Bitter Angel (14 page)

Just remembering the dream with all the blood and Heather and Nilah’s coffins gives me the shivers.

His face is frozen in a state of decision. I begin to count the seconds that tick by.
Three, four, five…fifteen, sixteen, seventeen…

He turns away from me. “Alright,” he finally says. “I’ll help you.” He sounds miserable.

I let out a whimper I didn’t realize had been stuck in my throat for all those silent seconds. “Thank you. Okay, first things first. I know you know the real names of two of the guys, but you don’t know Alpha’s?”

“No.”

Damn.
I knew that though. “I ran into him outside. I tried to get his pic—”

He swings around and grips my upper arms. “You
what
?”

I shake my head, not sure what answer he expects. “I…I…”

“You ran into him? What did he say? Did he hurt you?” Recognizing he might be hurting me himself, he lets go. “I’m sorry. It’s just…he scares me.”

From the way his top lip curls up, I’m guessing that wasn’t easy for him to admit.

I tread carefully. “Last night, you told me the other names are James Moore and Nelson Mitchell—”

He cuts me off, suspicious again. “How do you know all of this if you aren’t with them?”

Because you told me
is the easy response, but it’s not exactly a believable one. “I know it’s crazy. I know how it sounds, but you gotta believe me. I don’t know how to prove to you that I’m on your side, not theirs. Can you trust me?”

I’m asking that a lot today.

His eyes are hard. “I don’t know.”

I nod, shrug. I’m getting nowhere. There’s a knock at the door. I look at Trigger first, but he waits for me, almost daring me. So I answer it.

“Jay,” I breathe.

I don’t want his attitude, but I suddenly realize I need his presence. I throw myself into his arms. He’s stiff, obviously not expecting it, then he melts around me, holding me tight. He knows that I know I’ll pay for all of this later.
I’m shelling out a lot of IOUs today, too.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper quickly and kiss him on the lips before I let him go. I wipe the bit of wet from the corners of my eyes and point to Jay. “This is my boyfriend.”

Trigger is silent, splitting a glance between me and Jay.

I gesture to Trigger, mentally reminding myself. “This is…Franklin.”

Jay’s arm is on my back. His other is at his side, but he doesn’t offer his hand to Trigger. “Is what she’s saying true?”

I try to pretend that Jay’s doubt doesn’t hurt me. We don’t have time for me.

Trigger’s eyes go wide. He’s warring with himself. “Yes. It’s all true.”

Jay squeezes his eyes shut and plants a hand on his forehead. After a few seconds, he asks, “Why do they call you Trigger?”

“ ‘Cause I made the drugs.” Trigger throws out his arms like it’s obvious. “I’m the triggerman.”

I think I already knew that, but I have to know the rest. “Why is H…H?”

Trigger sits down, rubbing a hand over his face. “He’s…the henchman. He picks the girls.”

I’m suddenly feeling sick to my stomach. We haven’t even gotten to the serious part of the talk yet and already it’s coming back in high-definition quality picture. “And Brandon?”

“He’s muscle,” Trigger says reluctantly.

Yup, that makes sense, too.

“So, James is…?”

“Brandon.”

“And, Nelson is—”

“H.”

“And Alpha?” My hands are in knots wrapped around my middle.

“The leader, but he’s been mostly uninvolved so far.”

Jay spins away from us, throwing his arms over his head, a sign that he’s really stressing. “I can’t believe this is real. I can’t believe it.” He repeats it until he runs out of breath and turns back to us. “Are there others?” His face looks like it doesn’t know if it wants to be white with shock or red with rage.

“There are…” Trigger looks sick to his stomach as well. “Clients. Elite. Invitation only.”

Jay’s chest heaves with the reality I’ve been dealing with all morning. I don’t feel so alone anymore, but I don’t like this feeling, this burden I’m putting on him.

I want to ask Trigger more questions, but I don’t want to waste more time here. Plus, I don’t think I can listen to anymore. I’m ready to go to the police and get all of this on paper. Although I’m still at a loss as to how we’re going to go about it. I can’t exactly tell the police about my time-travel debacle. That wouldn’t be wise or efficient.

I ask to make sure. “You’ll help us then?”

Trigger shrugs, helpless. “I don’t know how much I can help you. What do you want me to do?”

“Go to the police,” I say in a haughty tone.

I don’t want to change his mind or piss him off, but my bull horns are threatening to make an appearance.

He shakes his head sadly. “I don’t think it’ll make a difference. These guys are way off radar. They don’t go to school here, and they only tell me enough to keep me in the loop. They’ve been doing this for a while and aren’t anywhere close to being caught.”

“We still have your testimony,” I point out. Then I realize something doesn’t make sense. “Wait, why did they want you anyway? Didn’t they already have a drug guy?”

Trigger makes a face. “I’m at the top of my class, and I have higher clearance. They needed something new, something…complicated,” he says in a weird way.

I can’t tell if he’s withholding information or dumbing it down for our benefit.

“They did have someone, but they told me not to ask or I’d end up like him. These guys aren’t to be messed with. Seriously.”

Seriously, I don’t care.
His mouth is a bit tame compared to the attitude he was trying to bring last night.

“Well, come on. We need to get out of here.”

“Should I bring that?” He’s asking about the T-shirt.

