“No,” sighed Colson. “He doesn’t need to.”
“He’s using Theo’s father as leverage,” growled Ripley.
Theo let out a shuddering sigh. “He always does.”
I felt abruptly dizzy, like I should start looking for a chair. But I was more angry, than anything else.
“We have to give him the locket, then.”
Theo shook his head. “Not an option.”
“Why not?” I said fiercely. “We just give it back to him. He’ll resume treatment. Your dad’s health takes priority over any sort of revenge we might—”
“Who knows if he’ll even keep his word?” Colson cut me off. “Eventually he’d kill us. Or discredit us. Probably humiliate us first, if I know him.”
“Yeah,” Ripley agreed. “We’re fucked either way.”
“We can’t justnothelp your father, though!” I cried. “There has to be something we could do for him.”
“There is.”
Theo’s voice was sullen, but practical. There were notears in his eyes, no frantic emotions. All those things, I could imagine, he’d already gone through. Back when his father’s grim diagnosis first sank in.
“We break this fucking locket,” he said coolly. “That’s what we do. We extract everything inside this godforsaken thing, and dump it all, full release, straight to the public. Totally irreversible.
Ripley’s resulting smirk was damn near demonic. He came up behind his friend, and clapped him so hard on his shoulders that Theo nearly collapsed.
“Fuckin’ A right we do.”
I coughed, hard enough to clear the sudden knot in my throat. “But your father…”
“My father’s on borrowed time as it is,” Theo said solemnly. “He’d be the first one to tell you that. The man is a realist, and he knows the score. We’re not giving up the chance to bury Donovan Prescott for a couple more bad months of a very good life.”
“He’s right,” Colson agreed. “He’d kill you himself if you did that.”
“He would.”
“Alright then,” said Ripley. “What do you need from us?”
“Time,” said Theo. “Caffeine. Chocolate.”
“All doable.”
“Really though, I need to just stop fucking around.”
All heads swung in my direction. I put my hands up, guilty.
“Hey, don’t look at me.”
“Oh, we’re looking at you,” smirked Ripley.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” laughed Theo. “I mean all the swimming, the fishing, the messing around on the beach.” His complexion turned a slight shade of pink. “Actually, all the sex is doing wonders for me. It’s giving me focus. Clearing my head.”
“More sex it is then,” I smiled, folding my arms. The others squinted back at me, jealously. “Hey! I’m just doing my part.”
Colson reached down and turned the laptop back around. With two thick fingers, he pushed it Theo’s way.
“Alright, you do your thing. Ripley and I are going to town tomorrow. We need to prep for what happens after you crack the locket.”
