Page 77 of Retribution

I smile at him. ‘I like Lu, too. She’s a really good friend.’

‘Yeah, she’s good people,’ he sighs.

‘What’s a golden snatch?’ I ask again because he still hasn’t answered me.

He coughs into the steering wheel. ‘Uh, we’re here. Just Google it, maybe.’

‘Okay. Thanks for the ride.’ I shut the door, and he looks like he wants to say something more to me, but I can’t have him hanging around. I don’t want his presence to thwart my plan. I suspect he’s known in Richmond by sight since Lu’s family are into the shadier things.

I’m hoping the same is true for me, that I will be recognized out here in the open like this.

Sark speeds away and I cross the street, clutching my bag close. I roam around the vicinity, looking at the club, poking my head inside to see what’s being done. A construction guy tells me the place is closed and to ‘get out of here,’ so I walk around the building again before sitting on a bench covered in graffiti and waiting. It’s a couple of hours before I notice the car, a beat-up brown thing that blends in well to the type of street this is. I wonder if it’s been there all along or if it just arrived. I should have been paying closer attention.

The lone man in it is watching me, I’m sure of it. I just hope it’s the right man, and not the stalker, or a Novelle employee, or a Banderville employee, or a cop, or some random, opportunistic attacker.

This is where the luck comes in.

Just have to trust the process.

So, I wait.

I get up a few minutes later and walk around the block again, checking my non-existent watch and huffing like I’m waiting on someone who’s late.

I mean, I sort of am, I guess.

It happens when I’m going around a corner. A black van skids to a halt next to me and the side slides open. I’m grabbed and shoved inside. An opaque sack is put over my head. Mybag is ripped away from me and my wrists are wrenched behind me.

It hurts and I can’t help my cry as the fear bubbles up. My breathing comes in fits and starts.

‘Who are you?’ I call into the darkness, hoping for an inkling of confidence that my plan is goingto plan. ‘What do you want from me?’

No one answers.

SHADE

Isee Lu walking across the Quad and I leave the guys, sprinting across to intercept her.

When I do, she doesn’t look surprised, but she does glance over her shoulder.

‘Where is she?’ I ask. ‘She was supposed to be on campus today. Is she still sick?’

‘She’s not on campus,’ Lu says cryptically. ‘Look, we can’t be seen together. Come with me.’

She leads me down the path to the English buildings and pulls me into one of them out of sight.

‘What the hell is going on?’ I snarl.

She looks unperturbed at my outburst, and I remember that she grew up withPop PopGarrett, a man known to lose his shit whenever the mood strikes him.

‘Okay, she was here. She came in this morning. She asked for my help. She said if I saw you, to tell you she was okay and she would let you know what’s going on as soon as she can.’

‘Where the fuck is she?’ I hiss.

‘I don’t know. She only wanted me to help her ditch the bodyguard.’

‘And did you?’

She snorts. ‘Of course. It was her plan. The execution, though, that was all me. Anyway, he’s still shitting his brains out in the employee bathroom at Grinder. She knew what she was doing when she woke up this morning.’