Payback, page 18
Seeming to grasp the seriousness of the situation, Marcus sets down the salad. He gives me a pinched look, then nods. “I’ll be outside if you need me.”
My stomach lurches as the door claps shut behind him.
“It’s about Dr. O.” Caleb rubs his hands together, and I can feel his anxiety stretching across the space between us.
“What about him?” Damien’s voice is grim as he crosses his arms over his chest.
“He’s done some terrible things,” I say. “Things we can’t ignore anymore.”
Damien glances out the small window, as if expecting someone might be listening. “Look, if you’re coming to me because I’m on the Vale Hall board, you should know my position is mostly honorary. Complaints about the school need to go to security.”
“I’ve gotten kicked out,” Caleb says.
Damien’s arms drop to his sides. “You’re kidding.”
Caleb shakes his head.
“What’d you do?”
“Nothing,” I say. “And it isn’t about what he did, anyway. It’s about what Dr. O is doing.”
Damien groans. “No. No, you can’t do this. You shouldn’t be here.” He looks to Caleb. “I’m sorry, but I can’t get mixed up in this. He’ll ruin me.”
“That’s the point,” pipes in Geri. “He will ruin you. Aren’t you tired of that? Always worrying that if you step out of line he’ll take all this away?”
I glance over at her, impressed. Inviting her was a good idea after all.
“That’s the deal we signed,” Damien says, more firmly now. “We do his work, we keep our mouths shut, he gives us anything we want.”
“And he takes it away whenever he wants.” I step closer. “We need to stop him, Damien. We need your help doing it.”
“My help?” Damien collapses in a chair. “And what if I refuse?’
“Then more people will die,” I say.
“Die?” He caves forward, forehead in his hands. “You need to go. I’m sorry. I’ll tell Dr. O the visit was fine. I’ll say I never saw you, Caleb. But you need to go.”
“What do you mean you’ll tell Dr. O?” Geri’s voice hitches.
“When he called yesterday he alluded to some trouble back at school. He wanted a full report of what we talked about. I didn’t think much of it at the time—”
“He knows what we’re doing.” Geri closes her eyes.
People are starting to notice. Grayson’s words echo back to me, fraying my patience.
“I won’t say anything,” Damien says again.
“You’re next.” At my words, Damien’s head jerks up. His jaw tightens as his eyes narrow.
“Are you threatening me?”
“No,” I say simply. “Dr. O is.”
Caleb gives me a nervous glance.
I step closer to Damien. “Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But one day you’re going to walk into this trailer, and there’s going to be someone waiting for you. He’ll tell you that you messed up—maybe you slipped in an interview, or said too much about Vale Hall to a friend. If you’re lucky, he’ll give you an option. You can swallow a bottle of Wednesday pills, or take a drive with him outside of town. Either way you’ll know what he means.” I take the seat beside Damien, my fingers numb, my whole body cold. “That you could have stopped him, but you were too late.”
Damien stares down at his script with unfocused eyes. “He wouldn’t … he’s not—”
“Rafael Fuentes was expelled six years ago. We found him dead in his apartment with a bottle of pills the day before yesterday,” Caleb says. “Renee Gibson was living with him, but we haven’t heard from her. Moore’s looking, but…” He shakes his head.
Geri makes a small, pained noise, then covers her mouth with one hand.
There was a time I wouldn’t have cared how that made her feel—her dad may be responsible, after all—but things are different now. I squeeze her shoulder. “Dylan Prescott has joined the Wolves of Hellsgate. He was cut loose too, after his mark’s dad named Dr. O majority shareholder of Wednesday Pharmaceuticals then disappeared. Two of his classmates were murdered in the last month.”
“Stop,” Damien says weakly.
“My mom and my brothers are hiding in a safe house,” Caleb says. “Margot Patel’s been living on the street since Dr. O killed her mark.”
“My dad is only working for him to keep me alive,” Geri says quietly.
