If You're Out There(68)

“Priya—”

“Go, Ben! She’s hurt!”

Over grumbling I hear a door close and the click of the dead bolt. I open my eyes and Priya remains frozen, listening for footsteps.

I sit up, mouth gaping, and she pulls me in for the tightest hug of my life. “He got your phone?” she whispers as we break apart. I nod, still frozen and stunned. I feel myself prickling awake as I take in the room. Everything soft and white and cozy. It’s oddly terrifying. My eyes spill over, hot tears streaming down my cheeks.

“Hey.” She grips my chin. “We can’t freak out right now.”

I look to the narrow window up by the ceiling. “Should we try to break the glass?”

“Can’t,” she says. “Shatterproof. Amanda had it installed after some infomercial on home invasions.” She sighs up at the ceiling. I can hear Ben talking, but there’s no other voice. “Must be on the phone.”

I look toward the murmuring above us. “Ben did this? Wha . . . Why?”

“A while ago, Ben got himself buried. Money stuff,” she whispers. “He was spending more than he made. I should have seen it. But uh, basically he started scamming GRETA.” I stare at her, taking this in. It oddly fits. “And . . .” She leans in close and keeps her voice low. “There was a guy in Mumbai. Helping him.”

A lightbulb. “Karim?”

She nods. “It fell apart when the volunteer program got the green light.”

“The fire at Friends Elementary,” I whisper, beginning to understand. “And the Priti School grant . . .”

“Yeah,” she says. “Ben had to shut it all down before we showed up to schools that didn’t exist.” She pauses. “How do you know all this?”

“I have my ways.”

She smiles, impressed. “Well, it went sour when Ben cut out the other guy. He said he was going to send someone after us to collect his money.” I think of the note in the office—Found you—and the man I met outside their house. The “family friend.” Jesus.

I shake my head, still confused. “Okay, but why are you down here?”

She thinks a moment. Shrugs. “Despite everything, for a little while there we were weirdly . . . in this together? And then . . . we weren’t.” She freezes. A door opens upstairs. Footsteps rushing down.

I find my position on the ground and close my eyes.

The dead bolt clicks open. “What took so long?” says Priya at once, convincingly angry. “This is serious.”

“I had to take a call,” he says, his voice strained.

“Cops again?” she asks, a hint of pleasure in her voice. “More updates on the break-in you committed at your own house? Here’s a pro tip for you. Bring keys next time.” The words click in my head. I did that. I locked Ben out! I feel a wet cloth against my cheek. “Don’t you see what’s happening? It’s all catching up with you. Just let me get Zan to a hospital.”

“Stop it.”

“It could work. I won’t say a word till you’ve fled the country.”

“You know I can’t leave,” he says. “That man is still after me. I could have been killed today. Is that what you want?”

“Ben,” she says, “you know I didn’t want any of this. But Zan’s not waking up.”

I feel something hard nudging me—a shoe, maybe. “God. She’s really out.”

“Just run, Ben. Grab your passport and head to Canada, or Mexico. Like we’ve talked about a million times before. As long as Zan makes it, no one’s gonna look that hard. And even if someone is chasing you, is that scarier than prison?” I wish I could see his face. I can’t be sure, but I think it’s working. “Leave me your phone,” says Priya, “and I swear on my life—on Zan’s life—I will give you a head start.”

The room is still. Three sets of filling lungs. I hold my breath and hope my racing heart won’t somehow give me away. I swear I can feel Priya’s heart racing too. “Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”

I relax, just for a moment, before I sense a sudden shift. He’s closer to me now. I can feel it. “Her arm,” he says. “It wasn’t stretched out to the side like that before.”

“What? Yes it was.”

He laughs. “Wait. Are you listening to this, Zan?”

“Ben . . .”

“Get up,” he says. I realize he’s talking to me. “I said get up!”

“Ben. You’re imagining things.”

“Okay. If she’s really unconscious, then this won’t scare her.” I hear a click and can’t help it. I open my eyes.

A gun is pointed right at me.

For a moment, the world seems to slow as Priya leaps to stand, and I shout, “No!” I watch her hand connect with metal before the gun flies from Ben’s grip. It feels as though the whole room freezes, until I whisper, “Fuck,” the moment the gun hits the carpet.

Unfreeze.

Ben lunges for the gun, but Priya kicks it away. “Ben, stop it!” They’re on the ground in seconds, Priya clawing at his arm as he strains to reach. When his hand gets too close, she pulls his hair, and he shouts. They roll over, once, twice, but he wriggles free.