“I broke up the party and let you assholes go, since any sort of delinquency report is shredded, or forgotten, or deleted,” Dr. Luke snarls. “This is what I get for trying to do the right thing when I should’ve just left you all to drink and smoke yourselves off the damn cliff. I’ve never, in my entire career, had inappropriate relations with a student—”
Chase kicks Dr. Luke in the teeth.
“Chase—” I begin, but Chase throws up his hand to me and takes one step closer to Dr. Luke.
“Callie may be trying for diplomacy here, but you and I both know that’s not going to work,” he says to Dr. Luke, sputtering on the ground. “Not with men like you. Did you kill Piper Harrington?”
“No—!”
Crunch.
Chase steps down on Dr. Luke’s knee, crushing it at such an angle that I make silent gagging noises behind him. Dr. Luke squeals, becoming less and less human to me the further Chase’s torture goes.
“I’ll ask again … did you kill Piper Harrington?”
“Christ, boy, how did your parents raise you—”
Pop.
Dr. Luke cries out as his knee’s dislocated, and I step forward, unshed tears in my eyes. I’m all for catching Piper’s killer, but not like this. Not through someone’s physical breaking point…
“Fine! Jesus, fine! I met with her, okay? I saw her that night to fucking dump her!”
I freeze with my arm in midair, aiming for Chase’s shoulder to pull him back.
Chase lowers his chin. “Continue.”
I’ve never seen Chase this cold and unmoving. Like his sole purpose in life is to hurt and maim to get what he wants, and he’s not about to lose any sleep over it.
It unnerves me. Forms a fissure in my heart.
“We had an affair, okay? Get off. Get off my leg. Please.”
Dr. Luke’s begging now, his confession turning into sobs as Chase increases the pressure before he releases his foot, Dr. Luke curling into a fetal position on the ground as soon as he does.
In need for balance, comfort … steadiness, I hold onto Chase’s elbow, staring not at Dr. Luke whimpering on the ground, but at Chase.
“Chase,” I whisper, unnamed fear curling at the base of my throat. The longer I watch him breathe, the more that fear gains meaning and takes advantage of that meaner, hidden part of me that’s grown her fangs these past two years.
“Did you steal my phone?” I ask Dr. Luke, starting off soft.
“Why … would I take … a fucking teenager’s phone?”
“Because it had sections of Piper’s diary in it.”
“Oh.” Dr. Luke’s head moves with a clogged chuckle, then he winces. “Might’ve. You were looking good for Piper’s death, too, Callie.”
“Did you record my fight with Piper? Did you plant those pictures of my mom?” I put one foot forward, my voice as tumultuous and rough as my step.
“Record…?” Dr. Luke squints up at me with added strain to his expression. “What about your mom? This is about … Piper, no? And finding her killer? She didn’t jump, did she? She was pushed.”
Shadows cross his eyes, unrelated to impending unconsciousness. I fixate harder. “Did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Hit him again, Chase.” I’m shocked—and terrifyingly satisfied—to say those words.
Chase isn’t told twice. He slams Dr. Luke’s head into his desk with an open palm, rattling Dr. Luke enough that he spits off obscenities.
“I’ll ask again, did you spread pictures of my mother all over my room to stop me from figuring out it was you? Then stole my phone?”
“What? I used Piper for a lay. You got that? She acted all sweet, and cute, and desperate for my attention, and if you’d had the life I’ve had, you’d understand I couldn’t help but fall for a girl like that. Then she tells me she wants to work it out with Mr. Punch-a-Thon over there. Piper wanted to continue fucking me and shack up with your psychopath of a boyfriend. What a sad sight you are, Callie. I had higher hopes for you.”
I ignore the swipe. “You killed her for dumping your ass.”
“I can’t say she didn’t get what was coming to her,” Dr. Luke spits with a copious amount of venom. “She was a slut. Am I right, Mr. Stone? A fucking—”
Slam.
Well. I could’ve predicted that much.
Dr. Luke cowers, covering his jaw against another blow from Chase’s heel.
