The Sinners - Ruby Vincent Page 0,90

his face penetrated. “You’re lying! You don’t know who they are and I wouldn’t tell you where the hose was if you were on fire! Get out of my way. Royal is going to love this story.”

Nolan pasted himself on the door, not even looking at my scissors. “I do know who they are. I know where they eat. Where they sleep. I know what they like on their pancakes. I know everything about them, Ember, and you don’t. If you’re any kind of sister, that must burn you up inside. Knowing they’re still out there and could hurt him again whenever they wanted.”

The scissors shook in my hand, inches from his chest.

“No tricks. No games. I’ll tell you exactly who they are if you tell me what I need to know.” He placed his hand over his chest—where a heart would be for a normal person. “I swear. We both get what we want.”

“I. Said. Move.”

He tsked. “Are you serious? Eli is your little brother. You’re picking Royal Cruz over your own flesh and blood? And you think I’m cold?”

I bristled. “That’s not what I’m doing. I don’t need to make a deal with you, Satan. I know who attacked Eli.” The list of names was tucked securely in my backpack. “They’re waiting their turn for my full attention, but right now, you have it, and you’ll wish you didn’t.”

Nolan shook his head, a slow smile curling his cheeks. “Oh, Ember, trust me. You don’t know who it is. If you did...” He whistled. “You wouldn’t have waited a second to make him pay.”

That smile pierced my confidence, doggedly chipping away. His confidence, on the other hand, was unshakeable. He was absolutely sure I didn’t know who the attackers were and he did.

“I know where they eat. Where they sleep. I know what they like on their pancakes.”

“Julian and Leo,” I croaked.

The smirk didn’t twitch. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

I pressed my lips together, trembling.

“That’s what I thought,” he said. “You don’t know, but if you think you do, I’ll give you a chance just to show I’m a fair guy. I’ll give you until Friday to find the real attackers and hand them over to Hart. Then I’ll have nothing on you and you can tell Royal the truth.

“But if Friday comes and goes and they’re still here, I’ll give them the money that they were so desperate for that they beat up your brother. The full amount your parents stole plus extra if they jump him again, and this time, they stomp his hands.”

The scissors slipped through numb fingers, clatter echoing in my ringing ears. My lips parted but no sounds came out.

“Break all ten fingers to get my money’s worth,” he pressed. “And you could tell Hart or call the police, but it won’t change the fact that you could’ve protected him, but you chose Royal instead.”

“You wouldn’t do this,” I whispered. “Eli’s innocent.”

“I won’t do it,” he agreed, “if you tell me how to take down Royal.”

Panic rose in my throat like bile as my mind scrambled for something. Anything to stop this.

“I’ll go to Hart right now!” I cried. “I’ll tell her you’re a drug-dealing psycho threatening my little brother.”

Nolan cracked open the door. “I’ll take that chance because we both know you don’t have a clue who attacked Eli, and if Hart so much as gives me a funny look, I’ll tell them to do it.” He motioned to the now bustling hallway. “Go on.”

I shoved past him, not sparing Nolan another word. He was wrong. I had ten names and five days to find the children-beaters in the haystack. I’d confront them, throw them at Ramadi, and then Nolan was next.

Kyle Casen, Luis Riviera, Adrien Miller, Harley Donovan, Craig Howell, Royce Lamb, Yuki Watanabe, Ken Han, Amir Blake, and Jasper Crown.

I didn’t waste a moment cornering them.

Harley I grabbed on the way to sociology. The kid was confused, babbling that he didn’t know what I was talking about, and finally owning up that he was smoking weed with Major and two other guys behind the soccer stands when Eli was attacked.

“Ask them! I swear I was there! Just ask them.”

I asked and they confirmed it was their daily ritual. It wasn’t Harley and that was my Monday gone.

Tuesday, I cornered Craig on his way out of lacrosse practice. He dismissed my accusations and tried to walk away.

“He was jumped by two tall, big guys with a grudge against my parents.