At long last, my hand slipped from his and I rubbed it, urging the blood to run through it again. “And when he does, I’m leaving with him. We’re done, Shane. Do you understand? We’re finished.”
That did it.
Now I was his worst enemy.
Shane stood directly in front of me and leaned down until we were eye to eye. “On second thought, I’ll see that he stays and enjoys himself.”
The grin on his lips made me shudder forcing all the warnings my dad had given me to the surface. My dad was right. Guys who are cruel don’t change. I had been completely under
Shane’s spell, like everyone else, and never saw the jerk he really was.
Until now.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chase
“Heeyyy, you’re the kid from the library,” Ty slurred as he opened the passenger side door to my car. “Shane said he’d send a ride over, but he didn’t say who it would be.” He immediately handed me a manila folder, not waiting for my answer to his astute observation. “So, you have something for me?” he asked with a grin. I almost expected to see him greedily rub his hands together.
“Um, yeah, in there,” I motioned toward the glove compartment. Part of me expected someone to run up to my window and catch us, but the arrangement between me and Headmaster Whitley came to the rescue, easing my thoughts. Tonight would go according to plan, no matter how awkward I felt now, or once I got to the party. What kept me going—reassuring me—was that I wasn’t in this alone. Evie knew. Headmaster Whitley and the police knew. Shane would get busted. It would work. I took a deep, silent breath and pressed my foot on the gas and headed out.
“You seem a little edgy.” Ty was obviously sober enough to make judgment.
“I’ve never done this before,” I admitted, feeling stupid for sounding every bit the rookie I really was. I had hoped to appear like a true bad-ass. Wishful thinking. I brushed off the fact that this was illegally and morally wrong. The truth was, I was beginning to feel more at ease. I was at the wheel, I was in control. I knew things neither Ty nor Shane had any idea of.
Ty pulled the baggie from the glove compartment and inspected it like a professional, seeming satisfied with its contents.
“Look good?” I asked him.
“Yep, looks good.” He had the same glassy eyes from the other night, which made me cringe as I realized I was about to spend the entire drive with a wasted stranger. Despite Jake’s directions, the party house wasn’t exactly a hop, skip and a jump away. It was going to be a long drive and I had no idea what Ty and I would to talk about to make it go any faster. It wasn’t like we’d have a lot in common. In fact, I’d prefer to deal with my paranoia by myself.
“Shane rarely gives me anything bad,” Ty offered.
“So you two have done this before?”
“Mmm, hmm.”
“So, are you going to like, rub it on your gums, or something?” Obviously I had seen too many Miami Vice reruns.
Ty looked at me crookedly. “Nah, I trust Shane,” and he turned his attention back to the tiny bag in his hand. Trusting Shane Whitley—that to me was just as dangerous as dangling a hand over an alligator’s open mouth. Actually, it was just as dangerous as the mess I had gotten myself into tonight.
“Good,” I said, “Because I was going to tell you not to open that.” I blew a sigh of relief between my lips and felt my chest lighten slightly. That was the last thing I needed; a powdered illegal substance all over Aunt Claudie’s car. I looked away and focused on the road and getting us to the party.
“So, how much does something like that go for?”
“Why, are you interested?” He looked at me with gleaming eyes, as if he had just garnered a future customer in me.
“No,” I answered. “I was just curious.” And just trying to make conversation with someone I had absolutely nothing in common with.
“Well, I usually deal in trades when it comes to Shane.” The bag crinkled as he rolled it back and forth between his hands. “Between you and me, he’s kind of a cheapskate and not too bright, so we rigged up a deal. I do his papers and he gets me quality.” He dangled the bag above his head like a trophy and I nodded, pretending to follow along.
“I’m sure I could work something out for you too.”
I rolled my eyes and concentrated on the road. Like that was going to happen.
