Justice(96)

I look out the peephole and roll my eyes. Crap. I wish it was Alkaline. I put the gun on the counter and unlock the door. “How the hell did you get in here?”

Lucy stands in the hall, as usual lips pursed with disapproval. Bryan and Geoff loom behind her, looking scary as always. “We own the building,” Lucy says. “May I come in?” She doesn’t wait for a response.

I shut the door. “Guess it’s time for me to move then.”

She glances around the living room, not liking the décor. “Are they all like this?”

“Well, the owners are kind of assholes, so yeah.” I put my hands on my hips. “What the hell do you want?”

“I’ve come as a goodwill ambassador to explain.”

“You can shove your goodwill and your explanation. All I want from you and your freak of a nephew is for you to forget you ever met me.”

“We’re your family.”

My mouth slacks open, and I begin to chuckle. “Family? Oh my God, you did not just say that. Not even you are that cruel.”

“We had our reasons, Joanna.”

“Sure you did. Everyone always has their reasons. The reason my mom drank was she had a disease. The reason some punk shot my dad was that he needed money. The reason Ryder liquefied three innocent people was he was pissed off that he lost.” I shrug. “So yeah, I’m sure you all had your reasons. But my parents are both dead. Rebecca, Daisy, and Marnie too. My so-called family, people who supposedly loved and trusted me, have been lying to me from day one. So fuck your reasons!”

“You have every right to be angry. I know you see this as a betrayal.”

“Got another word for it?”

“But we lied to protect you.”

“So you were being cruel to be kind.” I fold my arms across my chest. “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before too.”

“Do you know what you were like when we first met? A hate-spewing, prejudiced, angry girl who found a scapegoat in Justin’s dead father for her own. Not much has changed through the years. Do you have any idea how hurtful that was for him to hear? To endure from his best friend?”

She’s right on that front. My back straightens. “Ever think my opinion might have changed had I known?”

“He wanted to tell you. A thousand times. He did. I’m the one who convinced him early on not to. That you wouldn’t understand. Then the years went by and it became harder and harder to tell you for this exact reason. And if you really think about it objectively, you didn’t really need to know. It had no bearing on your life or friendship up until now.”

“Did he tell her?”

“It’s not a competition, Joanna.”

“He did. He trusted her and not me. And then…I’ve been torturing myself, thinking this whole mess was my fault. He knew that and let me go on thinking it.”

“He lost a part of his family. He didn’t want to risk losing the rest of it.”

“Too fucking late.”

“You’re being unfair.” She raises an eyebrow. “You didn’t tell him about an important part of your life, of who you are. How is that any different from what he did?”

My eyes narrow. “I didn’t tell him about a five month relationship, don’t you compare the two.”

“I wasn’t talking about your dalliance with your supervisor. Since the night you met, you kept an essential part of yourself concealed.” My stomach seizes up. It must show on my face because Lucy takes a step toward me. “You didn’t trust him with your true feelings. You did all you could to conceal your love from him. To protect the both of you from the havoc it would bring. How on earth is that any different than what he did?”

I’m shamed into silence, the wheels in my mind spinning in vain to come up with an argument. “I—”

The sound of gunshots hitting brick outside the window startles us both. I count three, followed by glass shattering in my bedroom. As I rush toward the noise, the front door opens, Bryan and Geoff rushing into secure the confused Lucy. A black figure flies across the living room window as more gunshots ring out, one hitting the window and lodging in the poster behind me. I’m not even through the bedroom door when I see it on the floor surrounded by broken glass. A gray brick of C-4 with wire and a timer. Shit.

“Bomb!”

The men shove Lucy out the door with me running close behind. The moment I pull the fire alarm in the hall, the explosion rocks the building. The noise and heat from the blast knock me down, with Geoff falling on top of me. I don’t know which hurts more, the explosion or the two hundred fifty pound man in top of me. Either way I can’t breathe. Bits of ceiling and wall, some flaming, rain around us. My ears ring so loud I have an immediate headache.