King of Cups (Stormcloud Academy 2)
Page 5
“It was good to work with my hands for a while. The only problem was . . . well, I couldn’t stop my mind from going back to what happened to you at the year-end party. And then what happened to Gail.”
She nodded gravely, and I saw her chest heave and her lips shake like she was suppressing a sob for a moment. She replied finally, “I got your message.”
I’m so sorry.
“It was all I could think to say. I couldn’t believe Gail would do that.”
“I don’t believe it.”
Biba looked me stone-cold straight in the eyes and silently dared me to contradict her. It was the same intensity she’d shown in the face of the Kings’ relentless bullying early last year. At the time, I’d viewed it as the unrealistic hope of a doomed creature. Now I saw that Biba Quinn was a survivor. She took control of her fate, even when it meant allying herself with the enemy.
She was tough as nails. Tougher than me, certainly, which was why I feared she would get hurt. She was too confident that she could manage Zephyr and the Kings. It blinded her to the danger they posed.
“You’re right,” I answered. “There’s no way Gail killed herself.”
“Not when we were so close to the truth, and the fact that she died the same night someone attacked me—”
“But who? Do you have any idea—?”
“No,” she shot back, cutting off my line of questioning. She knew where I was going. No one could convince me that Zephyr or his toadies didn’t have something to do with Gail’s death. Nothing goes down at Stormcloud without the Kings signing off, and the simple fact was that Gail and Biba were digging into the Kings’ past.
“Listen,” she continued, “we aren’t the only people who think there’s something fishy. There’s a detective in Wachsbrunnen. He thinks Gail was murdered.”
“How do you know?”
“He questioned me over the summer.”
“What evidence does he have?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t tell him anything.”
What the hell was that about? I couldn’t even reply. Biba had found a cop who agreed with her and wanted to investigate Gail’s death as a murder . . . and she hadn’t told him anything.
“Why?” was all I could manage to say.
“Think about it, Theo. Someone is on to us already. They tried to kill me, and they already killed Gail. If I give everything to this detective, the best-case scenario is that someone kills him too.”
“And the worst case?”
“He could be working for Gail’s killers.”
“Biba, you’re being paranoid. Lying to the police is a terrible idea. You could be arrested.”
Her nostrils flared as she stood from the bench.
“That’s a better fate than Gail got. I can’t let some stranger find justice for her. I need to do it myself, and I’d like your help.”
I stood quickly, without a second’s hesitation, and took her hands in mine.
“I will do whatever it takes,” I promised.
The thing I did not say aloud but promised in my heart was:
Whatever it takes, I will find Gail’s killer before you do, Biba. You’re the dearest person in my solitary life. Someone tried to take you from me once before. They won’t do it again.
CHAPTER 3
BIBA