We both turn to him as he sidles in through the opening to our lair. He’s wearing a baggy plaid sweater with an unraveling collar, sweatpants that have seen better decades, and a pair of tiger-striped gumboots. Judging from his rat tail hair and the damp patches on his top, it’s started raining again.
He slides a backpack from his shoulder and collapses on the couch, then glances across at me and groans when he sees the bottle in my hand. “Don’t we have coffee down here yet?”
“No power, remember? It’s this or warm beer,” I say.
“Fuck it,” he grumbles, hiking up his sweater as he shoves a hand under the fabric to scratch at his ribs. “I’ll get coffee later. Let’s get this over with.”
I take my usual seat and both me and Cass watch Apollo as he slips the drive into his new laptop.
“So what shit did you make up for Gabriel?” Apollo asks as he starts tapping the laptop’s touchpad. “He ran out of there like someone had set his grandma on fire.”
My eyes go to Cass, but he keeps his head down, using his thumbnail to push back his cuticles. “Does it matter? It worked.”
“Yeah it did,” Apollo says through a grin without looking up. “Looked real fucking spooked. That’s—”
He cuts off and starts shaking his head.
“What is it?” I sit forward. “Apollo?”
“Shit,” he mutters, his eyes flickering as he scans the screen. “There’s nothing here.”
“What do you mean there’s nothing?” Cass growls. He grabs the laptop from Apollo, stabbing the down button as a glare slowly deepens on his face. “There’s tons of shit on here.”
“Yeah, but nothing useful.” Apollo takes back the laptop, scowls at Cass, and then gets up and goes to sit in the armchair opposite us. “Just a bunch of crap.”
“You couldn’t have gone through everything so fast,” I say, wincing around my first sip of whiskey.
Apollo lets out a world-weary sigh. “I’m using keywords and search strings. Either he’s code-named the shit out of everything, or he’s encrypted the important stuff.” Apollo scratches his head and then gathers back his hair from his face. “I’ll keep looking, but I have a feeling he’s not keeping anything important on here.”
“A feeling?” Cass sits back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. “How about you actually check first?”
“The fuck crawled up your ass?” Apollo mutters, sending a questioning frown my way before focusing on Cass. “I’ve done this hundreds of times. I can tell if someone’s trying to hide shit.”
“I’d feel better if you took a good, hard look.”
Apollo lifts his thumbs from the keyboard, throwing me an exasperated look. “Zach—?”
“Do a manual search,” I say. “It’s the closest we’ve gotten to him yet. Maybe there’s something you’re missing.”
“Oh, there’s something missing all right. She only got like eighty percent of the drive. Guess she pulled out early.” He glances up with a coy grin which none of us return, and then mumbles something under his breath as he goes back to the laptop. “And, he hasn’t even bothered to clear his browser history in…” Apollo holds up a finger as he stares at the screen. “Forever. Literally, since the dawn of fucking time.”
“Or he could have deleted just the shit he didn’t want you to see, leave everything else, then it looks like he didn’t delete anything,” Cass says, lifting his eyebrows at Apollo.
“So either he’s really fucking innocent, or he’s really fucking guilty.” Apollo sniffs. “Go figure.”
“Apollo, take the laptop with you. Go through it today and make sure. Check every fucking cluster on that hard drive.”
He mutters something sarcastic about “clusters” and snaps the laptop closed with ill grace. “Sure thing, Captain.” He stands as he slings the backpack over his shoulder again. “But on the off chance I’m right—” a glare for Cass “—what the fuck do we do? If it’s not on here, then he’s keeping it someplace else.”
I study him for a second, and then shrug. But before I can open my mouth, Cass cuts in. “We tell her it didn’t copy anything. Tell her she has to do it again.”
“I don’t know if she can,” I say.
Cass turns his glare on me. “Does it look like I give a fuck?”
“Dude, seriously, what’s your deal?” Apollo demands, his hand tightening on the backpack’s strap. “You have another wet dream about Zach and wake up with a sore ass?”
Cass rushes so fast to his feet, I’m already reaching to stop him going for Apollo. But he doesn’t rush him—he just stands there, chin up and shoulders back, as if waiting for Apollo to throw the first punch.
Then he grabs the neck of his sweater and tugs it down.
I squeeze my eyes shut. It’s instinct, something I’ve always done when I’m suddenly faced with a sight I can’t—or won’t—process.
But then I force my eyes open. Force myself to see.
I force myself to become a witness.
It’ll come down to us versus them, if I get my way. My brothers feel different, of course. They don’t want any of this shit going to trial. Their definition of justice is biblical.
An eye for an eye. A life for a life.
And they’re convinced that each and every Ghost took a life.
The marks around Cass’s neck are swollen and bruised. But he always bruised easily. The Ghosts liked that about him.
Easily damaged, but impossible to break.
Apollo gapes at Cass’s neck, the unspoken question writ large in his wide eyes.
“She’s going back, and she’s getting what we need,” Cass says through his teeth. “And this time, there won’t be a fucking noose around my neck.”
“I hear you, man,” Apollo says, putting out a hand as he immediately switches into conflict resolution mode. “But don’t you think we’re putting a lot of shit on her shoulders? What if she can’t do it?”
“She’s a smart girl, isn’t she? I’m sure she’ll figure it out. She just needs the right motivation.”
There’s a heartbeat of silence before Cass pushes past me. Apollo watches him leave and then turns angry eyes on me.
“What the fuck happened?”
I hold my tongue. I’d been about to spout a whole monologue about how shit got fucked up and it shouldn’t have gone down like it did. But none of that matters anymore, does it?
“I fucked up.” I take my seat again. I study the glass in my hand and then toss everything into the back of my throat. “I fucked up, and Cass got hurt.”
“Yeah, no shit.” Apollo sinks down on the edge of the armchair. “Is he okay, though? Like, mentally?”
“I don’t know. We haven’t had a chance to talk.”
I’d gone to his room last night. He hadn’t been there. I’d eventually tracked him down in the infirmary, where a grim-faced Timothy was filling up an orange prescription bottle for him.
When I’d tried to catch up to Cass in the hallway, he’d shoved me out of the way without saying a word. I know when I’m not wanted. I didn’t try and go to him again. I was hoping he’d have cooled off by now. Guess I was wrong.