Ten rows in front of them sat Bree and John, literally entwined. She snuggled into the crook of his shoulder, her face resting blissfully against his chest while John stroked her back with his free hand.
Margot sighed. She remembered the way she had felt when Logan embraced her. The safety. The protection. She’d wanted to stay in his arms forever.
The pain of Logan’s betrayal had dulled, the grief ebbed, and now all Margot felt was an overwhelming sense of loneliness. She’d been stoic about her self-isolation in the past, but Logan had been a taste of forbidden fruit that she wouldn’t soon forget. Sure, he was a sociopathic serial killer, but he loved her, and more importantly, he’d made her feel as if she was worth being loved.
Margot took a deep breath and slowly exhaled through her nose. She just had to remind herself that she would be fine on her own. She had friends, she had support, she’d even earned the respect of her parents in a way she’d never believed was possible. She could live without love.
Because she had a goal now. Margot’s hand strayed to her bare arm. No longer obscured by an oversize sweatshirt, the scars of Margot’s suicide attempt were open to the world. Never again would she hide them. Never again would she live in shame of the pain and hopelessness she’d felt that day. She’d go forward displaying them proudly. Because she’d overcome that day, and lived to be a stronger person. And if her story of struggle could prevent just one person from taking the same drastic steps, it had all been worth it.
“Hey, bacon, what’s shakin’?”
Ed the Head plopped down on the bench next to her. Margot had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts, she hadn’t even noticed him sidling across the row toward her.
“Edward,” she said with a nod of her head.
Ed winced as he pulled a small notebook from his back pocket. A near-fatal bullet wound to his stomach hadn’t been enough to keep him from the biggest school sporting event of the season. “So I’ve got six-to-one odds on Kitty and Bishop DuMaine.” He inclined his head. “Care to place a wager?”
“That’s illogical,” Margot said. “Should be fifteen to one.”
Ed whistled. “You think?”
“The Lady Dukes have a renewed sense of school spirit,” Margot began, laying out the reasoning behind her statistics. “The murderer has been caught, the police presence was removed from campus, Father Uberti officially dissolved the ’Maine Men, and students have returned to normal high school life. Haven’t you noticed the rah-rah attitude around here this week?”
“The little lady has a point.” He let his notebook fall to his lap and leaned closer to her, dropping his glibness for a moment. “And how are you doing?”
Margot glanced at him sidelong. It was a loaded question and he knew it. “Logan’s facing life in prison,” she said coolly, “and the police decided my actions in the boiler room were in self-defense. I suppose that’s a win-win.”
“I see.” Ed leaned back, propping his elbows up on the bench behind them. “So I know your boyfriend tried to kill me and all,” he said with his trademark smirk. “But do you think you could find it in your heart to be my business partner? Clearly, surgery has muddled my brain.”
Margot shook her head. She had to give it to Ed—despite all he’d been through, he still maintained his sense of humor.
“You have to answer me one question first,” she said.
“Just one?”
Margot nodded.
“Hit me.”
Margot cleared her throat. “I get that you found out that Sergeant Callahan was Christopher’s cousin.”
“Don’t you want to know how?” Ed asked eagerly. “It was a pretty awesome prank I pulled at the Beemans’ house and—”
“I get,” Margot said, interrupting him, “that you withheld that information from DGM because you thought you were protecting me.”
Ed’s gaze faltered but he didn’t say a word.
“And I even get that you doctored the carbon copy of the speeding ticket from October first to the seventh to give yourself an alibi.”
“If you hadn’t been in a coma,” he said, smiling wickedly, “you’d have seen through that ruse right away.”
“But what I don’t get,” Margot continued, “is how after months of investigation, you never found out about Amber Stevens’s summer at Camp Shred.”
Ed cringed and grabbed his stomach. “Ouch. That hurt worse than getting shot.”
Margot smiled. “So in light of your questionable skills, if we work together, I want sixty percent.”
A look of horror passed over Ed’s face. “Forty.”
