Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
And they had to still be there.
One of you killed him, and my sister.
The rest of the night was a blur of arguing, tears, and threats. None of them from me. If I was in a better frame of mind, I would’ve noted that the lawyer, Maliyah Stanton, said my parents were coming. That didn’t register until Jack and Mom clambered out of the car. Mom was a mess.
“Oh, my baby. Are you okay?” She strangled me in a hug. “What happened—? Who did this to you?” she shrieked, seeing the knot on my forehead.
“I got it when I fell—”
“What’s this?” She shoved my head against her chest, straining to see the bandage on my neck. The paramedic told her it was a burn from the stun gun and she lost it.
It’d been so long since Mom left the house. It didn’t occur to me that she would come. Alternating between trying to downplay what happened for her sake, and telling the police and my lawyer the bare version of the truth, sapped all my energy.
By the time I trudged into my old room at three a.m. that morning, I was dish-rag wrung out. I didn’t have the energy to do more than crawl fully clothed into bed. And I didn’t say a word to Mom when she climbed in next to me.
We both drifted off that night, sensing the third presence in my bed. I swear Winter’s warmth lay over our clasped hands, telling us something we didn’t believe.
That everything would be okay.
“IS THERE ANY CHANCE of her letting you return to school after this?”
“I haven’t even tried to bring that up,” I said. “I know the answer, but everything’s changed now, Lucien. Giovanni didn’t tell me everything, though he told me enough. Truth or Dare Club. Have you ever heard of it?”
“Not a word, Luna.” I heard noises—arguing—on his end of the phone. “That is what’s got us confused over here. Rafael came back last night saying something about a dare club, and that all the guys that came after Winter were in it. Wilder’s spent hours looking through all their profiles, accounts, messages, and he can’t find anything. What else did Giovanni say to you?”
“Not enough.”
I sat on the deck the next morning, picking at my breakfast. Jack wasn’t the warmest or cuddliest stepdad, but when things were tense in the house, he’d make my and my mom’s favorite breakfast. Even though he was a terrible cook and managed to both burn and undercook the chocolate chip pancakes every time, he still did it to show what wasn’t easy for him to say.
Gazing at those pancakes, my thoughts drifted to Winter and all the things she didn’t say directly, but possibly told me in a different way.
What did I miss, sis? What is this horrible secret that has now destroyed two families?
“Everything happened so fast, then the cops wouldn’t let Rafael come with us to the station. I didn’t get a chance to tell him everything Giovanni said.”
I relayed everything Natale said during our short, and final, conversation.
“He didn’t know the person who gave him the dare,” Lucien repeated. “Not until they got together and tracked them down later.”
I sat up straight. “That means something, doesn’t it? The members must be anonymous.”
“Not entirely anonymous. The person picked the handsome and charming Giovanni specifically to seduce Winter. Same for the vicious, sadistic bastards who arranged for her to be beaten, attacked her in her dorm, and...” He didn’t need to finish.
“That is true,” I replied. “But if they were trying to keep their identity a secret, a dare club wouldn’t make sense. Giovanni would’ve given himself away as the doer by seducing and dumping Winter.” I tossed my head, working to get everything straight.
“Okay, okay. The members know each other, but they don’t have to know who is behind a dare. No wonder the monster behind all this used the club. It let them sit back and do nothing while their buddies publicly attacked Winter and took all the blame.”
“But what penalty could be so bad that they’d go along with it? You said Giovanni made it sound like he didn’t have a choice.”
“That’s how he made it sound,” I said, fist balling. “But he had a choice, Lucien. There’s always a choice.”
“We’re going to figure this out, Luna.” His voice was soft—gentle. “We know more than we did twelve hours ago.”
“But we don’t know everything. I was so close.” My burnt pancakes blurred. “He was going to tell me everything. If only I made him focus!”
“It wasn’t your fault. He was high and tripping bad by the sound of it. At least now we know this goes higher than Thasher, Thompkins, and the others. If Natale didn’t find you last night, we would’ve punished only the henchmen instead of going after the mastermind.”