“Who are you talking about?” Scout asked.
“Brooks, please stop. We need to talk to her,” I begged, but he shoved Emmy into the back of his car.
“I’m sorry, Iz. There’s a crisis downtown. You’ll get your opportunity later, but for now, I need you both to follow me.”
Scout only had eyes for Emmy. “What kind of deal?”
Emmy laughed, and despite the cuffs around her wrists, it sounded victorious, the laugh of someone who still held all the cards. “You narcissists. You think you’re the only ones capable of forming secret clubs? You think you’re the only people in the world who are owed some revenge?”
Brooks slammed the door in Emmy’s face.
Chapter 44Isabel, the Assistant
PRESENT DAY
Night had fallen by the time the FBI released us. We roared up the 405 in Scout’s convertible, top down, wind whipping our hair. The lights of LA sparkled across the hills and valleys. Above us, the stars shone back like a mirror, twin cities of light above and below.
“Do you want to go back to Easton’s for your car?” Scout asked, over the rush of the wind.
“No.” I pressed deeper into the passenger seat. “I don’t want to go back to that house ever again. I’ll call a tow.”
We continued across the highway in silence, Scout driving fast, curving around the few cars on the road. The day hung heavy over us. After ten years, one of Georgia’s killers was dead and the other was being held where we’d just left, at the FBI office on Wilshire. The agents there had scraped Easton’s blood off our cheeks and asked for our clothes as evidence. In exchange, they’d given us matching gray sweatpants. They’d let us wash off the blood, at least.
The wind was blissfully cool against my clean face. I was exhausted, but I didn’t want to close my eyes. I knew I’d hear the crack of the gun, feel the drench of warm blood, see Easton’s body on the carpet. So I searched the city lights instead. Brooks was somewhere out there, battling a terrorist.
A terrorist.Would it ever stop feeling like the world was one whisper away from madness? Was that just my trauma speaking, or was this a sixth sense, like how animals could feel a looming storm?
And what, God help me, did it mean that Brooks had ignored his orders and put his career on the line to drive to Easton’s house?
“Do you think Brooks—” I started to yell, at the same time Scout shouted, “I don’t feel it.”
As always, I turned to her. “Feel what?”
“Justice. I’ve been waiting to feel it.” Her eyes remained on the road. “When Alden killed himself and I didn’t feel it, I thought it was because he’d robbed us of a trial. But Georgia’s real killers confessed, and they’re dead and in custody, and we did it—we actually solved her murder. So where’s the justice? The joy? Jesus, I’d even take relief. That’s what I’ve been chasing.” She took a deep breath. “With every girl we’ve helped since Georgia died.”
I pushed the hair out of my face. “Scout, Emmy made it clear someone else is out there with a vendetta. You don’t feel justice because it’s not over.”
She glanced at me. “I’m starting to think there isn’t any relief waiting. The only thing that would make me feel whole again is if Georgia was still alive.”
We drove in silence until I said, “When Emmy picked up your gun, I was convinced we were going to die. But we’re sitting here, alive. Give it time. Detective Holloway will talk to Emmy and realize you were framed. The LAPD will clear you and you’ll go on your big world tour and be a star and everything will be okay.”
Scout let out a shaky breath. “Actually—”
The harsh ring of her phone through the car’s audio system interrupted us. Cybele’s name flashed on the screen.
Scout looked at me. I nodded. “Take it.”
She pressed Accept and Cybele’s frantic voice filled the car, loud enough to be heard over the wind. “Where the hell have you been? We’ve been trying to reach you and Izzy for hours.”
Scout and I frowned at each other. I’d never heard Cybele sound so shaken. “Izzy’s here with me,” Scout yelled. “We just left the FBI. We have a lot to tell you.”
“So you know?”
“Know what?”
“That they arrested Juliet for bombing the Knox tower.”
The convertible swerved to the side of the highway and Scout threw the car into park.
