“Nice,” Finn purred, and he tossed the cash into his open duffel bag on the floor.
I looked at Bria. “See what I mean?”
She laughed.
Money, guns, drugs. We found all that and more in the safe, along with dozens of notepads. Only these didn’t contain Benson’s formulas, the names of his clients, or the money he had coming in and going out. They were records of all his twisted experiments on people, including elementals like me.
Finn let out another low whistle, then showed me the entry that Benson had made in his notepad yesterday, after he’d forced that Burn pill down my throat.
Shows immediate, violent reaction to drug. Indicative of subject’s own extreme elemental power, Benson had written in an elegant script. Subject experiencing effects of drug in rapid, accelerated succession. Further tests are definitely needed to test limits of subject’s tolerance and endurance of this and other formulas.
My stomach twisted as I thought of all the pain I’d experienced because of the drug. Once again, my own screams echoed in my ears, but I squashed the phantom sounds. This was the reason I’d asked Silvio where Benson’s notes were. I hadn’t wanted anyone to find the vamp’s observations about me. I didn’t want anyone to know my weaknesses.
And especially not my fears.
So I ripped those pages out of the notepad and handed it back to Finn. He took it without a word and put it with the others he’d collected.
We finished cleaning out the safe, stuffing all the contents into Finn’s duffel bag. Then the two of us headed over to Bria, who had opened all of the refrigerators in the back of the lab. My sister had her hands on her hips and a pensive look on her face as she stared at the racks full of pills, powders, and other illegal substances.
“You know, there are millions of dollars’ worth of drugs in these right now,” I said. “It would be a big win for you, Bria, turning all this stuff over to the police.”
“Oh, yeah,” Finn said. “You’d totally get a promotion out of it. Maybe two.”
Bria smiled at his efforts to cheer her up, but the expression quickly slipped from her face.
“Benson cared more about all of this than he did about anything else,” she murmured, reaching out and snagging a plastic bag of red Burn pills from inside one of the refrigerators. “He murdered Max and Troy and was willing to do whatever was necessary to kill Catalina. And for what? This?”
She shook the bag, making the pills rattle around inside, before tossing it back into the refrigerator. “No matter how long I’m a cop, and all the bad things that I see, sometimes I think that I will never truly understand people.”
I shrugged. “Benson was a monster. No one is arguing that.”
Bria looked at me, her eyes dark and haunted. “But I was a monster too. Because I was willing to risk Catalina to get to all of this. No matter how dangerous it was to her or anyone else. And I did risk you, and I almost lost you. I won’t make that mistake again, Gin. I promise you that.”
She held out her hand, and I took it and squeezed it.
“I know,” I said, my voice rough with emotion.
Finn cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt the sister-bonding moment, but we need to do something with all of this. If we don’t, this place will be looted and picked clean. Not that I blame the folks outside. I’d be eager to come in here and get my fair share of loot too, after Benson had put the squeeze on me for so many years. So what do you want to do with it?”
“Let’s burn it all,” Bria said. “I know it goes against procedure, but these drugs are dangerous, and I want them all destroyed, right here, right now. Not locked up in evidence where some dirty cops can and probably will get their hands on them and put them right back out on the streets. What do you say, Gin?”
“Burning it is fine with me.” I pointed to the chair in the middle of the lab. “As long as we start with that.”
29
After taking Silvio over to the riverboat so he could be reunited with Catalina and healed by Jo-Jo, Xavier, Phillip, and Owen returned to the mansion. They appeared just in time to help me, Finn, and Bria carry Benson’s stash of drugs outside and throw them onto the front lawn.
Most of the crowd from earlier had drifted away, although a few folks hung out on the corners across the street, checking their phones and waiting for us to leave so they could enter Benson’s mansion. A brutal fight, a bloody death, and an afternoon of looting and larceny. Just another day in Southtown.
I dumped the last bags of Burn pills out of a cardboard box I’d grabbed from the lab, then stepped back to admire our handiwork.
The torture chair sat in the middle of the pile, although you could hardly see the white cushions now for all the plastic bags we’d piled on top of it. Phillip had nosed around in the mansion and found a can of gasoline, which he sloshed all over everything. I’d grabbed a box of matches out of the supplies in Finn’s duffel bag, and I handed it to Bria.
“Why don’t you do the honors?”
“With pleasure,” she murmured.
Bria plucked a match out of the box and struck it against the side. She stared at the flickering fire a moment.
“For Max,” she whispered, then tossed the match into the center of the pile.
WHOOSH!
And just like that, what was left of Beauregard Benson’s empire went up in flames.
The guys went back into the mansion to check and make sure we’d found all the drugs, but Bria and I stayed on the lawn. We’d been watching the drugs burn for about ten minutes when I noticed the vehicle—a black Audi with tinted windows.
I was really starting to hate the sight of that car.
It was parked on the street about fifty feet away from the entrance to the mansion, giving the occupants a clear view of me, Bria, and our bonfire of drugs. I knew exactly who was inside. I had known ever since I saw the name of Benson’s Burn supplier in his ledger last night on the riverboat.
I also knew that my enemy would come find me soon enough. She’d be too curious not to.
So I stood by Bria’s side and kept an eye on the car until the occupants got bored and drove off. I waited a few minutes, but they didn’t circle back around, and I realized that my friends and family were safe.
At least for today.
But my relief was short-lived. About five minutes after the Audi left, sirens started wailing in the distance. I looked out over the river and spotted a couple of cop cars headed in this direction, their blue and white lights flashing as they crossed the closest bridge.
The others heard the noise too, and we all gathered around the bonfire, which was still going strong.
Finn picked up his duffel bag of loot and slung it over his shoulder. “Well, I would say that’s our official cue to leave. I’ll go get the car. Fellas?”
Owen and Phillip moved off with him. That left me standing with Bria and Xavier.
“How are you going to explain things this time around?” I asked.
Bria and Xavier exchanged a look, and then my sister shrugged.
“Probably that we got a tip about a drug war gone wrong between Benson and some unknown assailant. We were first on the scene and found Benson dead in the street and all his merchandise going up in flames.”
“You think that will work? You don’t think someone in the crowd will rat me out?”
Bria and Xavier exchanged another look.
“Nobody talks in Southtown,” they said in unison.
They both laughed a little, and then my sister turned to me.
“Nobody’s going to testify against you, Gin,” she said. “Not after what they saw you do to Benson.”