These Vengeful Hearts Read online

  “I know. Let’s go over how we’re getting into the school Thursday night.”

  “Breaking and entering?” I snapped.

  Haley rolled her eyes. “Very funny. There’s a service door by the furnace room next to the gym. It’s easy to jimmy the lock and there’s no alarm there.”

  “Sounds convenient.”

  “Quite convenient. We may have had it disabled some time ago. And there may have been some encouragement to the principal to overlook this flaw in the system. We also have the password to access the computers in the StuCo room.”

  I felt ill. All of this was too easy. I couldn’t imagine what they had on Principal McGovern. He was Heller’s de facto mascot with his shock of white Einstein hair and adorable bow ties. For the first time, I considered my ultimate goal and felt the magnitude of it. How was I going to take them all down? What could I do that would dismantle the years of work it took building the Red Court to what it was? What would it cost? The last question left a tremor of unease quaking through my core because the answer was the one I dreaded most: everything.

  “What do you think?” Haley asked after reviewing the details. “You ready?”

  My nerve was close to failing me. I’d never wanted to do something less. But giving up wasn’t an option. Not when I was so close.

  “Not remotely, but this is most likely as good as it will get.”

  * * *

  The day of our B and E arrived sooner than I would have liked. Every time I paused for a minute, my stomach would tighten into knots and my palms itched so badly that I resorted to using cortisone cream. To distract myself, I put extra effort into my usual routine. I was ahead in every class, had made it to the track for extra practice, and prepared for my next debate meet.

  At 10:00 p.m. on the dot, I parked my car a few blocks from the school and pulled on a dark gray hoodie. If I was taller, I might have even intimidated an odd passerby on the street. As it was, no one seemed to look twice at me as I stepped quietly through the evening streets.

  Once out into the open parking lot, I yanked my hood over my head to shield myself from the blustery October night. I spotted Haley near the door to the utility room on the side of the building and ran the last hundred yards to her.

  “Here. Put this on.” She handed me a dark baseball cap by way of greeting. “And keep your hood up.”

  My hand trembled as I reached for the hat. We were breaking into the school, committing an actual crime. Playing cupid or queen-maker wouldn’t land us in the kind of trouble that follows you for the rest of your life. This wasn’t riding the coattails of the chess club on Saturday mornings to gain access to the school. If tonight went sideways, we could end up being arrested.

  Haley slipped her hat on and tugged the bill low over her eyes. She noticed my nerves and quirked a smile. “I’ve done this before. It’s all going to be fine. We get in, we get out. Now, let’s go.” She pulled the handle to the service door up and out in a practiced yank.

  To my shock, the door popped open without any sirens blaring. We ducked in quickly and pulled the door shut behind us.

  “We have thirty minutes before security gets here for their rounds,” Haley said.

  “And the cameras?” I eyed the black half orb protruding from the ceiling.

  “Keep your face down,” Haley whispered. “The security system is really old, and the recording is erased every morning unless there was something to report, which of course there won’t be. But don’t look directly into the camera.”

  We made our way silently through the school. It was eerie to be there without the hum of thousands of students surrounding us. I attempted some deep breathing to bring my heart rate down from critical levels.

  The student council room was an old teachers’ lounge that had been converted a few years ago when the new wing of the school opened and the teachers were given a bigger space. It had a mini kitchen and couches that had seen better days but was large enough to afford the StuCo kids a few round tables. Even in the blue emergency lights, it felt warm and lived-in. Instantly, I was more at ease.

  “Let’s get to it.” Haley marched over to a computer in the corner of the room and sat down at the desk.

  Time seemed to still around us as the ancient computer booted to life; I could have run ten laps around the track in the time it took for the screen to stop showing us the spinning wheel of death. With nimble fingers, Haley typed in a username and password. She smiled widely when the “welcome” screen lit up the display. I moved to stand behind her and peered over her shoulder.

  “Do you know where to look?”

  “Not for sure, but I’m going to start in this folder labeled ‘Homecoming.’”

  She opened the folder and we both scanned the documents list for something containing the winners.

  “Bingo.” She double-clicked a spreadsheet file named “Royalty.”

  We both held our breath as the spreadsheet opened, then let the air out in unison when Maura Wright’s name was at the top of the list with the highest vote count.

  “Well done us.” Haley clicked the X to close the document.

  “Now what?”

  “Now we celebrate.”

  Haley stood abruptly and pushed her chair toward me. I took a step back to avoid it but tripped and crashed backward. Something solid hit my back and then gave way with a blast of frigid air. A loud siren wailed overhead. I’d opened the emergency exit.

  CHAPTER 16

  “RUN!” HALEY URGED as she hauled me to my feet. She turned to shut the computer down manually and gave a yelp as she knocked her knee hard into the desk.

  The sound of footsteps echoed down the hall along with a man’s voice, probably a security guard. He was early.

  “Shit. Shit. We can’t stay here.” Haley moved to shuffle me out the door, but her progress was slow and she reached down to rub her injured knee. There was no chance she could run on it. We were going to get busted.

