AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was then that everything had gone wrong.
“Wait.” Her mother had reached out to grab Rayne’s arm, the familiar tension tightening her features. “You go on. I’ll see you later.”
Rayne frowned in confusion. “I thought you were coming to the Senior Tea with me?”
Tami’s gaze was locked on a spot at the back of the cathedral. “Mark and I are having dinner in Salzburg. I really should go back to the hotel and get ready.”
Rayne turned her head, her heart sinking at the sight of the slender man leaning against the stone wall that surrounded the gardens, his gaze following the girls strolling past. Mark Jefferson.
Without waiting for Rayne to respond, Tami was scurrying across the recently mowed grounds. Like a missile zooming toward its target.
Or a woman dangerously obsessed with a man.
Shaking her head in disgust, she stomped into the dorms and headed up the narrow flight of stairs. She’d stepped into the lobby where a few of the students were already starting to gather in preparation for the events planned for the day. Rayne frowned when she failed to see her roommate.
“Hey, Erin.” She motioned toward the red-haired girl with light blue eyes and freckles. Erin MacDonald had been one of her friends since she arrived at the school, both of them sharing a love for old movies. “Have you seen Nat?”
“I saw her shortly after her morning run. She said she was headed down to the stables.” Erin shrugged. “But I haven’t seen her since then.”
“Thanks.” Heading back down the hall, Rayne pushed open the door to her room. Once inside, she paused to dump the bags of clothing her mother had insisted on buying next to her packed bags. Then, turning back, she clicked her tongue at the sight of her friend lying on her bed with her back turned toward Rayne. “Seriously?” Walking across the floor, she reached out to grab Nat’s shoulders. She was going to miss all the festivities if she didn’t get up soon. “You can take a nap later.”
A scream ripped from Rayne’s throat as Nat flopped onto her back, her sightless eyes staring at the ceiling and her white dress stained with blood.
So much blood . . .
CHAPTERFOUR
Kansas City, Missouri
Now
Rayne swallowed the lump in her throat, forcing back the memory that had haunted her for years. Instead, she concentrated on Niko, who was staring at the note as if he’d just seen a ghost.
“Did she show this to you?” he demanded.
“No. I had no idea she was being threatened.”
He lifted his head to reveal his grim expression. “This changes everything.”
Rayne swallowed a sigh. After finding Nat’s body in their room, the next hours had become a blur. She knew that she’d been taken to Sister Rosa’s office. And that the nuns had tried to question her about Nat only to be halted by her mother, who had swept in to demand that Rayne come back to the hotel with her until they could get a flight out of Austria.
She’d been waiting alone in the hallway for her mother to grab her purse and an overnight bag from her room when Niko had tracked her down. He’d obviously been crying, but there was a fierce determination in his expression as he’d adamantly refused to believe that Nat had killed herself. Rayne had been too traumatized to offer him comfort. She’d turned and fled out of the building.
Now she belatedly wished she’d considered the pain she was going to cause Niko before she’d called him.
“Not necessarily,” she tried to temper his automatic assumption that this proved Nat’s death was anything but a tragic suicide. “The note could have been a joke. Or just one of the girls venting.”
He scowled, reading the words out loud. “‘Give me what I want or die?’ That’s a joke?”
She hunched her shoulders, trying to ignore the chill that inched down her spine. Unlike Niko, she wasn’t going to leap to conclusions. “Young boys use their fists to intimidate and bully one another. Young girls use their words, but they’re equally brutal.”
He was shaking his head before she finished speaking. “If you thought this was a bad joke, you wouldn’t have called me in a panic.”
“I was upset and I overreacted.”
“You?” He arched his brows. “Overreact?”
“It happens.”
