Conviction (23 page)

“Don’t touch anything, you halfwit!” I looked up just as Yuri started throwing pebbles at Polo from the cliffs above. When he saw me looking, he waved. I waved back.

Charlie shoved Polo from the car and they both tumbled to the ground. I looked back up to the cliffside but Yuri was gone. Did he think I had betrayed them, too? Dust ruffled at my feet and I took more than a few steps back just for good measure. Charlie was using his cast as a weapon and Polo used his head like a battery-ram into Charlie’s side.

“Um, boys?”

I crossed my arms over myself despite the cramped drive. There was no feeling of control and it was making me even more nervous than I already was.

“Hey, knock it off.”

Yuri emerged from a growth of trees and slid down, a crust of dirt on his heels. Though he didn’t look at me, I felt his curiosity towards me like when we had first met; it was hostile now though, because I was a threat. Even if I hadn’t betrayed them, I had an external power to change things; transforming me from an outsider into one of them. 

“Boys?”

“I got this.” Yuri sighed and picked up a fairly long piece of piping nearby, studying its round angles for a split second, before poking at them both.

“Yikes, please be careful—”

“Just tenderizing…”

Polo and Charlie pulled apart, out of breath and laughing. I made a move to help Charlie up, but like a cat he was back on his feet before I even got close to him. It made me wonder just how many lives he had left.

“Maybe you shouldn’t be doing that.” I brushed the dirt from his hair where his hand rested on mine. I slid my fingers down to his cheek and tried to flake away more dirt, but quickly realized it was only more bruises. Bruises on top of bruises.

“If I don’t remind everyone ‘round here who’s in charge, who will?”

Polo waved at me from the ground and I waved at him with my arms still around Charlie.

“Hiya!”

I laughed into Charlie’s shirt. “Hi.”

Yuri helped Polo up and whispered something at him. Polo scoffed but ran off, kicking gravel as he chanted.

Charlie leaned into me and kissed my forehead, uncaring that Yuri was right next to us. Maybe it was from missing him so much, but I didn’t mind the public display of affection nearly as much as I normally would have. Yuri wasn’t nearly as patient, however. “Where’s big mouth?”

Charlie shrugged.

“He went to get rid of Polo’s car. When I suggested we take my brother’s, he took off,” I said. “We didn’t wait for him.”

Yuri looked back between Charlie and I, trying to decide something. “You killed him, didn’t you?”

I pulled away as Charlie laughed. “Nah.”

“Then where is he?”

“He ain’t here yet?”

Yuri gestured around. “You see him anywhere?

An engine came roaring down the exit. A moment later the tires of a delivery truck barreled towards us, kicking up dust and dirt with it. I could see Polo behind the wheel clearly enough, and apparently so could Charlie, as he pushed to move me out of the way.

“Is that our ride?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah,” Yuri said. “But I’ll do most of the driving.”

Polo parked the truck and hopped out of the driver’s seat, running back when he realized he’d forgotten to turn the truck off.

“Hey guys! Hey!”

I broke from Charlie long enough to return Polo’s hug, they were like the frantic pulsing of hummingbird wings. It was good to be back with the familiar.

“It’s good you’re back. Like, really, really good.”

“Thanks. I feel the same way.”

“I don’t want Charlie going to jail.”

I smiled, though it hurt. “Me neither.”

I looked over my shoulder at Yuri and Charlie. They seemed to be doing some kind of silent guy bonding that I didn’t understand, staring each other down, looking angry but not really emitting any of it.

“We didn’t know if you were gonna make it or not.”

Charlie shrugged, looked back at me, and smiled. “Neither did I”

They said nothing else to one another, and I could tell from Polo’s darting eyes that I wasn’t the only one who sensed the tension. If they didn’t fight was this the alternative to how guys solved their problems?

Finally, I decided I couldn’t take it anymore and interrupted the brooding dude moment. “So, what’s the plan?”

Yuri snickered. “We’ll give Big Mouth a few more minutes and then we gotta go.” He looked at something far off. “We shouldn’t waste anymore time.”

I honestly didn’t know if I wanted Reid to show up or not. It was one of those controversies that split me in half. Though his intentions weren’t exactly noble, I was grateful that he had helped me on the pier, saved my life, really. If he hadn’t, I never would have seen Charlie again, and hurt Dad and Robbie unimaginably. But he had also played a significant role in the events leading up to my attempt. It was scary that he could be that manipulative.

Chapter 18

Ultimately, my internal dilemma didn’t matter since Reid drove up a few minutes later in a green Civic. No one asked where it came from or what he had to do to get it. I didn’t feel nearly as much shame as I should have that I didn’t want to know anymore than the rest of them did. I hoped for the best as I moved Robbie’s car behind the dump truck, but before I abandoned it completely, I dug for a pen in the glove box and wrote on the back of an old envelope.

Robbie—Gone Fishin
g
11:03AM.

Coming back from around the dump truck, I could see Yuri and Reid talking quietly amongst themselves, though it looked like Yuri was doing most of the talking for a change, and when Reid interrupted, Yuri’s eyes got wide and his tone a little more harsh.

