Locke 2 (Blackwater Boys #4)

Ten

Kali

I t was Thursday, exactly five days since Lenny “moved.”

I sat on the bench across from the bank, watching the sun go down. My hands were buried in my jacket pockets. There was a chill in the air, but I was cold for other reasons. My nails dug around the chalk stick in my hand. Nervous energy raced through me. I finally stood up and squatted down on the sidewalk. I drew the outline of a ten squared hopscotch about eight feet long. Then I surveyed my work, nodding once, satisfied, before sitting back down on the bench.

Immediately, Aurora emerged in her blue dress, sounding breathless. “I told you it would come to this,” she said as she hopped on the outline, her two braids bouncing around her shoulders. “Didn’t I say so, Kali?”

I rolled my eyes. “You did.”

“You wasted so much time.”

“I wasn’t trying to.”

“Well, you did. A lot of bad stuff can happen in five days.”

‘When did you get so pushy?”

“I’m pushy in this version you’ve made up of me.”

I sighed slowly, saying nothing.

“Would you rather I’m not here?” she pushed, stopping now to look at me square in the eye. “Would you rather just cry about me and pretend I don’t exist?”

My eyes burned. “I never pretended you didn’t exist.”

“You never talked about me.”

“I know—”

“He would have listened.”

I ground my teeth together. “You’re mine, Aurora.”

“And aren’t you his?”

I scoffed, wiping at my eyes bitterly. “He didn’t chase me. Not really. He gave up.”

“You don’t know that.” She took a step closer. “This will prove it, though.”

I continued to shake my head, not wanting to hear it.

I mulled things over as she hopped up and down, second after second, minute after minute. I chewed my lip, worrying about losing all of this: all I had built. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

“You think I’d truly let you go?”

I shut my eyes, stilling at the memory. So many little thoughts rapidly fired through me. The words that softened the hardness, that rounded the edges—

“...You’ve infected me…If I could split your head wide open to listen to your thoughts, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

I held my breath, unable to lock them out now.

"Perfect little lion. Mine. All mine. Your claws, your lips, your disdain--I want it all."

“He wants it all,” Aurora said suddenly, making me whip my eyes open to look at her. She wasn’t hopping. She was standing perfectly still a couple feet in front of me, clasping her dark hands together. Her lips spread into a soft smile. I stared into her beautiful eyes. I itched to touch her. To raise my fingers and feel soft flesh and not this shadowy nothing.

“Go on,” she urged. “Get up and just do it already, Kali.”

“What if I’m being paranoid?” I asked. “What if Lenny is fine and left with his mom and I’m just being crazy because I’m scarred from our shitty childhood?”

“A lot of it doesn’t make sense.”

I looked down at my feet. “Not really. So what if that woman said truck instead of van? That’s an easy mistake.”

“She sounded like a liar.”

“Maybe I wanted her to sound like a liar.”

“What about Lenny’s friend?” Aurora pressed. “He looked terrified, and what he said at the end…That can’t be a coincidence.”

I hesitated, running my nail deeper into the chalk in my pocket. “What if it is, though? What if I’m wrong, Aurora?”

“You could be wrong,” she agreed, and then she took a step closer, forcing my eyes back on hers as she said, “You could be right, too.”

Her words hit me like a brick.

I could be wrong, but I could be right.

I glanced back at the bank, and it was like I wasn’t totally in control of myself. I stood up and slowly walked toward it. It was closed, but the ATM room was still open and lit up. I opened the glass door and stepped inside. Warm air blew, instantly warming up my cold skin. I stood still for several moments, staring warily at the ATM machine. I dug my hand into my pocket, tracing the hard lines of my bank card.

I can’t do this on my own. I don’t have the power that he has.

If Lenny truly left with his mother, this would be for nothing, but it felt like a risk I couldn’t take.

I need to know.

I approached the machine, feeling more determined with every step. Telling myself it wasn’t about me anymore. It was so much more.

On a deep inhale, I pulled out my card and stared down at it. At the name I hadn’t touched in eighteen months.

Kali Arden.

I wasn’t shaking. I wasn’t nervous, either. I thought about that little boy and my decision was made.

I stuck the card into the ATM, consequences be damned.

If you’re chasing me, come find me.