Chapter twenty-four

Scott made his way to the front door of his house, struggling to hold the grocery bags with both hands and opening the door with his two remaining fingers. Once he had his bags inside, he shut the door as quickly as he could. A woman had walked past him and he panicked that she might have seen inside. The frantic way he slammed the door might have been more conspicuous. He cursed at himself for that.

Edward was sitting at the kitchen table with his printed notes sprawled out in front of him in two piles. They were all of the articles and files on members of the Spartans that he could find online. His hope was that if he read all of them over and over, some kind of connection could be made to how to go about his next move. He knew exactly what he needed to do but knowing how to do it just kept eluding him. He pretended that he knew for Scott’s sake, but he couldn’t think straight. He had already sweated through his previous dress shirt and combed hair several times over, and was wearing a hoodie and jeans. Scott had offered him nearly everything he needed, but he refused. It seemed like a commodity he didn’t deserve. He had found Fay’s mugshot from her stint in prison on the front page of an article and kept it at the top of the pile as motivation, but it was seeming more and more like distraction.

 “Little help?” Scott sighed, hauling the groceries onto the kitchen floor beside the refrigerator.

“Yeah,” Edward said, throwing his pencil down and letting it roll to the floor. “One second.”

Scott shook his head, leaning against the wall. “I have a desk in the spare bedroom you can move all of this to.”

“We have to talk about this,” Edward said. “I can’t stay here much longer.”

Scott looked up at him, surprised. He had assumed that he wouldn’t want to discuss it sooner than a month in. Edward had only been staying at his house for a week, although by the look on his face, Scott knew it wasn’t the time to share that sentiment. He brought a hand up to rub his eyes. “The grocery shopping for two, the lights on when I’m not home�"someone’s going to notice something sooner or later. Police are circling this area all the time now. As far as they’re concerned, there’s a serial killer on the loose.”

“Do you have any relatives or friends outside the city?” Edward asked lightly, like he was afraid to speak.

“Don’t,” Scott snapped, standing up and stepping to him.

Edward shook his head. He couldn’t bring himself to look up at Scott. “The reason it’s been this easy so far is it’s only the cops looking. As soon as Fay wants the Spartans to start looking for me, everyone around me is dead. You need to get out.”

“I’m not leaving you.”

The vacillation in Edward’s voice had dissolved. He picked up a file from off the table in front of him�"an article about the new border patrol checkpoint that the state government had implemented. Fay wasn’t smart enough to plan everything out so perfectly, but it obviously wasn’t just her. It was impossible to escape over the river without attracting the attention of someone with a gun. Without a clean record to leave the city with, Edward was trapped in a labyrinth waiting for Fay to find him. He gripped the paper between his fingers in a way that twisted the corner as if to wring something out of it. He spoke, louder, “You said it yourself. It’s us two against the entire syndicate.”

“And you’re going to be just fine?” Scott yelled. Edward still wasn’t looking at him. At that point, it seemed exasperating.

“Fay said that she was excited to continue the game. The game for her is hurting me. If you’re gone, then that’s one less way to do it.”

“And then she said she was going to let Pluto kill you. You can’t�"”

“My mother killed herself so that I could take down the Spartans. I’m ready to die trying, and you can’t stop it. It’d just be easier for me if you were gone. Now, do you have a place outside the city to stay?”

Scott brought his hands up to the flesh of his neck, digging in with his fingernails out of frustration. He forced himself to breathe. Cold, rough air ran up and down his throat like smoke trying to make its way through a grate. Edward had always been so smart. He didn’t just know about the law and how the city worked. He knew how people worked�"what they wanted, what they would do, and the effect their emotions had on how they lived. He deserved his old reputation more than anyone else, so Scott knew he was right. Looking to him through his fingers, he nodded.

“Promise me something,” he said, making Edward raise an eyebrow. He didn’t say anything, so Scott continued, “Promise me you won’t enjoy it.”

“What?”

“You’re right. The city is sick. And every time you work on a case, you hate every second of it, but you do it for the good of the city. You’ve been acting different recently. When you plan moves against the Spartans and against Fay, you look excited to do it. Promise me that your attitude won’t devolve into enjoying a fight like this. Once you enjoy it, you’ll want to do it again and again, and you’ll destroy yourself.”

Edward nodded, purely out of courtesy. If not for the moment, he would have rebutted. It didn’t seem like the time. “I’m sorry that I got you into this.”

Scott put a hand on the pile of papers on the table, obscuring Fay’s picture. “I wanted to come to Hillborough because I wanted to make a difference, and I had no idea how to do that until I met you. Doing my part to help you and this city might be the most important thing I’ll ever do. I’ll be on the plane out of the country by tonight.”

Edward stood up and put his arms around Scott.