Something about this whole setup is hokey and I want to run just like Jared told me to, but he’s so close, and if my previous instincts were wrong and he’s the one, I am in deep, deep trouble here.
“That was not me, Paulie! For God’s sake, girl, what do you take me for?! You’re one of my own,” Jerry hisses and I close my eyes with a shudder.
“Who was it then, Jerry? The only other person sadistic and cruel enough to want something like that done is Cleo, and she’s…” I leave the sentence trailing, watching both Jerry and Roman for some response.
Jerry shakes his head and Roman’s eyes seem to glow as he looks around the room before sighing, as if bored, and turning back to me.
“Back to business since no one wants to take credit. What would you need to have Rydell and Huley’s votes for if you aren’t even aware of the topic?” he muses softly, leaning so close I feel his warm breath touch my cheeks.
“Hedging one’s bets is never a bad idea. They’re simply, well, they were simply just insurance, if you will. I take it you’ve caught them and the council wants a vote on their fates?”
That seems to satisfy him and the twitching in my left arm stops the minute he turns and walks back to the other end of the long table, taking his seat with an amused smile.
“Please sit, Miss Hayes, we would like to commence the voting since you’re just dying to go shopping.”
Did he just say dying and smile at me sinisterly?
I wanna scream mayday and have a magical pick balloon crash down to spirit me away to safety. Alas, that is not my lot. I’m in this till I hear from my Jared and I know it. I sit with a baleful glare and almost have a hernia when he announces the topic.
“Everyone in favor of releasing dearest Cleo from her onerous mortal toil say aye.”
Nay, nay, nay!
The ayes are resounding and I turn to Jerry in horror.
“Why?”
He shrugs and pulls at his tie with a grimace.
“She’s as good as dead anyway.”
“That’s not true!”
“Come on, Paulie. She needs to make way for new blood and you know it.”
But the only new blood is me! Or is it? I suddenly recall my conversation with Jared about Lynn. That she-thing is on her way here as we speak, and for all I know Jerry could be clearing the way for her.
But no, Cleo is one of Lynn’s friends, and I do not see her playing this dirty. Lynn may be crazy, but the woman has some honor, and I know that if she’d been here days ago, I would never have been harmed the way I was.
“You’re trying a takeover before you can get Lynn back. Aren’t you, Jerry?” I ask, laughing derisively and shaking my head. “She’d kill you first and you know it.”
That has him spluttering and I almost jump with relief when I hear Jared’s voice again through what sounds like static or almost as if he’s underwater.
“Don’t piss him off, Cupcake. Just vote and get the fuck out!”
I want to, but this is all so much more than what we knew before, and it could help the Lanes end this once and for all.
“I don’t want power here, Paulie. I’m a follower and you know it. I just don’t want her coming back and ruining the deals we’ve made because of some stupid vendetta she should have dropped years ago. Bolton got what was coming to him for what he did.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I see and hear him sigh tiredly, and for a second I think that maybe he’s not so bad after all.
“You did try to save Ellie.”
That gets a laugh and another shake of his head.
“I was trying to salvage something from this whole situation. I knew Miah and the others were getting close, and I wanted to lay low and let it all blow over. But she couldn’t help herself when Wyatt brought Ellie home. She just had to go nuts on me.”
“I’m surprised you all want her back then, Jerry. Seems to me your lives are easier without her.”
Another laugh, this one bitter, and I see Jerry’s eyes go hard. I know instantly that I’ve underestimated him.
“She has information we need, Paulie, nothing more and nothing less. Once we get what we need from her, I will personally hand her crazy ass over to the Lanes for extermination.”
Oh cripes.
“Now vote.”
Chapter Twelve
Jared
The sound of my brother’s voice over the earpiece is so foreign in its coldness that I’m almost tempted to take aim and just pull the trigger.
That is until he says the words Punch and Judy and I feel the world right itself once again. That’s code, one we’ve used since we were snot-nosed little kids running around playing spy with our walkie-talkies and spy comics to help us complete “missions.”