CHAPTER 5
Heather
I had thought this was another stunt Hazel was pulling, like she always did. A trick. A game for me to play. A bad joke.
But Hazel had been locked in a cage.
My whole body trembled; fear and shock consumed me. I forced myself to look around. Zaid had taken me to a large room: bookshelves, completely full, covered the walls; an art sculpture of the human body in a corner; the small wooden table beside us; a wet bar hidden in the bookshelves; a fireplace burning, casting the room in glowing shadows; a floor to ceiling window stretching across the back, the dark night staring back at us. Only one way in, only one way out.
Zaid leaned in his chair. With his head tilted back, he was at ease. Smug. Completely content to sit there. It wasn’t like he had shackled me to the table. I could run.
But I couldn’t leave Hazel.
“What do you want from me?” I asked. “From us?”
“You and I have a common enemy,” he said.
“An enemy?”
“Eric.”
“Look, I don’t even know Eric—”
“Your sister was his runner. The drugs she delivered resulted in a death. He knew this. He used her.”
Hazel had killed someone?
She would never do that. Not on purpose.
But Hazel had experimented with drugs before. She was a sponge, molded to the crowd she was with, soaking up whatever they wanted her to do, always ready to revolt at the first notice of betrayal. And I was the mop that followed her, making sure she was okay. But this? Even this was beyond her.
“Hazel wouldn’t do that.”
“She did,” Zaid said. He linked his fingers together, leaning across the table. The scar cast a thin shadow across his eye. Zaid pursed his lips. How could he be calm at a time like this?
“When I found Hazel—” funny choice, I thought, the word ‘found,’ “—she was still in the club. She had been to the parties many times before. But this time? She brought a gift. It wasn’t until one of ours was dead that we learned about her association with Eric.” He turned towards the glass window, staring out at nothing. “But it was too late.”
He was lying. Trying to confuse me, make me think ill of my sister.
But I had to do something. Anything. Anything to help her.
“What do you want from us?” I asked again.
“It’s simple.” Zaid locked eyes with me. “I will let you and Hazel live. In fact, I will make sure Hazel is safe, taken care of in a treatment facility far from here, one where Eric cannot find her.”
“Can I go with her?”
He leaned back. “I have other plans for you.”
“Plans?”
“All you have to do,” he paused, leaning closer to me, “is participate in my design.”
Those brown eyes were malicious, the heady color of whiskey. He drank me in, waiting for my response. It was a simple choice for him; he would provide for Hazel and give her safety. He’d let us live.
Those words… They implied the worst.
“Are you threatening me?” I asked.
