49
“Georgia! How about we cook you a nice meal for a change?” Bursting with excitement, Clémentine opens all the cupboard doors without bothering to close a single one afterwards.
“Weren’t we going to order takeout?”
“Are you worried I’ll poison you?”
Vadim snickers behind me.
Basile and Isaac arrive home and hoist themselves onto the kitchen counter.
“Make yourself at home, my little Clémentine. Do whatever you want,” says our housekeeper, as she watches my childhood best friend whirl around the kitchen.
“That,” Basile says, “is her way of saying ‘I know you’re going to turn my kitchen into a disaster zone, but do I really have a choice? And in the end, I’m going to have to cook anyway, to make up for your botched attempt.’”
“Thanks for the translation! By the way, have you ever touched a saucepan in your life, Lancaster Junior?”
“Alright, guys! We decided it was Georgia’s day off. Let’s order pizza!”
***
Good manners fly out the window. Gone are formal dinners at the table that begin at a set time.
The Lancaster house suddenly starts to feel like a vacation rental shared by a group of friends—something that has never happened before.
I realize this must occur regularly in many households and that perhaps I haven’t had a childhood quite like everyone else’s.
I feel like a girl who has just arrived at summer camp and doesn’t know if she should behave like she always does at home, or whether she’s finally allowed to swear and be everything she usually isn’t.
A girl who also wonders if the good-looking, silent boy standing behind her will dare to break the ice.
“So, you invited me over, did you, Lancaster?”
“So, you were waiting outside my door like a poor, little, abandoned kitten, were you?”
That smile. I could die for that smile.
He stands in front of me, and suddenly, we’re face to face.
He still doesn’t say anything, but his hands slide very slowly around my waist. His exquisite face, unreadable and impassive, moves a little closer, and I feel my breath quicken.
In the distance, I can vaguely hear my brother laughing with Isaac and Clem, but my ears are ringing.
Vadim parts his lips. I don’t know whether he’s about to speak or kiss me.
After giving him the cold shoulder for so long, I’d almost forgotten how good this felt. Nothing in the world makes me feel as good as this. Feeling him against me.
If only he would move just a little bit closer…
“Alright, I want a Hawaiian!” Clémentine bursts in like a tornado, making us jump.
“Wouldn’t you rather go to Hawaii, right now?” Vadim suggests, annoyed. “I’ve heard there’s a great hotel, the Mahoe, run by a guy just as annoying as you.”
She flips him off with relish, then turns toward me.
“Alright, why is he here? And why are you making up instead of picking a pizza? And why were you fighting in the first place? Tell me everything!”
“Alma, I’d rather talk to you alone.”
“If you guys are going to keep secrets from me, I’m leaving and taking the delivery guy hostage.”
“I’m sick of the mysteries too, Vadim.” I slip a hand into his hair. “What if we were actually honest with each other?”
“Whatever you want,” he says. “Besides, I need to talk to you too, D’Aragon.”
It’s something serious, judging by Vadim’s face, so we delay the discussion as long as possible. We order enough pizza for twelve people and play Mario Kart while we wait for the delivery guy. Then, we eat by the pool and admire the sunset before going for a swim in the fading light of day.
When Basile and Isaac go inside to dry off, and it’s just the three of us left, we know we can’t put the moment off any longer. Vadim finally speaks up.
“I know this is going to be hard to believe. Even I didn’t believe it… And I don’t have all the evidence yet, but I’m sure. I wouldn’t be telling you this if I wasn’t…”
“Spit it out, Arcadi!” Pulling her towel tightly around her body, Clem grows impatient.
“It’s Keith.”
His voice cuts through the air, giving me chills.
“What about Keith?” my best friend grumbles.
“The guy who’s been following Alma and me since the beginning and taking pictures of us… It’s Keith.”
“Ha, ha, ha! You’ve got a great career waiting for you at the FBI!”
“I’m serious, Clem.” Vadim looks her right in the eye, but there’s no hostility in his gaze.
“I know you’re in love with him, and I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this…
but he’s involved in some shady stuff. He isn’t who you think he is.
