The Witches of Santa Anna ( BKs 1-7 Complete Set)

by Lauren Barnholdt

I hang up the phone and try to calm my own fraying nerves. Ever since Natalia came to school it’s been a rollercoaster ride. Up and down, up and down. Just a little while ago I was on cloud nine, being with Nat, holding her, kissing her.

  But then something weird always has to happen It’s not her fault, I know that.

  But I don’t understand why it has to be so hard.

  I park the car in front of her house and she’s already waiting for me, sitting on the front steps, looking cute and a little lost.

  “Be honest, you planted this butterfly necklace or whatever it is, just so you could see me again tonight,” I say, as I walk toward her.

  She’s got her arms wrapped around her legs and chin on her knees, kind of like a little kid would do. It’s pretty adorable. “No. And that’s not funny.” She smiles anyway.

  “Let me see it.”

  “I don’t even want to touch it.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Back in its box, just inside the front door.”

  I open the screen door and the box is sitting there. I get a chill just looking at it.

  “Wow.” I try to laugh, shake my head like it’s just something stupid her ex did, but I’ve got this pit of unease in my stomach. Kind of like how I felt when I opened my locker this morning.

  I open the box and look at the necklace. And I have to admit, it’s kind of beautiful in a way. Like, part of me is almost jealous that I’m not the one who bought it for her. Did he even buy it? Maybe the crazy nutcase made it himself in his psycho dungeon workshop. I shake my head.

  “What?” she says.

  I look down at her, holding the box in my hands. “Nothing. Just kind of at a loss for words.”

  “I’m scared, Cam.”

  “Don’t be. It’s nothing.”

  But that’s a lie and we both know it.

  “I feel like something bad’s about to happen. And I can’t make it go away.”

  “You’re just stressed.” I sit down next to her and put the box to the side.

  “Is that a message to me?” she asks, nodding at the box. “How did Derek know about the butterflies?”

  “Maybe it wasn’t him who put that thing in your purse. Maybe it was…Brody.

  Or Raine.”

  “It wasn’t Brody.”

  I give her a look.

  She leans into me. “Seriously, I really don’t think he has anything to do with this.

  And not because I like him. I just…I have a feeling about him, that he’s a good person.”

  “Yeah, Brody’s a great guy all right. Especially when he’s giving wedgies to the freshmen kids on the JV squad.”

  “It’s not Brody,” she says. “He wasn’t anywhere near my bag today. And neither was Raine. It’s Derek.”

  I sigh and stand up. “Fine. Then let’s do something about it.”

  “Do something?”

  “Yeah. Come on, get up. I’m sick of just sitting around waiting for everyone else to make moves. We need to take control.”

  “What, like a drive-by?”

  I laugh. “No, not a drive-by. More like a stakeout.”

  “No. No way.” She starts shaking her head like I just told her we were going to invite Raine and Derek on a weekend camping trip with us.

  “You know where the guy lives, right?”

  “Cam, I don’t want to go anywhere. It’s late and I’m scared.”

  “I’ll protect you.”

  She softens a little bit. “How?”

  “Nobody’s going to hurt you when I’m around. I promise.”

  She believes me. Maybe because she can tell that I mean it. “Okay,” she says, finally. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  ***

  Derek lives across town near Main Street, a bit of a rougher area than most people I know who go to Santa Anna. Which is probably because he doesn’t go to Santa Anna.

  But the street is quiet this time of night and I park far enough away that it’s very unlikely he’d notice us even if he was looking out the window. But the house is completely dark.

  “Looks like even psychos have to sleep sometime,” I joke as I turn the car off.

  “Very funny.”

  Natalia’s got the bracelet in her hands and she’s examining it intensely in the semi-darkness. “You think this cost a lot?” she asks.

  “I don’t know.” I sit back and stare at the dark house and the car sitting empty in the driveway. “That his car?”

  She looks up and nods. “Mmmhmm.”

  “That car see a lot of action between you two?”