Ty talked nonstop for the rest of the ride, and I hunched over the steering wheel, craning to listen to the lady’s voice in my GPS so we wouldn’t get lost. Apparently, the secret location of Jake’s party was so secret, even Ty had no idea where it was, but by the time we rounded the corner and turned onto the driveway of the house, he was suddenly struck with recollection.
“Oh, yeah, I’ve been here.” He muttered next to me in the passenger seat.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Cars were parked all around the outside of Jake’s house. I looked among them, not sure if Evie was already inside. I was pretty sure she came with Tara, only I had never seen Tara’s car before, and it was pretty dark up here on the mountain with trees shading most of the lot. I gathered my bearings and caught the cool, damp scent of the lake in the air, then followed Ty toward the brightly lit house. The folder that held Shane’s paper was a dead weight in my hand.
I stepped through the doorway beneath the roof of an incredibly wide front porch and was struck by three things: the intense pounding of bass, the view of a glistening black lake just beyond a humongous room with a wall full of windows, and dozens of eyes staring at me. It was like walking into the dining hall all over again, only I didn’t have the comfort of Evie by my side. But walking in with Ty seemed to work in my favor. The heads that turned our way, turned back, and everyone resumed what they had been doing before.
“Come on, the kitchen’s this way.” Ty waved his hand for me to continue following on his heels.
“I’m not hungry, but thanks.”
“Ha ha,” Ty laughed, and I followed his unsteady figure toward the back of the house.
“Let the party begin!” Ty announced with his arms stretched wide, oblivious that the party had indeed begun a while ago and we were a few of the last ones to arrive.
I thought of my aunt sitting at home in front of the TV. I was honest and told her I was going to a party. The look on her face was something between winning at Bingo and meeting Colin Firth. She was elated I’d found a way to fit in with kids my age, I couldn’t possibly tell her Shane would be here, especially after what had happened at school.
A group of six guys and girls huddled around a center island laden with shot glasses and almost every bottle of alcohol known to man. I felt drunk just looking at it.
“You made it.” Jake pushed his weight off the counter and met me in the doorway, holding out a blue plastic bowl.
“Keys,” he said.
I stared at it amused, “Did you run out of chips?”
“Very funny,” Jake smirked. “I’m collecting everyone’s keys.”
“Yeah well, I’m not staying that long.”
Jake pushed the bowl closer, “Just a precaution.”
I sucked it up, dug into my pocket, produced my set of keys, and dropped them into the bowl on top of the others.
I hoped no one would eat them.
Then Jake spied the yellow folder in my hand, “Got something for Shane?” he asked.
I looked down, wishing I could rip what I held into pieces. Shane didn’t deserve the grade he was bound to get from Ty’s hard work, and I saw how Ty sweated that night at the library to get it finished. By the thickness of it, I could say a ton of sweat went into it, maybe even bucket loads. And for what? Something that would make him feel good for an hour or two? The grade would go further than that baggie. It was an uneven exchange of the highest proportions.
“Follow me,” he turned, expecting me to follow.
“Nice place,” I yelled toward his back as I kept up.
Jake turned his head back to answer me, �
�Under normal circumstances, it is. I’d like to hear you say that again tomorrow morning after everyone leaves.” He let out a chuckle, but I knew he didn’t see any humor in it. Besides, I wouldn’t be here tomorrow. The plan was to get the envelope to Shane, find Evie, and get out.
The wall at one end of the huge Great Room was entirely made up of glass and overlooked Billings Lake. I couldn’t help being entranced by the shimmering darkness on the other side.
Kids mobbed every available seat in the place as the room we walked through opened to another.
Couples kissed and groped, singles laughed and drank. People sat. People stood. I barely recognized everyone without their Whitley Prep uniforms, even though my brain reassured me these were the same kids I went to school with every day. Absent were the skirts and knee socks, the crested navy blazers and red striped ties. Instead, everyone seemed to have raided Abercrombie and Hollister, giving a strange transformation to the faces I knew should ring familiar to me.
