“Tell me something, Piper,” repeats Quill. “Why did you get up on stage in front of the whole school and talk about Ray Campbell not getting into college? Huh?”
“Oh.” I was definitely not expecting that. In fact, I’d forgotten all about it. “Why are you asking me that now?”
“Answer me, Piper. What’s your problem with Ray?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me, Piper.”
“Not nothing,” I admit, getting flustered under his stern gaze, which feels like it’s boring into my forehead. “But not a big deal. I shouldn’t have done it.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” agrees Quill. “But tell me why you did.”
I bite down on my lower lip. His hand on my ass isn’t moving anymore. The arm encircling me has gone from loving to a steely grip that’s trapping me to him. My breaths come out in short staccato spurts as the silence between us stretches.
“Well?” he prompts.
I lick my lips nervously. I’m sure that telling him is a terrible idea, though I’m not sure why. Maybe he’ll get pissed off at Ray, and I’ll have to feel responsible for the fact that he’s beaten the shit out of him. Which would bother me, because I don’t want anyone to take my revenge away from me.
Or maybe he wouldn’t care, and that would be worse. Far worse. That would be devastating.
“Why do you want to know?” are the words I settle on.
Another silence follows my question, this one so heavy that a gnawing sense of dread creeps up on me.
“Because,” he answers at last, in a slow, careful way, “I’d like to know why I’m going to kill him.”
1 Read about Piper’s weekend and her morning back at school inMonster’s Prey, Book One of theMonster Duet.
Chapter 9
Quill
There’s a long pause as Piper searches my face, apparently looking for a sign that I’m joking.
She finds none, because I’m dead serious, but she doesn’t let that deter her from making one up.
“Stop teasing me,” she says, forcing her features into a more relaxed expression. “You’re not killing anyone. Are you, Quill?”
I don’t answer.
“You’ve never… you’ve never killed anyone before, have you?”
“No,” I allow.
“And you won’t this time either. You’re just saying that. You want to scare me, right? Right, Quill?”
I clench my jaw. “Answer my question, Piper. Tell me why the hell you decided to make an ass of yourself in front of the whole school.”
She folds her arms and huffs out in annoyance. “I didnotmake an ass of myself. I made an ass of—”
I snort loudly. “You absolutely did make an ass of yourself, cricket. Why exactly did you think Ray would care? He doesn’t give a shit about getting into college or not getting into college. Which, by the way, has nothing to do with the paper you found.”
She frowns, clearly puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you think to look up DS University online? If you had, you’d have realized it doesn’t even exist. So you just went up before the whole student body and talked about some shit that you don’t even understand. And you thought that you humiliated Ray Campbell. For someone so obsessed with Nancy Drew, deduction skills are really not your strong suit, are they?”
I’m not used to talking so much, but this girl haspissedme off. I watch her go through the whole gamut of emotions, from surprise, to anger, to… well, surprise again.
