Bone Music (Burning Girl #1)(62)

Three beeps from the alarm system again.

“Where’s the nearest library?” she asks.

“Paso Robles. I’m going to ask you again how you know so much about this stuff.”

“Change your identity and you learn a few things. Wait,” Charley says, with enough volume to suggest she’s talking to Bailey directly.

The screen goes black.

“My question,” she says, “the one about you being able to find anyone. Was that what you were answering?”

YES, comes the flashing response.

“OK,” Charley answers, “so you’re offering to help me?”

The word on-screen stays solid but a red stream moves through each individual letter, almost like neon coming to life.

“Why?” she asks. “We barely know each other.”

There’s a second or two of silence. Amid his anger, Luke feels a twinge of sadness over the thought that his sudden connection with Bailey might have just been severed.

As he’s about to call out to his brother, new words appear on the screen, letter by letter; the font is even typewriter-style.

Anyone who can make my brother apologize for something is fine by me.

Charley’s laughter dies when she sees Luke’s glare.

The message vanishes. It’s replaced by WWW.CHATEEUR.RO.

“Pen,” Charlotte says.

Luke reaches into the drawer and hands her one, along with a Post-it note, but no way is he writing down the URL himself. So what if his refusal to do so makes him feel like a stubborn eight-year-old. He’s got a right to be pissed, doesn’t he? And it’s got nothing to do with Agent Rohm or the FBI or anything Bailey might have done in the past. It’s the silence since. It’s the fact that Bailey never let him know he was OK.

The URL vanishes.

It’s replaced by the words:

Go in hot.

Then the computer screen returns to normal, a spray of icons over a shot of AT&T Park mid–Giants game. The alarm system even lets out a weak, strained chirp, like whatever Bailey’s done is the equivalent of a stopper being pulled from a drain.

Charley tears the Post-it note from the pad, folds it neatly in half. She appears gripped by excitement, but when their eyes meet, she blushes in a way he’d find undeniably cute in any other circumstance.

“Go in hot?” Luke asks. “What does that mean?”

“Pick a screen name that’s got something to do with fire. Or Burning Girl, I guess. I assume you’re gonna come with me.”

“Uh, yeah. I am.”

“OK, well, let me just tell—”

When she turns from him, he grabs her by the shoulder. Not thinking. Too hard. She spins. Her eyes lock on the hand he’s gripping her shoulder with. He removes it quickly, even manages to spread his fingers in a silent gesture of apology. But he’s not sorry he stopped her hasty escape from the house. And she seems more fascinated by his sudden grab than angered by it. Which is odd.

But all of this is odd.

“Look, you may not think I’m in a position to ask a lot from you right now, but he’s my brother. Marty cannot know about this. Like at all.”

He can see a flash of some kind of struggle in her expression, but she hides it quickly under a tense mask, looks to the hardwood floor between them, her fist closing around the folded-over Post-it note.

“Charley, it’s obvious you’re in some kind of trouble, and I can tell he’s watching out for you. And that’s great. But he doesn’t like me, and we’ve already been at each other’s throats once this week and . . . I just . . . He can’t. He can’t know about this. Please.”

“What if he follows us to the library but doesn’t go inside? And I don’t tell him what we’re doing there?”

“You really think he’ll think we went there to check out some books? He’ll know we’re there for the computers, and he’ll probably connect it up with that thing my brother did with the manure store in high school.”

“You’re being paranoid, Luke.”

“My brother’s wanted by the FBI, and he’s been secretly watching me move around my house for months.”

“But Marty doesn’t have anything to do with that.”

“I know, and I want to keep it that way.”

She stares at him. Not aggressive or fearful—calculating. Whether she’s assessing him or the situation, he’s not sure.

“What kind of trouble are you in, Charley?”

“The big kind.”

“And you honestly think Bailey can help?”

“Maybe, yeah.”

“Can I?”

“I don’t know. Can you?”

He’s not sure exactly what she means, but he’s surprised by how quickly he made the offer. Big trouble usually means trouble with the law. Only once she turned his question around on him did he wonder if that might be the nature of her dilemma. If she’s on the run for something she’s done, as opposed to from someone who wants to hurt her. He has a badge now. Not the government-issued one he’d always dreamed of having, but it’s still a badge. But in this moment it feels no more meaningful to him than a child’s toy. Did Agent Rohm leave him that angry and jaded, with that little respect for the law, for the system?