Blood and Fire (McClouds & Friends #8)(137)

Kev braced himself, and looked at the message on the van.



Lily had to sorry





“Oh, God. Bruno.” Kev sagged forward, his forehead against the filthy vehicle. And he’d thought he’d gotten his shit together. That he had Edie and his family, that everything would be fine at last. That he’d earned a little happiness, a little peace. That it would finally be OK.

But no. The world was still able to tear new holes in him. It was so easy to just rip it all to pieces. Oh, Bruno.

Sean’s hand closed on his shoulder. “Hey. Kev. I’m so sorry.”

He couldn’t answer. Just tried not to fall apart.

“Look,” Sean said. “This sucks, but we have to sharpen up and disappear before that crazy old dame really does call the cops.”

Kev gulped, stood up, wiped his face. “Yeah,” he muttered.

“So let’s go get your crazy Zia,” Sean said. “And hope that she has some really brilliant new idea for us. Because I’m fresh out of ideas.”

They caused screeching protest by their choice to run through Pina Ranieri’s property again, but f*ck it. The shrill sound was already fading, and it was the fastest way back to their car.

Not that they had a clue what they were hurrying for, anymore.





29


Lily stumbled as Zoe dragged her down the corridor. “No, really,” she said. “You look like shit. What happened? Did you get the flu?”

“Shut up.” Zoe jerked Lily





off her feet. She thudded down to her knees on the cold, hard floor, with a gasp of startled pain.

“But it was only a week ago or so since I saw you, right?” Lily persisted. Zoe looked wrecked. Stress would weaken her further, and if there was one thing Lily was good at, it was driving people nuts.

“You looked great up at the cabin,” she went on. “Couldn’t help but notice, even though you were trying to kill me. You looked pretty fine the day you killed my father, too. Killing seems to agree with you. But you look like crap now. You must have lost twenty-five pounds. You shriveled. What is up with that?”

“I said, shut up!” Zoe’s voice was cracking around the edges as she jerked Lily upright, making her sore shoulder joint blaze.

“You ought to get that jaundice checked out,” Lily barged on. “Liver function issues really trash your complexion.”

“Shut . . . up!” Whack. Zoe whacked Lily across the face, slamming her into the wall, from whence she bounced down to the floor. Lily huddled there, her hand pressed against her throbbing facespa>

Zoe bent at the waist, hands braced on her thighs, and stared at Lily. She panted, jaw sagging. A muscle twitched prominently in her bony jaw. Everything showed in her face—veins, tendons, bones, all in sharp relief, like a skull that had been dipped in yellow wax.

Zoe squeezed her eyes shut, eyelids twitching. Veins pulsed visibly in her temples. She dug into the pocket of her cargo pants and yanked out a small envelope. She peeled the sleeve of her shirt back with her teeth. Small sheets of paper covered with red dots fluttered to the ground. A dot was already stuck to her wrist. As Lily watched, she peeled the last dot off one card and stuck it in the crook of her elbow.

She sagged back against the wall, breathing hard. Then she reached down, keeping narrowed eyes on Lily, and scooped up the rest of the fallen papers. She tucked them back into the envelope.

Her breathing was slower, veins no longer popping out on her forehead. Her crisis was passing. So Zoe was some kind of a junkie. How very unsurprising.

“What the hell is that stuff?” Lily asked.

Zoe’s purplish lips stretched in a sneer. “Mama’s little helper.”

“Would you give me one?” she blurted, for no reason she could fathom. “I could use some help.”

Zoe let out a short, contemptuous laugh. “One dose of this stuff would kill you. You’d die of convulsions on the spot.”

“But it doesn’t hurt you?” she asked.

“I’m different,” Zoe said loftily. “We’re a different order of beings. You wouldn’t understand how profoundly we’ve been changed.”

“Deformed.” The word popped out.

Oof, Zoe’s boot connected with her belly and jackknifed her into a moaning vee. “Mind your manners,” Zoe said. “Get up.”

Lily struggled up. Zoe jerked her arm, twisting until Lily squeaked and writhed into a pretzel shape to ease the pain, but there was no escape. The pain jangled on through every nerve.

She shuffled, dragging her feet until Zoe yanked open Lily’s door and flung her inside. Slam went the door. Click, clunk went the locks. Lily huddled, curled into a ball. She crawled to the wall, shook her hair down in a tangled veil, itchily aware of the camera’s constant regard. She touched the bottom of her bare foot. Peeled off the grubby piece of paper stuck to it. Stared at it, behind the veil of her hair.

One of Zoe’s drug patch papers. A full one. It held sixteen of the little red dots, four rows of four, and a protective sheet of plastic film on top. Lily held it concealed in the palm of her hand, palm down.

She had no clue what to do with it. At least she had a suicide tool, but that had never been an option in her mind. She’d always been so angry at her father for trying it. But things looked so different now.