Finally, Reid pushed Yuri and the two dispersed.

I looked around until I found Charlie, only panicking slightly when I didn’t see him right away. I never thought I’d be so happy to see him smoking, and when I did I hid behind the open door of the truck, inhaling the scent of clove. I realized that it was so much better than any daydream or fantasy.

Inhaling too deeply, I coughed, giving way my position. I heard Charlie chuckle. When I poked my head around the door, I saw him grin for the first time in months.

“You caught me.”

“It’s okay.” I shook my head. “You’ve earned it.”

“Did you know that wolves mate for life?”

I shook my head.

“Swans, too.”

I chewed on my lower lip as he stomped on the last of the cigarette. “So which one are we?”

“You tell me, Vicious.”

Before I could respond, Reid and Yuri walked over, both looking mad and red in the face. Over the drama I was proud of Charlie for not getting involved.

“Enough of this jerking-off. Let’s go.”

“You guys need to get in the back, your freaking pictures are everywhere.”

Charlie and I were all too happy to obey. Reid, on the other hand, made to get in the cab until Yuri held his hand out to stop him.

“Where in the hell do you think you’re going?”

“Where does it look like?”

Yuri broke out laughing. “Oh hell no! You’re going in the back, too. Polo’s riding up front—”

“Yay! Yay! Yay!”

“What? Why do I get stuck with a traitor and a jackass?”

“’Cause this shit storm is your doing. Even if your picture isn’t on the front page, you can sure as hell bet it’s in there somewhere for that high speed ride you put the cops on last night.

“But you—”

“Yeah, but
we
weren’t seen. Now get in the Goddamn truck.”

Charlie and I sat next to each other on one end and Reid sat on the other. The inside of the truck wasn’t very big, and with the way Charlie and Reid glared at each other, I was reminded of the metaphor of two cats trapped in a bag . Luckily, Polo sporadically changed songs on a mix CD and Yuri repeatedly slapped his hand away. None of us could see them but we could hear them easily enough, and their arguing provided an ample distraction.

“Oooh, I like that song!” I heard Polo say.

“That song is garbage.”

“Oh, I like that song, too!”

“Then why did you change it?”

“To get to this song.”

Polo began singing along, though because it was a techno/hip-hop combination, he sounded more like a broken beatbox than someone actually trying to sing.

“This is gonna turn into a Charlie situation real quick if you don’t knock that off.”

“A Charlie situation?”

“Yeah. I’m just gonna start beating the hell out of you.”

I laughed.

“What are
you
giggling about?” Reid sneered at me from the dark. Whether he meant to or not,, he frightened me. I huddled closer to Charlie.

“I, uh, I just missed those guys.”

He kicked the metal floor with his feet.

“Don’t. Start,” Charlie barked.

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll break your Goddamn neck and get it over with.”

They stood up at the same time, their heights almost equal to each other, and though Reid was uninjured, Charlie outweighed him in muscle, probably making any physical fight relatively fair. I wondered if I should get up too, knock on the other side of the truck, and ask for Yuri’s help. Notwithstanding, I doubted I could have stood on my feet while the truck was moving, anyway.

“Guys, just take it easy.”

“Shut up.”

“Hey!”

“What? Everyone is calling me a liar when I just told you what I thought and showed you some evidence. What if she’s the liar? What if she’s working with the cops?”

I stumbled to my knees. “I’m not.”

“Prove it,” he demanded.

What could I possibly offer to dissuade Reid? He had been weary of me from the beginning. Even Elise, obviously loyal for years, hadn’t earned his trust. What could I offer in comparison to that? “I—I can’t.”

Reid crossed his arms over himself, satisfied. “What did I tell you?”

Charlie clenched his fist tightly though I reached for him, trying to remind him that I was still here, that he needed to control his rage. “She had plenty of chances to turn me in.”

Reid pounded the side of his head violently with his fist. “Think about it, genius! Maybe the cops are working her to get the rest of us.”

“You know, you ain’t gotta to be here, anyway.” Charlie’s jaw ground together so hard I couldn’t imagine it didn’t hurt his teeth. “Nobody wants ya here.”

“Oh, I’m not stupid enough to be here because I
want
to be. Boss man said if I didn’t lend a hand, I’d have to sleep with my eyes open for the rest of my very short life. Worse yet, if something happens to the new bastard, he’s probably gonna blame me for that crap, too.”

I tugged on Charlie’s waist like a small child. “What’s he talking about?”

Almost absentmindedly, Charlie said, “Elise is having another kid.”

My gasp echoed in the truck and drew both pairs of eyes to me. “What?”

Charlie looked me up and down, maybe surprised by my random display of delight and childishness as I clapped my hands together.

“What did I tell you? Best. Day. Ever.”

Reid huffed and sat back down as we hit as particularly bad pothole. I, on the other hand, was not so graceful, and tumbled backward. Charlie stopped me from hitting my head against the metal railing and guided us back to sitting, laughing the entire time.

“I should get some sleep
now
,” he said mockingly. “Because you know, it’s hard to get a decent rest in the joint.” He took off his hoodie and bundled it up under his head before lying down and turning on his side. “Which is where we’re all going, by the way!”