And I need you to help me get the proof.
You have to search his place. I’m sure you’ll find what we’re looking for there.
Hasn’t he been more secretive lately? More distant? ”
She groans, burying her face in her hands.
I guess he’s right.
“Wait, Vadim, are we seriously talking about your caseworker… your mentor?” I murmur. “Why would he suddenly become public enemy number one?”
“We’ve always had a complicated relationship. Yes, he’s bailed me out more than once, but it’s always come at a price. And he’s the first to remind me that I owe him.”
“What do you mean? Is he blackmailing you?!”
Vadim stares at the surface of the water, looking exhausted.
“This is crazy!” Clem cries out.
“I know I’m not telling you enough, but I’m ready to swear it on my parents’ grave. And as for the proof you’re waiting for, only Clem can help me with that.”
“Why would I do that for you, Arcadi?”
“Clem, you have to do it… for yourself.” I look at her sadly. “You’d tell me the same thing if the situation were reversed, right? You’d be worried about me, wouldn’t you?”
“Maybe,” she mumbles.
“If it’s true, this guy is a psycho and you shouldn’t see him anymore, Clem.”
“But if he’s really such a bastard, can you imagine what he’ll do to me if he catches me snooping?!”
“Felix and I will come with you,” Vadim says.
“Oh, right, sure, it’s super reassuring to know that that loser Alonso will be there.” She laughs way too loudly, acting tough to keep herself from crying.
I slip my hand into hers, to show her that I’m here.
“You just do what you can, D’Aragon,” Vadim whispers to her. “Snoop around a little in his paperwork, his drawers… He must keep incriminating documents somewhere. And if something goes wrong, you scream. We’ll be right downstairs.”
“Vadim, if anything happens to her…”
“It will be fine. Clem, if he catches you, just pretend to be a curious girlfriend who wants to get to know him better. Or tell him you’re looking for something you lost. When are you seeing him next?”
“The day after tomorrow. But I haven’t said yes to all this!”
She grabs another slice of Hawaiian pizza.
“Fine, I’ll do what I can,” she grumbles.
***
Vadim spends the next two nights at my place.
Little by little, he gets used to the space, the endless rooms whose purpose he can’t figure out, the multi-jet showers whose controls he can’t seem to master—and I don’t need much convincing to jump in with him and show him how they work.
We rarely cross paths with Basile and Isaac, who spend most of their time holed up in my brother’s room.
Georgia turns a blind eye to almost everything she sees, and especially to what she doesn’t.
The Lancaster house is dangerously starting to feel like heaven on earth.
I may have prayed once or twice that my parents would never come back, but they’ve announced they’ll be returning in three days.
Just enough time to get through my last exam, organize Vadim’s surprise birthday party, and wait for Clémentine to report back after spending the evening at Keith’s.
My job is to call my best friend in tears around 10 p.m., make up something about a horrible fight with Vadim, and beg her to come meet me. Clem will watch Keith’s reaction closely when she tells him about the phone call, and use it as an opportunity to try to get him to open up.
Let’s hope she has time to snoop around before that.
***
“If he touches a single hair on her head, I’ll kill him.”
“Relax, Alma,” Vadim murmurs to me. “What are you going to kill him with? Your princess crown?”
“Hold on, I’ll practice on you, just to make sure…”
I was too anxious to stay at home, and I couldn’t resist the urge to tag along with Vadim and his wisecracking sidekick on their mission. So, here we are, the three of us squeezed into a beat-up pickup truck parked a few houses down from Keith’s place.
“Clem, you can do this,” I whisper, as if she could hear me this far away, through the walls.
Two hours later, the four of us are back together at the Sunset Café. No one had to scream or step in, and our special agent completed her mission without a hitch. She looks dazed as she begins telling her story, absently twirling the straw in her lemonade as she talks.
“When he was in the shower, I looked in all his drawers. Nothing. But on his phone…”
“What?”
“There were weird texts from someone named Brooks. I didn’t have time to read everything, but they were talking about the community service group at college.”
