It was half past midnight when I arrived at Dominic's, and Clo was already sitting in a booth, scrolling through her phone. Our usual drinks sat in front of her, glasses filled to the brim.
"Hey," I said as I slid in across from her.
She looked up from her phone, smiling up at me. "Today's meeting was tense."
I nodded. "You didn't have to order me this... I think I'm giving up on drinking for a while."
Clo's eyebrows raised. "Guess I'll have to drink both." Then she took a sip of her mojito. "Do you think Molly's okay? And Toby? What the hell happened today?"
"This isn't what we're here to talk about." The anger burned in my chest, half-blaming Clo for the mess that had ensued, even though Molly was the one who made the mistake. Clo had also made a mistake, though, and not telling Gabe was killing me... and after today, it didn't seem like a good time to rock the boat again.
"I know. But I'm genuinely worried about them. They've become my family, too..."
"Have they?" I finally had a gulp of the drink, feeling the rum burning my esophagus and making it's way through my rage, half putting out the fire, half making it worse. Clo looked pathetic, big blue eyes beginning to get all teary, so I caved. "Molly will be fine, she's with Gabe and he'll take care of her. She just cares too much about her clients. And Toby... well, it looks like he's been in a hypomanic episode, which makes a lot of sense, probably started this past weekend. Now he'll be depressed for a while but can hopefully pull himself out of it. He shouldn't have stayed up all night drinking and smoking with us. And he probably also shouldn't have been carrying around your secret this whole time."
Clo flinched, as if my words hurt her, but I didn't know what to trust anymore. She could've just been playing me like she has played everyone this whole time.
"So did you figure out a plan for dealing with Winters? Or are we going to have a talk with Gabe tomorrow."
"Vi... I know you aren't my biggest fan right now..."
I snorted. That was the understatement of the year.
"But please give me a little more time. And could I get the memory card back?"
Shit, the memory card... I'd actually forgotten, which made the rage flare up again and my hands go automatically for my drink. Riley had taken my money and run... probably couldn't crack the code anyway. I glanced around the bar, eyes settling on the corner table where Andy's crew sat playing poker. I scanned for Riley, but she was nowhere in sight. "I don't have it," I finally said.
Clo's eyes widened. "What? Where is it?"
Her fear got me more worked up. "You were lying. I asked you straight up if you were Pattie, and you said no. So I had to take matters into my own hands and see for myself!" The table across from us glanced in our direction at my sudden outburst, so I lowered my voice again. "I gave it to a hacker friend to crack, but I doubt she was able to. Your friend was too good."
"But where is your hacker friend now? Why didn't she return the card? Violet, I need that!"
"We need to tell Gabe. We should have told him last week. That's the only thing that will fix all of this."
"No please... he's taking care of Molly and she needs him more right now."
"Stop trying to manipulate me with your bullshit, Clo," I said, slamming a fist down. "I don't care what he's doing or who he's taking care of. You asked for a week, and against my better judgment I gave it to you. The week's up, kid. I'm talking to him tomorrow, either with or without you."
Her lower lip poked out in a pout, and her eyes pooled over in tears. Instead of letting them fall, she wiped them away and took a drink, trying not appear tough. Finally, after a moment of awkward silence between us, she shook her head. "He's going to fire me... and I'll go to jail."
"Well maybe you should've thought about that." I wasn't in any mood to pity her, especially when the whole family was going through it right now. She was the least of my worries.
"You know Winters... he's not a nice guy. I'm sure he did something sketchy with the medical studies. He had to!"
"We have no proof of that!"
Now she let some of the tears fall, slumping into her seat. "But I know it's true. He's the one who killed my grandma. She was fine before she got on his pills."
"For fucks sake, Clo." I was about to tell her off, but my phone buzzed, distracting me long enough to lose my train of thought, because the message was from an unknown number. All it said: sorry. How cryptic. What the fuck am I supposed to do with that? I peeled my eyes away from my device long enough to open my mouth and almost say something, when suddenly a shadow loomed over us.
"Well hello, ladies."
A pit formed in my stomach as I spat, "What the fuck do you want, Andy."
He laughed and slid into the booth next to Clo, throwing an arm over her shoulder (which she immediately pushed off of her), then tossing something onto the table. It only took a second for me to recognize the tiny plastic rectangle, neat boxy writing on it's label: FROSTY. "Look what I found. Very interesting and incriminating evidence on there. I didn't know your little friend here had it in her."
I snatched the memory card up. "Where did you get this?"
Andy leaned forward. "You know exactly where I got it. Did you really think Riley would trust you over me?"
My eyes narrowed at him, ready to pounce, even though my heart was pounding furiously. If Andy had access to everything on the card... I didn't even want to think about what could happen.
"And now you're both going to do exactly what I say, or I'll release this information to the press, along with you as her accomplice."
"I'm not doing shit for you." I glanced over at Clo who looked white as a ghost, visibly shivering.
"So you're good with your little friend here going to jail? And you going in right after her? Because I will destroy you, Violeta." The smirk on his face made me feel like I'd swallowed a hive of angry, buzzing bees. Before I could open my mouth to respond, he showed me a video on his phone — it was a version of the blackmail video, but Clo's face was clear as day. And then he swiped over to show a copy of her passport, real birthdate and all. "I have a job for you both, or this is all going viral right now. And don't even think about going to Gabe or your FBI friend. No one can get you out of this except me."
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