  She flinches. “That’s not—“

  “I’m sorry,” I say quickly, feeling horrible. “Bad joke.”

  “Terrible joke. And no, for your information, that car saw very little action. All we ever really did was kiss.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking…why the hell were you even dating that guy in the first place?”

  She keeps playing with that necklace as she talks and I want to tell her to stop touching that thing. But I’m not sure why I want to tell her to stop so I don’t say anything. “It’s weird. I mean, the whole relationship with Derek was weird. He wasn’t my usual type of guy. He was funny but always in trouble at school, always getting kicked out of class for goofing off or something.” She pauses for awhile. “But I saw something in him. He was deeper than that, more than just some crazy troublemaker. At least, I thought he was.”

  “Do you still?”

  “No. We only went out for about a month and then he started acting kind of bored and distant. It seemed like he wasn’t having fun anymore, at least not with me. I’d already decided to break up with him when I started hearing the first rumors.”

  I grit my teeth. Part of me is seriously considering knocking on this guy’s front door, dragging him out of his house and beating his ass right here and now.

  “At first it was just weird looks and people laughing as I walked by in the halls. I thought I was just being paranoid. Pretty soon it was all over Facebook and I was getting emails calling me a slut.”

  “What did he say you did?”

  “Disgusting stuff. He told people I was too kinky and I’d totally freaked him out.

  That I was into…” She makes a face.

  “You don’t have to say it.” I grip the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turn white. “I should have knocked him out when he came up to you in the parking lot at school the other day.”

  “No.” She looks at me. “I don’t want you getting into a fight over me. And besides, I have a feeling Derek can handle himself . He used to take boxing lessons.”

  “He won’t have a chance to box me if I put him through a wall first.”

  “Cam. Please.” She puts a hand on my shoulder and I relax.

  “Sorry.”

  “No, it’s fine. I kind of like it that you’re so protective.”

  I stare at that car. That empty car in the driveway. “Maybe I can’t punch him, but I can do something.”

  I open the car door but she grabs me. “Wait, what are you doing?”

  “I’m breaking into his damn car. Fuck it.”

  I pull away and she calls after me. But I’m determined to finally actually do something about this asshole. Find out what he’s up to. Not sure if there will be anything incriminating in his car, but if not, maybe I’ll try his house next.

  I hurry across the street, walking at a brisk pace. When I reach his driveway, I act like I live there and have every right to be doing what I’m doing. The last thing I need is to be acting shady and get caught by a curious neighbor.

  I try the car door. Locked. But the window is open a crack so I work my hand through, gently wiggling and pushing downward until the window starts to slowly lower.

  Finally I get it to where I can push my arm through, and luckily I have long arms. I reach all the way down and find the lock, then open the door. The whole process takes maybe a minute to complete.

  Funny, I think. I used to complain so much abou
t helping my dad at his locksmith company but here I am putting all my knowledge to such good use! Dad would be proud.

  I slide into the front seat of Derek’s car. It smells like cologne and old cheeseburgers. Maybe that’s because of the McDonald’s bag sitting on the floor of the passenger side.

  It’s so dark that I’m having a hard time even knowing where to look, but I figure the glove compartment is always a safe bet.

  So I open it and hit the jackpot almost immediately.

  A digital camera. I grab it and turn it on, and the battery still works. My heart’s racing. I swivel around and check to make sure nobody’s spotted me. So far, the coast is clear. I can see the front end of my car, but the windshield is dark and it’s impossible to tell that Natalia’s in there. She’s probably freaking out, but this needed to be done.

  Once the camera’s on, I figure out how to get into the pictures. And when I see what’s there, I almost feel faint. A wave of disbelief hits me as I cycle through the hundreds of shots.

  “Jesus.”

  This is worse than that stupid necklace. Much, much worse.

  I shove the camera in my pocket, then slam the glove compartment shut and roll up the window. I try to think about whether or not there’s anything that would tip him off to knowing I was here, but I don’t think there is. I barely even touched anything in the car. The evidence was just sitting there at the top of the glove compartment.

