Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 157308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 787(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 157308 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 787(@200wpm)___ 629(@250wpm)___ 524(@300wpm)
“What are they doing?” Rafael in my ear made me look up.
“They’re... arguing. Gabriella is pointing down and waving her hands. I can’t see Giovanni’s face, but he’s just standing there. Why isn’t either one of them going to help her? See if she’s okay— No, hold on. He’s running for the stairs.”
I watched Giovanni take off and Gabriella run after him. She hauled him back, said something that involved a lot of shoving and fingers in his face, then she spun and stormed toward the house. Ice chilled my veins as Giovanni cast one last look at the bluffs, and followed her.
“I can’t believe it,” I breathed. “They’re leaving her. Giovanni’s dated her for over a year. Gabriella’s gone to school with her their whole life. The two of them are just abandoning her in the cold and dark.”
“Those shits can do what they want. Come on.” Rafael picked me up and steered me toward the car. “There’s another way down to the beach.”
That snapped me out of it.
We took off in his car, driving to the other set of stairs. Killing the engine, we tumbled out, taking the steps two at a time.
A still figure lay at the base of the bluffs. Rafael ran ahead of me, skidding to a stop next to her, falling by her side.
Her eyes were closed as if in sleep. You could almost mistake her rest for peaceful, if not for her leg twisted at an unnatural angle and the growing dark pool beneath her head.
“Rafael, is she...?”
“No,” he said, checking her pulse. “But it’s faint. She needs help and I have a feeling those two didn’t run inside to call an ambulance.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Stop,” Rafael broke in. “Use my phone. Mask the number. I’m not trying to cover my ass, but a Dumont at the scene of an explosion and attempted murder won’t go well. The cops won’t believe I wasn’t involved.”
He was involved. Rafael roped into my revenge scheme, doing all of this to leech a fraction of the hatred consuming me. But it was me who lured Annika here. It was me who wanted a brutal confrontation. I wouldn’t give Giovanni and Gabriella the perfect scapegoat to pin this on.
“Rafael, leave.”
“What? I’m not—”
“I’m serious, go! Someone has to stay with her until the ambulance comes and we both know that can’t be you.”
“It can’t be either of us. They’ll question why you’re here too.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
His idea wasn’t better, but it was the only one we could come up with that didn’t end with the wrong people sitting in a jail cell awaiting questioning.
Rafael and I ducked behind a rock as voices approached, letting go of Annika’s hand at the last possible second. Her pulse was still fluttering beneath my finger. She was alive, and in the ten minutes we waited with her, neither Giovanni nor Gabriella descended the staircase.
The two of us stayed low, hands covering the others’ mouth as the paramedics strapped Annika to a backboard and took off. Rafael was correct in pointing out they wouldn’t waste time searching the rocks for us when there was a girl bleeding out in the sand.
“We have to go,” Rafael said as their voices faded in the distance. “The police will be right behind.”
It was a long drive back to campus. My mind twisted in circles, reconciling the dark turn my revenge had taken. One text message and Annika ended up in the back of an ambulance speeding to the hospital.
When we made it back to the top, it was clear Gabriella and Giovanni were long gone. The lights were off in the beach house, and a stillness settled over the property that unsettled me to the bone.
Did they get their stories straight as they walked a fair distance down the road to the car they called to pick them up? Would Giovanni say he and Annika were minding their own business when some masked stranger blew up their cars and tossed his girlfriend off a cliff? What would he say to anyone, including himself, about the horror of leaving Annika there alone?
He was scared. He was in shock. But he was innocent of all except for cheating while Rafael and I committed serious crimes. So why was he the one to leave, and we were the ones who stayed?
Not to mention the coldness on Gabriella’s face...
“I finally understand.”
My whisper stopped Rafael on the steps of the Gallery.
“I finally understand who I’m dealing with. That’s why you and the Rogues had to stop me that night with Owen. I came onto this campus thinking I’m was dealing with normal schoolyard bullies, but the kids on this playground are like no one I’ve ever met.”
Rafael turned his head, face cloaked in shadows.
“I understand,” I said again, “and I know what to do. We’re scrapping your guys’ plan. From here on, I’m taking over.”