Crazy Eights (Stacked Deck #8) - Emilia Finn Page 0,126
“Hey! Let me go.”
“You started this,” she argues. “You were feeling brave a second ago. So now you finish it. What has your brother got to do with this?” She glances back at Lucy. “I don’t see the connection.”
“Exactly!” I snap my hand from her grasp and throw it into the air. “Exactly. There is no connection. You’re supposed to be helping Will, but you’re fucking around here with a dance that ain’t even right anyway.”
“The dance ‘ain’t right’?” She zeroes in on the wrong point, and takes another step forward. “That dance is pure stage perfection. Don’t come in here and disrespect our hard work.”
“It’s not right!” I lean a little to the right and meet Lucy’s eyes. “The song is fine. You could pick just about any song in existence, and it would be fine. Your routine is wrong.” I look back to Soph. “And my brother is now left hanging in the wind, because we trusted you to take care of him. I took Jamie’s good opinion of you, and trusted you to do the right thing by Will.”
“How do you know what I’m doing for Will, huh? Are you in my computers? My phone?”
“No, I—”
“Are you in my brain?”
“No! I’m in your studio, watching you screw up a dance, when you could be sitting at a computer helping Will. Or better yet, you could be with him back home, keeping him safe, and doing whatever the hell it is that Jamie is so certain you’re capable of.”
“I have a family here, little girl. I have children, a husband, a business, sisters, dancers. I have responsibilities. So why the hell would you assume I would drop my life to go be Will’s sidekick?”
“Because Jamie promised!” I grit out. “He promised that you would take care of my brother. He said I could trust him, and by extension, I could trust you. But you’re here dancing instead of helping him.”
“I can’t do shit right now, kid. The whole world doesn’t revolve on your schedule, you know? Not even Evan McGrady and his shady dealings. He owns a nightclub, which implies late night hours. The sun barely came up two hours ago, which means McGrady and his fucksticks are asleep.”
“So do something! Do it now, while they’re sleeping.”
“I am doing something.” Soph turns away from me, and heads toward Lucy. “I’m working on a routine that is important to us. I schedule reports to run even while I’m away from my desk, and I put your brother on a damn plane only an hour ago. So you know what?” She reaches Lucy, but turns back to me. “Sit the fuck down, child. And let the grownups work.”
“On a plane?” I step forward with a pounding heart. Tingling hands. Heavy legs. “Will’s on a plane? But…” I shake my head. “He can’t. He doesn’t have proper ID.”
“But he does,” she counters. “He has real ID, real medical insurance, real bank accounts, and even a real resumé that would land him a pretty decent job so long as he turned up to the interview. And since we’re on that thread, I have the same for you. ID, insurance, passport, license. You had a job offer, but I don’t much like your attitude.”
“No, wait. Stop.” I dash across the room, and grab Soph’s arm when she tries to get Lucy to step into position to restart. “Soph. My brother is on a plane?”
My heart breaks. I know it shouldn’t, but right there in my chest, behind my ribs, hidden somewhere deep between muscles, my heart fractures and splits.
“Where is he flying to?” Away, my brain screams at me. He’s going far, far away, and he won’t tell me where. “Are you sending him somewhere new so he can hide?” Without me.
“He’s on his way here,” she answers in monotone. “He was set to go to a meet last night with someone who might have been able to help him. I stayed awake a bunch of nights this past week running the data.” She glares deep into my eyes. I said she was doing nothing for us, and she’s saying she’s lost a lot of sleep for us. “Will arrived at the drop last night to find this contact already dead.”
I gasp and slam my hand over my mouth. “No.”
“He was our big hope, but now he’s out, which means I need to find a new snitch. In the meantime, Will’s flying here on a new ID, he can hang out with you