  “Idiot,” I whisper. But is he just an idiot? It seems like there’s way more to him than that.

  I hurry back to my car and get in. Natalia’s white as a ghost.

  “I can’t believe you just left me like that!” she says. “And what the hell were you thinking breaking into his car?”

  “Hey, relax, nothing went wrong,” I say, turning the key in the ignition and driving away from the scene.

  “But what if it had? What if he’d caught you? We could have gone to jail!”

  I give her a sidelong glance. “Point is, nobody got caught, Natalia.”

  “You’re as crazy as everyone else,” she says, looking at me in awe.

  “I don’t think so. In fact, I’m pretty damn sure your old friend Derek is topping the list right about now.”

  “You saw something?”

  I nod.

  “Tell me, Cam.”

  “You need to try to stay calm.”

  “Just. Tell. Me.”

  I sigh. “Okay. But prepare yourself because it’s bad.”

  “Duly noted.”

  “I found a digital camera in his glove box.”

  Natalia makes a groaning noise. “Oh, God.”

  I hold it out to her and wait for the fallout.

  Chapter Three

  Natalia

  Cam’s holding the camera out to me, and I take it, my hands shaking. I scroll through the pictures one by one. Me, outside of school. Raine, walking in the student parking lot with Teri and Becca. Brody at football practice. Me and Adrianna at the mall.

  “That asshole,” I say, “I can’t believe he followed me to the mall!”

  “He followed you?”

  “Yeah.” I’m still scrolling. “He must have. I thought it was weird that he just showed up there, but …” I trail off. “Jesus Christ.” I take a deep breath. This has just gone from slightly creepy to completely and totally psychotic and scary. “I think we should call the police.”

  “The police? And say what?”

  “Um, that my crazy ex-boyfriend has been taking creepy surveillance pictures of us?”

  “Maybe,” he says.

  “Maybe? Don’t you think this crosses the line?” I throw the camera back over to him, like that will somehow erase what’s on it.

  “I don’t know.” He shrugs. “I just…” He trails off, staring through the car window toward Derek’s house.

  “You just what?”

  “Look, I know it probably sounds crazy, but I get the feeling that if we go to the cops, they’re not going to be able to help us.”

  “That’s ridiculous.” I pull out my cell phone. “Of course they’ll be able to help us.” Won’t they? I mean, they’re the police. They’re supposed to be there to help. In fact, this is the exact kind of situation where you should call the police. Although... Cam is kind of right. I mean, what would I say? That my ex-boyfriend gave me a weird necklace? That’s not a crime. And following me and taking pictures of me is, but how could I prove this is Derek’s camera? And even if I could prove it’s Derek’s camera, how would I say I got it? Cam broke into Derek’s car, which I’m sure the police would be very interested in.

  Before I can decide what to do, the door to Derek’s house starts to open.

  “Get down,” Cam says, and we both scrunch down in the front seat.

  “Why didn’t we park around the corner?” I ask.

  “Did you really want to be walking around out there in the dark, exposed?”

  Him saying the word “exposed” breaks the somber mood a little bit and makes me want to laugh. He must see the look on my face, because he reaches over and puts a finger to my lips. “Shhh,” he says.

  We hear the sound of a car starting, and Cam lifts his head up and peeks through the windshield. “What the fuck?”

  I sit up a little bit too, peering over the dashboard.

  “Who is that?” I ask. A familiar-looking girl with white blonde hair is walking down Derek’s driveway. She gets into a black sedan that’s parked on the street, then starts it up and drives away.

  “It’s Brody’s sister,” Cam says, glancing at me and not even trying to keep the “I told you so” sound out of his voice.

  “Brody’s sister?” I say. “What the fuck? I thought she was in rehab.”

  “So did I.” He starts up the car.

  “Where are we going?” I ask.

  “We’re following her.”

