“Where’s Jack?” Tina repeated. “He must have found you in Clyde’s house and brought you out here. Where is he now?”
“I…I…”
She pulled a baggie from her pocket and shoved it in front of Jessie’s face. “You want more of this, don’t you? It’s addictive. I know. I know how you’re feeling right now. I hated every second I was on this stuff, but part of me still craves it. You’ll get through it.”
Jessie’s body strained toward the baggie, then she gave a cry and went limp. “Help me,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. You have to help me. Tie my hands together. I don’t trust myself.”
Tina snatched up a vine and broke off a piece long enough to act as a stretch of rope.
“My name is Tina Chen, and I’ve been working with your brother Jack. Did he mention me?”
“Are you Officer Badass?”
She couldn’t help laughing a little. “I suppose I am. Now, do you know where Jack is?”
40
It’s not Jessie’s fault, Jack kept telling himself. They’d hooked her on Night Light and nothing she did was of her own volition. It wasn’t her fault that she’d screamed so hard the Clydes had come running. Not her fault that Brendan, Eric and Pete Clyde had ganged up on him, wrestled him away from Jessie, and told her there was more Night Light in the bunker.
None of it was her fault.
But it still ripped his heart out.
“Come on, Pete,” he muttered to the burly fisherman tying his hands behind his back with thick yellow nylon rope. “This isn’t you. Why do you want to get involved with that shit?”
Four of the Clyde cousins stood over him in their fish house. Strings of lights in the shape of red chili peppers gave the place a surreal party atmosphere. Cans of paint lined the shelves and a mobile made from mussel shells dangled in one window. Made by someone’s kid?
“Easy for a rich actor to say,” said Brendan. “We gotta make a living out here on this rock.”
“I get that. But do you even know what you’re smuggling? Did you see what it did to Jessie? You remember her, she used to play with you guys.”
“She never liked us,” Eric pointed out. “She always stayed in the house with her books and shit.”
Jack shifted tactics. “Okay, never mind about Jessie. Imagine someone giving that stuff to your kids. Once it’s out there in the world, it’ll spread like wildfire. If we don’t stop it now it’ll be too late.”
Pete paced to the fish house window and peered out. Looking for someone? Standing guard? “We aren’t stopping until we get paid. Otherwise it was all for nothing.”
Jack glanced around at the ring of weathered, lined faces. The sun had that effect, but so did grief. He sensed it in the room, heavy and hard.
“You’re talking about Benny. He’s dead because of this.” He took a stab in the dark. “Was he planning to go to the police? Is that why they killed him?”
From their startled expressions, he knew he was right.
“The Bloodshot Eyeball shooting was a warning, but he didn’t stop, so they just got rid of him. He had guts, Benny did. And now you want to betray his memory?”
Pete strode toward him and punched him in the jaw. Hard. Shit. Jack had gotten used to stage punches, but he hadn’t had time to prepare for this one. It hurt like hell, and he had to wrestle back his automatic angry reaction. No room for that.
“Think about it,” he said, through the swelling and the pain. “You can get justice for Benny’s murder. You can avenge him. If you don’t, no one will ever pay for his death. What do you think he’d want you to do?”
“Get rich,” Brendan joked, to a ripple of laughter. “Then get revenge,” he added.
“Well, that won’t happen, because in this kind of scenario, it’s always the bottom of the food chain that pays the price. They dangle a payday in front of you to control. Whatever they’re paying you, it’s meaningless to them, just a drop in the bucket.”
They were listening. This was the kind of conversation they might have amongst themselves over a six-pack after a hard day on the water.
“You’re the little fish, they’re the big fish. They have the money, the lawyers. When this thing gets busted, and it will, they’ll be protected. You’ll take the fall. Just look at Benny. They disposed of him and they’ll dispose of you the second they need to.”
He caught glances exchanged between the four of them, and pressed on.