But Dr. Luke won’t stop. “How many guys did she fuck, eh buddy? We were two of many. She manipulated, used her beauty, and fed off my dick like a goddamned succubus. Men in this world are better off without a girl like that.” Dr. Luke’s lips peel back in a gaping, blood-soaked smile. “I was cutting my losses that night.”
Chase punches him again.
“Chase, no!” I shout.
“What in God’s name is—Luke? Lucas?”
Headmaster Marron bursts in, folding his body over Dr. Luke and placing a hand on his shoulder. Once he assesses the situation, he glares up at us.
“If you were aiming for expulsion, Mr. Stone, consider that the tip of the iceberg of penalty that’s about to fall upon you. And you, Miss Ryan, I cannot believe the lengths you’ve gone to prove how much you do not belong here.”
Chase doesn’t blink. “Tell him, Lucas, what you told us.”
Dr. Luke nurses his cheek, keeping his eyes closed as he moans.
“Marron’s presence will not prevent a kick to the balls,” Chase growls.
“Mister Stone!” Marron cries, aghast.
“I had an affair with her!” Dr. Luke gasps. “Just get that boy away from me. Get them away. Please. Please!”
“Lucas, what…?” Marron rips his attention away from us.
“With Piper Harrington!” Dr. Luke continues, “We had an affair.”
“I…” Marron trails off. “Lucas, you’re not of sound mind at the moment—”
“I did it! I met with her that night! I didn’t ‘catch’ those kids doing anything. I knew they were there. At the cliff. She called me. Piper hid until everyone was gone, and I waited to see her. But it was to break up. I wanted to end it.” Dr. Luke sobs. “But I didn’t … just tell them to stop!”
“Well, howdy, people. How are we all doing?” Detective Haskins says as he gnaws on a toothpick, standing in the doorframe and taking in the scene.
“Detective, I … this is a formal matter,” Marron stutters, attempting to rise.
“Nope, it ain’t. I heard it all. Thank you for the tip, Callie.”
All eyes, even the bruised ones, turn to me. I nod at Haskins, but I have no idea what he means.
Haskins pulls at the handcuffs clipped to his waist, flicking them open. “Doctor Lucas Stevenson, you’re under arrest for suspicion of sexual relations with a minor…”
Chase drifts closer to the door, and so do I, but Haskins pauses in his reading of Miranda rights to snap, “You two go nowhere. I have questions once back-up arrives.” Haskins’s gaze zeroes in on Chase. “A lot of goddamn questions.”
Haskins’s questioning over what occurred in Dr. Luke’s office went on for hours. There was the matter of notifying, then getting, my stepdad and Lynda on FaceTime … again. There was the problem of locating Chase’s parents. We each needed a guardian present, and since my former ad hoc guardian was on his way to the hospital in handcuffs, Professor Dawson became my righthand man.
Luckily, the questions weren’t as pressing as before, or as suspicious. Haskins, while heading to his meeting with Headmaster Marron, heard the end of the exchange between Dr. Luke and Marron, where Dr. Luke confessed to the affair. He didn’t witness how Dr. Luke received so many bruises or a dislocated knee, and I was forced to speak to some of that. I asked if charges were going to be pressed against Chase. Haskins wouldn’t expand on an answer.
I told him all I could, what I saw, and what I knew. Feeling terrible at having participated in such violence, I confessed to holding Piper’s diary longer than I should have
and was prepared for whatever punishment would follow. I couldn’t keep the knowledge of Mr. S to myself, not once it led to Chase’s impromptu beat-down of a teacher.
“Like an obstruction of justice charge?” Haskins asks, amused as we sit in Professor Dawson’s office. My stepdad’s silent and fuming face is on the computer monitor, also awaiting my response.
“I had every intention of turning it over to the police,” I say lamely. “Which is why I went into town and—”
“Just got it this morning. What a coincidence. It’s the reason I was on campus at lunch and meeting Marron.”
Haskins’s blunt statement brings my head up. “Sorry?”
“You sent the diary to the police station as soon as you found it. That’s what your accompanying letter says anyway.”
“I … I see.” My brows twist, and I glance to the side, the implications of Haskins’s statement pounding against my temples.