  ***

  Twenty minutes later, we watch as Brody’s sister pulls her car into the driveway of Brody’s house. She cuts the engine and walks inside, turning the outside light off after she shuts the front door.

  “Well, that was a little anticlimactic,” I say.

  “What?” Cam’s looking out the window, distracted.

  “I thought there was going to be a high speed chase or something.” I’m joking, but Cam doesn’t look like he thinks it’s that funny.

  “I think Brody’s sister being at Derek’s is a little more dangerous than a high-speed chase.” He’s looking straight ahead, his mouth set in a straight line, and his tone is kind of harsh.

  “Are you mad at me?” I ask.

  “No,” he says, sighing. “I’m sorry, I just.. I’m stressed out. And I wish you could admit that Brody might be mixed up in this somehow.”

  “Fine,” I say, “Brody might be mixed up in this somehow.” I don’t want to believe it, but seeing Brody’s sister coming out of Derek’s house is kind of hard to ignore. I think about that day with Brody in Harvard Square, how we ran into his sister and how the two of them got into some kind of fight.

  Suddenly, I’m exhausted. I lean my head back against the seat and close my eyes as Cam keeps driving down Brody’s street. I must drift off for a few seconds, because the next thing I know, Cam’s pulling into a twenty-four hour gas station. “Should we be stopping here?” I ask sleepily. “What if someone sees us out together?”

  “It’s after midnight,” Cam says. “And besides, I don’t have enough gas to get you home.” He turns the car off and unbuckles his seatbelt, then opens the door and heads toward the pumps.

  I pull the white butterfly necklace out of my pocket and sit there for a while, staring at it, my mind racing with everything that’s gone on tonight. After a couple of minutes, a car pulls up at the pump in front of us, and Becca gets out. Shit. Becca!

  What the hell is she doing here?

  I try to slump down in my seat, but before I can, she turns around and we lock eyes through the windshield. I see the look of surprise that crosses her face, but the
n she gives me a bitchy smile and saunters over to Cam’s car.

  “Well, well, well,” she says to me through the open window. “What are you two crazy kids up to?”

  “How’s your face?” I ask.

  She just grins, and Cam, probably hearing our voices, comes around from the back where he’s been pumping the gas.

  “Hi, Becca,” he says. He doesn’t sound nervous at all. “Me and Natalia were just hanging out at Brody’s, and Brody had a little bit to drink, so I offered to drive her home.” This isn’t the exactly the best story for him to come up with, since I’m sure if Becca tells Raine, Raine will check with Brody. And I really doubt that Brody’s going to go along with our lie, or be thrilled that Cam and I were hanging out.

  “Really?” Becca asks, like she doesn’t believe it.

  “Really,” Cam says. “How are you doing? Have you seen Aiden lately?”

  “Does Raine know about this?”

  “Does Raine know about what?” Cam asks, but now his voice sounds a little more strained.

  “That you’re out with her.” She looks at me like I’m a piece of trailer trash or something.

  “No,” Cam says. “And I wasn’t out with her. Like I said, we ran into each other at Brody’s.”

  “Ri-iight,” she says.

  “We did,” I tell her, nodding as if that’s going to make it true.

  She turns to look at me, a smirk on her face. “If you expect me to believe that, you’re even dumber than I thought.” She flips her long blonde hair over her shoulder, then pulls her phone out, probably to text Raine and tattle on us.

  “Stop,” I tell her. “You’re not telling Raine.” And before I know what I’m doing, I’m out of the car and trying to grab the phone out of her hands.

  “Knock it off,” she says, shouldering me off and turning away from me.

  The fact that she acts like I’m not a threat makes me madder than I already am, and so I try to reach for the phone again.

  “What the hell is your problem?” she asks.

  “Well, I punched you once, right?” I say. “So you can’t be too surprised that I’d start messing with you again.”

  She rolls her eyes at me, then starts to text Raine again. But this time she falters for a second, and when she does, a weird rush flows through my body. It’s not heat, although it does make me feel hot. It’s more like a jolt of something, not electricity, but close to it.