I quickly change out of my skates. I weave through the crowd, past parents and students, some with their faces painted gold and blue. Lana doesn’t move as I approach, just holds out a hand like she’s stopping traffic.
“Not here,” she says. “Outside…”
She walks away before I can answer. Still bossy, so maybe not much has changed. I glance back at the ice. There are only two minutes left of the game. Luke is on a shift, and Grant is covering the point. I make a decision and follow her. The cold hits like a wall when we push through the exit doors.
“I’m not here to fight,” she says when we make it outside. “I’m here because there’s something you don’t know. About Murphy. About everything.”
My stomach drops. What the hell else could there be? “Emily told them everything. Both Joey and his dad are in custody with no bail. It’s over, Lana. You should talk to someone, there is?—”
“It’s not over.” Any pleasantries drop from her face instantly. Still got that acting shit down. Lured me right out here. Gah, I’m a sucker. Here we go. I’m about to be read the riot act, but fuck it. Maybe she needs to get whatever she’s holding in out. Might do her some good, so I stand there and wait.
Lana’s brows drop, likely thinking I was going to cut her off and lay into her. It’s honestly pointless. Taking jabs at her at this point is like shooting fish in a barrel for me.
“You think you know everything, don’t you? Little Madeline Pearson, figuring it all out. Been here two seconds. You don’t know shit.” I can’t tell if her tone is disgusted or pissed off or maybe hurt. I don’t know. She’s a freaking good actress. Still a victim, I have to keep reminding myself.
One that might be coming unhinged? I suppose I’m part of the reason everything came out about her and Coach Murphy. Yeah, not cool. That should have been kept on lockdown, but that shit didn’t come from us. It had to have been the police. Who knows in this small town.
“I don’t think that,” I say carefully. “I just think you’ve been through enough. We all have.”
“Enough?” She laughs, sharp and jagged. “You don’t know what enough looks like.” She steps closer, and I catch the smell of her perfume. “Joey didn’t kill Murphy.”
My blood goes cold, the air leaving my lungs. It’s a struggle to get the one word out. “What?”
“It was me,” Lana says, almost dreamily now as though it was a good thing she did. “It was to prove my love for him.”
The pieces start clicking together—sickening and inevitable. “You lured her to the boathouse.” Holy fuck. She’d be able to mess with the camera footage at Caleb’s.
“That I did.” Lana’s smile is terrible. Creepy as hell. This is not an act; this is the real her. She’s more sick and twisted than I ever could’ve even imagined.
Lana’s smile widens, showing too many teeth. How did she manage to make it creepier? “Finally. You’re not as stupid as you look in that skirt.”
The hell? If I weren’t freaking out on the inside right now, I would laugh.
“Can we get to the point so my skirt and I can get out of here?”
“You’re not going anywhere!” she hisses at me; the dreaminess vanishes. “You ruined everything. Joey’s in jail because of you. If you’d just minded your own business and stayed in your lane, none of this would have happened.”
“Lana—” Oh noes. Joey sucked her into the crazy, or maybe crazy is drawn to each other.
“Everything was going great until you came here. After you showed up with your sad dead dad story and your big eyes, suddenly Joey couldn’t stop talking about the new girl who was going to be a problem. You even went after fucking Luke Locke!”
That’s not true. He came after me. Pretty sure I told him to fuck off and that I bared my teeth to him the first time we interacted.
My stomach turns for both of us honestly. “You killed someone. For a guy who doesn’t even want you. Who was obsessed with Emi?—”
“Don’t.” Her hand flashes out, and I feel something cold and sharp press to my throat. A knife. Small but enough. “Don’t you dare say he doesn’t love me. You don’t know what we had. What we could have had, if you hadn’t destroyed it all.”
“Lana.” I keep my voice calm, my eyes on hers, but they’re wild. “Put the knife down.”
“Why? So you can go back in there and tell everyone? So Joey can hate me even more?” She laughs, and it sounds unhinged. “He’s never going to forgive me. I know that. But at least I can give him one last gift.” The blade presses harder. “The thing he wanted most. You gone, and when Luke comes to find you, he’ll get his too.”
I open my mouth to try to stall, but the door behind us explodes open. I don’t have to turn around to know who it is.
He must have seen us leave and pulled himself from the final minutes of the game. I hear the distant buzzer and the roar of the crowd, but it’s all background noise when my concentration is on the knife at my throat.
“Let her go,” Luke says, his voice terrifyingly calm.
Lana only pushes the blade into me. I let out a small gasp when I feel a sting, warmth trickling down my neck. “You don’t get to tell me what to do, Locke. This is her fault. All of it.”
