A small stack of photos poured into her lap like a glossy wave, spewing one horrific image after the next. She grabbed for the first one, not quite believing what she was seeing.
It was her and Kaleb at the gala, staring at each other from across a round table. A beer sat in front of him and a martini in front of her. There were several more of them talking on the terrace, dancing on the dance floor, and looking at each other as though they were the only two people in the entire world. They would have almost been romantic if they didn’t send chills down her spine.
Then the images changed. It was still her and Kaleb only now they were in the hotel suite, talking, laughing, and dancing. Each one leading to what Katie knew would happen next, yet hoping it wouldn’t. But it did.
She was naked, splayed across the table as Kaleb pressed warm kisses down her body. There were images of her frozen in the midst of release, back arched, head thrown back in pleasure. Then they were in the bedroom, sweaty, and tangled in sheets and each other.
“Oh, my God!”
“Katie?”
She had completely forgotten about Kaleb, that he was on the phone. The sound of his voice broke through her horror.
“I have to go.”
She disconnected before he could ask anything else. The phone dropped onto the bed and lay forgotten as she ripped through the rest of the photos, her heart escalating in tempo with each new frame.
When she reached the last one, she stopped and stared in paralyzed silence at the image of her sleeping and Kaleb lightly touching the side of her face with curled knuckles. He was peering down into her face with a look that should have melted everything inside her, except it didn’t. She felt cold and violated.
She pitched the picture away from her, not wanting that image burned into her mind. Not like that.
It drifted away from her like a snowflake floating in the breeze before settling face down on top of her books. The yellow sticky note attached to the back fluttered.
She almost didn’t want to reach for it, but curiosity and a slow building rage had her tearing it off and reading the four mocking words.
Such a naughty girl.
Chapter Ten
“You didn’t call.”
Miles of exhaustion, gnawing fear, and dread pounded behind the backs of Katie’s tired eyes as she lifted them wearily to Ashlee as she barged into the shop.
“What?”
She dumped her bag down hard on the glass counter, making Katie flinch. “You were supposed to call me yesterday.”
Katie vaguely remembered that, but after the little fun package left for her in her locker, it just hadn’t seemed as important. It certainly wasn’t as important as the knowledge that someone had been there the night she and Kaleb had been together, doing something so intimate. It continued to strike her as so wrong. Someone had been watching them. Someone had taken their picture. God, she couldn’t even think about it without wanting to bathe away the violation.
“I had a lot of homework,” she mumbled, snatching up her own backpack and slinging it on over her shoulder. “We should go.”
She didn’t wait for Ashlee to follow suit. She threw herself out the door and made a straight path towards the school.
“Hey! Wait!” Snow crunched loudly beneath Ashlee’s boots as she hurried after Katie. “What’s the hurry? Aren’t we stopping for coffee?”
“I’m not feeling up for coffee.” And she wasn’t.
All she could think about was getting to school and ransacking her locker for any other surprises that may have been left for her.
“What do you mean no coffee?” Panting, Ashlee grabbed her arm and jerked her to a halt. “Who are you and what have you done with my best friend?”
“Not now, Ash.” Katie wrenched her arm free. “Seriously, I need to go.”
Leaving her friend staring after her, Katie all but ran the rest of the way.
The school was overflowing with students waiting for the bell to sound. Katie threw herself through the metal doors and nearly killed herself racing to her locker with wet boots on sleek laminate. The stiffness in her fingers had nothing to do with the cold as she twisted the dial on her locker and wrenched open the door.
Her gaze swung wildly from top to bottom, searching for the slightest thing out of place. But all her things were exactly where she had always put them. Not a single pen was out of place. Yet somehow, someone had managed to break in and put those pictures inside for her to find. But who? Who would do that? And why?
Such a naughty girl.
She shut the door, grabbed her backpack, and went in search of the only other person those photos could affect.
It had crossed her mind the previous night that perhaps Kaleb had something to do with those photos. That maybe he had asked someone to take them. But she couldn’t seem to determine his motives. Those pictures would hurt him as much as they would hurt her. They would actually hurt him more. Then there was the how, how had he gotten the other person into the hotel room without her noticing? Those pictures were taken from inside the suite. The person had been there the entire time, hiding. But that didn’t get Kaleb off the hook, not until she’d spoken to him.
Fishing her phone from her pocket, she texted him as she walked, or rather marched, like a woman on a mission.
“Where are you?”
There were several moments while she waited.
“I just arrived at the school. What’s wrong?”
Katie released a humorless laugh. “We need to talk. Now.”
The silence was longer now and she wondered if he was trying to decide whether or not to answer.
“I’m leaving the parking lot. Meet me down the block.”
Stuffing her phone into her pocket, she bolted. Her heels cracked noisily despite the din. No one noticed, or stopped her when she forced her way off school property and jogged down the block towards the gray sedan idling along the curb.
She threw herself into the passenger’s side seat and slammed the door behind her.
“Katie, what…?”
Ripping open her backpack, she tore out the envelope and tossed it into his lap.
