27. Saint
Clay called at eight PM. I was sketching while Rio and I watched Sherlock Holmes – the BBC version, turns out Rio likes cheekbones too, although he also seemed to perk up when Mycroft was on screen – and I paused the TV when I saw who was calling.
“Clay, how are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m okay, Saint,” Clay said. His tone set me on edge immediately and I put my book and pencils on the bedside table, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.
“Clay, what’s wrong?”
Clay swallowed. “Well… There’s a new kid. Her name’s Colleen and she’s scared. She told me that she heard about the shelter. She told me that there’s a rumor on the street that you don’t wanna come here, because you’re pimping us out.”
I have never wanted to curse more than I did in that moment, but I didn’t. I sucked in a deep, deep breath and blew it out, then cleared my throat. “I know, Clay. We knew about that, we know where it’s coming from. It’ll be okay, though.”
“All of this needs to end, Saint,” Clay said. “My dad’s probably paying him to say stuff like that. I know him, he pays people to do his dirty work. If we get rid of him, the others will stop too. I won’t let him ruin the shelter, it’s too important.”
“Clay, what are you doing? What have you done?” I remembered how he would say that he would leave the shelter if he had to in order to keep the others safe, and I had the feeling that he would do something even more bold if he believed it necessary.
“I’m meeting him, and I’m going to fix it,” Clay said. “Elena and I have a plan, and after tonight you’ll be able to come back and take care of the kids. When you get back, tell Mr. Cunningham that gay kids aren’t victims, we’re braver than three of him.”
The line went dead, and I felt like I was going to throw up.
Rio was already on the phone with Rishi, who confirmed he had eyes on Clay a short while before, and had left him in the common room talking to Elena over something on their phones. He check again and they were gone, but he had them both on camera leaving just a few moments earlier.
I called Cas, who was sleepy-voiced but sharpened when I told him what was happening. “I’ll make some calls,” He said before he hung up.
Rio was on the phone with Lee by the time I was off the phone with Cas, and I didn’t know who Alden Security knew, but it wasn’t long before some grainy surveillance photos began to ping Rio’s phone.
“They’re moving,” Rio said, looking at the pictures. “They’re together.”
I looked at the photos and my stomach dropped even farther when I caught the rear view shot of them.
Clay’s backpack hung low, with the handle of a the baseball bat from the shelter sticking out of it.
***
A few more photos and we had an general idea of where they were going. Once we knew, we flew out of the room. Rio was driving, and though I didn’t actually care, I knew I would have some speeding tickets coming in the mail soon.
The building was abandoned, and I had heard a couple of the kids talking about it as a place they had crashed before they came to the shelter. It was in Fernandez territory, too, which explained Elena’s presence. I wondered if she suspected that her father had put out the rumor about what I was doing with kids at True Colors.
We neared it and parked out of sight, noting the door that was cracked open just enough to notice. Cas texted that he had several officers on the way running sans lights and sirens, and I hoped that we could intercept Clay before he did more than carry a baseball bat in his backpack.
We caught sight of Clay and Elena after a few minutes, walking down the sidewalk attempting to look inconspicuous. They were horrible at it, and Rio and I intercepted them half a block from the building. Clay deflated when he saw us, and Elena looked like she wasn’t sure if she should run or not.
“You weren’t supposed to be here,” Clay said, addressing the collar of my shirt.
“Neither are you. Clay, really?” I jerked my chin toward the handle of the bat sticking out of his backpack over his left shoulder.
He balled his fists and shook his head. “I’m going to fix it once and for all. All of that was because of me–”
“And me,” Elena piped up.
“And we’re going to fix it. If we get rid of my dad, he won’t be trying to pay Elena’s dad for stuff. I heard about Officer Hallie’s leg. I’m not stupid.” Clay’s chin jutted out by the end of that, his body language strongly broadcasting his discomfort and desire to defend himself.
“Doing whatever you have planned with that isn’t going to fix it,” I said. “At best you’d be in deep shit, at worst you’ll get yourself or Elena killed. No, Clay, the both of you are waiting in my car. I assume you have a meeting arranged with your dad? Did you tell him you’d go with him?”
