he said, “Chris, it was kinda hard to see in the dark, but did Kyle try to shoot you?”
Allie raised an eyebrow at me. “Chris?”
It wasn’t that I was trying to hide it from her. I just needed time to figure out how to tell her we were being hunted by a wannabe killer, and also to figure out what we were going to do about it. I propped my elbow on the door and leaned my head on my hand. “I always figured Kyle pretended to have a screw loose to scare people, but he’s not pretending. All his screws fell out a long time ago.”
Allie put her hand on my arm. “What do you mean he tried to shoot you?”
The more she knew, the more she’d want to tell the cops – the last thing we’d need after having shot Fink, not to mention Kyle’s family connection to the dark side of the Detroit Police Department. I stared out at the night sky. “He pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. Maybe the safety was on.”
“It was,” Gordie said. “I think I had it mixed up before.”
Buzz.
Another message from the same number lit up my phone, this time with a photo of a Ruger P90 resting on a wooden table.
IV GOT SOMETHIN OF YOURS
Allie glanced at the phone and rubbed her brow.
It hadn’t occurred to me that the gun would be found missing in the morning. I leaned over my seat to Gordie. “What will you tell your old man about his gun?”
He rocked back and forth with his eyes glued to the dash clock. “I won’t go… I can’t… I wouldn’t be good at jail… What…?”
Across from him, Raj closed his eyes and rested his head on the window. “Don’t tell your old man anything. Just leave the back door open and he’ll think someone broke in.” It was almost eerie how easily Raj lied.
The warm air blowing from the heater vents made me drowsy. I turned the dial and the hum softened. “We should go home – we can figure this out in the morning.”
Allie nodded and reached for her keys.
Buzz.
MEET ME AT STONY CREEK LAKE PARKING LOT 2MOROW AT 8PM
Raj pushed forward from the back seat to look at my phone. “Alone in the woods with Kyle packing heat. I doubt it. Tell him he can keep the gun.”
A hand clutched my arm from behind, a hand that would’ve been shaking less if it were attached to an overdosing caramel-macchiato addict. Gordie said, “Don’t write him back. Please.”
“Don’t worry.” Allie shook her head. “Nobody’s going to Stony Creek Lake. We’ll sort this out.”
Buzz.
MEET ME 2MOROW OR I TELL THE COPS WHO SHOT FINK
“Maybe we should fess up before he tells them,” Allie said.
Gordie buried his face in his hands, breathing heavily. “No.”
“Why hasn’t Kyle told them yet though?” I asked. “And why all the way out at Stony Creek Lake?”
Raj pressed his door lock. “Why do I get the feeling he’s going to use the gun to put our faces on milk cartons?”
1:54 a.m.
Slushy ice dripped down the windows. We’d be staying here all night if we didn’t leave soon.
Allie pulled the ribbon from her hair. “We can explain to the police it was an accident.” She held her hair in place and tied the ribbon around. “At least they’d take the gun away.”
“An accident?” Raj asked. “We lured them out to an empty lot at midnight and shot Fink. That’s not an accident, that’s murder. We’re lucky Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty.”
Gordie’s face twisted as tears leaked from his eyes. “I’m not a murderer.”
“They don’t execute seventeen-year-olds,” Allie said. He responded with a deep gagging sound, and her eyes widened. “Gordie, the door! Open the door!” With one hand over his mouth, he fumbled with the handle and pushed open the door, splashing his liquid stomach contents onto the asphalt. We covered our mouths and turned away while he finished.
A lump of guilt settled in my stomach. Bad things shouldn’t happen to people like Gordie. Except they didn’t just happen. It was bad enough when Kyle and his crew were beating him up, but he never would’ve taken the gun and shot Fink if I hadn’t pushed him to. It was debatable who the biggest asshole in his life was, but I was in the running. I hoped his counselor could work miracles.
Gordie coughed and gasped as he pulled the door closed.
I tapped my knuckles on his plastered leg. “Cheer up. It won’t seem so bad in the morning.” He didn’t hear me, or maybe he didn’t believe me. And I didn’t blame him; nothing I could say was going to make this better. I leaned my elbow on the door. “Maybe we should get out of town for a while.”
He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Where?”
“I don’t know. Somewhere warm maybe,” I said.
Allie turned around, her eyes focused on mine. “Leaving isn’t the way to fix this.”
