Metaltown (24 page)

“We don't want to,” said Battery Boy. “Come on, leave it alone already.”

Colin grumbled something as they got in line. Lena knew she should leave; she didn't really work here, and besides, Mr. Schultz might recognize her. Still, interest had her standing close behind Colin.

“Doesn't look like they hate each other anymore,” commented Battery Boy.

“Someone's got his fix, that's why,” said Zeke under his breath.

As Lena drew closer she saw what he meant. Mr. Minnick's eyes were bloodshot and too open. His cheeks were too rosy. His right shoulder kept twitching. Was he using drugs? At
work
? Automatically, she recorded this in her mental files, wondering if a time would come that she could tell Otto or even her father.

“Mr. Walter,” called Mr. Schultz, who had set up a table beside Minnick's office. “Why don't you come to the front of the line?”

She saw Colin's shoulders tense. She dodged through the noisy crowd after him, grabbing onto the back of his shirt. “You were going to organize a press?”

He breathed in slowly. “I told you not to come today.”

Her hand dropped. He'd had plenty of opportunities to tell her this and had knowingly hid it. It wasn't even like he could play it off that it wouldn't matter to her, or that it wasn't her business either. Her father
owned
this factory, and he knew it.

“You lied to me,” she said. “You told me what was going on involved the workers, not management.” A press directly involved her family—it meant work would come to a
halt,
and that was a big problem for Hampton Industries.

It shouldn't have mattered. She didn't know him. He had no reason to show her loyalty. But still, she felt like he'd left her out in the cold.

“I didn't lie.” He paused just before reaching the front desk and faced her fully. His gaze reached deep inside of her, until she felt exposed, like everyone here could see who she was. “I just didn't tell you everything. I liked it when you didn't hate me.”

What was that supposed to mean?

A second later he reached the table. The line behind him went silent.

He cleared his throat. “Thanks, Mr. Schultz, but I can't join the Brotherhood. Not when I can get someone to watch my back for free.”

Lena's throat was parched, her cheeks too hot. Everyone was still staring since Colin had spoken to her. Who was Colin talking about?
What
was he talking about?

A girl with small, mousy features appeared in front of her, and as Lena watched, her face fell out of focus.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked, her voice far away.

“I'm just hot,” Lena said. But the room was already spinning, and before she could grab onto something solid, she fell backwards into Zeke.

 

22

COLIN

Jed's lips twisted into a strange, satisfied smirk. Colin returned his stare, unwilling to be the first to look away.

“Sign the form, Mr. Walter.” With an ink pen, he tapped the clipboard, then laid both on the table.

“No thanks.” The act of defying the most formidable man in Metaltown filled Colin with a dark, dreadful power. It hummed through his veins like the last moments before a fight.

Jed's smile faded. “There are consequences to every action.”

Colin rested his knuckles on the table. “Not many people tell you no, do they?”

An image of Gabe Wokowski's father picking money up off the cluttered floor shot to the forefront of his mind. At the time he hadn't understood how anyone could turn down so much green. He did now. Everything had a price.

He caught movement behind him out of the corner of his eye. Several people had begun talking all at once. He hadn't been sure how the others would take his refusal to join, and turned quickly, ready for anything. Before he could make out what was going on, Jed had reached across the table and snagged his forearm. His eyes were beady with anger.

“I'm offering you the Brotherhood's protection, Colin. You'll keep your job, and get all the pay you earn. No more stealing pigeons from the corner cart. I'll make sure your family's taken care of. All of them.”

Colin felt his confidence waver. “How do I know you're good for it?”

Jed relaxed his grip. “You'll just have to trust me.”

Trust.
He trusted Ty. He trusted his family. They'd never threaten him if he didn't do what they wanted. Trusting Jed felt about as solid as trusting Minnick.

But if there was even a chance Jed was telling the truth, he was crazy to turn it down.

“Colin!” Zeke called.