“You better not have had anything to do with these,” she told him.
His brown eyes jumped from her to the envelope, as though she’d just thrown a snake at him.
Very slowly, he picked it up and drew out the pictures. Katie watched him as he flipped through them. She watched as his face went from confused, to surprised, to murderous.
“Where did you get these?” Eyes that had always been so soft and gentle when touching upon her were hard as flint when they met hers now. “Katie? Where did these come from?”
She shook her head. “Someone put them in my locker yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” he growled. “You’ve had these since yesterday and you didn’t—”
“I got them before I saw you after school,” she interrupted him. “I put it in my binder and forgot until I got home. I was on the phone with you when I opened it.”
“And you didn’t think to call me back and tell me?” He flipped through the photos a second time, his face twisting with dark fury. “Who sent these?”
“I don’t know!” she cried. “There was only the one note.” She turned over the last photo to show him. “Nothing else.”
His nostrils flared. His jaw muscles flexed. “And you thought I had something to do with this?” His gaze snapped to her face. “You thought I would do something so disgusting?”
Guilt wormed into her chest. She dropped her eyes. “I didn’t know what to think. We were the only two in that hotel room, Kaleb. These were taken from inside. Someone was…” she trailed off, turning her head away. She ran a shaky hand over her mouth, wiping away the pasty sensation. “What do we do?”
“I’ll tell you exactly what I’m going to do,” he said, shoving the pictures back into the envelope. “I’m going to find the bastard and kill him.”
Katie believed him. It was in his eyes, in
the hard set of his jaw, and in the way he couldn’t seem to control his usually calm features. His entire body was rigid with rage. It wafted off him, making the air in the car nearly unbearable.
She wondered if she’d done the right thing telling him. She decided she had. He had a right to know. It involved him in a way that by not knowing, could hurt him. He needed to know someone out there knew something very private about them, something that could potentially cause a lot of damage if shown to the wrong person. Even Katie herself had much to lose, like her aunt’s respect. If word got out that she had slept with a teacher, it could harm the shop’s reputation as well, in turn hurting her aunt. It would go on her permanent record and what school would want her after such a scandal? They wouldn’t care about legalities. They wouldn’t care that she was legal and that their relationship wasn’t morally wrong. Had she been in college or university, and he had been a professor, it would have been fine. They were consenting adults. But no one would see it that way.
She was in high school. He was a teacher. That would be the bottom line.
“I am so sorry,” she whispered. “This is all my fault.”
“What are you talking about?”
She drew in a shaky breath and turned to him. “I should never have asked you to come up.” She dropped her face into her hands. “I should never have asked you to stay.”
“Hey.” He touched her arm lightly. “I’m glad I was there.”
Wiping away the single tear clinging to her lashes, Katie looked at him. “How can you say that?”
He took her hand and lightly wiped at the tear stain on her finger. “You would have been alone with whoever took these. There’s no telling what he would have done.”
That thought had never crossed her mind, but now that he’d said it, she felt her stomach heave.
“Oh God…”
Without waiting for him, she threw open her door and lunged out. She slumped against the side of the car, sucking in gulps of air as her stomach boiled up to her throat.
She was only vaguely aware of the driver’s side opening and slamming shut, of Kaleb’s feet rounding the car. Then he was right in front of her.
“Katie.” He took her shoulders lightly. “It’s going to be all right—”
“No!” she cried, nearly on the verge of tears. “It’s not going to be all right. Some … asshole, took pictures of us doing things that were personal. Then he sent them to me … why? Why would he do that? What does he want? And what secrets is he talking about?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured gently. “But I will find out.”
She raised her head, sniffled. “How?”
He smoothed the pad of his thumb over her cheek, sweeping away the lone tear making its way to her chin. “Trust me, okay? I won’t let this hurt us.”
A shiver passed through her that had nothing to do with the cold. She wrapped her arms around herself and let the car keep her propped up.
“I’m just so scared,” she said. “This could mean so many bad things for both of us. What if they—”
“They won’t, at least not right away.”
She raised her head, brushed back a strand of hair off her cheek, and looked up at him. “How can you know that?”
“Because they wouldn’t have sent it to you first,” he said evenly. “If they wanted to ruin us, they would have. They want something.”
The wave of nausea returned and she held herself tighter. “What?”
He opened his mouth to reply, only to realize something and shake his head instead. “I don’t know.”
She didn’t like not knowing. She didn’t like being on the verge of that abyss, waiting to be shoved over. And despite all the air in the world, she couldn’t seem to be able to breathe.
“Katie.”
She was drawn into the crisp material of his jacket and held fast to his chest. Her face wedged just above his heart and her fingers curled into the stiff material at his waist.
“I’m going to figure this out,” he whispered into the top of her head. “I’ll fix it.”
She wanted to ask how, how he could possibly have that sort of power, but she didn’t care. If he could make those horrible images go away, she didn’t care how he did it.
Her fingers tightened once before she drew away. “I’m sorry I thought it was you.”
