swung back toward me, eyes wide. “I drove right in—right into her.”

As outrage and horror warred in my head, I saw the same things play across her face. Everything pointed back to Derek. Happy, smiling, social manipulator, remote-viewing, energy-sucking Derek.

Why couldn’t I just be justified in hating Sarah now that I finally realized that was what I’d felt all along?

Sarah’s voice was a thin whisper. “I’ve done horrible things,” she said, “but—
that
—that was—
murder
. That’s unforgivable.…”

Unable to disagree, I shuddered. She’d been his puppet even then. There he stood, watching, orchestrator of my mother’s murder and the guy who had warned the Rusakovas to save me.

Why was nothing black and white anymore?

“Quit it, Sarah,” Derek snarled. “I
made
you.” Rushing her, he jabbed her head with two fingers. Her eyes rolled back and she flopped to the ground.
Out
.

“What did you…?”

“What did I do?” he cooed, approaching slowly. “I did whatever it took to get to you, Jess.”

“Jess-i-CUH,” I barked, stepping back.

“Don’t you get it, Jess? I’ve wanted you ever since I realized the sort of power you have just under your skin. You’re the best damn battery—a psychotronic generator in the flesh.”

A chill spiraled around my spine, twisting through me.

“You just needed to be a little … off-balance? When I set Sarah—who
needs
a chauffeur—out on her little joyride, I never thought I’d get so lucky. I figured she’d maim a pedestrian and someone would freak and be a little emotionally damaged. But killing your mom? I had no idea how much energy you’d throw out.”

My gaze strafed the ground while he continued—what did people call it?
monologuing
—hoping to find a rock. A sharp stick.
Anything
. I looked back at Cat, lying limp, just long enough he noticed and spun to give her another brutal kick.

Damn it
.

Rolling into a ball, Cat groaned, lungs rattling as she fought to breathe. Her eyes sparked against the darkness.…

“I didn’t even have to be in the same room with you to feed in those first months. The same town was close enough. But it was such a brilliant stroke of ingenuity and luck…”

“It’s only ingenuity if you
really
made Sarah—”

“You have no idea, do you, Little Miss Investigative Reporter?” he teased.

“Seriously. Where was the challenge with having someone like Sarah do your dirty work?”

“Sarah was nothing when I first met her. Pretty and popular, but so much potential pissed away. And all Sarah wanted was a date with Jack. That was back when Jack was number one and I was his sidekick.” He wiggled his fingers at me. “I was bored and suffering from a severe lack of attention, so I
encouraged
the situation.”

Thinking back to middle school, I shook my head.

“Come on, Jess. You’re bound to remember Sarah before she dated Jack.” His eyes narrowed and his grin widened, watching my expression race from angry to horrified.

Before Jack, Sarah was just like Derek had said: pretty and popular. Nearly normal. Even
nice
. “What did you do to her?”

He shrugged. “I guess you’ll have to ask her and put two and two together to figure it out. I think this is one secret I’ll take to the grave.” He cocked his head, looking at me. “Huh. You’re not as
sparky
as I expected. Getting tired?” He glanced at the ground between us.

Measuring the distance? Judging the time it’d take to get his hands on me?

Beyond Derek, Cat twitched; her chest quivering.

I needed to keep her alive. Buy her time. “So you did something to Sarah in middle school. And she turned nasty. Why’d she go after Pietr? He was a Boy Scout compared to the sharks she dated.”

He grinned. “Maybe deep down she thought he’d be like other guys. But he was a total gentleman—a challenge to break down and dirty up. It drove her nuts.”

He shook his head. “She used to have her pick of guys. Then the one guy she wants doesn’t want
her
? She had to feel that creeping doubt in the back of her brain every time he kissed her with closed lips. Every time she caught him looking at
us
together like he could kill. But there’s so much you don’t know, Jess—so many questions you never
bothered
asking. You were so preoccupied. If you’d stop fixating on what
unmakes
something like Pietr—and ask yourself instead what
makes
someone like
me
, you’d learn a lot.”

What was taking Pietr and the others so long? Surely they’d gotten to the car and realized we weren’t there.… As much as I hated being rescued, I was finding the alternative—
not
being rescued—sucked
waaay
more. I needed to incapacitate Derek and get to Cat.

“By the way, that was pretty crafty, distracting me with you and dog-boy by the mirror. You definitely had my attention. I guess he beat me to the punch.” His lips slipped into a greedy smile. “But man, I was close.”

“What?” My stomach churned at what his words implied.

“Oh, that’s right.
You
don’t remember.”

Before I could blink, he jumped and tapped my forehead.

I gasped, blinded by the image of me sprawled on his bed beneath him, shirt up, jeans unbuttoned.…

“Remember now?” He laughed. “Lemme guess. Your buddy Max didn’t tell you about that, did he? I’ll bet he didn’t even tell Pietr. That’ll do some damage,” he said with satisfaction.

“Bastard.”

“Nope. Mom and Pops were married. Quite the arrangement, really.”

“
Murderer
.”

He rolled his eyes up in his head a second as if testing out that word instead. “I’ll take it,” he said. Rubbing his hands together, he looked me up and down, anticipation flooding his features. “I think we should wind this up. Get ready to evacuate the area, you and me. But first I think I’ll rip those memories right out of your head—make you forget Rusakova even exists.” He took a sudden step toward me.

I scrambled back. The worst thing imaginable was losing the memories I’d built with Pietr. Without him and all I’d done since meeting him—who would I be? More precious than my physical safety was keeping my memories—good and bad. “Why do that? Why blot out someone’s existence?”

Behind Derek, Cat’s back arched up in a painful angle and I saw—fur? Her hand thrust out from beneath her and curled into a paw. Determined not to give away the strange thing going on just behind his back, I focused on Derek’s face.

“The power you ooze is addictive. And the damage done here? No problem. We’ll set up shop somewhere else.” Grinning, the leer he shot me was worlds away from his all-American-boy-next-door smile. “I’m very valuable to the company and because I’m valuable, you’re valuable. So don’t worry.…” Stepping closer, his hand by my cheek, he said, “On second thought—
worry
.”

Cat’s head raised, stretching her neck cruelly, her face blending between wolf and human for a moment. Streaked with her own blood, she collapsed again, her features fighting and settling once more—furless.

Dodging Derek’s hand, I ducked around him, fear giving my feet speed. “If you feed on drama, shouldn’t I keep my memories? You could try and turn me against Pietr.” My heart pounded at the suggestion, my throat narrowing.

“That’s what I like about you, Jessica. Always thinking.” Suddenly beside me, he nearly kicked my feet out from under me.

Nearly
.

But my stance held even as things fuzzed in my head and my vision dimmed, his grip biting into my wrist. I kept my focus.