  “Let’s split up. You go out through here, and I’ll go back through the school.”

  “Absolutely not. That’s an awful idea,” she whisper-shouted.

  “Don’t worry. I’m fast. He won’t catch me.”

  Without waiting for Haley to argue any further, I bolted out the door into the main hallway. Just as the guard was rounding one corner, I sprinted around another and pushed my pace.

  Feeling faster than lightning, and certainly faster than a high school security guard, I chanced a look back. There was no way he’d catch me now. I was nearly past the atrium windows that looked down into the library when I ran into a solid mass. Two hands grasped my shoulders and held me firmly in place.

  “Let’s go have a seat in the office while we wait for the police,” a gruff voice said.

  A black hat emblazoned with SECURITY in bright yellow letters shadowed the older man’s face. Another security guard? How much security does one suburban high school need?

  I silently complied and allowed myself to be steered toward the main office, keeping my chin tucked. What did they do to students caught breaking into the school? Suspension? Expulsion? A hundred scenarios burst through my mind like fireworks, each worse than the last. What would my parents say?

  The idea of my mom and dad having to come pick me up at a police station was horrifying. The second guard had me situated on one of the hard plastic chairs in the waiting area and was on his cell phone with the security company by the time the other one showed up.

  “God, you’re fast!” The guy was younger than I would have expected. He nodded appreciatively at me but stopped when the one who caught me, who looked to be in charge, cut him a sharp look.

  “Track,” I replied simply.

  The older guard got off the phone and excused himself to secure the door I’d opened, leaving me alone with the younger guy.

  “I’m Tim.” He couldn’t hav
e been older than April, but I didn’t recognize his face.

  “Minnie Mouse,” I mumbled. Feeling sorry for myself, I let my head fall into my hands and wallowed in the helplessness threatening to overtake me. Of every emotion, helplessness was the one I avoided most. Shifting, I felt the burner in my pocket dig into my side and remembered my fire alarm. If there was ever a time to ask for help, this was it.

  “Could I have some water?” I asked Tim. I played up my dry throat and gave him a weak cough.

  “Yeah, sure.”

  He turned toward the water cooler at the far side of the room. I pulled out my phone and opened my list of contacts. When I got to “Fire Alarm,” I started a new message window and remembered Haley’s instructions to send my location.

  Me: Help! Hell High main office

  A reply came back within seconds.

  Fire Alarm: 5 mins

  I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I didn’t have time to write a response as Tim turned back to me.

  “Here you go.” He passed me a small plastic cup of water.

  “Thank you.”

  “What were you doing here, anyway? Don’t seem like the usual sort we see busting into the school late at night.”

  He observed me with what looked like concern. A small pucker formed between his bushy eyebrows.

  “I—”

  The sound of a door slamming echoed from down the hall. Tim whirled around, looking bewildered. “Is there anyone else with you in the school?”

  “Nope,” I said, grateful it was the truth. Haley had to be long gone by now.

  “I need to check this out.”

  A flicker of hope shot through me, straight to my fingertips, as Tim made a move toward the door. They caught me once, but I wouldn’t let it happen again.

  He paused, considering me. “I hate to do this, but I can’t leave you like this.”

  Tim reached into his utility belt—a glorified fanny pack if I ever saw one—and pulled out a zip tie. My hope crashed down through my feet. He secured my wrist to the metal arm of the chair.

  “I’ll cut you loose as soon as I get back in here. It will only be for a minute.” He gave me an apologetic grin.

  As soon as the sound of his footsteps down the hall faded, I began tugging at the binding. The hard plastic cut into my wrist as I used all of my strength to wrest my arm free.

  “Arg!” I grunted. There was no way I was pulling my arm free.

  Time was passing and my window was narrowing. If I didn’t get out of here in the next minute, there wouldn’t be another chance. I felt the certainty of this truth in my bones. This was my shot.

  Casting about, I looked for anything that might cut through the bond. I saw a pair of scissors on a desk across the room. If I could lift the chair, I might be able to get there.

  Before I could make my move, a figure ghosted into the room.

  She was in black Lululemon leggings and a hoodie. Basically, my outfit, but nicer.

  Take that, Haley.

  A ski mask shrouded her features, but I didn’t need to see her to know who she was. The Fire Alarm.

  “We don’t have much time,” she whispered urgently. “You need to run out of the first set of doors at the north entrance. You know which ones?”

  I nodded. My mind was too occupied trying to process what was happening to give me the ability to speak. She slipped a pocketknife from her black boots and began sawing at the zip tie.

  I was in the presence of another Red Court member. And not just any member. The Fire Alarm. Now that my brain had caught up with the moment, I began cataloging everything I could about her, which wasn’t much. She had a slim build. The raspy whisper didn’t give any clues on her voice. I needed more information.

  “You got here fast.”

  “Haley called me when you didn’t come out. I came right away to pull the plug on the security cameras. I was nearly done by the time you texted me.”

  The zip tie gave way with a snap and my hand tingled from the rush of blood flowing to my deprived fingertips.