“Uh-huh. You also insist you found it as-is and know nothing about the pages that are missing.”
I’m caught between a truth and a lie, and I have the sense that the lie is what will save me.
I didn’t give them anything this morning. I mailed the diary weeks ago…
I swallow. “Right. Yes.”
“Gotta say, I appreciate the apology flowers. Unnecessary, but the letter explained how contrite you were to have found the journal yesterday and read it, but that you made the connection to this … Mr. S … right away. As it happens, we already recorded this alleged code name. One of our witnesses mentioned it to us a while ago. But I appreciate your shrewdness.”
I try for a humble smile and not one that trembles so hard it’ll fall off my face. “You don’t have to explain any further, Detective. I know what I wrote.”
I didn’t write anything when I sealed the diary in the envelope. Someone must’ve intercepted it before it got to the precinct. Intercepted and … used this time to doctor up a letter and a lie.
“Yes,” Haskins says, his stare never leaving mine. “I’m sure you do.”
“If I may ask, what sort of bouquet did the flower shop choose?” I fist a hand into my stomach as I lean forward, popping the acidic bubbles building in my gut. “I requested that it be whatever they thought best for an … apology.”
“Roses.”
I keep my voice light. “How nice. What color?”
“White. Beautiful, I must say, in an office of mostly gray cubicles. Our receptionist certainly appreciates it.”
“I’m so glad.” I fold my hands, hiding the pounding pulse at my wrists. The Cloaks intercepted my mail. “I hope they got my request for an ebony ribbon around the vase.”
“They did,” Haskins says, then snaps his notebook shut. “I appreciate your candor, Miss Ryan, though, next time, just come in with the evidence and be honest. You’re not gonna be arrested for handing it over.” Haskins turns to the computer screen. “And you, Mr. Spencer, thanks for jumping on a call without notice.”
“Happy to,” my stepdad’s canned voice responds. He cuts a look over to me. “We’ll talk later, Callie.”
“Yep,” I say, eager to be out of here. It’s difficult to look at Dad’s expression so soon after Chase brought our unresolved conflict back to the surface.
“Detective?” I ask as Professor Dawson starts leading me to the door.
“Mm?”
“Did Dr. Luke do it? Did he kill Piper?”
“I can’t talk to you about the specifics of the investigation, Callie.”
“I know, but … cop instinct. What’s your gut telling you?”
Haskins raises his eyes, a knowing twinkle in them. “You know, I never got the chance to say it to you, but I’m sorry about your mother. It’s terrible, what you went through as a result.”
“Yes,” I say, but I don’t want to get into Sylvie or my dad. I turn for the door.
“As for your question,” Haskins adds, and I pause. “Yeah. I think we nailed him. Sleep easier, will you?”
I respond with a closed-mouth smile, then leave Professor Dawson’s office with his droll warning to try and stay out of trouble for at least twenty-four hours.
46
“Callie! Callie, wait up!”
I walk faster on the path outside the main building.
“Hey! Callie!”
My steps quicken, eager to escape the voice.
“Possum!”
That brings me to heel. I spin, showing my teeth. “Our fucked-up Bonnie and Clyde moment is over, Chase. Get away from me.”
“Not a chance,” Chase huffs out as he jogs the rest of the distance between us. His cheeks are pink from the chill in the air, his hair mussed and adorable, and every bit of it infuriates me.
No one should look this perfect after a beat-down and a police interrogation. Not even a princely Stone heir.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Dandy. I feel nothing but joy over the stunt you pulled.” I stare hard at the clotted cuts on his knuckles, then turn to leave.
He hooks me by the elbow. “Wait.”
“For what?” I snap. “For you to decide what to do with me now that we found your girlfriend’s killer? After I’ve given you all that you wanted? That’s what this was, wasn’t it? I was just a vessel of possible evidence that you fucked to keep happy until I weakened enough to tell you what I knew.”
“You’re not mad about how I fucked you,” he responds. “I’ve tasted how hard I make you come. You’re pissed about what I said about your dad.”
