The Complete Private Collection: Private; Invitation Only; Untouchable; Confessions; Inner Circle; Legacy; Ambition; Revelation; Last Christmas; Paradise ... The Book of Spells; Ominous; Vengeance (196 page)

“That’s what you think,” the girl said, laughing strangely. “But you’re going to stay away from him. Unless you want your other boyfriend to find out about what you’ve been up to.”

Ariana said nothing, gripping the pen so tightly that her hand began to tingle, numbness slipping over it.

“You remember, don’t you? All those things you did. Things that I’m sure Daniel would be very interested in. The sex . . .” The girl shook her head slowly. “The murder. That poor boy,” she murmured. “The police would probably appreciate an anonymous tip as to exactly who he was with out on that lake and exactly how he ‘drowned.’”

“How do you know all this?” Ariana’s voice was barely audible.

“I keep my eyes open,” the girl replied. “Of course, it’s completely up to you whether I go to the cops or not.” The girl leaned across the table, her cold eyes just inches away. “Just remember—you’re on thin ice. And, if memory serves, that’s a dangerous place to be.”

She leaned back, laughing at her sick, twisted joke. As she stood up, she tugged a scarf out of her jacket collar with her cut-up hand and wound it around her neck. A dark navy argyle scarf.

Ariana gasped, recognizing the fabric.

“Stay away from him,” she said under her breath, resting her hand on Ariana’s shoulder. She squeezed tight, digging her nails into Ariana’s skin. “I won’t ask you again.”

And then she was gone.

Ariana sank, lifeless, into the booth. Within seconds, the realization of what had just happened sank in. Her hands started to tremble,
then her arms, her legs, her feet. Soon, her entire body was shaking, racked with fear and guilt and shame.

That girl had a dark navy argyle scarf. Just like in the picture of her and Thomas kissing in Daniel’s room. The argyle material swam before her eyes as heat surged through her body. Sergei hadn’t taken the picture of Ariana and Thomas. Now that she thought about it, the picture of her and Thomas kissing in Daniel’s room hadn’t even been on his camera. How could have she been so stupid? He hadn’t been the one screwing with their minds, making Easton’s campus a living hell.

Suddenly, Ariana couldn’t breathe. All she could hear were Sergei’s pleas. Him asking her to help him. Begging her. Saw his eyes go blank as he sank beneath the surface of the lake.

It hadn’t been him. But he had died anyway. Murdered. Ariana had murdered him for no good reason.

No. No, no, no.

It had all been for nothing.

She clawed at the neck of her sweater and fumbled for the water glass in front of her, knocking it clear off the table. The family at the counter turned to stare.

In . . . two . . . three . . .

Out . . . two . . . three . . .

In . . . two . . .three . . .

Out . . . two . . . three . . .

Just then, the waitress rushed over with napkins. “Are you okay, hon?”

“Fine. Thanks,” Ariana lied. “I just remembered I have someplace to be.” She had to get out of the diner. Now. Any second Daniel was going to return from the bathroom and catch her in the middle of this panic attack. She couldn’t have that. She had to go. Ariana grabbed her coat and stumbled into the street. She gulped the winter air as if she were fighting to keep her head above water. As if she were about to get pulled beneath the surface again.

Her world was starting to crumble. She could feel it. Everything she’d worked so hard to keep, everything she deserved, was slipping from her grasp. And she didn’t know how to hold on any tighter.

Ariana waited patiently in the dark of Thomas’s room until he returned. After thinking for hours about what had happened at the diner, mulling it over and twisting it around, her brain had finally started to clear. Sergei was not her fault. That girl was responsible. She was there. She could have stopped Ariana. Could have told her Sergei was innocent. She was the one with Sergei’s blood on her hands. Plus, Sergei
had
known about her and Thomas. Would always have been a threat. But those realizations didn’t solve all of Ariana’s problems.

“Who is she?” she asked quietly when he opened the door. Pale light from the hallway leaked across the floor, illuminating tiny shards of jagged glass embedded in the floor planks. The broken Captain Morgan’s bottle still sat on Thomas’s desk. Reminding her.

“What the—” Thomas flipped the light switch on the wall and whirled around. He collapsed against the door when he saw Ariana sitting cross-legged on his bed, still wearing her coat and scarf. “Jesus,
Ariana. You scared the crap out of me.” He dropped his athletic bag and basketball next to the door, looking relieved. “What are you doing here?”