He caught a strand of hair being toyed with by the wind and nimbly tucked it behind her ear. “Don’t worry about it.” He sighed and looked towards the school. “We need to get back.”
Nodding, she reached inside the car for her bag and hauled it out. She swept her hair back, cursing herself for not thinking to tie it up before leaving the house.
“Katie?”
She swung her bag over her shoulder. “Yeah?”
“Do you think I could keep the photos? I promise no one else will see them,” he added when she hesitated. “It’ll just be easier for me to find out who sent them if I have them.”
The thought of letting those pictures out of her sight only made her queasier, but the urge to shred them to confetti was only overpowered by the bone-deep need to find the person responsible.
Cautiously, she nodded once. “Promise me you’ll burn them afterwards.”
“I promise,” he murmured.
With another nod, she sidestepped away from the car. “I’ll see you in class.”
Focusing became impossible through most of her classes. Even at lunch, as she sat across from Ashlee, she couldn’t seem to bring herself to listen. Instead, her gaze kept roaming over the sea of faces, her mind a jumbled mess of questions; like, was the person responsible sitting at one of the tables?
The idea that someone in her school could have been at the party had occurred to her during Business Law. She had come to the conclusion that only a person from the school would know where her locker was, or who she was. It wasn’t too hard to believe that someone she may know could have been at the gala. After all, she and Ashlee had been. And Kaleb had been. Who was to say someone else hadn’t been as well. But who? There were so many faces.
“You’re not listening!” Ashlee whined loudly, stabbing Katie’s forearm with the three prongs of her fork.
Katie jolted and glowered at her friend. “Hey!”
“Okay, spill.” Ashlee folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. “What is your problem?”
“I don’t have a problem,” she muttered. “I’m just tired.”
“Please!” Ashlee threw up her hands. “I’ve seen you ace your exams on two hours of sleep, okay? Seriously, I’m getting worried. What gives?”
“Hello ladies!” Larson draped his lanky frame into the third seat at their table.
“I knew it!” Ashlee slapped the table with her hands. “The world is ending and you had a premonition!”
Katie raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Well, you’re acting weird and he’s awake. What else could it mean?”
Despite the weight crushing her, Katie laughed. “You’re such a weirdo.” She turned to Larson. “What brings you out so early in the afternoon?”
Larson sighed heavily. He folded his tatted arms on the table. “The folks want me to start making an effort.”
“Since when do you care?” Ashlee snipped.
“Since male unit promised me a car if I complied with the terms,” Larson replied. “A man needs a set of wheels.”
“Male unit?” Katie shook her head. “Don’t you mean Mom and Dad?”
Larson shook his head. “Nope. Mom and Dad are incarcerated for the next twenty five years for armed robbery. The units at home are temporary until I turn eighteen.”
Katie didn’t know Larson very well. They’d met in shop class sophomore year and kind of just became friends, or as friendly as two people could get when one of them only dropped by on a whim once a week for a few short minutes. She liked him, much to Ashlee’s distaste.
“Well, they must be nice,” she mused. “I mean, getting someone a car is a big deal, isn’t it?
”
Larson just shrugged. His long fingers drummed lazily on the table top, sending sparks flashing from his silver rings. The barbell in his tongue glinted when he poked it out from between his lips.
“So what classes do you have this afternoon?” Katie asked, veering the topic away from his parents.
He seemed to relax slightly. “I don’t know. I have to find my locker still.”
Ashlee nearly choked on the sip of water she’d taken. “You don’t know where your locker is?”
“Babe, I haven’t been here in like five months. I don’t even know where the bathrooms are.”
Katie jumped in before Ashlee could start one of her infamous rants. “Do you need help?”
Larson waved her away. “Nah, I’ll figure it out. Thanks.”
“Katie?”
All three of them looked up at the unfamiliar voice approaching their table. The boy that hurried forward wasn’t one Katie recognized, but she was almost certain he wasn’t in her grade, or at least in any of her classes.
He paused at the table, flopped a patch of sandy blond hair out of his green eyes and squinted between her and Ashlee. “Katie Claremont?” he asked again.
“That’s me,” Katie said, giving him a small wave. “Can I help you?”
“Uh…” He dug into his pocket and removed a small, white envelope, the kind people tucked inside bouquets of flowers. “I was told to give you this.”
“Oh!” Katie took the card, flipped it over to read her name scrawled across the back. “Who’s it from?”
The boy shrugged, taking a step back. “I don’t know. He didn’t give me a name. Just gave me the card and asked me to find you.”
With an apologetic grin, he turned on his heels and walked away.
Bemused, she tore open the top and slid out the card.
“Hope you liked my surprise. Wait until you see the next one.”
The chair skidded out from under her, when she lunged to her feet, and hit the floor with a resounding crack that had the entire cafeteria screeching to a halt.
Katie didn’t notice. She hurried after the boy.
“Hey! Hey, you! Stop!”
The boy didn’t have a chance to. She grabbed him and spun him around.
My Soul For You Page 13