In the weak light, Jenna has a perplexed look on her face. She says, “If she was on your ship, how could she have been in a West Virginia coal mine at the same time?”
Donnie says, “The FBI guy was asking the same thing, since we were out to sea when Benny was killed. It can’t be the same lady.”
Another long silence passes.
“What are we going to do?” Nico says.
“Can you both meet me tomorrow?” Jenna asks.
Neither answers.
Donnie’s looking at the ground like he’s lost in thought.
Nico hesitates. He wants out of this shithole forever.
“You have a plan?” Nico asks.
Jenna doesn’t answer.
They’re all thinking of the last time they executed a plan.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
JENNA
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO
Jenna puts on makeup, which she rarely wears. She’s also borrowed a lower-cut shirt from one of the other girls who’s more boy crazy. She looks at herself in the mirror, purses her lips, and heads downstairs to the chime of the dinner bell.
There are two long school-cafeteria-style tables in the dining room. Derek Brood and his crew of assholes catcall when they see Jenna. Mr. Brood, who always sits at the head of one of the tables, calls for quiet. They say grace and pass around bowls of whatever slop the kids on kitchen duty have come up with. Jenna sits across from Ben and asks him a question with her eyes: Did you get the gun? He nods. Next to him, Donnie stares absently at his plate but doesn’t eat. He’s been drinking during the day again, they’ve all noticed—his breath smelling of grapes, the cheap wine he swipes from the convenience store and stashes near the tree fort in those scary woods.
There’s an empty chair where Annie usually sits.
Nico looks destroyed. His face has dirt on it and his fingernails are dark with grit. Mr. Brood tells him to go get cleaned up. Nico stands, the chair scraping on the floor.
“Where is she?” he demands of Mr. Brood.
This isn’t part of the plan. Ben tells Nico to calm down, but he’s staring daggers at Brood.
“Where’s who?” Derek says. “That slut girlfriend of yours? She ran off. Probably at the bus station sucking—”
Nico lunges for Derek but is held back by Ben and Donnie.
“Enough!” Mr. Brood says. “Nico, I know you’re upset. I’ve reported Annie missing to the agency and the police. I’m sure she just needed a break and will come back. It happens sometimes.”
Nico’s expression has hardened now. His gaze turns to Ben and he nods, then walks upstairs to clean up.
Arty appears in the doorway to the dining room. He usually doesn’t eat with them. He spends most evenings a couple blocks away at Ned Flanders’s house.
Derek takes notice. “I didn’t know robots need to eat.”
Derek’s crew laughs too hard; it isn’t even funny.
Arty apologizes to Mr. Brood for his tardiness. Mr. Brood gestures for him to sit.
It’s true, Arty is an oddball, and, truth be told, he is a touch robotic.
“How’s your project going?” Mr. Brood asks.
“Mr. Jones says we’re going to get the funding.”
“Good for you, Art.” Mr. Brood addresses the table: “You see that, kids? You find something you’re good at, work hard, and it will pay off.”
Derek mumbles something under his breath. Mr. Brood swings his arm so the back of his hand smacks Derek in the mouth.
Jenna tries not to react, ignores the violence. Focuses on the plan.
It was Arty who devised the plan, after Nico told them all that the lady was coming for Jenna tomorrow:
Step 1: Nico digs a hole in the secluded clearing in the woods behind Flanders’s house.
Check.
Step 2: Ben and Donnie buy a handgun. Check.
Step 3: Jenna lures Mr. Brood to her room at lights-out.
Arty told them that Marta said Mr. Brood touched her. Hence Jenna’s makeup and cleavage.
After dinner, Derek goes out. He’s Mr. Brood’s son, not one of the foster kids—or “loser orphans” as he likes to call them—and isn’t subject to the same rules.
At lights-out, Jenna asks Mr. Brood if she can speak with him about something. In private.
Mr. Brood comes to her room. After he enters, Jenna closes the door, but he casually walks back over and opens it.
That’s when Ben appears from the closet, Donnie behind him. Ben strikes Mr. Brood with the butt of the gun, which is supposed to knock him out, but it doesn’t. Mr. Brood takes Donnie down easily with a punch to the chest. He then charges Ben, tackling him to the floor.
Jenna’s heart is pounding. She’s supposed to be the bait. But they need her help. She looks for something heavy that she can hit Mr. Brood with and finds nothing.
Donnie is curled up, gasping for air, while Mr. Brood straddles Ben, his fist raised. Brood is a big man, six foot, more than two hundred pounds.
Jenna is about to jump on Brood’s back, to scratch at his eyes like her father taught her, when Arty appears in the room. He has what looks like a car battery with shoulder straps attached to it draped over his small frame. In each hand, battery cables. He walks to Mr. Brood, who’s still on top of Ben, and jams both ends of the cables on either side of Mr. Brood’s ribs. Both Brood and Ben scream.
Arty pulls back the cables, and Ben manages to push Brood off of him. And Arty shocks Brood again. But Brood doesn’t go down. He’s so damned big. He grabs Arty by the neck and begins squeezing. Arty doesn’t dare shock Brood now because the current will run through both of them.
Jenna comes from behind and kicks Mr. Brood between the legs, which causes him to buck forward. He claws at Arty, then bites Arty on the shoulder, eliciting a wail. Brood manages to stand up, his mouth red with blood. He makes the mistake of no longer being in physical contact with Arty, who takes the opportunity to touch the ends of the battery cables to Brood’s neck.
Brood vibrates and makes an unusual sound like a scream that’s choked off. Arty removes the cables and that’s when Ben hits Brood with the butt of the gun again, taking him down.
Minutes later, Mr. Brood is in a wheelbarrow, ranting at them through his gag as they roll him
into the woods.
PART 3
THE TRUTH
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
THE TWINS
PRESENT DAY
“We need to take care of him,” Casey says into the burner phone. She’s at an Airbnb in what passes for the nice side of Chestertown. Her sister, Haley, is sprawled out on the bed watching a show on her laptop.
“Are you crazy?” the client snaps. “An FBI agent? The Feds’ll throw every resource they have at it.”
“I’m not seeing much of a choice. He followed me into the restaurant. He knows.” She glances out the window, watches bugs bounce against the porch light.
“Are you sure?”
“I told you, the benefit of hiring us is two sets of eyes. And, yeah, he followed me all the way there and waited outside until we left.” Casey wrinkles her nose, thinking of the low-quality beef at the steakhouse where Derek Brood took her for dinner. She adds, “That Lara Croft wannabe bitch was also following and backed off when she saw him. It’s not going to take long for the agent to put everything together.” Casey snaps her finger at Haley to pause the show on the laptop. She cups the receiver and says, “Don’t watch the rose ceremony without me.”