Boys. Why did it have to be boys?
I peeled myself up off the carpets and bolted toward the side door. My fingers squeezed the door handle, but no matter how hard I pulled it, it didn’t budge.
“Zu!” Liam cried, looking back and forth between us. She merely folded her hands in her lap, rubber gloves squeaking, and blinked at him innocently. Like she had no idea how they had come across the stowaway currently sprawled out by her feet.
“We all agreed—no strays.” The other boy shook his head. “That’s why we didn’t take the kittens!”
“Oh, for the love of . . .” Liam slumped down in his seat, pressing his face into his hands. “What were we going to do with a box of abandoned kittens?”
“Maybe if that black heart of yours hadn’t been willing to leave them to starve, we could have found them new, loving homes.”
Liam gave the other boy a look of pure amazement. “You’re never going to get over those cats, are you?”
“They were innocent, defenseless kittens and you left them outside someone’s mailbox! A mailbox!”
“Chubs,” Liam groaned. “Come on.”
Chubs? That had to have been a joke. The kid was as skinny as a stick. Everything about him, from his nose to his fingers, was long and narrow.
He leveled Liam with a withering stare. I don’t know what amazed me more, the fact that they were arguing about kittens, or that they’d managed to forget that I was in the car.
“Excuse me!” I interrupted, slamming my palm against the window. “Can you please unlock the door?”
That shut them up at least.
When Liam finally turned back toward me, his expression was entirely different than before. He looked serious, but not altogether unhappy or suspicious. Which is a lot more than I could have said for myself if our situations had been reversed.
“Are you the one they were looking for?” he asked. “Ruth?”
“Ruby,” Chubs corrected.
Liam waved his hand. “Right. Ruby.”
“Just unlock the door, please!” I yanked at the handle again. “I made a mistake. This was a mistake! I was selfish, I know that, so you have to let me go before they catch up.”
“Before who catches up? Skip tracers?” Liam asked. His eyes darted over me, from my haggard face down my forest green uniform to my mud-stained shoes. To the Psi number that had been written on their canvas toes in permanent marker. A look of horror flickered over his face. “Did you just come from a camp?”
I felt Suzume—Zu’s—dark eyes on me, but I held Liam’s gaze and nodded. “The Children’s League broke me out.”
“And you ran away from them?” Liam pressed. He looked back at Zu for confirmation. She nodded.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Chubs interrupted. “You heard her—unlock the stupid door! We already have PSFs and skip tracers after us; we don’t need to add the League to the list! They probably think we took her, and if they put in the call that there are freaks roaming around in a beat-up black minivan . . .” He couldn’t bring himself to finish.
“Hey,” Liam said, holding up a finger, “don’t talk about Black Betty that way.”
“Oh, excuse me for hurting the feelings of a twenty-year-old minivan.”
“He’s right,” I said. “I’m sorry, please—I don’t want any more trouble for you.”
“You want to go back to them?” Liam was facing me again, his mouth set in a grim line. “Listen, it’s none of my business, Green, but you have the right to know that whatever lies they fed you probably aren’t true. They aren’t our angel network. They have their own agenda, and if they plucked you out of camp, it means they have a plan for you.”
I shook my head. “You think I don’t know that?”
“Okay,” he returned in a calm voice. “Then why are you in such a hurry to get back?”
There was nothing judgmental or accusatory about the question, so why did I still feel like an idiot? Something hot and itchy bubbled up in my throat, drifting up until it settled behind my eyes. Oh God, the kid was looking at me with all the sympathy and pity required of someone watching a stray puppy being put down. I didn’t know if the emotion swelling inside me was anger or embarrassment, but I didn’t have time to sort it out.
“No, but I can’t—I didn’t mean to drag you into—I mean, I did mean to, but . . .”
I saw Zu move out of the corner of my eye, reaching for me. I jerked away, sucking in a harsh breath. A hurt expression crossed her face, staying long enough for me to feel guilty about it. She had been trying to help me—to be kind to me. She didn’t know what kind of monster she had saved.
If she had, she would never have unlocked the door.
“Do you want to go back to them?”
Chubs was looking at Liam, and Liam was looking at me. He had caught me again with his eyes, and I hadn’t even realized it.
“No,” I said, and it was the truth. “I don’t.”
He didn’t say anything, only shifted the minivan out of park. The van rolled forward.
What are you doing, Ruby? I willed my hand to reach for the door, but it seemed too far and my hand too heavy. Get out. Get out now.
“Lee, don’t you dare,” Chubs began. “If the League comes after us . . .”
“It’ll be okay,” Liam said. “We’re just taking her to the nearest bus station.”
I blinked. That was more than even I was expecting. “You don’t have to.”
Liam waved me off. “It’s fine. Sorry we can’t do more. Can’t risk it.”
“Yes, you’re right,” Chubs said. “So explain to me why we aren’t taking her to one of the train stations, which are closer?”
When I looked back up, Liam was studying me, his light eyebrows pulled tight together by some unspoken thought. I tried not to squirm under his gaze. “Remind me again—Ruby, right? I’m sure you’ve caught on by now, but I’m Liam, the lovely lady behind me is Suzume.”
She smiled shyly. I turned and raised a brow in the direction of the other boy. “I’m guessing your name isn’t actually Chubs?”
“No,” he sniffed. “Liam gave me that name at camp.”
“He was a bit of a porker.” Liam had a small smile on his face. “Turns out field labor and a restricted diet are better than fat camp. Zu can back me up on this one.”
But Zu wasn’t paying attention, not to any of us. She had pulled her hoodie up over her ears and twisted around in her seat so that she was staring over the top of it, out the back window. Her lips were parted, but she couldn’t bring the words to them. The color drained from her round face.
“Zu?” Liam said. “What’s wrong?”
She didn’t need to point. Even if we hadn’t seen the tan SUV speeding straight for us, it would have been impossible to miss the bullet that blew through the back window and shattered it.
NINE
THE SINGLE BULLET CUT A PATH STRAIGHT DOWN THE CENTER OF THE MINIVAN, EXITING OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD. For a moment, none of us did anything but stare at the hole and the spreading spiderweb of cracks radiating out from it.