Clay’s chin was still raised, but Elena nodded. “Si,” she murmured. “He promised that he’d bring me, too. We said we’d go with them if they left the shelter alone. They agreed.”
Rio sighed deeply. “And when you got here, you were gonna what, golpearlos en la cabeza? With a baseball bat?” He huffed. “You don’t even have gloves. Even if it worked, you’d have call logs and shit to show it was premeditated and the two of you’d be in jail. No way you wouldn’t be tried as adults.” He eyed Clay, who was fairly slight. “If you even got one hit in. You think your dad’s gonna be alone? You think he’s not going to have a driver at least? You think he won’t know it’s a trap??” He laughed as Clay puffed up like a mad kitten. “Man he’s probably bringing some of Fernandez’s men too, to make sure that Elena went where she’s supposed to be going.”
By the time Rio was done, tears were running down Elena’s cheeks and Clay looked like he wanted to bite his face off, but knew that was a bad, bad idea. I was rather impressed with Rio, but I would wait until later to share that with him.
“Now, what we’re going to do here is you’re going to give Saint the bat, he’s gonna lock it in his trunk, and you two are gonna sit your little culos in the backseat of his car and pretend you are not here. We are gonna go talk to Greene and whoever he had with him, because Cas has some cops that’re gonna be here any minute. I have protection for Saint and I.” He pinned them both with a look that dared them to argue, and I suppressed the shiver it threatened to send down my spine.
Elena nodded, bowing her head, and after I looked at Clay too, he growled softly and nodded, reaching over his shoulder to pull the bat out. I took it from him and locked it up in the trunk like Rio said, then I locked them both in the car, took the keys, and pointed my finger at them both. “Stay.”
***
The building was mostly dark, although light from the streetlight filtered in the windows that weren’t boarded up. Rio had pulled his gun from the holster at the small of his back before we ducked inside the door, and we crept through the darkness silently. I could be quiet when I needed to be, and I wished I had a weapon too.
We found a place to wait, and in a few minutes, we heard the door open and three quiet voices floated through the darkness. “Once we have them, I want the shelter obliterated,” a deep voice was saying. “Scorched earth, nothing left. Get rid of them all.” The voice chuckled. “Then we’ll leak it was a coverup…” He chuckled again. “Goddamn fags.”
I looked at Rio, who was tense and ready next to me. He was angry, I could feel it coming off him in waves. I pulled out my phone to check the messages, waiting for the signal that Cas’s friends were outside, and saw the It’s a go message.
“Yeah, fags’ll get you every time. Minding your own business and bam, somebody’s in a skirt,” I called, projecting my voice, pleased with how it echoed and partially obscured where we were hiding.
“Oh… I knew it. I knew that little pussy wasn’t man enough to come.” Greene snorted. “Is the girl here? She’s probably got bigger balls.”
“Nobody here but you and me, and whoever you have hiding to make sure you weren’t outnumbered.” I glanced at Rio and stepped out into the open alone.
Greene was a tall man with a head of silver hair and a sharp jawline. He wore a suit and he stood with two other men, one of whom also wore a suit. The other man wore black jeans, a tight black t-shirt, and a leather vest, and I pegged him as a gang member that Greene had along both for extra muscle and to take care of Elena.
Greene chuckled. “This might be even better than if Clay was here. I can take you out myself.”
It was my turn to snort. “Since when do you get your hands dirty? That’s what you brought him for, right?” I jerked my head towards the man in the vest.
The man grinned and pulled a knife from a sheath at his belt. “I don’t mind getting dirty at all,” he purred in heavily accented English, smiling at me with a truly bloodthirsty look.
“Oh no you don’t,” rang out suddenly and the man in the vest dropped heavily to the ground, his knife clattering across the concrete. “You’ve tried how many times and all you can do is mess it up! I’m done!”
Ginny stood near the door, her body in a perfect shooting stance with a pistol outfitted with a silencer. She aimed the gun at Greene next, shook her head disapprovingly at him once in a way that reminded me quite violently of the way our mother used to look at me, and then pulled the trigger again.
I was still watching Greene fall when a gunshot echoed through the building and Ginny fell, screaming. I looked around and realized Rio was next to me, his gun in his hands. The doors banged open in the next moment and police officers swarmed the building while Rio dropped his gun to the floor and held his hands high.