All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1)(89)

‘I love you, Annie. Tell Natty I love her, too. I’m sorry for the trouble I caused you.’

‘Don’t be sorry, Leo. You’re my brother. I’d do anything for you.’

Leo got into the car. ‘Can I come home for Christmas?’

‘No, Leo, I don’t think so. But let’s see what happens, OK? Maybe I’ll be able to come visit you some day.’

‘And Natty?’

‘Sure, Natty, too,’ I lied.

I watched Leo’s car drive away, then I went back into the dance. Dr Lau wasn’t in the lobby any more, which was just as well. I wanted to go inside and dance with my boyfriend and relax for a bit. Now that I’d finally seen Leo off, the knot that I’d been holding in my stomach for these last couple of weeks had finally begun to untie itself. (It wouldn’t be completely untied until I heard from Yuji Ono.)

I found Win. He was talking to some of the boys he played music with. ‘Where were you for so long?’

‘I ran into Dr Lau on the way back from the bathroom,’ I said. ‘I got into that summer programme I applied to. She was talking my ear off about it.’

‘Congratulations!’ he said. ‘I’m so proud of you. How long is it again?’

‘Six weeks,’ I admitted.

‘Well, that isn’t so bad. I sure will miss you though,’ he said as he pulled me closer.

And then Win and I danced for several more songs. I had thought I didn’t like dancing, but maybe I hadn’t had the right partner up until then.

‘Last song,’ the bandleader called out. ‘Everyone on the dance floor.’

Across the dance floor, I could see Scarlet and Gable. I decided to go mend the fence with Scarlet officially. In front of Gable, I mean. ‘You’re my best friend,’ I said to Scarlet once I’d gotten up to them, ‘but I don’t control your life. And if you want to go to a dance with this imbecile, that’s your business, I suppose.’

Scarlet smiled at me. ‘Sure, Anya. Thanks. That means a lot to me.’

‘Hey!’ Gable said to Scarlet. ‘Aren’t you going to say I’m not an imbecile?’

Scarlet shook her head. ‘Well, sometimes you kind of are one, Gable.’

I walked back to Win. ‘Let’s go,’ I said to him.

We left the dance arm in arm. We didn’t have a car waiting for us, but were planning to take the bus as usual.

‘Nice night,’ Win said. ‘You can tell summer’s right around the corner.’

That’s when I heard the gunshot.

I reached my hand into my handbag for Daddy’s gun.

Another shot.

Win collapsed to the ground.

‘Oh God! Win!’

I took the gun out of my handbag. I cocked it, aimed it, and then I shot.

The gunman was about fifteen feet away and it was dark, but I was a good shot. Daddy had made sure of that. I shot to disable, not to kill. I landed one bullet in the person’s shoulder and a second in the kneecap.

I ran over to the gunman to kick his gun out of reach, then I went back to Win. Our classmates were gathering around him. ‘Someone call 911. Win Delacroix’s been shot.’ My voice was calm even though I was not.

I knelt down by Win’s side. He was passed out from the pain. Or perhaps he’d hit his head when he fell. The only wound I could see was on his thigh. It was bleeding a lot, so I took off my wrap and tied it around his leg like a tourniquet.

I ran back across the courtyard to the gunman, who was also lying on the pavement. He was wearing a ski mask. I ripped it off his face: it was Jacks. ‘Please don’t shoot me. I wasn’t trying to kill Leo, Annie. Honestly, I swear. I was only trying to hurt him so I could bring him back to Yuri and Mickey.’

‘So they could kill my brother and you’d be the big hero, huh? Well, you moron, that wasn’t even Leo. Leo’s not here. That was my boyfriend, Win.’

‘Annie, I’m sorry. It was an honest mistake,’ Jacks said.

‘Nothing you do is honest, Jacks.’ I wondered how Jacks had found out that Leo was at the school. Had he guessed? Or had Leo somehow been communicating with him? Or had a different person entirely been the informant? The only people that knew our plan were Yuji Ono and Scarlet and I highly doubted either one of them had told Jacks. I couldn’t think about this right now. And I couldn’t ask Jacks either, because if I asked him, it would be as good as admitting that we had managed to smuggle Leo out of the country tonight. ‘You do know who my boyfriend’s father is, don’t you?’ I asked Jacks.

‘The assistant DA,’ Jacks said as it slowly dawned on him just whose son he had mistakenly shot.

‘Good luck with that, cousin. All of our lives are about to become a living hell,’ I said.

A police car showed up. ‘What happened here?’ a cop demanded.

‘This man, Jakov “Jacks” Pirozhki, shot my boyfriend,’ I said. The cops put Jacks in handcuffs. I saw him wince as they pulled his arm.

‘So, who shot him?’ The cop was pointing to Jacks.

‘I did,’ I said, at which point I, too, was put in handcuffs.

And then an ambulance showed up to transport Win to the hospital. I was desperate to go with him, but I was restrained by the handcuffs, of course. I screamed to Scarlet that she should ride with him instead, and she did.