“I asked you first. Who is she?” she repeated evenly, staring him down. Despite the fact that Ketlar was heated again, a slick cold crept over her skin.

“Who’s who? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, hovering nervously near the door.

“So I’ll refresh your memory,” she said coolly. She had trusted Thomas like she’d never trusted anyone before. She had given him her virginity, and in return, he had hidden something from her. That was going to stop. Now. If they were going to get through this together, she had to know everything. “Tall brunette. Pretty. Says she loved you, and you dumped her without any warning.” Emotion started to creep into her voice, and she swallowed it. This wasn’t the time to let her feelings get in the way. Feelings only complicated things.

Slowly, the color drained from Thomas’s face. “I—I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

Liar.

“Wrong,” Ariana said calmly, running her fingers over the worn plaid bedspread beneath her. “Try again.” Her voice was flat. No hint of the rage that boiled inside her.

“Ariana, I swear—”

“Don’t lie to me!” Ariana shouted, standing.

Thomas took a step back “All right!” he whispered. “All right. Just keep it down.”

Ariana crossed her arms over her chest and waited. Waited while Thomas ran his hands through his hair. Composed what he was going to say.

“Her name is Melissa,” he said weakly. He ambled across the room and slumped against his desk. “Mel Johnston. I dated her for a while this fall.” He paused, glancing warily in Ariana’s direction as he unbuttoned his coat and tossed it on his bed.

Ariana was silent.

“I met her through some of my friends at Easton High,” he continued. “We went out for a few months and she got kinda clingy, so I broke it off. No big deal. Please don’t—”

“When?” she asked icily. “When did you break it off?” The sound of Thomas begging only made her angrier. It made him seem weak.

“I don’t know.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked down at the floor, studying it as if seeing it for the very first time. “Maybe a month ago? She didn’t take it too well, and I haven’t heard from her since.” He looked up at Ariana, a pleading gaze burning in his sapphire eyes. “Listen. It’s over. I swear. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think it was a big deal. I don’t know why it’s so important—”

“Because she
knows
, Thomas!” Ariana exploded, lunging in his direction. “She knows everything!”

He recoiled into his desk, knocking the broken bottle to the floor. The rest of it shattered, sending splintered pieces of glass to the far corners of the small room.

“What?” Thomas’s voice was thick with fear. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“She saw us together,” Ariana spat, trying desperately to keep her voice down. If anyone heard her screaming and caught her in Thomas’s room, they were screwed. “She knows we had sex. She knows about Sergei.” Tears welled up in her eyes at the very sound of that name. “And she told me that if I didn’t stay away from you, she was going to tell Daniel everything. She said she’d go to the police.” The weight of the threat was palpable, heavy in the air. “The
police
, Thomas.”

“Oh my God.” Thomas rubbed his face with both hands, exhaling slowly. “Okay. Give me a second to think.” He jumped down from his desk, pacing back and forth in front of the bed. Head down. Glass crunched under his every step. “How did you . . .” he started. “Where did she find you?”

“In town.”

Ariana suddenly felt drained. Every last bit of strength had been sapped from her body. It took everything she had just to breathe. In and out. One breath at a time. She collapsed onto Thomas’s bed, inhaling the scent of his pillow. But even his familiar smell couldn’t comfort her now.

Eyes closed, she took a deep breath and told him everything this Mel girl had said—except, of course, exactly how Sergei had died.

“She’s serious, Thomas,” Ariana said quietly, wishing she could sink into the mattress and disappear. “I can tell.”

“Crazy bitch.” Thomas stared at the floor for a while. “How the hell did she even know about us?”

“I don’t know, but she was following us all weekend,” Ariana said. “I’m surprised she and Sergei didn’t bump into each other in the—”

Suddenly the truth rushed in on Ariana. It hit her so hard her brain went foggy for a moment. But when it cleared again, she was sure. She knew exactly how Mel had found out about them.

“The North Face store,” she said quietly.

“What?” Thomas said.

“She was in the store that night. When I was shopping for Daniel and you . . . surprised me,” Ariana said, her heart pounding. “I remember her voice. You were about to kiss me and then—”

Thomas’s face lit with understanding.

“Holy crap. She’s the one who knocked into the rack and stopped us.”

