Rather than answer, I said. “I watch the news. Innocents are sometimes shot.”
The left side of her mouth twitched. Into a smile? A scowl? “So who shot you?”
“The tooth fairy,” I replied, not sure where I got my bravado this time.
Mia ran her tongue over her teeth, and I was no longer left in doubt as to whether she smiled or scowled. She scowled at me with potent fury.
Cara stepped toward me, raising her arm with every intention of slapping me as I’d feared. Phoenix held her back.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know when my father gets here.”
“He’s a lawyer,” Mia said, a statement not a question.
“Yes.”
“He will not be allowed near you until you’ve told me what I want to know. How’s that?”
My hands squeezed into fists. “You can’t keep him from me.”
“I can do anything I want.”
“Where’s Erik?” I asked, trying a different tactic. Don’t cry. Stay strong. You’re brave, remember? “I want to see him.”
“Maybe the tooth fairy will escort you to his cell,” Mia replied. She remained where she was, crouched at my side. “Unless, of course, you want to rephrase your answer to my question.”
Okay, stay strong but don’t talk back anymore. “Let me see him. Please.” If they were this forceful with me, what were they doing to him?
Phoenix released Cara and both girls flanked Mia’s sides, crossing their arms over their chests and surrounding me with a wall of feminine ferocity. A tremor swept though me. One at a time, they were scary. Altogether, they were hell on earth.
Mia’s head tilted to the side as she regarded me intently. “You claim you’re not his girlfriend, but you’re sure acting like it. Should I believe your words or your actions, hmmm?”
“Words.” But she was right. Actions were more convincing and all of mine had been damning. “Tonight really was the first time I’d spoken to him.”
“Oh, really.” Reaching out, Mia tightened her hand around my arm, causing the torn flesh to slowly pull apart. I winced in pain. “I don’t want to hurt you, Camille, but I will if I have to. I’ll hurt you slowly and often. Got me?”
Suddenly unable to speak, I nodded. The tears that had only burned my eyes a moment ago now spilled over.
“Good. Now.” Her grip eased and I was able to breathe once again. “Erik has been transporting Onadyn from the Ship to the public. I want to know how he’s doing it without getting caught and I think you can tell me.”
“But I can’t.” With my gaze, I pleaded with her to believe me. “I don’t know anything. I swear.”
“Are you afraid he’ll hurt you if you tell us?”
“Erik would never hurt a girl,” Cara said, belligerent.
“Cara,” Mia snapped without looking away from me. “Leave.”
“What?” The girl’s mouth fell open.
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
A second passed as shock washed over Cara’s face. Then her eyes narrowed on me with absolute hatred, as if it were my fault she’d gotten in trouble. I admit, I did feel a small amount of satisfaction.
I must not have done a good job of hiding it. Hate morphed into rage, tightening her features. She would have attacked me if Mia hadn’t stepped in front of me. I jerked back, the corner of my eye catching on the silver tip of a blade. A blade Cara now held. She’d meant to cut me, I realized with shock.
What a violent place this was.
“Cara!” Mia growled. “Last chance.”
She flounced from the room, dark hair blowing behind her.
When the door closed, Mia said, “Now then. Camille. You were about to tell me something.”
I exhaled a long, trembling sigh. “I can’t tell you anything because I don’t know anything. I went to the club to see and talk to Erik, maybe dance with him. I didn’t know about the drugs until—” Horrified, I pursed my lips together. Damn it! I should not have admitted that. Now they’d grill me for details I didn’t have.
“Until,” Phoenix prompted, stepping closer.
I looked down at my feet. My boots had been removed, I noticed. So had my socks. My feet were bare. The blue-painted toenails winked in the light. “Until I sneaked past that guarded door,” I admitted. “A group of Ell Rollises attacked me. Erik saved me from them.”
“And that’s it?” Mia asked. “That’s all that happened?”
“Yes.”
Mia studied my face for a long while, her gaze deep and probing. “What did he give you? And don’t tell me a blank napkin.”
“If I tell you anything else, I’ll be lying.”
“We’ll see, little girl. We’ll see. I’m going to run some tests on that napkin. And I’m going to interview a few people. Pray they support your accounting.” Without another word, Mia strode from the room, the door opening for her automatically.
Phoenix looked from the door to me, from me to the door. She ran her tongue over her teeth in a perfect imitation of Mia, then followed the same path the beautiful woman had taken.
Alone again.
My arm hurt badly. I wanted to go home; I wanted my parents to keep me safe. But more than anything else, I wanted to save Erik the way he’d saved me. If he really was a drug dealer, I wanted to save him from himself. If he wasn’t, I wanted to save him from these agents.
Sometimes good people have to do bad things.
Was he or wasn’t he? And did it matter to me anymore?
Whether he was selling or not, he wasn’t doing it for the money; I knew that. Not when his house was falling down around him. And Erik wasn’t a user, a flyer. His skin wasn’t tinted blue or flaky, two telltale signs.
Did someone he loved need Onadyn?
The thought caught me by surprise and I blinked. Maybe. That was definitely a possibility and would explain so much. If an Outer needed it, but couldn’t get it, a dealer could get it for them. But then, that raised the question of just who Erik knew that needed it. A friend? Silver, perhaps?
No. I shook my head. Morevvs were oxygen-tolerant and didn’t need Onadyn to survive on our planet.
Who couldn’t get it on their own? The poor? Wait. I shook my head again. I think they were given a free supply from the government. Predatory aliens, then? My mouth fell open. Yes. Predatory aliens, those who had been suspected or convicted of a crime, were denied access so they’d have to leave the planet—if they managed to survive being hunted by A.I.R.