Out of the Fire by Andrea Contos

Author:Andrea Contos
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Nomi’s palm taps the steering wheel. “Tell me how dangerous the shitty motel manager said it would be to come here?”

“Here” is downtown’s west side, a forty-minute drive through gradually declining neighborhoods and increasingly potholed roads, deep in the old industrial district. “Here” is the business where I might be able to find my mother.

Here is also not far from where we’ll be Thursday night when we recon Valco, thanks to the clues at the warehouse where I got the bowling ball–sized lump on my head. The note. Taped to the locked door. Hence, the crowbar.

ValPro real estate. That’s what the “For Sale” sign on the building said. Ori said Valco escaped getting fired because of his connection with the mayor, forged through his family’s real estate dealings. That has to be why my stalker led me there. But none of us can risk stumbling into Valco, or worse, if we go charging into the warehouse tonight. Hence, the recon.

Nomi says, “Adams. How dangerous?”

She’s trying to convince me to leave the mom thing alone again. But I didn’t stop her when she flipped that lock, just like she won’t stop me now.

I pull my hair into a pony and yank my beanie on. “Very? He said I shouldn’t come.”

Ori glances up from texting her parents. “I don’t understand why the shitty motel manager—”

“Bill. Uncle Bill is actually what he said.” I wish she’d have stayed home, where it’s safe. Margot and Nomi too. Instead, we’re all here, in Nomi’s car, right down the alley from whatever this place is.

“Why would Uncle Bill give you this address if he truly didn’t want you to go there?”

I flip down my visor and smear black body paint over my face, ignoring Nomi’s snicker. “I’m trying to blend in! Be unnoticeable.”

“You missed a spot.”

I smear a streak down her cheek before she can stop me. “Uncle Bill told me because—”

“This is going to make me break out.” She scrubs at her face with a napkin. “You are such a bitch.”

“That is not why he told me. He told me because of pity.”

Margot lays her head on Ori’s shoulder, trying to read her texts without reading her texts. “I don’t get it.”

“He thought I was talking to my boyfriend when I got threatened about ever seeing Noah again. My possessive, abusive boyfriend. That, coupled with the whole missing-mother thing, was enough to tip him into guilt caused by—”

“Pity.”

“Exactly. In a plot twist, he did give me a very insightful talk about gaslighting, emotional manipulation, and toxic masculinity. So that was … refreshing.”

The car goes quiet, and I zip my coat, transformation to secret agent nearly complete. “Anyway, I promised him I’d dump my abusive boyfriend, and Uncle Bill says if I ever need backup to let him know.”

It feels good to have Uncle Bill standing behind me.

“Okay, gotta go.” I’m fully out the door before Nomi calls my name, and when I turn, she says, “Just … don’t get killed, okay?”

“Roger that. Ten-four.”

I slam the

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