These Vengeful Hearts

by Katherine Laurin

  “It’s a big enough ask that I wanted to know why we’re taking it on, too,” Haley said. “One of the Red Court requested this as her favor.”

  I didn’t have a response for that. Haley had told me that no one had ever been denied their one big ask before.

  “Here.” She handed me the folder and I flipped it open.

  My stomach bottomed out. It was Gigi’s mom, Mrs. Martin. This couldn’t be happening. My fingers seemed to stop working and the folder fell from my loose grip.

  Gigi’s mom. I was going to get Gigi’s mom fired. My brain was overloading.

  “Mrs. Martin. This is major, Haley. This is her career, her life.”

  Haley regarded me coolly. “You didn’t seem to have any problem going after Alec and threatening to ruin his relationship with his fiancée. How is this any different?” She bent down and compiled all the pages neatly back into the folder.

  Because Alec was a jerk and Mrs. Martin wasn’t. Who would want to hurt Mrs. Martin, anyway? She was voted “Best Teacher” by last year’s seniors and she wasn’t even a teacher. I felt ill.

  “I know Gigi Martin. She’s my...my friend. Alec, Gideon, and now Gigi’s mom. Doesn’t it seem weird to you that I know all of these people? These feel personal, Haley, like they were created to make me suffer.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Haley was looking pointedly at me. “We’ve all had to do things we didn’t like.”

  “That is not my problem, I promise.”

  Haley placed the folder back in her bag, pulled a tablet out, and started tapping on the screen, just like this was any other job. “One good thing about this job is that we don’t have to do any of the planning. Everything has been laid out for us.”

  I dropped onto the couch next to Haley and caught my head between my hands.

  “We got a tip on the Whisper Wire that Mrs. Martin was having an affair with that physics teacher, Mr. Hall. All we need to do is get proof and send it out.”

  Gigi’s parents were married. Maybe Mrs. Martin wasn’t that innocent. I remembered the takedown in the hallway and the broken girl caught up in the mix of her ex-boyfriend’s drama. My mind replaced her with Gigi and I cringed.

  Haley continued, “Apparently, they have a usual spot at school.” Her upper lip curled in disgust. “That’s gross. We need to be in place on Monday afternoon for photos.”

  Two days. That wasn’t enough time for me to stop this or dethrone the Queen of Hearts. It had taken me almost a week to untangle Gideon’s takedown. How could I even begin to undermine the work with Haley breathing down my neck because of my “probation”?

  Haley must have read the emotions broadcasting across my face. I had to think of something or Gigi’s life and her mom’s career were over.

  “I didn’t get this close to my favor to back out now. This is the job. This is what we are. I thought you understood that.” Haley looked stricken, like the admission was costing her.

  So did I.

  CHAPTER 32

  THE KITCHEN WAS quiet and dark around me as I worked on a history assignment. My paper on the fall of the Berlin Wall was going exactly nowhere. I’d been working on the same paragraph for the last thirty minutes. Out of frustration, I banged out the thought stuck in my head with furious keystrokes.

  Though she began with good intentions, Ember Williams has discovered that the Red Court isn’t as black-and-white as she once hoped. It also wasn’t all that red, either. They should rename it the Gray Court. In this essay, I will discuss how Ember is living a lie.

  I laughed at my own ridiculous words, but reading them made me feel a fraction better. Now it wasn’t a secret I carried alone. Thank you, laptop.

  “Ember?” my dad’s voice called out as he crossed through the front door. April was at the retreat with her rehab center and Mom was at an event for work, so it would be the two of us for the night.

  “In here.” I deleted the paragraph, sad to see it disappear.

  “Still feeling better?” He set his briefcase and coat down and examined me from across the counter.

  “I’m ok. I think I just need to lie low this weekend.”

  “Are you sure?”

  His concerned eyes scanned me from head to toe, looking for anything visible to refute my claim. Anytime I brought something negative to my dad’s attention, he would drop whatever he was doing to try to fix it.