That earns him a smack in the gut, which is like fine bones meeting hard concrete.
“I was a goddamn dare to you, asshole!” I scream, then sweep my gaze over him. “You don’t get to repeat my past like it’s an advantage you have over me. You have no idea—none—of what it was like to see your mom murdered and think that your stepdad was the—was the—” My voice strains. I hitch in breaths. I have to get away from this.
“Okay. It was bad form.” He spins me back around by the shoulder when I twist to stalk off. “Callie, come on.”
“No! You know what I hate the most? That you’re probably right.” I trip over my words. “The Nobles, the Virtues, Rose Briar—it’s not my secret to tell. They—you—made it clear when you stole Piper’s diary from the town mailbox and trussed it up with roses and ribbons. Tell them I got the message.”
Chase cocks a brow. “Come again?”
A strangled cry releases from my throat at his utter obtuseness. I push at his chest. “They sent it to the police. Your secret society. Not me. To show me who’s in control and their power to make or break me. Isn’t that how you termed it? You win. I won’t meddle in their shit and I’ll forget everything I know about them, so leave me alone.”
“Callie.” Chase’s voice softens as mine spikes with hysteria. “I’m sorry.”
I’m so outside of my usual self, I don’t register the rare apology coming out of him. “What if I was wrong, huh? What if Dr. Luke wasn’t Mr. S? What if the Nobles decided to protect him and not me? This is what’s driving me crazy—I don’t know if they’re good or bad. They keep doing both. You would’ve beaten an innocent man—a teacher—and gotten kicked out of Briarcliff. Worse, you could’ve been arrested. And it would’ve been because of me. Again.”
Chase frowns. “But you weren’t. He was the guy.”
I recoil. “How could you believe that? Based just on what I said?”
“Because you’re you, Callie. You kept Piper’s diary from me until you were convinced he hurt her. Killed her. And besides that, I wouldn’t have been booted from Briarcliff.” He scoffs. “My father simply wouldn’t allow it.”
“I … I…” I raise my hand, palm forward. “I can’t find the words for this. For you. Why won’t you mention the Nobles at all? Is it because you won’t? Or can’t?”
Chase sets his jaw. A few seconds pass, silence I’m certain he won’t fill, and my heart collapses.
I turn to leave.
“What I said
under the stairs … I’ve been trying to protect you,” Chase says. “Your issues with your dad and your friend, it was wrong of me to throw them in your face. But you have to know, powerful people have access to it.”
“Like your father?” I bite out.
Chase’s implacable expression doesn’t change even when he agrees with me. “He’s one of them.”
If I hadn’t witnessed Chase’s unleashing, his pure intent at defending Piper and tangentially, his sister, I’d think this apology was more of his crafted bullshit, wrapped up in a contrite, carefully placed, bow.
Except, I’ve seen what undulates behind his flawless bronze.
“I’m not like you,” I say. “I can’t beat a man to tears—even an awful one—then leave the scene with a bounce to my step. I can’t make another person feel the way—the way you made me feel—and use the worst parts of them to satisfy a secret society agenda. I don’t feed off people’s emotions until they’re nothing but husks of themselves.” My voice breaks. “You made my position clear once I told you about Piper’s diary. I was rat-shit to you after that. You squeezed my heart until it burst in your hands, then left without a second look.”
Chase’s expression grows dark. “Stop putting words in my mouth.”
“Do I have it wrong, then? Were you not walking away from me for good?”
Chase’s cheek muscle tics, his single response.
My heart drops to my feet, as useless an organ as it ever was when it comes to choosing the right guy. “That’s what I thought.”
“I walked away for different reasons,” he says, “and if you’ll let me talk for half a second, then maybe—”
“You don’t deserve half a millisecond, with the way you’ve—”
“Callie—”
“You’ve had your fun at my expense. Our mystery is solved. If you want to tell all your friends what I sorry lay I am, how a former psych patient has been in their midst this entire time, fine. Just take your Noble hounds off my scent. Tell them to stop fucking with me, and I’ll stay quiet.”
Rival (Briarcliff Secret Society Series Book 1) Page 27