“Brooks is Cheyenne’s last name,” Vadim tells us.
He lets out a long breath, and I can sense every ounce of his turmoil.
“Shit, you were right, man!” Felix blurts out, pounding the table with his fist. “He knows her. He set it up so you two would meet!”
“That psycho used her as bait,” Vadim hisses.
“The girl who’s exactly like me in every way just happens to end up in the same community service group I’m in, even though no one had ever seen her on campus before.
Then she does everything she can to become my friend—maybe even more—and keeps asking me all kinds of questions about Alma. How the hell did I not see it?”
“So, I got played too?” Clem murmurs. “Keith is only dating me to get to you guys?”
I rest my head on her shoulder, feeling bad for her.
“He was so nice to me, though… Why can’t any guy love me for real?”
“Clem, you’re perfect, and this isn’t about you. I swear to you that the man of your dreams will treat you like a queen…”
“And Lancaster knows a thing or two about royalty.”
The sight of Felix trying to comfort my best friend is touching and disconcerting in equal measure.
“At best, I was his cover so he’d look like a normal guy; at worst, I was his informant,” Clémentine continues. “And I didn’t even know it! I talked to him about you guys so many times! I’m such a moron!”
“It’s not your fault. Stop crying, you’ll wash your freckles off.”
“Fe, that’s the first time I’ve heard you say something that wasn’t completely stupid,” Clem sniffs.
“It’s our fault.” Vadim gazes into my eyes with his beautiful gray ones and starts to explain.
“We should have told you everything from the start. Every time Keith helped us out of a tight spot, he asked for something in return. At first, we thought it was harmless, that he just needed us to do a few small favors. But we quickly realized the truth. None of it was legal. He had us transport stolen equipment and deal with some shady stuff. We never knew any details, never knew anything beforehand. We were just one link in the chain.”
“When we realized how much he was using us and how much danger we were putting ourselves in, we decided to stop accepting his jobs,” Felix adds.
“But that bastard knows so much about us that he can bring us down whenever he wants. All those times he was our alibi, all the times he lied for us… He just has to snap his fingers, and we’ll end up in jail.”
“So you need to go to the police! Turn him in!”
Anger twists my stomach and tightens my throat.
Vadim smiles at me. “If only it were that easy! He has a solid reputation and a bunch of well-connected friends in the LAPD. Do you really think they’re going to believe two little delinquents like us, Alma?
Keith is smart enough never to get his hands dirty.
It’s the teens he takes care of who do the dirty work. He controls everything and everyone.”
“As long as we did what he said, he protected us,” sighs Felix. “When you’re young and have nothing, that’s already something.”
Vadim nods in silence.
On the bench beside me, Clémentine is seething.
“I eventually realized that he’s only been coming after us since we refused to do what he told us. He keeps Fe and me from seeing each other, from earning our own money. He follows us everywhere and tries to keep me away from you, Alma. He can’t stand that we’re slipping out of his grasp.”
A shiver runs through me.
In this café full of students, where most people’s worries boil down to a handful of exam results and a few broken hearts, I listen to the guy I’m in love with talk about a corrupt social worker, crooked cops, threats and harassment, criminal activity, and prison.
The four of us decide not to do anything else for now. It’s too dangerous. The boys ask Clem and me to keep everything to ourselves, and Clémentine announces that she’ll keep seeing Keith, so as not to arouse his suspicions.
“I’m just going to invent an STD that burns really bad to freak him out. That way, he won’t be tempted to touch me.”
We almost manage to laugh about it.
“Are we going home, Arcadi?”
I let my words float toward Vadim. I feel as if he’s slipping away, trapped somewhere deep inside his thoughts, buried beneath the shadows and pain he’s kept hidden for too long. His usual teasing, defiant smile no longer plays on his lips. His eyes avoid mine. I hate seeing him hurt.
“I should have believed you,” I murmur.
“I don’t blame you for anything, Alma. I’m the one who should apologize for dragging you into all this.”
“Remember…”
“What?”
“You + Me is stronger than that. Stronger than everything.”