24 #3
But a horrible thought snuck its way in around her defenses.
Had it been Pikki who tipped the reporters off about her history with Felix?
Besides Pikki, there were only a few people who knew enough to dish on both her time at Pillar and Medley – and Nat was one of them.
Asta had chalked up the careless falsehoods in those stories to sensationalism or Pikki’s spitefulness, but upon reflection, it reeked of Nat’s hit-or-miss attention when other people talked about themselves.
Had this been the plan all along? Had Nat planted the story to give the Bruces their jealous-lover cover if anything went wrong?
‘So long as Nat wins,’ Karol concluded, ‘nobody gives a flying fart what happens to you. But if she doesn’t, you’ll need more than a babysitter. You’ll need a medic. You got it, smart mouth?’
Karol had found his inner goon after all.
‘Yeah, I get it.’ Hummer would get the money, but Nat would get the glory.
This was her deal with the devil. And in that deal, Asta was disposable.
To Nat and Hummer both. Asta didn’t want to believe it, but in her gut, she knew it was true.
For a moment, perhaps, they had truly meant something to each other, but Nat had always been willing to trade Asta for the win.
Well, Asta would give it to her. Let the Bruces walk away and forget her name forever. If she could pull this off, she would finally be free.
Asta turned to walk back between the buildings toward the avenue. Karol started to follow.
‘You know what, Karol? You keep stalking me from over there. I don’t want anyone to think that I’d actually hang out with you on purpose.’
Back on the street side, shielded from Karol’s view by the housing unit, Asta slumped against the front of the building, the points of the stucco biting into her back. She had to get her plan straight. Everything depended on it.
Simply giving Nat the win wouldn’t be good enough. Hummer would just keep asking for more. She had to make herself useless to him. She had to be too reckless for Hummer Bruce, and that was a tall order.
What she had in mind was dangerous, but the important thing was, in giving Hummer what he wanted, Asta would tick off Flávia and Dr. Isley and the NFDRA board, and that would bring down constant inspections, constant scrutiny, constant attention on her head.
The Bruces didn’t like attention. This plan could actually work, but she couldn’t do it on her own.
She had to talk to Felix.
Asta pushed herself off the wall and hurried along to Housing Unit 1. Karol followed her as far as the entry to the stables and stopped there, leaning very conspicuously on the doorframe twenty feet away.
Felix was with Essie in her stall, rubbing her with a salve that smelled like grapefruit.
He glanced over at Karol as Asta approached. ‘Friend of yours?’
Asta tried to force a smile. ‘He’s nobody.’
Felix registered her strangeness, his brow furrowing. He was waiting for her to say something.
But it wasn’t only Karol’s silhouette slouching in the doorway that weighted her tongue. For this plan to work, she would have to lie to Felix. Or – not lie so much as leave him in the dark. But she couldn’t tell him and save him.
‘Felix,’ she began. She glanced over her shoulder.
Karol was picking at a scab on his arm but clearly listening to everything she said.
Felix wiped his hands and came out from the stall, closing the door behind him.
Asta tried again. ‘Felix.’
‘What is it?’
His hand was propped on Essie’s stall door. On the other side, Essie was breathing heavily, asleep or nearly so. Asta looked at his extended hand, the tousle of dark hair falling over his brow – she loved these little bits of him so intensely that it threatened to crush her heart.
They had promised each other that they were starting fresh, trying something new. And now she was about to betray him. She would use him, and he would not know why. What if this time, he couldn’t forgive her?
Asta reached up and put her hand on Felix’s neck, just under his ear, and drew him to her. He let himself be drawn, and their lips met in a sweet, soft kiss. She slid her cheek next to his.
‘Turn the cord on,’ Asta whispered into his ear. ‘Right away. I need it. Until the race is over.’
As they both pulled back, she could see Felix’s confusion and alarm.
Asta looked over her shoulder again at Karol, whose eyes met hers and narrowed.
She pressed her face into the crook of Felix’s neck. Her voice was as thin as a spider’s web. ‘Please, just do it. Just keep the magic charged. I’ll do the rest.’
Karol pushed himself off the doorway and started coming their way.
Asta pulled Felix closer. ‘Don’t trust me,’ she whispered to him urgently. ‘Not today. Please, Felix. Please. You can trust me tomorrow, I promise.’
Karol was right beside them now. He placed his back against the stall door next to Essie’s and began picking at his nails.
‘Can I help you?’ Felix asked. Asta’s behavior had put him on edge, and there was a combative note to his challenge.
‘Don’t worry about him,’ Asta said, drawing back from their embrace. ‘I’m telling you. He’s nobody.’
Karol sneered, but did not raise his eyes from his own hands.
‘Don’t forget what I told you about tonight,’ Asta said in a cloying tone. She was performing for Karol, hoping he would not find this a suspicious thing to say.
Keep it charged, Asta thought to Felix. Don’t let me fall.
Felix gave her a strange look. He scuffed his boot across the floor. ‘I won’t.’
Asta left the stables and Karol followed. She lifted her sleeve to see the shimmer of Felix’s magic cord coiled around her arm.