“I knew I recognized her voice. She said she was sorry,” Ariana said. “That must have been the first time she saw us.”

“How did you recognize her voice tonight, but I didn’t even notice in the store?” Thomas asked.

“I have a thing for details,” Ariana said quickly. “Who cares? The question is, what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Thomas said. Anger and panic were beginning to creep into his voice, and the glass crunched more loudly, more insistently under his feet as he crisscrossed the room. “If she tells, I’ll lose everything. Easton, my inheritance.” He stopped abruptly in front of his door and slammed his fist into it.

“Thomas!” Ariana jumped off the bed and grabbed his arm before he could swing again. She ignored the small voice in the back of her mind telling her Thomas hadn’t said he couldn’t lose her. “Stop it!” She gripped his sweater, trying to pull him away. He shrugged her
off, but she ducked between his body and the door, blocking him. Taking his hand, she saw that tiny drops of blood had surfaced on his knuckles.

She held his gaze, held onto the connection between them like a rapidly fraying thread. She could feel him pulling away, pulling back from her. And it was all because of Mel. She was to blame.

“It’s my fault,” he said, his voice cracking. “This whole thing is my fault.”

“No.” Ariana cupped her hands around the back of his neck. It was drenched with sweat. “Don’t. Don’t say that.”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Thomas snapped, pulling away. His upper lip twitched slightly. “It’s true, isn’t it? None of this would be happening if I hadn’t screwed her over. I can’t lose Easton. I can’t.”

Thomas took a deep breath and looked at Ariana. She could see his breathing start to normalize and she felt a flutter of pride. He trusted her, loved her. She was capable of calming him. He was just upset because he knew Mel could ruin everything for both of them.

“We have to do something,” Ariana said firmly. “We have to stop her.”

“What can we do?” Thomas said. “The girl’s nuts. You said she wants you to stay away from me, right?”

“Right.”

“So we just make sure she doesn’t see us together.” He tilted his head toward her. Reached out to touch her hand. “We were going to be apart this year, anyway. Now we have to be even more careful when we meet up.”

He was trying to reassure her, but it wasn’t enough. They had planned to lie low for the rest of the year, but they had also planned to
be together next year, after Daniel was gone. Why wasn’t Thomas worried about next year? Why didn’t he want to make sure that Mel never had the chance to turn them in? Ariana turned toward him, looked into his eyes. They were blank; she couldn’t read him.

“So that takes care of this year,” she began. “But what about—”

She felt him flinch slightly, and she froze. It would have been imperceptible to anyone else. But not to her. She already knew him well enough to know his every move. She knew him well enough to know that he would never be with her as long as Mel was in the picture. He knew that Mel could hurt them, and he wanted to protect Ariana. Protect her because he loved her. But protecting her meant pulling away. And she couldn’t let that happen.

Deep calm settled over her, soothing her burning nerves. She started toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Thomas jumped up after her.

“I have to get back to Billings,” she said simply. “Noelle’s going to start wondering where I am. Or worse, Paige.”

“Okay,” he said. “See you later?”

“Sure.”

“Wait.” Thomas gripped her arm, pulling her back. “You okay?”

She opened the door and peered into the hallway. It was empty.

“I’m fine,” she said reassuringly. And she was. But he wasn’t. He looked so worried, so scared. So fragile. And in that instant she knew she was the only one who could ever take care of him the way he needed. The only one who could make sure he didn’t break.

And after all, wasn’t that what it was to be in love?

Ariana gripped the chain-link fence and marveled at how well the gloves Noelle had given her kept out the cold. Squinting into the heavy fog, she stared at the large double doors that loomed at the top of several sets of rambling steps. A large stone archway carved with the words
EASTON HIGH SCHOOL, EST. 1935
crumbled over the doors. Moss had crept into the crevices of the letters, giving them a greenish tinge. With the exception of a ragged American flag whipping in the wind, the school grounds were bare. Silent.

A loud car drove by—silver, four-door, broken muffler—and Ariana checked her watch. Just then the harsh clanging of the afternoon bell echoed in the halls and around the deserted grounds. Seconds later, the doors flew open and waves of students poured down the steps. She blocked out the noise that flooded the yard as they spilled into the street. Settled into the quiet calm of her mind, searching the crowds for a familiar face. This time
would be different. This time, she would be the one catching Mel off guard.