thinking of me like you, someone who just hasn’t been saved. But maybe it’s time you faced that I’m not.” I was coming to a realization—a hard one, but one that was giving me back my equilibrium, my direction. Maybe I wasn’t the person I wanted Arthur to see. Maybe he’d been right about me all along.
But that meant I could do this for him when people like Checker couldn’t.
D.J. wasn’t the worst person I’d ever worked with, not by a long shot. And maybe it was time for me to start shaking out my own morality and see exactly how my friends would react. Either they’d come to terms with it … or they’d leave.
“Arthur already knows what I am,” I said. “That’s clear now. And you know what? I … it’s okay. I can figure out how to live with that. But if I’m willing to do the things I’m willing to do, what does it say if I suddenly won’t when it’s Tabitha’s life? Because that’s something I can’t do. If you want D.J. to be more judicious with his dynamite, take it up with him when this is over.”
I’d already shown how far I would go. When I shot Coach to protect Arthur.
Checker opened his mouth to argue back. But at that moment, his security system pinged.
Our attention snapped over.
“Oh, no—Cas—” Checker hurried to blank all his computer screens. “Oh, no, this is bad—”
The screens for the outside security cameras showed the burly form of Detective Sikorsky striding up the walk.
thirty-four
“SHIT,” CHECKER said. “Shit, shit, shit—”
We shouldn’t have come back to Checker’s place, I thought numbly.
No way to take out a cop without consequences. And no way to run without Sikorsky seeing us.
“My security’s recording,” Checker said in a whisper. “But we can’t let him—Cas, if he does anything, we can’t fight this after the fact, we can’t let him delay us, not with Tabitha…”
I saw what Checker was driving at. Sikorsky didn’t have his partner with him. Or any uniforms. Which meant he wasn’t here with an on-the-books arrest warrant. That made this simultaneously easier and more dangerous—I might be able to take a dirty cop out of play even without the threat of Checker’s recording, but it also meant he wasn’t going to be playing by the rules of the law.
And, like Checker had said, we had to deal with this fast.
“Steady,” I said out of the corner of my mouth. “Follow my lead.”
Sikorsky bypassed the house—either he’d glimpsed movement through the garage’s window or he remembered from when he’d dragged Checker in before. A meaty knock thumped through the Hole.
“I know you’re in there,” he called. “Open up.”
I moved forward and tugged open the door.
Sikorsky barged in and gazed around with a smirk. He ran a finger across the top of one of Checker’s machines as though checking for nonexistent dust, then rubbed his finger and thumb together.
“You rats,” he said. His tone was deliberately careless, conversational.
“Did you find the person who blew up Diego’s house?” I said.
“Oh, I know who.” He sneered at Checker behind me. “Always an attention seeker, weren’t you?”
Checker didn’t reply.
“Where’s your partner?” I asked.
“I sent ’er home. I told her she looked tired. She agreed.”
So he was unquestionably here to do something off the books, and his partner was turning a blind eye. And he wanted us to know it. Checker’s gaze flickered to me for a second, but he said nothing.
“And as for you, Wells,” Sikorsky continued, “or should I say … Dhar.”
Dhar—it took me too long to remember that was the name on the license I’d given the uniform who’d told me off for loitering. A day ago. It seemed like a century.
And if that cop had taken note … oh, fuck, there’d been a lot going on that night. My bomb. The evacuation. The murders of twelve police officers who were investigating it.
Sikorsky was watching my reaction closely. I tried to stop my face from twitching.
“See, I don’t think you’re our killer,” Sikorsky went on, still casual. “You don’t got enough heft. But you know something. And as for that bombing dance, we all know you’re buddies with a right little terrorist.” He flicked a hand at Checker. “And if you’re conspiring about all that, well, let me tell you, none of my colleagues are going to cry if you turn up missing. Or missing some teeth. They’ll line up to testify I was at the fucking movies.”
With Sikorsky’s obvious grudge against Arthur and Diego,