“More time isn’t going to help, Jax. You knew about this when you got out of Cedar-Junction. As far as I can tell, the only thing you’ve done in the two months since then is get high and go into hiding. Not necessarily in that order.”
“I’ll talk to Rico. Okay? I’ll get them to back off.”
“How? Enlighten me. Because they didn’t give the impression they’d back off for anything less than your full cooperation.” I pause, my mind spinning a million different directions. “Maybe if you talked to your parole officer, the police could get you some kind of deal as an informant. Witness protection or—”
“No. I’d be dead before I opened my mouth.”
“The police could protect you.”
“There’s no protection from this! Don’t you understand?” He runs his hands through his hair until it’s sticking up in several directions. “These guys will kill everyone. Me. You. Ma. Pa.Everyone.”
Rico promised me as much; clearly, he wasn’t bluffing.
“Fine. No police.” I take a deep breath. “What’s your backup plan?”
Jaxon is no longer meeting my eyes. He stares toward the tennis courts, his face pallid. “The Kings mostly circulate heroin and fentanyl. They make a killing in more rural parts of the state, but they don’t have a strong foothold this far north of Boston yet. Most kids up here stick to the basics — shrooms, ecstasy, molly, pot. Whatever’s floating around the party scene.” He shifts his weight from foot to foot. “If I can create demand for the more intense product… get fentanyl flowing freely in these circles… I think it’ll be enough to clear my debts.”
My brows furrow. “So you’re going to deal for them? Get a whole generation of my classmates hooked on drugs that will ruin their futures? Sign them up for a lifetime of misery and pain, just to save your own skin?” I can’t keep the utter disdain out of my voice. “Jesus, Jaxon. You’ve made some questionable decisions in the past, but I thought you at least had a moral compass. This is… beyond awful. Even for you.”
“It’s either deal for them or pay them off! And I don’t know about you, Archer, but I don’t have that kind of capital.” His eyes move toward Cormorant House, lingering on the glass panes of the back door. “There’s only one person I know who might.”
“So that’s why you went after Jo tonight. You think you can extort money from her? Somehow convince her parents to pay off your debts?”
“No!No. It was just pure chance, seeing her at the party tonight. I was catching up with a few old friends, smoking a little weed… She was with some Ken Doll douchebag who wasn’t taking no for an answer, if you know what I mean. I stepped in. Made sure he got the message, loud and clear.”
“Snyder,” I hiss under my breath, seeing red.
He’s a dead man.
I struggle to rein in my emotions.
“You should be thanking me, not yelling at me,” Jaxon prattles on, his words running together. “If I hadn’t been there, things might’ve gone very differently for Josephine.”
I take a step toward him. “I think I’ll save the appreciation parade for after you tell me what you’ve done with her.”
“Who says I did something to her?”
“Past experience.”
Jaxon looks even more jittery than before. He’s a hairsbreadth away from a full-fledged breakdown. “I told you before — I helped her tonight! I saved her! I’m the good guy here, Archer.”
Maybe he’s telling the truth.
Maybe not.
I can’t bring myself to care. An all-consuming rage is rising inside me, blotting out every other emotion. For the first time in my life, I understand the termblind rage.My anger has sharpened to such an extreme, the rest of the world is blurry in comparison.
“Oh, spare me,” I snarl. “You’re no saint. You saw an opportunity and you took it.”
Jax fidgets. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do.” I take a step into his path, forcing him to meet my eyes. “Tell me — did you think you could kidnap her? Hold her for a hefty ransom?” I tilt my head. “Or did you plan to hand her directly over to the Kings and let them do the dirty work for you?”
“No…” he says weakly. “That’s not true…”
“As long as your scorecard is clear, who cares what they do to her, right?” I take another step, my every atom vibrating with rage. “Even if they kill her…”
He flinches.