“Not what you expected?” Jake asked me, noticing the way I ogled at everyone.
I looked at his amused face and tried to play it off, “It’s just different, that’s all.”
What I didn’t expect, was the way the house became quiet once we ascended the stairs to the second floor. It was entirely muted from what was going on below, as if the entire upper half was a separate house altogether, or its own planet for that matter.
Jake stopped in front of a closed door and hesitantly raised his hand to knock. It reminded me of a scene from The Godfather, and I wondered if Shane thought that much of himself to hold office in Jake’s house. The vacillation Jake demonstrated unnerved me. His fisted hand was poised at the door, but he had yet to knock and let Shane know we were on the other side.
Besides, this was Jake’s house, so what was he waiting for?
“Wait here a second,” he told me.
No duh.
I nodded, not wanting to appear rude.
At last his hand met the door and rapped three times. Was that a freaking code?
Unbelievable.
Shuffles and murmurs emanated from the other side and after a few seconds Jake slowly opened the door, giving me the barest glimpse of what was behind it. I heard Shane, but I knew he was there to begin with, only—the giggling and shuffling competed with the timbre of his voice and my heart stuttered, processing another voice that was female. I caught the view of a bare shoulder and a shirt being yanked on, and, so help me, if those breathy giggles belonged to Evie, I would die right here in Jake’s hallway. But the door yanked open and I was face to face with Shane in his white tee and jeans, his usual cocky grimace plastered to his face, but his eyes held surprise, and I wondered if he expected our arrangement to fail.
His eyes immediately dropped to the folder and he held out his hand. Placing it in his waiting palm was the hardest thing I could ever do. It was wrong and here I was, helping him get away with it.
He turned and walked back into the room, flicking apart the metal tabs that held it shut with his thumb and pulling the thick pages free. Jake and I waited in the doorway, unsure if he expected us to follow. I wanted to look over at Jake, to see if his expression would prompt me to either walk into the room or escape back downstairs, but my eyes took in the rumpled bed, which was still very much occupied.
Swallowing hard, I forced myself to focus on Shane. I couldn’t help bristling at how pleased he looked as he paged through the work he didn’t do.
“Ty’s downstairs?” Shane asked finally.
But my gaze was pulled toward the form lying beneath the crumpled sheet.
I nodded. “He’s in the kitchen.”
The form moved, stretched then rolled over. Evie? My palms were sweating. I finally understood. This was what Shane wanted all along. He wanted me to find the girl of my dreams lying in a bed that minutes ago occupied both she and the boy I hated. It was possibly the best form of revenge he could ever throw at me.
The girl beneath the sheets sat up and ran her fingers threw her hair, clearly unaffected by the fact that she had an audience. And my jaw dropped.
“Tell everyone we’ll be down in a minute,” Shane said casually, as if having a girl other than Evie wasn’t a big deal.
Jake ushered me out of the room and pulled the door closed behind us. “Listen, Mitman.
This is how things are around here. It’s probably best that you just forget what you saw in there.”
I watched as he opened his mouth to say more but the sound of glass shattering from downstairs stopped him, and he rolled his eyes with frustration. “I’ll be back. Just make yourself at home.”
Stirrings came from behind the door at my back, and my heart stammered. It could have been Evie in there. I could have walked in on them, and if I had . . . I couldn’t begin to think of what I would have done. All I knew, after what I had just seen, I was determined more than ever to find her. I made my way toward the steps, battling overwhelming shock and dual relief that Tara Reynolds could look so good in nothing more than a sheet.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Evie
It took approximately twenty-two minutes for Tara to get drunk. The giggling, snorting, leaning on the person closest to you, kind of intoxication she so often found herself a victim of at these parties. Tara didn’t realize how embarrassing she was, so after swirling the contents of whatever was lying at the bottom of my cup and pretending to like it, I decided to leave her in the kitchen where there was more than one person available to babysit her, and a solid counter for her to lean against.