Margot arched an eyebrow. “Surely you can do better than that,” she said playfully.
Ed rubbed his chin vigorously as if waging an internal debate. “Fine,” he said at last. “Fifty-fifty split. But this is going to require long hours working together. Do you think you can handle it?”
Margot turned to Ed. His face was all smiles, but his eyes held a sadness that she alone understood. “Yeah,” she said. “I can handle that just fine.”
DGM
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is dedicated to my friend and fellow writer Laurel Hoctor Jones. She’s has been my trusted reader and story doctor since Ten, and I could not have gotten through this sequel without her. I am truly a fortunate writer to have her in my corner.
As usual, it takes a village to make a book, and I have one hell of a team in mine.
My editor, Kristin Daly Rens, went above and beyond with this book and our tight editorial schedule. She worked at least as hard as I did, and her dedication to and love for these characters kept me inspired.
My agent, Ginger Clark, has also worked tirelessly behind the scenes on behalf of this series. Equal parts cheerleader and reality check, she knows when to hold my hand and, more importantly, when to tell me to pull on my big girl panties and deal. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Huge thanks to Alessandra Balzer and Donna Bray for believing in me. Again. And again. The B+B and HarperCollins team is absolutely amazing, and I’m so lucky to be able to work with them: Kelsey Murphy, Kathryn Silsand, Michelle Taormina, Alison Donalty, Caroline Sun, Olivia Russo, Nellie Kurtzman, and Jenna Lisanti. All rock stars.
Speaking of rock stars, Curtis Brown has their own lineup, and I’m eternally grateful for the work these folks have done throughout my publishing career: Sarah Perillo, Jonathan Lyons, Holly Frederick, and Kerry D’Agostino.
Amber Sweeney, you are my marketing guru, my design go-to, and the motor that powers my online machine. I literally cannot thank you enough for all you’ve done, but I’ll try—thank you.
On the front lines, I have to thank my amazing husband, John Griffin. I absolutely could not have written this book without his continued support—everything from listening to me whine about deadlines and plot points, to shouldering the majority of the household chores so that I could have more time to whine about deadlines and plot points. I love you desperately.
Then there are you guys, the readers. I’m not sure I’ve ever thanked you before in the acknowledgments, so I’m rectifying that now. The only reason I get to do what I do is because of you. So thank you for making this dream of mine possible, and I hope you love the conclusion to this series as much as I do.
And lastly, as always, for my mom.
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epicreads.com
ABOUT THE ATHOR
Photo by Pixie Vision Productions
GRETCHEN McNEIL is an opera singer, a writer, and a clown. She is also the author of Get Even as well as Ten, which was a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Yo
ung Adult Readers, a Romantic Times Top Pick, and an ALA Booklist Top Ten Horror Fiction for Youth and was nominated for Best Young Adult Contemporary Novel of 2012 by Romantic Times. Gretchen blogs with the Enchanted Inkpot and is a founding member of the vlog group the YARebels. You can visit her online at www.gretchenmcneil.com.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
BOOKS BY GRETCHEN McNEIL
Possess
Ten
3:59
Get Even
Get Dirty
CREDITS
Cover design by Torborg Davern
COPYRIGHT
Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
GET DIRTY. Copyright © 2015 by Gretchen McNeil. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McNeil, Gretchen.
Get dirty / Gretchen McNeil. — First edition.
pages cm
Sequel to: Get even.
Summary: After forming a secret society that takes revenge on school bullies, mean girls, and tyrannical teachers, four very different teenaged girls must discover the killer who is coming after them and the ones they love.
ISBN 978-0-06-226087-1 (pbk.)
EPub Edition © May 2015 ISBN 9780062260888
[1. Revenge—Fiction. 2. Secret societies—Fiction. 3. Murder—Fiction. 4. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Title.
PZ7.M4787952Ge 2015 2014038718
[Fic]—dc23 CIP
AC
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15 16 17 18 19 PC/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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Get Dirty (Don't Get Mad Book 2) Page 27