Liam shone the light from his phone into the hole, catching the metallic glint of the stack of packages my cousin had crammed inside. With no refrigeration, was the Sillin even salvageable? I didn’t ask. I didn’t care. The only thing I cared about was that Liam and Lucas didn’t assume I’d had a hand in hiding the Boulders’drugs.
Liam scooped the foil packets out and dropped them on the dustyfloor.
“Are they all there?” Lucasasked.
Liam counted them out slowly. “There’s onemissing.”
One out of thirty or so. Twenty-four pills to apacket.
When Liam raised his gaze to mine, I tensed up. “I didn’t takeit.”
An emotion flared in his eyes. Pain? Regret? I averted my gaze, the ache of being in his presence still tooraw.
“Ness, I wasn’t insinuating that you had.” He straightened up and tentatively stepped toward me. “Thank you for finding these. And for reportingthem.”
I nodded, gaze on the hodgepodge ofSillin.
He touched my cheek, and I jerkedbackward.
“I should go.” I turned and started through the house, not looking at anything but the floor. I was afraid that my heart, which already felt enlarged with grief, would balloon right out of my chest if I caught sight of something that reminded me of myparents.
I got back into the car, and under the canopy of stars, with tears dripping and drying on my cheeks, I left my dark home and the stash of drugs that had caused so much harm topass.
37
Freshly brewedcoffee was waiting on my desk when I got in the next morning. I wondered if the drink was for me, and when no one came to claim it, I sipped it. I’d slept fitfully, so caffeine was extremelywelcomed.
After I’d left, Liam looped in the whole pack about the recovered drugs. He didn’t mention specifics, like where they’d been found and by whom, but I bet people phoned him to find out. News traveled fast through thepack.
I took another much-needed sip of the scalding beverage. It was deliciously aromatic, almost like it had been steeped with caramel andcinnamon.
Since August wasn’t working from the warehouse, I sent him a text:Do I have you to thank for thecoffee?
His answer came much later.Was itgood?
ME:Amazing. You’ll have to tell me what brand itwas.
AUGUST:Glad you likedit.
AUGUST:How are youfeeling?
I rubbed mybrow.
AUGUST:Ness?
ME:Fine.
AUGUST:. . .
ME:What is . . . supposed tomean?
AUGUST:It was megrunting.
Smiling, I scoured my list of emojis until I found one that looked like a flick. I sentit.
AUGUST:OK?
ME:That was me flickingyou.