I didn’t care to know where Shane had disappeared to and I didn’t care if he knew I had resigned to park myself on a chair on the back deck, far from the suffocating crowd in the living room. It gave me the perfect view of the front door, which I watched like a hawk.
The lake air refreshed and cleared my senses, so it was only natural that I breathed in hungry gulps of it as I tried to calm myself down and saw tonight for what it really was—this party was a turning point.
Shane and I were over, that was a given, while Chase and I were at a beginning of something I hadn’t dared try to figure out yet. While I let it sink in, there was one thing I was certain of, and that was we were vulnerable. Not only to the new emotions stirring between us, but absolutely defenseless against any game Shane would play to get back at me.
I knew what Shane was capable of and it chilled my heart, especially now that I too had been on the receiving end of his emotions. I had wanted Chase to steer clear of him, only that was impossible. The ridiculous, miraculous assignment in Mr. Floyd’s class forced me to take this chance. Now, the rest was up to Chase and me. Could we weather the storm and come out safely?
I took a long look at the vicious mix resting at the bottom of my cup, made a face, and poured it over the side of the deck. There was still no sign of Chase and little pangs of worry had already begun to eat at me. The call of a loon settling in for the night sounded from across the lake and then, I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Ty’s familiar head bobbing around the room. Ty wouldn’t be here without Chase. That was the plan; which meant Chase had to be around here somewhere.
Craning for a hopeful glimpse, I instead spied Tara, wobbling her way up the stairs. Either she was sick already or someone had enough sense to tell her to go lie down. I rose from my chair about to check on her. She was my ride home later, and the sooner she started sobering up the better—only I stopped short, unable to move past the handle of the sliding door. Through the pane of glass I watched Shane sneak up behind her, her giggles clearly audible from where I stood on the deck. He guided her by the small of her back as he followed behind. At first, the thought of him being a helpful friend entered my mind, but instinct told me not to trust that.
My trust in Shane had already been shattered.
His eyes slowly surveyed the room below, as if making sure everyone was either too busy or too smashed to pay attention. When his eyes seemed to penetrate the glass I stood
behind, I stepped backward, making myself as invisible as I could be, and held my breath. There was too much light bouncing off the glass from the inside of the house for him to notice that I watched them.
Tara turned, grabbed his hands and pulled him up the stairs behind her. My stomach twisted. I’d seen too much to question when it came to glass and reflections lately, and I knew without a doubt there was more than friendship in that look passed between my boyfriend and my best friend—both in the chem lab window and tonight. Now, the question was how long had it been going on, and I knew for certain Shane had played me yet again.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chase
There was an awkwardness that hung heavily around me, and since I couldn’t find Jake anywhere, and I didn’t want to look like his shadow, I slid the door to the back deck along the track, and stepped out into the clear night.
“You found me.” Her whisper startled me.
I turned to see Evie curled up, her legs beneath her, on an Adirondack chair and felt flooded with relief that I’d found her.
“Some party.” I eyed the empty cup she held in her hand and wondered what had been in it.
She smiled sweetly, but even in the dark I could note a touch of jumpiness in her eyes. I pulled a neighboring chair over and slid it next to hers. Leaning forward with elbows on knees, I ran my hands through the hair hanging over my eyes.
“Well?” she asked. “How did it go?”
It was nearly impossible to look into her hazel eyes and tell her the truth, to tell her I had been scared shitless, but I bit my tongue. I was the hero here tonight, right? I gave my head a little shake and tried to smile reassuringly for her. “Surprisingly easy,” I admitted. “I mean, I looked out the rear mirror a million times, waiting for flashing lights to pull me over, but otherwise, it went okay.”
“But the police were notified, so an arrest would have only been for show, right?”
I nodded. Despite the unease, I felt a rush. It made me feel strong and worthy, and confident that Headmaster Whitley would hold true to his word. Nothing would compare to this moment.
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