Binding the Shadows (Arcadia Bell #3)(74)

“I won’t.”

Lon tapped my hand and spoke in a low voice. “Let’s go.”

“Good luck,” I told Evan.

He made a small noise, but didn’t look up from Telly’s body.

Outside, Lon rushed me into the SUV before driving to the end of the block and parking.

“What are you doing?”

“Watching Evan’s house. I want to see if anyone’s been trailing us. I didn’t hear anything when I was transmutated, but I just want to be sure.”

I peered into shadows down the street, searching for movement. “He sent us to Merrimoth’s to find the leak.”

“What?”

“Dare. He said he wanted us to find out why Merrimoth’s knack was amped up, but he already knew why—had to. Maybe he realized someone had stolen his elixir when he started hearing rumors about Merrimoth’s knack getting wilder. But when he heard about the crazy crimes in Morella, he knew he had a bigger problem. That would explain why he was so angry when we failed to get any information out of Merrimoth.”

“Then he heard your bar had been hit and knew you’d go after the robbers.”

“I first saw the black car outside Diablo Market. And I saw someone at the car rally when I was chasing down Noel in the parking lot.”

Lon stared out over the steering wheel. “He was already following Hajo before we went to the trailer park. Probably trailed you to Hajo’s apartment.”

“We led Dare to Telly.” Sure, Telly was an *, and I had every reason to hate him, but he was just a kid. A dark, nauseating feeling bubbled up inside me.

“If it wasn’t us, it would’ve been someone else,” Lon said. “Dare is petty. He’s big on retribution. Killing Telly was sending a message to Evan.”

Dare. That arrogant * had done nothing but make my life miserable.

He was the one responsible for all this. For Merrimoth. For Tambuku being robbed. For Kar Yee being hurt. For Telly’s path of destruction. At that moment, I even blamed him for Jupe getting drunk, and for pushing my hand to do what I did to Yvonne.

“Cady,” Lon said.

“Don’t defend him,” I snapped. “What about us? If he finds out Evan gave a vial to Yvonne, will he send a message to you by putting a bullet in her head?”

“No, he . . . I don’t know,” he admitted. “Dare isn’t the man I used to know. I don’t know how far he’d go to protect his secrets, and I don’t know how far he’d go to punish people who wronged him.”

“He’s already got a hate-on for me. Maybe he’ll just take me out like Telly.”

Lon grabbed my arm. “Like hell. I’ll kill him myself before that happens.”

“Not if I get him first.”

He might be rich, he might surround himself with bodyguards, but what was all that to someone like me?

“Cady,” Lon warned. “I can hear what you’re feeling, but you can’t act on that.”

“Why not? Who else can stop him? The police?”

“We can’t just ram down his door and kill him. That makes us no better than he is. And we have other things to think about.”

“Like?”

“Like Jupe. Telly was only a couple of years older.”

“Dare wouldn’t—”

“You want to bet on that? How do we know what he won’t do? Even if he won’t pull the trigger, what’s to stop him from arranging some kind of accident when Jupe’s at school? You think a man who doesn’t give a shit about killing one teenager is going to hesitate to kill another one?”

“But he was your father’s best friend. You’re family to him.”

“You willing to bet Jupe’s life on that? Mr. and Mrs. Holiday? The Giovannis?”

I stared at him across the darkened car for several moments before shaking my head.

“I’m responsible for too many people, Cady, and that includes you. I’m not taking a chance until I’ve had time to think it all through.”

I couldn’t argue. He was right. But as we drove home in silence, another part of me wondered if us being cautious just meant Dare had won. Again.

• • •

When we got home, I played phone tag with Kar Yee, leaving her a message that I had news about Telly. She left me one in return that she’d stop by Lon’s house tomorrow afternoon on her way back from visiting our friend upstate.

We checked in on Jupe—he was snoring off his night with Yvonne—sent the Holidays back to their own house, and crashed. I fell asleep angry, still thinking of Dare, but ended up dreaming about someone worse.

I was lying on my back in a field of cheery wildflowers, red and yellow and purple. A soft breeze rustled through the green grass and stems swaying around my limbs. Lon’s hand clasped mine. He lay at my side, eyes closed, wind fluttering his honey hair.

The bright blue sky began to darken around the edges, cerulean shot through with dreary gray. Something approached—something that I couldn’t immediately see, sneaking through the field. Fear blanketed me as I watched tall stalks of grass bending. The flowers around us drooped and withered. The green grass turned to straw.

Something was coming.

I shook Lon, trying to wake him, but he remained asleep.