“Dr. O gave my mom a job with Wednesday. He moved her into an apartment where he can keep tabs on her.” I lean in. “Dr. O’s ramping up before he takes the Senate seat. He’s getting rid of anyone who might cause him trouble.”
“Stop.” Damien rises so fast his chair flips backward. “Enough, all right?”
I stand, hands balled into fists. “If you think you’re immune to this because you’re rich and famous, you’re wrong.”
“I’m not rich and famous!”
Damien’s voice slaps off the tight walls. He staggers away from the table, hands clasped behind his neck.
“I’m not rich anyway. At least, not by Hollywood standards.”
“Cry me a river,” mutters Geri.
Damien crumbles. “Look, I know what he’s like, okay? I left Vale Hall with nothing but a tip on an audition in New York. Everything I have, I earned.”
“With some substantial backing,” Caleb says.
“That’s what I’m trying to say,” says Damien. “That backing isn’t there. He tells you he’s sending you to college, that you’ll meet some big director, whatever. But it’s a myth. After graduation, I got a reminder of all the illegal things I’d done for him, and how he could send me to prison in a heartbeat.” He turns to face us, defeat heavy in his stare. “It could be game over for me just for telling you that.”
Silence stretches across the gaps between us. I can’t fully process what Damien’s saying. No scholarships? No connections? I came to Vale Hall to get out. I did his favors because it came with that reward. But if isn’t there … if we’ve all been doing this for nothing …
“It’s a con?” Caleb finally asks.
Damien nods.
“This is a joke, right?” Geri asks, her voice a little higher. “I’m going to college. I’m getting a theater major. Four years of intensive stage and dance work, voice coaching on the side, and then I’m going to Broadway.”
“Hope you’ve got the pipes,” says Damien.
“No,” I say, pressing the heels of my hands against my temples. “Someone would have come forward. We would have heard this is a scam!”
“Would you come forward?” Damien asks. “You don’t know the kinds of things I’ve done for that guy. We’re talking serious prison time.”
“I don’t understand,” Caleb says. “The house. The stuff we all get. My dad’s medical care was managed by him for three years.”
“You sure?” asks Damien. “You write checks from a fake account and it takes a long time before someone catches on. I should know.”
Caleb pales.
“Look, I don’t know all the answers,” Damien says. “All I can say is that he shells out enough to hook you, then, once he’s got enough to bury you, you’re dropped.”
I feel as if the air has grown heavier. It fills my lungs like liquid lead.
“But he has the money,” I say. “He owns Wednesday.”
“That’s not the point, is it?” Beside me, Caleb is gripping the edge of the counter. “He doesn’t want to share his money. He’s scamming us.”
“And keeping the cash for himself,” says Geri, and Damien’s grim look is confirmation. “I thought … even with all the trouble … I thought it would pay off in the end.”
I know what she means.
The reality of this is infuriating, but somehow so terrible none of us can move.
“It’s okay.” I swallow. “This is good, actually. We tell the others at school they’re doing this for nothing. They’ll be upset. Dr. O can’t keep this up if we all turn against him!”
“Believe me,” says Damien. “If he didn’t already have enough to ruin each of you, you wouldn’t be there in the first place.”
His words cut deep. If we rally the other students we put them in more danger.
“Still,” I say. “They need to know. They can make the choice to stand up to him or not once they know the truth.”
Caleb nods. “Agreed.”
“I can’t believe this,” says Geri. “My dad will be furious when he finds out.”
A dark part of me hopes she tells him, and that he is. I’d like to see what Dr. O does then.
“You know what? Screw this.” Damien presses his fist against the wall to his left. When he looks up, there’s a fire in his eyes I’ve only seen on Kings of Rochester, when Ben Dwyer’s back is against the wall. “Let’s do it. I’m in. What’s the plan?”
My relief expels in a cold rush of breath, dispelling the disappointment clouding my mind just seconds before. “Tell him you’re going to call a press conference and make a statement about what he’s done if he doesn’t disappear.”
“The school will be closed within the month,” he says.
“I thought operations would fall on the school board,” Caleb says.