He glanced back, then did a double take. Zeke was hoisting someone up—a girl, limp as a rag doll. Lena, he realized a moment later. Her head hung forward, sweaty strands of hair clinging to her pallid skin. Cold filled Colin's lungs. He jerked out of Jed's grasp and lunged toward them, sliding under Lena's shoulder.

“She's asking for you,” Zeke said, brows scrunched together. “Who is she?”

Martin and Agnes looked to him with wary curiosity.

Colin tilted Lena's face up to his. Her eyes were open but her gaze was blank. She blinked.

“Come on,” he said, taking her from Zeke.

“Wait!” Chip succeeded in pushing through the line and ran straight for Colin.

“Get back in line, rat!” belted Minnick. The foreman grabbed the kid by the collar and shoved him into Zeke and Martin. Chip hit the floor with a small cry.

Biting his tongue, Colin readjusted Lena's arm over his shoulder, and led her to the door. He'd deal with the Brotherhood, and Minnick, later.

“I'll be by later to settle your family's debts,” said Jed as Colin passed. He didn't even glance over. Colin paused, his insides turning to ice.

Zeke, who was next in line, stepped nervously to the front. He glanced up at Colin, apology in his eyes. Zeke had his sister to look out for; what did Colin expect him to do?

What had he expected any of them to do?

*   *   *

Ten minutes later he'd traded his gloves to Hayak for a mug of water from the rotisserie's steamer. Lena sat on the curb beside the cart, elbows on her knees. Her quaking hands spilled liquid all down her chin and the front of her sweat-drenched sweater, but she didn't move to mop it up. When she'd finished gulping it down, she wiped her mouth with Colin's scarf, and sheepishly passed it back to him.

“What were you thinking?” Colin snapped. “I told you not to come. And when you did, I told you to drink. And when you didn't, I told you to leave. And you didn't listen to a damn thing I said, and now look at you.”

She shot up, hands balled into fists. “Thank you for pointing out how stupid I look. As if I couldn't figure that much out on my own.”

“How stupid you
look
?” He leaned over her, blood burning. “You have no idea what's going on, do you? Of course you don't. This was all some game to you. Play poor for a day. See how bad it is. Then go home to your big house and your rich friends and pretend it never happened.”

“You don't know me.” Her voice hitched. “You don't know anything!”

“I know this is my life. I know this is all I've got.” He spread his hands wide. “I know you don't belong here.” He jabbed her hard in the shoulder, and she stumbled back into the wall.

“I don't belong anywhere.” The tears leaked from her eyes, cutting through the thin layer of powder from the factory floor. They stabbed into him, like needle pricks across his chest, but he was rolling downhill, going too fast to stop.

“You don't belong on the line, that's for sure. You belong back in that office where you can actually
do something,
not just make double the work for everyone else.”

She stared at him, lip trembling, then swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. There were holes in the fingers of her gloves from the wiring. She turned fast, hurling herself down Factory Row toward the Stamping Mill.

“Lena, wait.” He ran after her. When he reached for her arm, she jerked away. “Let me at least take you back to Shima's.”

“I'm not going back to Shima's.”

He groaned. He had to get home. He had to be there before Jed came by. What he would say to him then, he had no idea, but he wasn't about to leave his family undefended.

“Then we'll go in the Stamping Mill. The foreman can call your parents.”

She walked faster.

“Lena.” He took off his hat and twisted it until he heard threads pop. “Come home with me.”

She didn't stop.

“Come home with me,” he repeated.

“Why? So you don't have to feel guilty for walking away?” She slowed, but didn't stop. “Here. I'll let you off the hook. I'll be fine on my own, Colin. You're not responsible for me.”

But he was. He'd brought her here, hadn't he? He grabbed her arm and yanked her to a stop, not letting go when she tried to pull away.

“Are you always this big a pain in the ass?”

She turned her nose up. “Yes.”