  “Really, Dad. I’m fine. I think it’s just that time of the year when things start stacking up. I made some pasta if you’re hungry.”

  He looked relieved, if a bit disappointed, and ruffled my hair.

  “You’re a trouper. I don’t know where we’d be without you.”

  His words poked a tender spot in my heart. “Thanks, but you’re the one we can’t live without. You’re our main man.”

  He stepped toward me and wrapped me up in a life-affirming hug. “But without you there’d be no point to living.” Dad let go and ambled over to the stove to scoop out some ravioli I’d made from the pot.

  The empty screen I couldn’t fill was freaking me out. I shut my laptop with a snap. Despite my best efforts to wall off thoughts of taking over the Red Court, my mind was fixated on what it would mean for April. Could I bring her over to my way of seeing things? That it wasn’t the Red Court that was bad, but the girls who ran it? I could keep innocent kids from getting hurt. Wouldn’t that be better?

  And then there was Gigi. The ante kept going up, and I was running low on chips. Every move came with a cost I didn’t think I could pay. I didn’t think there was a way for me to save Mrs. Martin. I was already on probation for my interference with Gideon’s takedown. I couldn’t risk my position any further. If I had any hope of reaching my goal, whatever that goal turned out to be, I couldn’t draw more attention to myself. The first page of my journal flashed in my mind. What I’d committed to doing didn’t feel like the right choice anymore.

  I cared about Gigi, had let myself get invested in her future. She was great, but what really got me was how much more she could be. What would a public firing of her mom by her own high school’s administration do to her? To her family? The most I could do was delay until I could find a real solution. I’d bought myself a little time with Gideon’s takedown, but going MIA again wasn’t going to fly. I’d figure it out, wouldn’t I?

  * * *

  A text message chimed on my regular phone as I was brushing my teeth that night.

  Chase: I had fun earlier

  My breath caught at the sight of his name on my phone. How could he affect my pulse when he wasn’t even near me?

  Me: I did too. How was watching your sisters?

  Chase: Still going. My mom’s shift doesn’t end for another hour and I am out of ideas to keep them entertained.

  What did little girls like to do? An idea popped into my head. Happy for the distraction, I texted him back.

  Me: How about a makeover?

  Chase: I’m not good at that stuff. I tried to braid their hair once and it ended in tears.

  Chase: Mostly mine.

  Chase:

  Me: No, they get to give you a makeover.

  Me: It will be so relaxing. Like a day at the spa.

  Fifteen minutes passed with no response. Chase must have not liked my idea. I was just crawling under my comforter when another text chimed.

  Chase: this is all your fault

  Attached was a picture of him with what legitimately looked like clown makeup on. His sisters had been heavy-handed with the purple eye shadow and red lipstick. It was the best worst thing I’d seen probably ever. I saved the image to cherish forever. I was going to frame it for posterity. The world needed to revel in the glory of this photo.

  Me: This is my phone’s wallpaper now.

  Chase: NO

  Me: Too late.

  I took a screenshot of my ph
one’s lock screen and sent it over.

  Me: Best. Ever.

  Chase: OH GOD NO

  Me: See you Monday

  Chase: I have a family thing, but I’ll be back Tuesday

  Chase: I’ll miss seeing you scowl at me in lit

  Me: I’ll miss scowling at you

  I lay back on my bed, heart fluttering at the rush that came from flirting with Chase. Anything that felt this good had to be bad for my health.

  A text from my other phone was enough to bring me crashing down to reality.

  Haley: meet me by mr halls mobile after school Monday

  That could only mean that we’d be catching Mrs. Martin in the act. A sick swirl of my stomach had me swallowing hard. I was out of time.

