“Emilio—”
“Go inside, Dirk.”
He releases one more sob and turns away. I watch him hurry indoors and disappear. I’ll deal with him later—I’m not sure how I feel about him hiding this horrible fact from me, but I don’t have the capacity to deal with it right now.
All I know is, Terrence might have Kaye, which means the Cask might have her.
I find Lesley out front. She perks up as soon as she sees my face.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
“Call everyone together,” I say, hands bunched into fists, a thousand murderous ideas rolling through my brain. “Terrence is a traitor. Cask has Kaye. We’re going to war.”
Chapter23
Kaye
“Sorry,” Terrence grumbles as he drags me along the beach behind him. “My little sister’s got leukemia and my parents don’t have good insurance. They don’t got much money, right? I managed to get a full scholarship. Good grades and shit.”
I want to say,what the fuck are you talking about, but there’s an old t-shirt shoved into my mouth and my hands are bound behind my back, which makes it pretty hard to have a conversation.
“Emilio’s gonna kill me,” he says as we stagger along. “Gonna cut my throat and throw me in the ocean. But I love my family. Gotta do what I gotta do. We need the money and you’re worth five grand. I always wondered what I’d be worth if someone put a price on me. Five grand is pretty good. Not great, but pretty good.”
This is the most I’ve ever heard Terrence talk.
I wish it didn’t take him kidnapping me to hear his story.
I try to ask,who’s paying you five thousand dollars for me?But I know the answer already. There’s only one group on this island that hates Emilio this much and has the resources to throw around that kind of cash.
Malcolm and the Cask and Barrel Society.
But I’m not sure why I’m a target all of a sudden. Lesley snuck onto their boat, Emilio is their direct competitor, but I’m a nobody. I’m a second-tier member of the society at best. Why would they care about what I do?
Unless they realize how deep my connection to Emilio runs.
“Breaks my heart doing this, you know?” Terrence’s grip on my arm tightens. “Dirk’s never gonna talk to me again. I love him, I really love him, but it’s my little sister. I feel like I’m being ripped in half.” Terrence blinks back tears and I nearly stumble and fall over. Dirk and Terrence are together? I had no clue and we all live in the same house. Apparently, I’m pretty oblivious, or maybe they’re good at sneaking around.
“And Emilio, he’s like, an older brother. He’s the kind of man I wanna be but we both know I ain’t. I’m a traitor now, ya know? Dirk’s gonna tell him what I did and Emilio’s gonna kill me. Breaks my goddamn heart. But what else can I do, Kaye? What else can I do? I need the money. It’s my little sister, you know?”
I can think of a thousand different things he might try. Kidnapping me doesn’t even make the list.
The Cask House looms into view. It’s an oceanfront structure built such that the lowest floors are mostly garage space and storage. The siding is gray and the windows have dark shutters, and there are some guys surfing out in the water, their boards cutting sharp white lines across the blue.
Terrence takes me to a door at the bottom floor. He knocks, rings the bell, and waits. There are footsteps inside and Malcolm appears, beaming like he just won the lottery. I must be his golden ticket. My stomach’s twisting and terror rides down my spine. I don’t know what they’re going to do to me, but I think about what Lesley said, about her experience with this place, and I don’t want to go inside. I struggle against Terrence, but he holds me tight.
“Payment first,” Terrence says by way of greeting. Malcolm’s smile slips and he glances at me.
“You did come through, I’ll give you that.” He looks over his shoulder. “Gregory! Cash!”
A red-haired guy with a goofy smile appears and shoves an envelope of hundreds into Terrence’s hand. He glances at me and winks. “You look good tied up and gagged,” Gregory says.
“Don’t be a fucking pervert,” Malcolm says and shoves the redhead back into the house. “Terrence, you’re dismissed.”
Terrence hesitates as Malcolm takes my arm. I try to struggle but his grip is iron hard and his face is deadly serious. I want to say something to Terrence—tell him I understand why he’s doing this, but it’s a mistake, it’s a huge mistake, if only he’d talk to Emilio about his problems then he might not need to go down this route—but it’s too late. The big man sighs and hangs his head and turns away. “Sorry,” he mumbles as he lopes down onto the beach, trudging along.
I’m dragged indoors.
“None of the houses near here have actual basements.” Malcolm sounds like he’s giving me a tour. “The soil this close to the beach is way too sandy to dig down deep, not like your Calico House further inland. Instead, they lay down concrete and build on top, leaving this void below as a sort of buffer between the living quarters and the flood waters. When this island’s under water, this space will flood, but the upstairs might survive.”