Lies (Gone #3)(46)

“A kid got murdered tonight,” Taylor said.

A hundred questions popped into Astrid’s head, but she asked the most important one first. “Who was it?”

“Edilio says he thinks it’s Juanito. Or Leonard.”

“He thinks?”

“Kind of hard to tell,” Taylor said, not quite smirking.

“What happened?” Albert asked.

Taylor looked at Sam. Sam said nothing. He stared. First at his own light, hovering in the air. Then at Taylor. He looked pale and almost frail. Like he was suddenly a much, much older person.

“Kid was whipped,” Taylor said. “It looked like what happened to Sam.”

Sam lowered his head and wrapped his hands behind his neck. He seemed to be trying to hold on to his head, pressing it hard like it might explode.

“Drake’s dead,” Albert said. Sounding like a guy who really, really hoped it was true. “He’s dead. He’s been dead.”

“Yeah, well…,” Taylor said.

“Yeah well, what?” Astrid asked, instantly hearing the change in her tone of voice, the evasion.

Taylor shifted uncomfortably. “Look, Edilio told me to bring Sam here and get you guys together. I think Sam is kind of, you know, flashing on stuff that happened.”

“That boy was whipped. Just like I was,” Sam said to the floor. “I know the marks. I…”

“It doesn’t mean it was Drake,” Albert said.

“Drake’s dead,” Astrid said. “Dead people don’t come back. Let’s not be ridiculous.”

Howard made a derisive snort. “Okay. That’s as far as I go with you on this, Sammy boy.” He made a hand-washing gesture.

Astrid slammed her palm on the table, surprising even herself. “Somebody better tell me what all these back-and-forth looks are about.”

“Brittney,” Howard said, spitting the name out like it was poison. “She came back. Sam had her and stuck her with Brianna, and told me not to talk about it.”

“Brittney?” Astrid said, confused.

Howard said, “Yeah. You know, like dead-girl Brittney? Way dead? Dead a long time and buried a long time and suddenly she’s sitting in my house chatting? That Brittney.”

“I’m still not…”

“Well, Astrid,” Howard said, “I guess we just found the limits of your big old genius brain. Point is that someone who was very seriously dead is suddenly not so dead anymore.”

“But…,” Astrid started. “But Drake…”

“As dead as Brittney,” Howard said. “Which might be a slight problem, since Brittney isn’t exactly dead herself.”

Astrid felt sick to her stomach. No. Surely not. Impossible. Insane. Not even here, not even in the FAYZ.

But Howard wasn’t lying. Taylor’s expression confirmed that. And Sam wasn’t jumping up to dispute it, either.

Astrid stood up. She stared hard at Sam. She could feel a throbbing in her head. “You didn’t tell me? This is happening and you didn’t tell the council?”

Sam barely glanced up.

“He didn’t tell you, Astrid,” Howard said, obviously enjoying the moment.

A part of Astrid felt sorry for Sam. She knew he was still a long way from being over the beating he had taken from Drake. One look at him now, head hung, looking small and scared, was proof of that.

But he wasn’t the only one to be terrorized by Drake. Drake had come after her, early on. If she thought about it, she could still almost feel the sting of his slap on her face.

He’d made her…

He’d bullied her into calling Little Pete a retard. He’d terrorized her into betraying the person she loved most in the world.

She had managed to put it out of her mind. Why couldn’t Sam do the same?

Howard laughed. “Sammy didn’t want people using the ‘Z’ word.”

“The what?” Astrid snapped.

“Zombie.” Howard made a booga-booga face and stretched his hands out like a sleepwalker.

“Taylor, get out of here,” Astrid said.

“Hey, I—”

“This is council business now,” Astrid said, putting all the frost she could command into her voice.

Taylor hesitated, looked to Sam for guidance. He didn’t look up or stir. Taylor took a second to give Astrid a middle-finger salute and then popped out of the room.

“Sam, I know you’re upset over what happened with you and Drake,” Astrid began.

“Upset?” Sam echoed the word with an ironic smirk.

“But that’s no excuse for you keeping secrets from us.”

“Yeah,” Howard said, “Don’t you know only Astrid is allowed to keep secrets?”

“Shut up, Howard,” Astrid snapped.

“Yeah, we get to lie because we’re the smart ones,” Howard said. “Not like all those idiots out there.”

Astrid turned her attention back to Sam. “This is not okay, Sam. The council has the responsibility. Not you alone.”

Sam looked like he could not care less about what she was saying. He looked almost beyond reach, indifferent to what was going on around him.

“Hey,” Astrid said. “We’re talking to you.”