I could see Charlie’s feet trying to move inside the steel-toe boots. If I wasn’t there would he even bother to threaten Reid?

“Ignore him,” I said. “If you killed him if wouldn’t be the best day ever.”

Charlie mumbled something and brought his hands to his face. I wasn’t worried because I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but rather because I couldn’t see his expression. Still, I knew he was tired, angry, and I couldn’t even begin to imagine how overwhelmed he was about everything else, so maybe space to think was a better remedy at this moment. I literally twiddled my thumbs, counting the cars I heard whizzing past us on the freeway. At least Yuri was driving slowly. Hopefully, that would keep us under the radar.

“I—I don’t know what to say.”

“Neither do I,” I admitted.

“I didn’t realize it until now.” He paused and looked straight ahead at the other side of the gray metal ahead from us. “Ben wasn’t just helping ‘cause Elise told him to.”

“Gee, you mean Ben Walden
didn’t
do something out of the goodness of his heart?”

He gave me a wry smile. I pulled my knees up to my chest and glanced over at Reid. I had thought he was being sarcastic, but it really did seem he was asleep.

Charlie’s body did the opposite of mine, his legs stretched out and he leaned his head back against the cool metal. “He musta known you weren’t talkin’ to anybody.”

“Well, I sort of was.”

A brief look of horror came over his face before I rushed to explain.

“When you—after you went in the hospital—I made sure to tell someone in the media what I had been telling the FBI, that you were innocent, and that they were railroading you. Since I couldn’t see you or get in touch with anyone, I felt so helpless, I had to do something…”

“I—” He cut himself off, looking away from me.

“What, Charlie?”

In the hospital, s-somebody put something in my arm and I just remember being real mad…”

I nudged my head into his arm. “What else is new?”

His smiled, but it was sad. “No, it wasn’t like that.”

“What was it like?”

“I was mad ‘cause I was still alive.”

“Charlie—” I choked back my tears by burying myself in his arm. Instead of counting I focused on keeping my lips pursed, thinking that if I did this long enough I could keep back what he was saying.

“Yuri got there somehow, and he was tellin’ me that I’m an idiot and that I’m causin’ everybody problems. He told me you still loved me and all that, that you practically wrote it in the papers.”

“But?”

“I didn’t believe him.”

“Why not?”

“I figured he was just sayin’ it to get me outta there.”

“The guys love you. Not as much as me, and in a very different way, but they love you just the same.”

Again the wry smile was back. “Sure, but Ben has to protect his investments, too. You and me.” He draped his broken arm over my shoulder, and though it made for a hard backrest, it wasn’t uncomfortable. “We’re investments.”

“That’s why I get to go with you now?”

He nodded.

“Why am I valuable?”

“‘Cause whoever told the Albanians ‘bout us, probably told them about you, too.”

I tried to let my mind process what he was saying. The problems had started when another gang had not only taken the merchandise, but then arranged to have them ambushed. If someone was out to get them, it wasn’t completely out of the question that they wouldn’t stop until they were all dead. Elise and I might just be loose ends.

“You know I’d never say anything to anyone.”

He scoffed. “The cops, sure. Under torture, it’s a little different, though. You’d be lucky if they killed you after. Odds are they’d sell you to trade.”

I turned away.

“Ben knows I’d never let that happen. I’d show ‘em anything, tell ‘em everything to keep that from happening.”

I gripped him by the arm as tightly as I could. “No. What about the guys? Elise and Tyler?”

“Don’t you get it?” He shook me off, and gently took my face between his hands. I leaned against the callused palms despite the warmth and the fear of what he might say next. “You are the only one who matters.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Does this ridiculous theory have something to do with why you started that fight in jail?”

He pulled me close, planting kisses on the side of my head so soft I barely felt them. “I didn’t wanna say it in the car while you were driving, in case you got upset.”

“In case?” I shivered though his chuckle was warm in my ear. “Tell me, Charlie.”

“I don’t think I should.”

We had kept so much from each other, and while they had played their roles, Reid’s antics and Ben’s competition were only a small part of the problem. The lack of communication was what had nearly caused our downfall, what nearly cost Charlie his life. Though the truth may hurt, we had to share it with each other; not just out of necessity but because we loved each other. If we couldn’t do that, then we didn’t have a chance.

“You need to,” I said. “I need to hear it.”

“I told those cops what I told ‘em, but they wanted more. They kept asking me the same questions but I just shut up after awhile. They left me alone for a few days, and I thought that would be it.”

I tapped my thumbnail on his cast and did my best to make my face look indifferent. If I became hysterical, Charlie might change his mind about revealing the truth and I might have changed my mind about wanting to hear it.

“They started up again, sayin’ they got you to admit what really happened, that you weren’t afraid of me anymore, that since I was going away anyhow I might as well spare everybody the trial.”

“That I had said what
really
happened?” Though I had an inkling about the lie the FBI had planted in his head I wanted to make sure. I had already been sure that I was the source of Charlie’s destruction, though admittedly I didn’t think it would be because of something like this.