jealous. So he is yours.”
“Jo, can you do this for me or not? I know you have issues with cops. So do I. But I had some friends look into Emmett’s dad, and if I’m going to trust a uniform…he’s the best bet.” That was true. Out of curiosity, I’d done a little digging, and there was nothing to suggest Emmett’s dad was sketchy in any way. In fact, the word around school was he’d declined a promotion and a pay raise just so Emmett wouldn’t have to change schools during his senior year. Hardly the MO of a cop on the take.
Finally, after much coaxing, Jo agreed. I told her which classes Emmett had, sad that I knew his schedule as well as my own. I was going to call Jace next, but a knock at my door had me stowing my cell phone under my pillow. I dove back under my scratchy woolen blanket.
“Yeah, I’m up,” I called out, adding a sleepy tone to my voice.
Diesel entered, alone for once.
While I wouldn’t have felt any safer if he’d come in with Thing 1 and Thing 2 behind him, it did make me question why he’d decided to seek me out in my room.
I sat up, pulling the blanket tight to my chest, wishing I’d worn more than a tank top and shorts to bed. A jolt of fear stabbed up my spine. My heart pounded like a jackhammer. Diesel never came near the sleeping quarters. And now he sat at the end of my cot.
Rested a heavy hand on my feet under the blanket.
Stared at me with assessing eyes, as if he wondered how far he could go before I’d snap.
I’d been scared by Diesel before. By his anger. His mood swings and snap judgments. His faulty decision making.
But never like this.
“Happy birthday, Raven,” he said, shattering the silence that had gone on too long and been full of weirdness. He snapped his wrist, causing me to flinch, but I recovered in time to see that he’d tossed me something.
I grabbed it, turning the present over in my hands.
“Open it.” Something in his voice had the hair at the back of my neck standing on end. I lifted the lid of a small, plainly wrapped box about two inches wide and three inches deep. I gasped as I removed a delicate glass object from the tissue paper inside.
Light glittered on the intricate twists and details of a black raven trapped within a golden birdcage.
A symbol of my captivity. But cages begged to be busted wide open. Funny how Diesel intended to threaten me with his little gift, but he’d only strengthened my resolve. He should know symbols meant different things to different people.
I thought of Bentley’s tattoo. To him, I was sure it represented more than his love of computers. It probably symbolized hope or that life was one endless stream of possibilities. Sure, that worked on a certain level. But to me those seamlessly linked loops meant something entirely different—what goes around, comes around. My fist clenched around the caged bird in my hand.
When I looked up, Diesel was gone.
I knew he’d sent Supersize after the impossible. He knew my untried apprentice wouldn’t make the climb to the top of the parkade. He’d counted on it. Supersize had died because Diesel wasn’t ever going to let me go.
FOURTEEN
At 8:50 PM on my sixteenth birthday, all hell broke loose. Kids stormed the lower level of the warehouse and began smashing car parts and releasing engine hoists, cheering when the heavy machinery smashed to the concrete floor. Thing 1 and Thing 2 split up to try to break the kids into smaller groups, only to find themselves ducking from wrenches, power tools, spark plugs—anything that could be launched in their direction.
While they struggled against an angry mob of close to twenty teens, I crept up to Diesel’s office. Diesel was gone and missing all the action. Another late-night meeting with the people who pulled his strings. Disappointment gnawed at me, but it was now or never. Diesel might not be on the grounds when Emmett’s dad arrived, but this was a chance I had to take.
Maybe they’d be able to track him
“Jo, can you do this for me or not? I know you have issues with cops. So do I. But I had some friends look into Emmett’s dad, and if I’m going to trust a uniform…he’s the best bet.” That was true. Out of curiosity, I’d done a little digging, and there was nothing to suggest Emmett’s dad was sketchy in any way. In fact, the word around school was he’d declined a promotion and a pay raise just so Emmett wouldn’t have to change schools during his senior year. Hardly the MO of a cop on the take.
Finally, after much coaxing, Jo agreed. I told her which classes Emmett had, sad that I knew his schedule as well as my own. I was going to call Jace next, but a knock at my door had me stowing my cell phone under my pillow. I dove back under my scratchy woolen blanket.
“Yeah, I’m up,” I called out, adding a sleepy tone to my voice.
Diesel entered, alone for once.
While I wouldn’t have felt any safer if he’d come in with Thing 1 and Thing 2 behind him, it did make me question why he’d decided to seek me out in my room.
I sat up, pulling the blanket tight to my chest, wishing I’d worn more than a tank top and shorts to bed. A jolt of fear stabbed up my spine. My heart pounded like a jackhammer. Diesel never came near the sleeping quarters. And now he sat at the end of my cot.
Rested a heavy hand on my feet under the blanket.
Stared at me with assessing eyes, as if he wondered how far he could go before I’d snap.
I’d been scared by Diesel before. By his anger. His mood swings and snap judgments. His faulty decision making.
But never like this.
“Happy birthday, Raven,” he said, shattering the silence that had gone on too long and been full of weirdness. He snapped his wrist, causing me to flinch, but I recovered in time to see that he’d tossed me something.
I grabbed it, turning the present over in my hands.
“Open it.” Something in his voice had the hair at the back of my neck standing on end. I lifted the lid of a small, plainly wrapped box about two inches wide and three inches deep. I gasped as I removed a delicate glass object from the tissue paper inside.
Light glittered on the intricate twists and details of a black raven trapped within a golden birdcage.
A symbol of my captivity. But cages begged to be busted wide open. Funny how Diesel intended to threaten me with his little gift, but he’d only strengthened my resolve. He should know symbols meant different things to different people.
I thought of Bentley’s tattoo. To him, I was sure it represented more than his love of computers. It probably symbolized hope or that life was one endless stream of possibilities. Sure, that worked on a certain level. But to me those seamlessly linked loops meant something entirely different—what goes around, comes around. My fist clenched around the caged bird in my hand.
When I looked up, Diesel was gone.
I knew he’d sent Supersize after the impossible. He knew my untried apprentice wouldn’t make the climb to the top of the parkade. He’d counted on it. Supersize had died because Diesel wasn’t ever going to let me go.
FOURTEEN
At 8:50 PM on my sixteenth birthday, all hell broke loose. Kids stormed the lower level of the warehouse and began smashing car parts and releasing engine hoists, cheering when the heavy machinery smashed to the concrete floor. Thing 1 and Thing 2 split up to try to break the kids into smaller groups, only to find themselves ducking from wrenches, power tools, spark plugs—anything that could be launched in their direction.
While they struggled against an angry mob of close to twenty teens, I crept up to Diesel’s office. Diesel was gone and missing all the action. Another late-night meeting with the people who pulled his strings. Disappointment gnawed at me, but it was now or never. Diesel might not be on the grounds when Emmett’s dad arrived, but this was a chance I had to take.
Maybe they’d be able to track him
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