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I made it to the third floor of the building, and snagged a seat on the bench outside the chemistry class. I didn’t have class for another hour. Let’s just hope I had her as figured out as I thought I did.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
Then seven.
Then five more minutes.
I checked my phone again, worrying my lip. If I missed it, the guys could tell me what happened, but I really wanted to see for myself—
“This way, officers.”
I shot up straight.
“Although, I’m sure there’s been a misunderstanding. What you’re saying just isn’t possible. She’s one of our best students and a credit to the community.”
“There’s no misunderstanding.”
Shit! I ducked into a corner, concealed by an oversized potted plant. Officer Philips and her partner walked past inches from me. I waited until the dean let them into the classroom, then snuck into the auditorium. I would not miss this.
“Excuse me?” Professor Keen stopped mid-lecture. “Can I help you?”
“Pardon the interruption. We’re here for Gabriella Montana.”
Gabriella’s head snapped up from the third row, eyes comically round. Sharing the seat next to her was Everleigh. Five rows away sat Piper and Katie. And sitting toward the front in a row all her own, was Saylor.
Rafael winked at me from the very back. I scurried over, plopping low on the seat between him and Wilder.
“Just in time, gorgeous.”
“Me?” Gabriella cried. “Why?”
“You know why, bitch.” Annika marched beside the cops—a riot of healing bruises, a new haircut from her head getting shaved for surgery, and her arm in a sling. Despite her banged-up state, I’d never seen anyone readier for war.
She flashed her phone like a badge of honor. “It’s all right here. She was at the beach house that night with Giovanni, not me. I showed up, caught her fucking my boyfriend, and she threw me off the Bluffs!”
Gabriella jumped up. “Wait, that’s not—!”
“I was barely out of surgery before she sent a bunch of guys to threaten me. They said if I ever told the truth of that night and got Gabriella in trouble, she’d come after me! The night he died, Giovanni called me and apologized. He said he loved me and didn’t want to lie anymore. Then he was gone!” Annika snatched a random guy’s binder and threw it at Gabriella’s head. “You killed him!”
“That’s a lie!”
“Whoa, let’s calm down.” Philips physically got between Gabriella and Annika. “Miss Montana, get your things and come with us. We need to ask you a few questions.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she shrieked. “Everything she said is bullshit, including that he loved her. Giovanni was only playing with you, bitch. He used you to hide our relationship. Why would he want you? He said being with you was like fucking a dead fish.”
Annika launched at her. The girl just got out of the hospital and was not letting that slow her down. Philips locked around her waist, retraining her.
“Saylor getting punched in the face is still my favorite day, but this is a close second.”
The guys chuckled.
“Want to know what he said about you?” Annika replied. “That you were a mistake! He said he wasted his time chasing after a stuck-up princess who was never going to publicly choose him. All the while he had someone who loved and wasn’t ashamed of him—me.” The words were bullets shooting from her mouth. “He said he wished he never met you!”
The final bullet struck, knocking Gabriella back. Her face crumpled. “Th-that’s not true. He knew I—”
“He knew you were insane,” Annika flung. “And when he threatened to tell the truth about you, you killed him and tried to frame some Dreg.”
“I would never hurt him!”
“Just like you never hurt me. But whose flabby ass is that bouncing on my boyfriend’s lap the night you attacked me?” She shoved her phone in the face of the guy nearest her.
He took one look and bugged out. “Oh, damn! Get it, Montana.” He passed it off to his friends too quick for Philips to swipe it off him.
“Hey! That’s evidence!”
Her partner was forced to stumble through the row, chasing down and retrieving the phone. By then, they both had enough.
“Miss Montana, you will come with us now—either voluntarily or in cuffs,” Philips snapped. “What’s it going to be?”
Swallowing visibly, Gabriella stepped out in the aisle... and bolted.
She tore up the walkway, screeching to the exit over my hanging jaw. Philips’s partner tackled her like a linebacker. They went in a crunch of bones that made me hiss.
“Get off me! Get off me!” Gabriella wailed. “It wasn’t me. I loved him. Gio! Gio!”
She shouted his name down the hall before switching to obscenities. If she came away with any charges that day, resisting arrest and abusing an officer were high on the list.
“Guys,” I breathed. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but that was better than sex.”