  CHAPTER 33

  THE NOVEMBER WIND gave no quarter as it whipped through my hair. Fall in Colorado insisted on reminding us of its presence. I pulled the hood of my jacket up and tucked my ponytail away, shivering in the long shadow of Heller. The mobiles were located on the east side of the school and the shorter autumn days left it shaded for most of the afternoon. I’d positioned myself in an alcove that had a direct line of sight to Mr. Hall’s mobile. Haley was nowhere to be seen.

  “Goddammit, Haley,” I muttered.

  “So dramatic.”

  I turned to find Haley leaning against the brick wall in the alcove behind me, a dark smudge in the shadows wearing all black as usual. Like me, the hood of her jacket was tugged up in an attempt to contain her mass of curls.

  “Have you just been standing there watching me freeze my butt off?”

  “Relax. I just got here.”

  She came up next to me to peer in the direction of Mr. Hall’s mobile. “Anything yet?”

  “No. What did the notes say about the timing of the...tryst?”

  She pulled a face. Whether she was repulsed by the idea of Mrs. Martin and Mr. Hall together or the very precise way I described it, I didn’t know. “Just that it would be Monday afternoon between three o’clock and three thirty.”

  I checked the time on my phone. It was just after three o’clock now.

  “Do you have any ideas on how you want to do this?” I asked.

  “Pictures of Martin going in and doing something incriminating.”

  Whatever that meant, it wasn’t good.

  Since Haley’s text Saturday night, I’d devoted every waking moment to thinking of ways to get out of this. The best I could come up with was inventing an emergency for Gigi that required her mom to help. If Mrs. Martin was called away, I could buy her another week. A week was an eternity. I could do anything in a week.

  I’d waited outside the only class I knew Gigi was in, but she was off-site with the majority of the other freshmen for a civics project. Without Gigi physically nearby, I couldn’t craft an emergency that wouldn’t trace back to me. Untraceable was the number one requirement. I’d been sloppy with Matthew and I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

  Gathering my resolve, I made one last plea to Haley. “Do we have to do this? It doesn’t feel right.”

  For a moment I thought Haley might agree with me. There was real conflict evident on her features. This was too far, even for us.

  “It doesn’t matter what we think. We do our job.” She paused. “It’s just a job, Ember.”

  “Not to me, it isn’t.” The unsteadiness in my voice betrayed how much this meant to me. “This is bigger than us. It’s her life.”

  “And is she innocent?” Haley moved to press against the edge of the alcove, positioning herself for a clear view of the mobiles.

  “What?”

  She turned slightly so her face was in profile, harsh and unforgiving. Pity wasn’t Haley’s strong suit. “How is what we’re doing right now any different than someone else finding out and telling another person who tells another person and so on? We didn’t force her to have an affair. She did that all by herself.”

  She had a point. She always had a point. Anyone could bust them, but there was a difference between someone else stumbling upon something like this and us lying in wait for it to happen. Maybe Mrs. Martin would do herself a massive favor and stay away.

  Twenty minutes later, she came out of the school, walking briskly toward the mobiles.

  Haley drew her phone out of her pocket like an assassin readying her weapon. Character assassinations required different tools.

  “Haley, I’m asking you not to do this.”

  “I know this is hard, but you’ll understand someday. Everyone has secrets. Just hope you’re lucky enough to keep yours hidden.”

  If only you knew the secrets I kept.

  The door to Mr. Hall’s mobile opened and he ushered Mrs. Martin in. I held my breath waiting for the door to shut, willing it to slam behind her without revealing anything to us.

  As the door was closing, out of view of everyone but us, Mrs. Martin wrapped her arms around Mr. Hall and kissed him. The click of the camera on Haley’s phone echoed in my ears like a shot.

  My shoulders slumped. It was done. I wanted to kick down the door to Mr. Hall’s classroom and rage at them both. They were the reason I had to be a party to this disaster, the reason that someone I cared about was going to be devastated. How could Mrs. Martin do this to Gigi?

