Page 84 of The Fall of Iris Henley
So I turn to the cabin and push on the simple metal door. It opens easily. It never did have a lock on it.
Inside I can’t move far. It’s pitch dark. Carter and Hayden step in right behind me—I can smell her grapefruit body spray, sour and sweet. Someone bumps against something. Carter swears. After a moment a small circle of light appears, his phone’s flashlight scooting across the unfinished wooden walls.
“Aren’t there any lights out here?” Carter snaps.
“No electricity,” Hayden whispers, trying to catch her breath. “There’s a fireplace. And a couple candles.”
“How romantic,” Carter says sneeringly. “Rocky always knew how to set the scene. You have a lighter, right? See if you can get something lit.”
She turns away, her shoulders hunched. A minute later a small flame flares up and then separates into two. A candle. Then another, and another.
The cabin is so unchanged it sends a stab of pain through me, even still, even with months and countless betrayals and countless acts of violence between now and when I last saw it. Unfinished walls and a rough-hewn fireplace. The dusty shelves, filled with rusty old treasures. The heart-shaped rock Rocky had given me is still there, lying flat and covered in dust. The brass bedframe is still here too.
There used to be a mattress on it, but it’s gone now.
My stomach gives a lurch and I turn my head, thinking I might be sick. Almost immediately Carter has the gun in myface. The small black hole at the end of the muzzle gapes at me, dark and eager. I hold up my hands a little higher.
“Carter, please, I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know why you’re… Why are we here?”
He jerks his head toward Hayden. “Ask my whore girlfriend. Your so-called friend.” I glance at Hayden but she’s still bent over, lighting candles. Carter goes on. “Man, Iris, you know how to pick them. Not one, but two different friends willing to hook up with your boyfriend behind your back? You are a bad judge of character, kiddo.”
I stare at him. The candlelight plays madly across his skin, sharp devilish darts of red and yellow.
“You want to tell her, or should I?” he asks, looking at Hayden.
She shakes her head. He gives another angry laugh.
“The night of your little cheer party, you got a text, didn’t you, Iris?” he asks. “From Rocky.” He says the name like it’s something filthy.
“How do you know that?” I ask. I hate how much my voice is shaking.
“I know because Hay here told me all about it,” he says. “She saw your phone that night. She saw Rocky’s little fuck-up.” But you didn’t do anything about it—just proceeded to get as fucked up as you possibly could so you didn’t have to make a decision. Very Iris of you, by the way,” he says. “Anyway, Hayden wasn’t nearly as slow as you were. Hayden knew Rocky was fucking around. You want to know how she knew?”
No, I think. No no no. But he keeps talking.
“She knew,” he says, jabbing a finger toward Hayden, “becauseshe’dbeen fucking around with him herself just a few weeks earlier.”
“Hayden and Rocky.” The words float out of my mouth almost against my will, the way they would in a nightmare.
“That’s right,” he says. “One of her many little indiscretions. And so she decided to wait for everyone else to fall asleep and to drive out to this little love nest herself. Can you even imagine? The fucking nerve. Being a side piece and going to bitch someone out about having another side piece.” He clucks softly and shakes his head. “Your mom would be so disappointed, Hayden.”
She just looks down, her cheeks bright with humiliation.
“Anyway,” Carter says. “Anyway. I got an alert that she was driving…”
“An alert?” I frown.
Hadyen finally speaks up at that. He had a tracker on my car. Nice, right?”
“If you weren’t the biggest slut in Varda, I wouldn’t have to do shit like that,” he snaps.
“So Carter sees that my car is moving. And he goes to follow me,” she says.
We’re all quiet for a moment, the candlelight flickering and pooling and making patterns in the shadow.
“And then you get out here, and you find him with Lynette,” I say softly.
“With Lynette,” Hayden agrees softly. “I wouldn’t have ever in a million years guessed it was her.”