Right.

“Oh. No. Unless there are fingerprints on it, I don’t think it’ll help us.”

Jay herds me out, anxious to go.

“Wait.” Trigger rummages through a drawer and pockets a cell and a wallet. “Alright.” He slips into a worn pair of…
loafers
.

Wow, I’m really getting a clear image of what making him over must have taken.

Stay on track, Lil.

Jay keeps his arm around my waist the whole way out while Trigger follows three steps behind. He hesitantly slides into the backseat of Jay’s red Camry.

We pull out onto the main campus drive again. When I spot a newspaper stand, I smack the window. “Wait! Stop.”

Jay swings into the curve where the buses pull up. I hop out, score a paper, and rip it open after buckling my seatbelt again. I eat up every word as quickly as I can, searching for anything that might hint at a rise in crime or rapes in the campus area. We need something to prove our case.

“You won’t find anything in there,” Trigger says, matter-of-fact.

“Right.” I look at Jay’s profile as he drives. “We need to stop and get a city paper.”

“You won’t find anything in there either.”

I crane my neck around to see Trigger. “Why?”

“They don’t get in-town girls, and the drugs…they’re too good. The girls never remember. So they’ve told me,” he adds almost inaudibly.

I face forward and sink into the seat.
Of course.
He told me that last night. They always target girls out of town or something like that. I’m feeling deflated and edgy. “The drugs they use? You mean the drugs you
make?”

It takes Trigger a full minute to answer me. It’s so long, in fact, that I think I’m not going to get anything.

Until he admits very slowly, “Yes, I made them.”

My irritation is shooting through the roof.
God, this is such a weird, fucking awkward situation.
I don’t want to be here anymore
with this guy. I don’t want to be here today or any day.
This isn’t fair.
In my huff, I crumple the paper into a ball and chuck it to the floor in an effort to blow off steam, but I only feel worse.

Jay catches my hand and squeezes it. He seems more together than me now. “Where is the closest campus police office?”

“You think they can help us?” I ask bitterly. “Like he said, they’re not going to know.”

“We need to start somewhere. We’ll stop there and get an address for a precinct.”

I sink down into the seat, wishing this day would just be over already.

After a few random drive-by queries, we get the name of the hall where the campus police are located. Jay pulls up to the building and parks in the fire lane because there are no available spots.

He eyes me and suggests, “Maybe we should all go in.”

“We’ll get towed,” I point out.

His fingers are still linked with mine, and he tugs softly. “Just you then.”

As I look at Jay, I’m able to see Trigger from my peripheral vision. He’s digging his bony fingers into his knees. Leaving him alone would not be wise. He could bail, and all my efforts would be in the toilet. “I’ll stay. We’ll be fine.”

Jay’s face tightens. He glances at Trigger from the rearview mirror. “Lay a finger on Lila and I’ll remove it.”

Simple and to the point. Viciously protective in an even, calm tone.
God, I love him.

He kisses the left corner of my forehead. “Be right back.”

Once he’s gone, Trigger and I are engulfed in heavy silence.

“So…” I want to start the conversation to loosen him up so he’ll give me more of the story of how tonight is going to work, but I’m not quite sure how to do it.

“What’s the plan for tonight?” I finally blurt out.
Wow. Good one, Lil. Real smooth.
I feel my face wrinkle up as I amend myself. “I mean, do you have a time to meet up? You have to, right?”

Trigger takes his time and sighs. “We have a plan.” He’s clearly uncomfortable talking about this.

“Well, we need to come up with a way to tell the police all of this without getting you in trouble. Have you thought about what you’ll say?”

I hear a mocking laugh.

He says, “You honestly think going to the police will do anything? You’re living in a dream.”

He might have a point there.
If I pinch myself, would I wake up from this hellish nightmare?
I pinch my arm for good measure. Nope. Still here. “Maybe I am, but I won’t let tonight happen. I don’t care how I have to stop it.”

He goes quiet again, and I grow impatient.

I shift in my seat again to face him. “Don’t you have anything on these guys? They didn’t let anything slip? The name of a victim? Dates? Anything?”

His nostrils flare. “No.”

He doesn’t want to cooperate, huh?
The bull horns emerge again. “Are you being real, or are you just placating me? I’m not letting this go. You helped me last night. You saved me.
That’s
what’s really inside you. You want a life, a career, a wife, kids. I know you don’t want to mess all that up by drugging some chicks for a cheap night that could land you in jail for the rest of your life.”

I face forward and pound my fist into the console between the front two seats. “I just wanted your help, and you’re acting like a fucking baby.”

“You think I wanted to do this!” The sheer volume of his voice shocks me, freezing me in place. “They told me they’d ruin me if I didn’t help them! I’m on a full scholarship. They said that if I didn’t join their little clan that they’d…”

I can’t see him, but I can hear he’s starting to cry, just like last night.

“I can’t say it. I can’t say what they told me they’d do. So I chose the alternative—to play along.”

I let him sniffle for a few seconds, then I ask, “Didn’t you think along the way to collect some
kind of information on these guys?”

“Of course I did.”

I turn and raise my eyebrows at him.

He looks almost smug. “I have pictures on my phone.”

What the hell?
“And you didn’t tell me this sooner? Why?”