  “Thank you,” I breathed out.

  The Fire Alarm dismissed my gratitude with a wave of her hand. “We need to get out of here. Did they get a good look at your face?”

  She glanced up at me and I caught a flash of familiar light brown—nearly amber—eyes before she stood and moved like a wraith to the door.

  “Umm, maybe? I tried to keep my head down.”

  “I’ll see what else I can do to smooth this over. The school doesn’t usually broadcast this sort of thing. The administration has taken enough heat the last few years. We’ve lost the service door for good, though.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She ignored me and leaned her head out the door, looking in either direction before motioning for me to follow.

  “Go,” she said quietly. “Run and keep running until you’re clear of the school.”

  Without another word, I took off in a sprint toward the north doors. Halfway down the hall, I looked behind me to see a flash of movement disappear around the corner at the other end.

  As I ran, the memory of the coffee shop the day after I joined the Red Court came racing back. The girl who was talking to Chase. Her eyes were the same unique shade of brown. It had to be her. Shauna. Her name surfaced from the long-term memory pool of things I didn’t need to access on the reg.

  I got to the north doors and burst out into the night, gladly greeting the cold air. The night was a disaster, but it did have one redeeming factor. I had the name of another Red Court member.

  CHAPTER 17

  ONCE I CLEARED the parking lot and made it into the neighborhood across the street, I finally sucked in a full breath of air. My pulse was racing, but I felt...good. Like I’d accomplished something. By totally screwing something else up.

  I checked the clock on my phone. The last twenty minutes seemed to have simultaneously passed in both a matter of seconds and over the course of hours. Shaking my head to clear the last of my anxiety, I walked quickly to my car. A figure stepped out from the shadows next to it and my heart seized with fear.

  “Oh my God!” Haley exclaimed and bounded toward me. “What happened? I thought for sure you were busted. What were you thinking taking off like that?”

  “I don’t know, but I was busted.”

  She paled. “What?”

  “I got caught by security. Pulled my fire alarm.”

  The adrenaline that bolstered me through the last hour ebbed and exhaustion coiled around me like a heavy chain, weighing my shoulders down. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into my bed and sleep for days.

  Haley studied her shoes. “Me, too. I thought we’d need an assist with the security cameras.”

  “That was a good call. I’m glad one of us was thinking ahead.”

  “What was she like? The Fire Alarm?”

  “Kind of bossy. She was wearing—”

  She held up her hands to stop me. “Never mind. It doesn’t do anyone any good to hear specifics about other members.”

  A thought occurred to me. “She’s not the Queen of Hearts, is she?”

  Do I know who the Queen of Hearts is?

  “The Fire Alarm? No, she’s a specialist.”

  “More special than us?”

  “Yeah, what she just did for you, whatever it was she did, is all she does. She won’t take any assignments like us. She keeps tabs on the jobs we run and gets us out when we need it.”

  “I can’t believe I called her on my first assignment. I’m a total failure.”

  I did feel a little like a loser, but I was more interested in how much Haley was sharing than my loss of the Red Court’s only safety net. I mentally revised the total number of Red Court members from thirteen to fourteen. This was the most she’d ever divulged about the way the Red Court operated at on
e time. I’d been fed an appetizer and now I was hungry for the main course.

  Leaning my back against the side of the car, I let out a shaky breath and purposefully swayed, but just a touch. Careful, Ember...

  Haley joined me against the passenger door and studied my face. In the sickly glow of a nearby streetlight, I probably looked worse than I felt.

  “You ok?”

  When in doubt, stick close to the truth. “I think it’s all catching up with me. I thought I was going to get hauled off in a police car. Do you think we still need to be worried? Are they going to investigate this?”

  “She’ll take care of it. She knows people in the right places to make this kind of thing go away.” She let the words settle between us, then brightened. “Come with me.”

  * * *

  Haley drove us in her car along a small road east of the school. The area where we lived east of Denver was recently developed, so there were wide-open fields and rolling hills only five minutes past Heller. Sometimes, it felt a bit like living at the edge of the world. Only it was Kansas on the other side of the void.

  “Are you going to murder me and dump my body under a bridge?” I was kidding. Kind of. I didn’t come out this way often, but something about the lack of anything brought out my paranoid side.

  “No, if I wanted you out of the picture, I’d hire us to do it.” Haley laughed a short, barking scoff. I thought she was kidding, too. Kind of.

  We drove in silence while I fretted about being out so late, which was ridiculous since neither of my parents were likely to check on me. I was a good, curfew-abiding daughter. The post-adrenaline crash left my skin feeling too tight, and I fidgeted trying to get comfortable in the vinyl seat.

  Haley mistook my discomfort for judgment. “It’s my mom’s car. Kind of a beater, I know.”

  “It’s not that. I’m trying to keep it together right now. I’m still a little shook up.”

  She smiled a new smile. It was softer than the razor-edged smirk she usually produced, more like a butter-knife grin.

  Eventually, Haley pulled to the top of a ridge and put the car in Park. “We’re here.”