She might have cared about fixing this properly, but I didn’t – this wasn’t some episode of Degrassi where everything would work out in the end. Anyway, we didn’t have any better ideas.
In a bright flash of light, Allie’s face lit up as headlights swept through the car from behind. A security patrol truck rolled into the parking lot and started toward us. Its orange roof lights strobed the darkness, glinting off ice crystals on our windows. The truck pulled up on Allie’s side and the driver lowered his window. A wiry goatee covered his chin, and his crusted lips and acne-pockmarked cheeks glistened with sweat like he had some kind of medical condition. He lifted a flashlight and aimed the beam at each of us, and then fixed it on Allie.
Squinting, she lowered her window. “Would you mind getting your flashlight out of my face?”
He held the beam on her, chewing a toothpick. “Well, lookie what we got here.” He sniffed and wiped his nose with his finger and thumb. “What’s a cutie pie like you doing out this late?”
The hair on the back of my neck bristled as I leaned over Allie and stared up at him. “Fuck off before you do something you regret.”
Raj lowered his window. “Move along, asshole. Nothing to see here.”
With narrowed eyes, the driver tapped his door with two long, nail-bitten fingers. “You gotta get outta here, you hear me? You’re not allowed to stay.” He dimmed his flashlight and revved his engine. Still staring at Allie as he pulled away, he circled slowly around the parking lot and veered back out onto 8 Mile.
Allie let out a breath and raised her window.
After a moment of hesitation, Raj did the same. “That pedocreep just gave me an idea.”
Gordie lifted his glasses and wiped his eyes, looking intently like he was about to receive the greatest words of wisdom ever spoken. It was good he wasn’t beyond all hope – it nearly ended badly for him last time, and this time he had real problems. At least they weren’t going to bother with anything minor like breaking his fingers.
“There was nothing wrong with our plan to scare Kyle,” Raj continued. “We just screwed up making it happen.”
I gave Allie a confused look and turned to him. “You’re saying we try again?”
“No, that’s just it. We suck at this. We’re amateurs. We need someone who knows what they’re doing.”
Gordie almost managed a smile and pointed at the rear window. “You mean like that guy who just drove off?”
“No, I remember the skaters at school talking about a guy they buy weed from. They watched him compete in an MMA tournament a while ago. He’s some kind of badass boxer – he’s even done jail time. I think they call him Drac.”
Sometimes I couldn’t tell if he was serious. “As in the vampire?”
“It’s Russian, I think.”
Allie gave a thoughtful half smile. “Imagine all the ways a drug-dealing ex-con Russian boxer named Drac could make this situation worse. It’s almost hilarious to think about.”
“What if Drac and Kyle know each other?” Gordie leaned his head on the window and closed his eyes. “I mean since they both do martial arts.”
“Unlikely,
” Raj said. “Kyle does Muay Thai and Drac does regular boxing. It’s like speaking different languages. They don’t mix.”
“What makes you think Drac could even beat him in a fight?” I asked.
“Drac’s a professional fighter,” Raj said. “Not a second-rate high school wannabe.”
“Even if that’s true, why would he help us?” Gordie asked.
“Money talks. Everyone has a price,” Raj said. “He’ll do the job if we pay in cash.”
I patted my jeans pocket. “I bet we could scrape together nearly seven dollars.”
“We’d need several hundred to make it worth his while.” Raj sat up straight in his seat, stretching his legs. “But what’s a few hundred dollars to get out of this mess? We can find that.”
Allie rubbed her brow. “You guys aren’t serious?”
“We can’t get that kind of money,” Gordie said. “Not by tomorrow.”
The temperature in the car was falling, making me more alert. “Depends how bad we want it,” I said.
“What are you saying?” Allie asked.
“If there’s a way out of this, we should try – even if it sounds bad. Kyle tried to kill me and I’m not waiting for him to try again.”
Allie let out a breath and rested her forehead on the steering wheel.
“I know,” Raj said. “We could loan some cash from that guy who hangs out at O’Reilly’s Tavern.”
“Not if we want to keep our kneecaps,” I said.
“How about we gank a car?” Raj asked. “They’re insured, right? Nobody loses.”
“None of us know how to hotwire a car.” I turned the fan dial to high, and air roared from the vents. “Anyway, it’d be too hard to sell – we’d need