He sighed. He knew he had to tell her something, but didn't know where to start.

“That man who came to Small Parts? His name is Jed Schultz. I pissed him off back there, and after he's done at Small Parts, he's going to come to my house and collect on some bad debts. I need to be there when he does.”

A crease formed between her brows. “You owe him money?”

“Yes. He's …
helped
my family out in the past.” He didn't even want to get started on Hayden.

“If it was help, why does he want the money back?”

“Because I won't join the Brotherhood—the charter.”

“Why?”

He frowned. “Because I thought I could do better.”

As she considered this, he took a step back. Maybe he'd said enough to scare her home. It was just a matter of time before she realized they were fighting on opposite sides of the same war.

“Could you?” she asked finally.

“Could I what?”

“Do better. Organize the factory workers. I heard you and your friends talking about it back there.”

He slung a hand around the back of his neck, confused. “Um. Yeah. Not me, though, everyone. I thought if we could all get together, they'd be forced to make some changes.”

“‘They' being my family.”

“Right.” Something was working through her head, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what.

“How?” she asked after a moment. “What would you see done?”

He shrugged. “I have a few ideas.”

She watched his shoulders roll back, his mouth harden into a straight line, and suspected that he knew the faults of this place—and what should be improved—better than anyone.

“I don't belong on the line,” she said. “I belong in the office.”

“Look.” He scratched a hand over his jaw. “I was mad. I didn't mean—”

“I'm going home with you.” She pulled the hair back from her face.

“Lena.” He chuckled dryly, as if anything could possibly be funny. “I just told you I wanted to fight your family, and that a very dangerous man is going to come looking for me. Why aren't you running?”

She pursed her lips, and met his gaze at last. The sadness in her eyes humbled him.

“Because I think I can help.”

*   *   *

By the time they'd passed the St. Anthony statue, he'd chewed his nails down to the quick. He'd lost his mind—why else would he have brought her here? Or walked away from the Brotherhood's offer? Or told her he'd wanted to organize a
press
?

He was insane. That was all there was to it.

He watched her take in her surroundings, wondering again how she'd tricked him into telling her so much. The little greenback was full of surprises. An hour ago, he'd figured he would never see her again, but instead of taking off, she'd stuck. Despite what he'd said, she hadn't done so bad on the line, either, aside from keeling over. Slow, but precise.

As they walked, an idea formed in his mind. If he had a Hampton in his corner, the others might actually listen. Josef Hampton himself might actually listen. He and Otto wouldn't give the workers time to say their piece, but they couldn't write off Lena. She could be the voice they needed to get the same rights as the Brotherhood.

If they hadn't already cut her out of the family, which, by the look of her cheek, they might have.

The sign for Keeneland Apartments was covered with graffiti. After reading the string of curse words, Lena had snorted, and then blushed, and coughed delicately. She wasn't used to the nitro fog from the chem plant. Colin hardly noticed it now, but from the way she kept pressing her thumb on her temple, he bet it was giving her a headache.

Outside the first building, a group of kids were playing kick-the-can while a couple guys chucked knives into a wooden sign. A few thin souls, sick with the flu, wandered around aimlessly. Beside the dirt path a man with a mangy dog smoked a hash pipe. The dog barked as they passed, and Lena jumped in the opposite direction.

Colin led her around the side of the building through the weeds. Jed and his men were nowhere to be seen—not yet, anyway. They needed to get inside. It would be dark soon.

“You live here?” She stared up at the boarded windows and the laundry hanging from the fire escape. A couple somewhere upstairs was fighting.

He hunched. “Just for a while.” Not forever. There were no old men in Metaltown—no one lived long enough.

“I didn't mean…”

“It's fine.” He knew what it looked like. When they'd first moved here he'd thought the same thing—how could anyone live like this? But expectations changed over time. You made the best of what you had, or you ended up like Hayden. Forgetting yourself one fix at a time.