  I wouldn’t pretend to know why either of them had decided that an illicit affair between colleagues on school property was a good idea. People made stupid decisions all the time, but they had made this easy and had left themselves so exposed. They couldn’t sneak around off school property where no one would have ever seen them?

  Haley was tapping on her phone, doubtless sending our proof off to wherever it needed to go. I reached out and grasped her wrist. She froze and stared at the point of contact and then looked up at me with her brows raised. I’d crossed a line in touching her.

  “Sorry,” I said and let go.

  She continued to stare. “Don’t give me your puppy eyes. We’ve been over this. I’m only glad I didn’t try to have you take care of this on your own. You’re clearly not ready for this level of shit.”

  Ouch.

  “No, it’s not that. I told you that I know Gigi, Mrs. Martin’s daughter. She’s on the debate team with me and beyond talented and driven. It wouldn’t surprise me if she went on to be the freaking president of the United States.”

  How could Haley not see how this was going to wreck Gigi? She was fourteen years old. A major disaster at home could change everything for her, the whole course of her future. My stomach was turning over at the implications. How would the echoes of what was about to happen haunt her?

  “Then she’ll get over this.” Haley was steady and calm, and it made my emotions feel hysterical. I hated feeling hysterical.

  “The school isn’t so big that I haven’t had to pull jobs on people I know, too. The first one is hard—seeing people you know from your regular life suffering isn’t pleasant. But neither is life. No one I’ve seen has ever been too far gone to recover.”

  If I was in control of the Red Court, this wouldn’t be happening. I could protect the people I cared about. But I wasn’t. Not yet, anyway. The whole school was about to find out about Mrs. Martin’s affair, but maybe I could find a way to soften the blow for Gigi. There had to be something I could do to help at least in a small way.

  I cleared my throat, trying to conquer the frustration and sadness warring within me. “I know there’s no stopping this train. But could you give me tonight to think of something to say to Gigi that might help her? Just tonight. Then tomorrow, after school starts, you can do what you have to. Please.”

  Haley regarded me, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes like she was trying to find the loophole that must be hiding somewhere. I’d all but destroyed her trust in me with my stunt with Matthew.

  “No tricks up my sleeves.” I held my hands up and ga
ve her a tight smile. “I’m asking you for a favor.”

  Favor was not a word you used lightly in the Red Court. Favors were debts to be paid, but I would do it for this.

  Haley nodded. “You have until first period.”

  * * *

  When I got to my car, another sheet of white notebook paper was tucked under the windshield wiper. My admirer must have stopped by.

  LAST WARNING. STAY AWAY FROM CHASE.

  IT WOULD BE A SHAME IF YOU FELL FROM THE

  CATWALKS...

  Oh, God.

  CHAPTER 34

  A SHIVER SNAKED its way up my spine, cold and creeping. I’d grown too accustomed to being the one wielding threats, and I couldn’t seem to draw enough breath. My lungs were screaming for air like I’d just sprinted for ten minutes straight. Paranoia pulsed through me, whispering with its insidious voice that I was being watched. Whoever had left this note probably wanted to see my reaction, my fear. I spun in a circle looking in cars and through the windows of Heller.

  Empty, empty, empty.

  There was no one else nearby, and the emptiness seemed ominous, like it was waiting for something. Or someone.

  I ducked into my car and fumbled with the radio, needing the reassurance that everything was normal—even if it was only an illusion to make myself feel better. With music blasting through the speakers, I was able to catch my breath.

  In.

  Someone knows that April’s accident wasn’t an accident.

  Out.

  Or at least suspects that it wasn’t an accident.

  In.

  Worst case, they know that I know the Red Court was behind it.

  Out.

  Worse worst case, it’s someone in the Red Court and they know what I’m doing.

  Fear seized my heart, wringing it dry of every ounce of determination I possessed. I needed to collect myself away from Heller’s watchful gaze. I pulled out of the parking lot and headed home.