The Lost Girls || Bbangsaz

XIX

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     "What is he doing here?" Frankie hadn't sold us out at the graveyard, but from his sour expression, he hadn't forgotten about me tearing out his eyeballs, either. Or maybe his face just always looked like that.

     It was hard to tell.

     "I caught him following me," Hyein said. "We had a nice little chat."

     "I wanted to see Haerin," Frankie mumbled to the floor. If he could blush, his face would've been on fire. "And say I was sorry for what happened at the graveyard."

     "I'm standing right here." Haerin had already removed one of the teen's arms and bent it back and forth at the elbow like a seesaw. "But your apology is unnecessary. We know you didn't tell Elton we were gathering our heirlooms."

     Haerin turned her back on us and wandered over to the fireplace, measuring the arm she'd just collected against the mantel. I didn't even want to ask what horrifying project she had in mind. Frankie frowned. He had to have been deluding himself if he expected more than a brush-off from Haerin. She had no interest in him and had never expressed otherwise.

     "Is that all you wanted?" Dani wrung her hands as she glanced at me. She didn't like the idea of Frankie knowing where we were staying any more than I did. He didn't sell us out, but that didn't mean we were ready to start braiding one another's hair.

      "No." Frankie shook his head like he was clearing out the small family of bats who resided there. "I can help you get into the bank." Haerin dropped the arm she'd been holding against the fireplace.

     "Are you serious?"

     "See why I brought him back here?" Hyein gave us a curry. "You're welcome."

     This was getting a lot more complicated than breaking into a high-security vault, and we hadn't expected that to be easy. Frankie looked at Haerin with longing in his eyes. It gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, but if he really could get us past Gwen and into the bank, we'd need him. We didn't have any options at this point.

     "Did you know Frankie here is good at picking locks?" Hyein rested her elbow on his massive shoulder. "He told Elton he could get into Dani's safe-deposit box without her key."

     "What?" Dani asked. "How?"

     "Don't worry." Hyein tapped her on the nose.
"He's going to help us get into the vault before it ever comes to that."

     "I... ah..." Frankie cleared his throat. "Gwen gave me the security code to the building and the combo for the vault. I told her I'd go in tonight and get Dani's heirloom."

     This could work. It scared me how much hope I had at the moment, but this had to be better than straight-up breaking in. If we could bypass the security alarms, we could be in and out without being detected. I looked to Dani, who gave me a thumbs-up.

     "We'll let you three talk while we clean up in here." Hyein nudged Frankie, and they each grabbed a body to dispose of in the woods.

     As soon as they stepped outside, Dani turned to us. "What do you think?"

     "I don't know?" Haerin grimaced as she took in the last two bodies in the living room. "I still maintain there is something very wrong with Hyein, and the thought of her coming up with a decent plan that might actually work makes a little piece of my soul shrivel up and die."

     My spine stiffened. Even if something had corroded in Hyein over the years, she'd been nothing but generous and helpful. A miracle, considering the kind of resentment for me she was absolutely entitled to. And if her idea worked, we'd have everything we'd need.