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“She’s ‘bout as good as she can be. She’s scared, but I’ll tell you just like I told her—don’t worry about it. No news is good news. Unless these fucking scumbags somehow manage to pull a rabbit out of the hat, they won’t find her.”
“Just keep me updated. If shit hits the fan—”
“I know, Samara, I know. I’ll make sure you’re notified.”
“Thank you.”
“So, what’s going on, kid? I assume whatever it is must be important.”
I speed-walked up the entrance steps and didn’t stop moving until I reached the elevator. When it opened, I slid inside and smacked the button for my floor, waiting until the doors had fully shut before I spoke again.
“I-I think Rhett’s in trouble, Finn, and it’s all my fault.”
I explained the whole situation to him, starting from when Brian showed up at my dorm drunk off his ass, him hurting Sky, what we found on his phone, Rhett catching me when I snuck out, all of it. Everything down to the cops showing up last night.
“Jesus Christ,” Finn muttered under his breath, no doubt shaking his head on the other end.
“I-I need to talk to him, Finn, but he isn’t here. None of them are. I don’t know where they are.”
“They’re with Uncle Xavier,” he replied as I stepped out the elevator, glancing left to right for signs of eavesdroppers. Thankfully, the coast was clear. “There’s a party at the clearing this Friday. Unc arranged a meeting between the boys and this new crew from Clover Bay, so they’re being prepped on what to expect. They’ve also been put in charge of Saturday’s trials. I hate to say it, kid, but you’re shit out of luck right now. I doubt they’ll be back until Friday night.”
Damnit.That was not what I was hoping to hear.
“I know you mean well,” he continued as I halted outside of my door, digging around in my blazer pocket for my key, “but if everything happened exactly the way you say it did, then it sounds to me like the fucker got what he deserved. Rhett’s smart, Samara. If he really did hurt Brian, then Brian’s gone. When Rhett loses it—and trust me, he isn’t known to do that often—he fuckinglosesit. The policewon’tfind his body. If I were you, I’d let it go and just see how things play out.”
“And I’ll be honest with you, Samara,” he said again after a brief pause, after I’d shut and locked the door behind me. “This may be hard to believe, but theydocare about you—Rhett, especially. We all may be on the same side, but you have a lot of work to do if you expect them to trust you. Whatever you have to do, just do it, okay? Just don’t hurt my cousins any more than you already have.”
He hung up the phone then, his final words leaving me stunned and breathless.
Twenty-Two
Samara
Iglareddownatthe crystal blue water a few hours later, deciding after about thirty minutes of me just standing there, gawking at my death, that there was no way in hell I could pull this shit off. Not in under three days.
Not by myself, I couldn’t.
And since Sky wasn’t at the dorm,off on a walk, as stated in the note I found on the counter, and wouldn’t answer the phone, I, ill-advisedly, had no fucking choice but to call—
“No need to fear! Help is here!”
—and I’m already fucking regretting it.
Kinsley Sinclair trotted on by me with her disgustingly pink gym bag and stalked over to the bench, dropping it down and opening it up. “You have me for the next thirty minutes. I’ll help you out, but I amnotmissing my gym workout.”
God, I’m an idiot. I should’ve taken the money.
I rolled my eyes, muttering,“What could you possibly teach me in thirty minutes, anyway?”under my breath.
“A lot, actually,” she shot back in a snot-nosed, matter-of-fact attitude, a smirk on her plump, glossed lips. “It just depends on you and how fast you catch on. Now, do you want my fucking help or not?”
I ground my teeth, wanting nothing more than to tell this bitch to go fuck herself and maybe tap dance on her face a little bit.
But the hard, sad truth was, I did need her help.
It was either this or, well… die.
Ugh, who the fuck was I kidding? I was a dead woman walking and we all knew it. Why else would the Ravagers stage a trial like thisknowingI couldn’t swim?