Damien scowls. “The executive board staff. Which is me, Tim Loki—”
“Who’s that?” I interrupt.
“An alum, I guess. An entrepreneur. Guy’s as rich as they come. He’s got a half dozen companies overseas, I think.”
Great. Another mogul to contend with.
“And,” says Damien, “some woman named Susan Griffin I’d never even heard of until that senator got arrested for her murder.”
Matthew Sterling. My gaze flicks to Caleb, whose face is now ashen.
Dr. O’s backup plan for Vale Hall includes some businessman Damien’s never seen, Susan Griffin, who’s dead, and Damien, who was too busy acting to pay attention.
The worst part is, I’m not even surprised.
“All right,” says Caleb, trying to rally. “So if Dr. O’s sister is out, the school falls to you and Tim, right?”
“If the director leaves suddenly. Dies, or gets deathly ill, or something.” Damien drums his fingers over his opposite biceps. “That’s not the case here. Dr. O’s nominated Min Belk to take over when he leaves. He and Tim have already signed off on it.”
I’ve given my recommendation to the board. We should know soon what they decide.
Of course Dr. O put Belk in charge. Belk does whatever the director says. It’s as good as keeping the position himself.
“Did you sign off?” Caleb asks.
“Not yet,” says Damien grimly. “I’ve been busy shooting. But it won’t do any good if I abstain. It’s a split vote with only two active executive board members. The tiebreaker would go to Dr. O.”
“Maybe we can find Tim,” I say. “Get him to change his mind.”
“Good luck,” says Damien. “I think he lives out of the country. Dr. O mentioned that once.”
I close my eyes, trying to clear my mind. Even without our scholarships, we still have the present to worry about. Vale Hall can’t disband—we need our identities, we need to graduate so we have a chance of making it once we walk away empty-handed. We don’t want Belk taking over—just thinking of it reminds me of what Dylan said about Belk giving him ten seconds to run. But without Dr. O calling the shots, Belk should be easy enough to knock down.
“We’ll figure that out later,” I say. “Right now we need to stop Dr. O. We’ve got thirteen days left before he becomes senator.”
He can do an enormous amount of damage in that time.
“A press conference,” Damien mutters, then extends a hand in my direction. “Why not? I’ll call my publicist to set it up.”
My throat knots as I shake his hand. “We’ll talk to the other students.”
“I’ll go have lunch with my dad,” says Geri, her face still pale as a ghost. “We’re past overdue for a father-daughter chat.”
This is it.
We’ve done it. Setbacks aside, we’ve recruited Damien Fontego, a world-famous actor, to stand with us against Dr. O. I want to scream at the top of my lungs so loud the director hears me and trembles. You can’t hurt us anymore.
All I manage is a whispered “Thank you.”
“Stay alive,” he answers grimly.
A knock on the door and a call from outside signify it’s time for Damien to get to hair and makeup. After we exchange numbers and a brief goodbye, we’re back outside with Marcus, being led toward the chain-link gate at the front of the set.
A rush fills my veins, making it hard not to run straight back home and finish this, but it’s dampened by the sight of Geri walking ahead alone. I’m sure she’s thinking of all the things we said inside, and how much her dad has to do with it. Maybe even how she’s going to tell him about college. I remember the way he looked leaving Dr. O’s office the other day. Happy. Proud.
I’m about to go after her when Marcus catches my arm. When it’s clear he wants a word, Caleb goes ahead to talk to Geri.
“Everything all right?” Marcus asks.
I nod. “It will be.”
Now that we’ve got Damien, it feels like the dominos have been tipped and are falling forward, one by one.
He frowns. “Then why do I feel like it’s my turn to get you out of town?”
A hairline crack mars the surface of my hope. Every good con knows when to keep at it, and when to cut and run. I pushed Marcus out of Devon Park because he’s trampled that line. Now I can’t help wondering if I have too.
It doesn’t matter. I’m not leaving Dr. O to tear apart more of my friends’ lives.
