The Artful (Shadows of the City) (31 page)

I nodded, not wanting to look at her; I could feel her staring at me, waiting for me to say something. Instead, we sat in silence. Until something occurred to me. “Knowing everything that happened, you willingly brought me into Brooklyn. You had to know you’d get caught.”

“I grew up here.” She indicated the garden around us. “This is pretty much all I know, this and the arena. The couple days I spent in Manhattan were the first I’ve ever seen of anywhere else, the first time I made friends. Even Dodgy, as annoying as he is. I’ve never been around anyone who isn’t working for Daddy or some potential person for him to make a deal with. I didn’t have anything to lose by coming back home, but you had everything to lose without my help.”

I chuckled under my breath. She turned my face toward her. “What? What’s so funny?”

“So why do I feel like I’ve lost everything anyway!” I felt overwhelmed with emotion. There was emptiness in my stomach, and yet I felt like I was overflowing. I couldn’t stop shaking; my body was on the verge of bursting. That’s when I realized I had nothing left to hide, and the tears came with an uncontrollable sobbing. I buried my face in my hands wanting to hide my shame and pain. But Gia wouldn’t let me. She took my face in her hands, using her thumbs to wipe tears from under my eyes, before pulling me close and kissing me. She leaned in, putting her hand behind my head, running her fingers through my hair. Everything I had felt, all the pain, sadness, and failure that made me feel detached. I had somehow found a cure in her, and she thought the same of me. We pulled at each other as if we needed to become one, because separate we were broken, but together we were whole, immortal, and could face anything that was thrown at us.
Dodger would think that was totally gay!
But I didn’t care. I loved her.

With great effort I pulled back from her hungry lips, but she continued to lean in, following me for more. I held her back at arm’s length. “We have to get out of here, I have to get the box back to Dodger. Who knows how he’s doing? After he’s cured, we’ll hook up with the Runts and leave the city all together just like you wanted.”

“Twist, I can’t… there’s no way I can get out of here again. I’m sorry.”

“Are you kidding me!” I kissed her again, hard and passionately to hammer in the point. “There’s no way I’m losing you again.”

“How, pray tell, do you plan on sneaking me out?”

“Don’t worry, I got it covered.”

“Oh, hell, no! Are you serious? No, no, this is not going to happening!” the driver yelled from the passenger side window, seeing Gia and I walking toward the car, hand in hand. “I’m not getting involved in this!”

I opened the back door for Gia. She smiled and hopped in. I walked around to the driver side and said, “Well, we could always knock you unconscious and leave you here. Say I overpowered you.”

“I’d like to see that happen!”

I nodded behind him; he turned around just in time to see Gia crawling up into the front passenger seat. Just before he could protest, she elbowed him in the jaw, hard enough to snap his head into the side of the car. I opened the door, and his unconscious body fell to the ground.

odger taught me to drive when I was fourteen. We’d found an abandoned car that still had a tank of gas while hiding out in an old lot. Having told Gia this, she insisted she drive instead. The trip with her back to Manhattan was a pleasant one. I still felt a sense of dread, but together I think we were both safe, like a vacation from life. We were off to a better future. Travelling through cannibal territory was a smooth ride. The cannibals steered clear of cars, a clear sign of people marked as Chrysler’s. Any attack on a driver or passenger would be seen as hostility toward Chrysler himself and invite his unforgiving wrath. Once we reached the bridge, we drove down the center at a slow crawl as she blinked the headlights in the same pattern she used with the flashlight. After a response from the top of the watch tower, she put her foot to the gas and we were off. We reached Red’s camp just before morning. That’s when our little fantasy vacation melted away.

I knew something was wrong when we pulled up near Union Square. The normal hustle and bustle of the Tribe was gone. No music or cheer, no people partying about; it was a ghost town. We left the car on a side street and cautiously made our way to the tents. I must have been tense because Gia took my hand and smiled at me reassuringly.

“Where’d everyone go? Is it because the sun is coming up?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but I’ve never seen this place so empty, day or night. Let’s find Dodger.” We went straight for the medical tent, and dread filled me as we opened the flaps
. What if he was dead already?

I didn’t have to worry too long. We were greeted by a number of people, all standing around his bed. Red’s face lit up when she saw me. I also saw a couple of men, and one of the old timers I barely remembered from the bar. Most importantly, Dodger was sitting up on the bed, his abdomen was heavily bandaged, and he looked tired, but, when he saw me, his eyes narrowed.

“So,” he said. “You finally decided to come back, huh? What were you guys doing gallivanting around town; eloping, renting a room… I dunno, what do people do with whores these days?”

