Sweet Water(98)

I knock on the front door without thinking twice. Alisha opens it slightly, sees me, and then tries to shut it fast. I stick my foot in the door to stop her. Her dark eyes light up with anger. “What do you want?”

“I need to speak to Cash,” I say.

She uses all her body weight in an attempt to push the door shut, but I won’t let it close. She’s told me all I need to know with her response.

Finn is in danger.

I push my way inside, a feral mix of fear and determination. The force throws Alisha on the ground. Josh is still standing on the stoop, stunned.

“Cash is not here. What do you want?” Alisha quickly gets up and steps back when she sees Josh standing behind me. She’s wearing her casino attire again. We’re lucky we caught her before she left for work.

“We’re not leaving until you tell us where Cash is,” I say. Josh nods. “I know Cash gave the kids those drugs, and I need to speak to him.”

Alisha’s lips twist into an ugly scowl. “I don’t know where he is. It doesn’t change anything. Yazmin is dead. Your child is alive. What more do you want from us? You’ve taken enough.”

I have no idea what she means, and then I remember the journal.

“Finn’s drugs were laced. Yazmin’s were not. That means Cash gave Finn something extra.” I point in her face. “I need to know why he drugged my son.”

“He’s at work,” she says, not seeming to hear the rest of my sentence.

“Where does he work?” I ask.

Alisha grabs her purse and starts riffling through it, then holds up her keys, satisfied. “That’s where I need to go. Work. Now get out of my house.”

She takes a step toward the door but doesn’t answer my question.

The rest of the house is a total train wreck. A near-empty bowl of cereal sits on the coffee table, unfolded clothes are strewn near end tables, flowing out of laundry baskets. I imagine Alisha probably sitting down with the intention of folding them but too exhausted to finish the task.

Josh crosses his arms over his chest in the doorway. “Not until you call him and find out where he is.” His complexion has turned the color of alabaster. I don’t think it’s because he’s scared; I think it’s because of the new mention of the laced drugs and that Cash was behind them. He knows the boys are in peril.

“You’ve destroyed my family,” Alisha hisses. “You can’t take him too. Now get out or I’ll call the city police. Your cousin can’t help you here. It’s out of his jurisdiction.”

She’s still upset about the journal, and she’ll sic the wolves on us in a second if it gets us out of her way.

“Alisha, I just want to know why Cash tried to hurt Finn,” I blurt, desperate.

“He didn’t,” she says, but she looks at Josh when she says this.

“Why didn’t you follow through on your threat to call the media? You were so sure Finn was there in the woods with Yazmin when she died. Tell me what you know,” I plead.

Alisha’s eyes are venomous beneath her eyelashes. “I can understand why you didn’t tell them Finn was there, but how could you leave her to rot?” she seethes, and I’m so taken aback, I don’t know what to say. “All night, the bugs ate at her face, the animals picked at her skin, my gorgeous daughter. When they found her, there wasn’t much left, but I knew it was her, because of her hair, and this . . . ,” she cries.

Alisha pulls a necklace from beneath her collar and dangles it in my face, a chain with a gold horn strung at the bottom. I recognize the charm, the lucky Italian pendant worn to ward off the evil eye. “It was my mother’s,” she says.

“She was already dead when we got there,” I say shakily. But how does she know we were there?

One thing is for certain, though—she does know.

The blood drains from my face, a pins-and-needles sensation filling my arms and legs. I’m sick that she knew the truth about her daughter.

But now she knows the truth about us too.

Woozy, I reach for Josh, but he takes a step away from me, and I can feel a coldness settle between us at my terrible confession. He’s probably wondering what kind of monster leaves a dead child in the woods, and I’ve been wondering the same thing for days.

How could we do this?

“We never wanted your fancy schools or your fancy clothes.” Alisha wrinkles her nose at my outfit, and I think she might slap me. “I just wanted her journal back, her final thoughts. To protect her memory. To protect her brother, so no one could take anything else away from us. But you had to take that too.”

I did take the journal. I deserve this. “Alisha, where is Cash and where is Finn?” What did he do with him?

“Whatever happens to your son now is your own fault.”

My heart seizes in my chest. “What do you mean, whatever happens now?” I grab her and shake her by the shoulders, but she won’t say another word. Josh drags me out the front door.

I’m right. Finn is in danger.





CHAPTER 26

“Let me drive.” Josh takes the keys, and I don’t argue.

When we’re back in the car, Josh says, “Cash works at a pizza shop, but I don’t know which one.”

“Why couldn’t she just tell us where he works?” My voice quakes.