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“Are you okay?” I asked, holding out one hand to let her know she could take it if she wantedhelp.
“Are you with them?” she asked, whipping her head to the left and then behind her, as if she were afraid of being seen by someoneelse.
“With who?” Iasked.
She focused on me again. “What the hell are you doinghere?”
“I cameto—”
She cut me off. “Never mind. I don’t have time to hear it,” she said, words tumbling out a mile a minute. “Can you get me off thisisland?”
I nodded. “Ofcourse.”
“Rightnow?”
“Sure.”
Goosebumps were cropping up all over her arms, throat and chest, and she was starting to shiver. I peeled my jacket off and put it over her shoulders, half-expecting her to protest or fling the jacket into the lake. Instead she meekly accepted it with a murmured ‘thankyou’.
I led her over to the spot on the shore where I left my boat earlier. After grabbing the oars, I kicked the boat out into the water and told Laney to get in. She did as I said, still fearfully glancing over her shoulder as we slowly pushed away from theshore.
“I didn’t know you could row,” she saidsoftly.
I turned my head over my shoulder. “Lindsay used to do it, so I watched her practice sometimes and picked up the basics from there,” I explained. “But I’m no expert, believe me. It took me five minutes to figure out how the hell the oarlocks worked earlier, even though it turned out to be simple asfuck.”
“Oh.”
I turned back to face the front of the boat, leaning forward as I pulled on the oars again. “So what happened back there?” I asked. “You looked like you saw a fucking ghost when I ran intoyou.”
“Let’s just say I attended the worst party of my life tonight,” shemuttered.
“Shit. Whathappened?”
She was silent for a moment. “I don’t want to talk about it. Not rightnow.”
“Okay.”
I wanted to know, but I didn’t want to push her too hard. If I did, I might end up getting pushed myself, right into the fuckinglake.
“What were you doing out there?” sheasked.
I cleared my throat. “I followed you,” Imuttered.
“Youfollowedme?” she saidincredulously.
I nodded. “Yup. I’ve been keeping an eye on you over the last few nights. Just sitting in my car outside Blair Hall and watching,” I said, well aware of what a fucking creep I sounded like. “I fell asleep for a while tonight, and when I woke up I decided to stretch my legs. I walked around the side and saw a ladder up against your bathroom window. Then I ran back around to the front and saw a bunch of people in masks carrying you out with a bag over yourhead.”
“How did you know it wasme?”
“I recognized your pajamas. I’ve seen them in your dorm before,” I replied. “Anyway, I was about to go fucking apeshit on them, but then one of them took off their mask, and I saw that it was Camila Valmont. I overheard Adam talking to Trina the other day; something about you joining Camila’s little secret society. So I figured it was just some sort of initiationprank.”
“Itwas.”
“I followed them anyway, just in case. They went into Royal Hall with some guy in a black and gold mask. Used a keycard to get past the entrance lock. So I guess they have special privileges from the school. Anyway, I got to the door just before it closed and slipped in behind them. I saw them take you to their little clubroom, so I waited a few minutes, and then I pressed my ear up against the door. I heard them all talking about your initiation, and saying you needed to get your hair and makeup done. So then I figured there was gonna be some sort of party somewhereelse.”
“So you waited for us to leave and kept followingus.”
“Yup. I saw you head down to the pier at the boathouse and start heading over to the island. I wanted to keep following you—just to make sure everything was okay—but I didn’t have a speedboat like them, so I sneaked into the boatshed. Took fifteen fucking minutes just to figure out where everything was, but I found some stuff eventually and rowed outhere.”