“Screw you!” Gia shouted, pushing past me into the tent.

“Don’t call her that.” The sternness of my voice surprised me. “Come on, man, chill.”

“Oh, well! I guess the little guy grew some balls.” Dodger’s smile seemed more of a mask than sincere. “And I’m sure he put them to use.” He glared at Gia, and she shot him back a look just as hard.

“What’s your deal, man?” I shouted, marching over to his bedside.

“My deal? I thought you were dead! You just disappeared. I had no idea what happened to you. Anything could have happened to you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, and you proved that when you went off and tried to sleep with Eve!”

Gia shot me a pained look, but I didn’t have time to explain anything. I was beyond angry.

“I told you before I don’t need you to babysit me!”

“Apparently not, now that you have her.”

“Leave her out of this. What the hell is your problem, man?”

“My problem is, here I am literally on my death bed, and, instead of being here talking with me, you’re off with her.” To Gia, he added, “Look, no offense. Let’s face it, I’m kind of a jerk. I’m not mad at you, really. Even though crap has hit the fan left and right ever since you showed up. But you know what? I’m just angry at the fact that my best buddy here decided it was in his best interest to disappear on me, again. So instead of enjoying my last moments of life sleeping with Red or getting wasted, I’m worried about him.”

She looked at him hard before saying, “Twist just saved your life, you ass.”

The moment seemed as good a time as any, so I pulled out the box that contained Reynolds’ meds and tossed it onto Dodger’s bed. I didn’t say a word; I waited for it all to sink in. Dodger looked at me questioningly and picked up the box.

“We found Smith,” I said. “I wasn’t going to let you die. You may have given up on yourself, but there was no way in hell I was going to.”

Dodger had no comeback. Everyone was quiet. Luckily, before it got uncomfortable, Red added, “Maybe we should give these two some quality time together.” She began leading the others out of the tent. Gia rubbed my arm, kissed me on the cheek, and walked out. I pulled up a chair and sat by Dodger’s bedside.

“You went to Brooklyn?” His voice had lost any sign of hostility. “I told you it was too dangerous, how’d you even get there?”

“Gia knew some people. She got us in. We weren’t just off making kissy faces, we did it all for you… well, there was some kissing.” I decided not to add fuel to the situation. Dodger didn’t have to know Gia’s secret, not now or anytime soon.

“Really?” He smiled mischievously. “So, you hittin’ that?”

“No. Too busy saving your life.”

“You shouldn’t have gone without me.”

“You would have tried to stop me.”

“Yeah… sorry, sorry I was being a dick. You were just gone, and, as much as Red tried throwing herself at me, it wasn’t the same. I dunno, dying and all, I was scared. And I may have—” He started coughing into his hand as he said, “Needed you.”

I playfully punched his arm; he winced in pain but nodded. “Well, now you don’t have to worry about anything. I saved the day.”

“Yeah, buddy. You really came through. Guess I gotta start treating you like an equal and all that. Maybe even start respecting Gia—probably not, though.”

“There’s something else.” I hesitated. “Smith, he didn’t make it.”

I spent the next twenty minutes or so explaining everything that happened from the moment Gia and I left. However, I omitted the parts about her being Chrysler’s daughter, and glossed it over to make it seem like she and I were just separated during my captivity and the arena. Dodger had a way of masking his emotions, so naturally he didn’t have much to say about Smith’s death except how unfortunate it was. Instead, he focused more on my win over Samsung. More than once he patted my shoulder with approval, telling me how amazed he was with all I went through. For the first time, he wasn’t condescending or obnoxious. He had honest approval in his voice, and it made me proud. Eventually, I asked him where everyone was, and that’s when he filled me in. Not too long after I left, people started spotting Angels on the outskirts of Union Square. They weren’t approaching, just watching from a safe distance. Something was definitely up, so Red sent three trackers out to see what they could learn. Only one came back, and he was lying four beds over, groaning in pain with a knife wound to his side.

The Angels were planning an attack. More to the point, Eve was looking for revenge. The previous night, to everyone’s surprise, Michael and David snuck into camp and warned Dodger that Eve wanted his head. If he didn’t give himself over, the Angels would slaughter everyone in sight until they had him. The Tribe had a means to fight, a couple of guns, swords, and other makeshift weapons, but they weren’t fighters. These were peace-loving people who spent most of their time drunk, high, and deep in song. Dodger didn’t have a choice; he wouldn’t see people suffer because of him. He planned to turn himself over. He was already resigned to the fact that he would die and had nothing to lose. The only thing stopping him was the fact I was missing. Now that I returned with Reynolds’ meds, things weren’t so clear cut.