I link my arm in Marcus’s. “There was trouble, but Damien’s going to help us fix it.”
“You’re sure?”
I blink, and see Dr. O’s face when we tell him he’s done. The fury melting away into panic as the truth strikes home. I see him packing up the few items he can, and running out the front door of Vale Hall.
But as much as I try, I can’t see past that moment.
“I’m sure,” I say.
CHAPTER 18
Marcus agrees to take us back to the hotel, and soon I find myself standing on a crowded train, watching him teach Geri dance moves to the music coming from his cell phone. She hasn’t wanted to talk about her father, but seems all too happy with the present distraction.
Caleb’s side rocks against mine as we round a turn, and his hand settles beneath my coat on my hip. His eyes stayed glued to the small screen of his burner phone, though, his brows scrunched.
“What are you looking at?” I ask.
“I’m trying to find Tim Loki,” says Caleb. “It’s strange. There’s nothing public on him.”
I glance down at the screen with a frown. “You sure? Didn’t Damien say he owned a lot of companies?”
“Yes. Overseas,” says Caleb. “Maybe he uses a different name.”
“Maybe he’s been disappeared.”
Caleb snorts. “Couldn’t be much use to Dr. O, then.” He closes his phone. “I’ll have Sam look at it when we get back.” His chin tips to Geri and Marcus. “They’re getting along.”
So are we, I think. Who’d have thought Geri and I would ever end up on the same side?
Everyone will be as soon as they hear they aren’t getting the deals Dr. O promised.
Any fury is overrun by a growing anticipation. Tomorrow, we’re going home. I’m going to convince the others at school to join us, and together, we’re going to end this.
I’m sure of it now. He can’t touch all of us together. Once they know his promises are lies, they’ll rise against him. We’ll tell him if he harms another one of us, Damien will take everything he’s done straight to the press. The entire world will know how he’s blackmailed politicians and students, murdered Raf, and ordered the death of his own sister.
Dr. O will be scared, and even if banishment is better than he deserves, he’ll be gone before the end of the week.
“This is us,” Caleb says as the train shudders to a stop.
We smash through the door with the rest of the crowd, and I’m pinched with regret as Marcus lifts me off the ground in a giant hug.
“Don’t go,” he wails, loud enough that people nearby throw shady looks our way. “We can go get tacos, or sneak into the Orioles’ stadium, or throw ice cubes at the skaters at Inner Harbor.”
I’m about to tell him we can’t—things will move fast with Dr. O once we get back and we need to prepare—but Geri speaks first.
“Okay.”
Marcus sets me down, and we all turn to Geri, whose fingers are so twisted in the strap of her purse the tips are turning white. Her gaze bounces between Marcus and me, cheeks redder by the second.
“I mean, if they’re tired, I could stay out. If you wanted.”
Marcus slides beside Geri, and when his arm reaches around her shoulders, she giggles.
It’s a sound I’m not accustomed to her making.
I glance at Caleb. As much as I trust Marcus, leaving Geri alone with a guy she barely knows feels like a very not-friend thing to do.
“I guess we can hang out a little longer,” I say slowly.
“No.” Geri’s instant rebuttal has my chin jutting forward. “You look exhausted. You really should get a good night’s sleep.”
Caleb smirks.
I meet Geri’s gaze. “You’re sure about this.”
“I’m sure. I’ll call you if I need anything, but I have a feeling you’ll have your hands full.” She lifts a meaningful brow from Caleb to me, and I realize that her going with Marcus means that Caleb and I will have the hotel room to ourselves.
Now it’s my turn to blush.
Geri lifts her hand and wiggles her finger in a wave. “Have fun.”
And then she and Marcus hop on the next train, and are whisked away into the city.
* * *
THE FOUR SEASONS is four blocks from the station. It’s frigidly cold, and we could duck into one of the restaurants lining the street to grab dinner, but hunger and frostbite are the last things on my mind.
Caleb slows as we approach the drugstore on the corner. “Do you think something might happen back at the hotel?”
