Chapter 39
39
A nother scream came from outside and students all rushed through the halls to see what was going on. A guy bumped into me in his haste, and I stumbled, falling to the ground. I hissed in pain as the hardwood floor met my knees, but Carter was right there offering his hand to help me up.
I took it, letting him pull me to my feet, but once we started moving, he didn’t let go. It was curious and distracting and I didn’t try to pull away.
“Someone’s tied to the flagpole,” someone nearby said, just as we reached the doors.
Carter shot me a worried look, and I quickened my pace as we burst outside and followed the gathering crowd. Moments later we were pushing our way through the throng of shocked and generally curious onlookers gathered around the flagpole because sure enough, there was a guy tied totally naked to the pole way too damn high to get down easily.
It was him that was screaming.
Royce and Nate were close to the pole, and when we started toward them Carter dropped my hand. It was such a small thing, but it seized my heart in a vise instantly.
“What’s going on?” Carter asked.
Royce glanced between the two of us, his gaze flickering back and forth until he sighed and reached out a hand to me. It stunned me enough that I took it, letting him reel me into a hug.
He’d seen that shit had gone down between us and made the choice to comfort me, rather than punch Carter. Best shadow ever. I wrapped my arms around his waist holding on tight.
“I’m okay,” I mumbled, dimly hearing Nate and Carter talking behind us.
Royce gave an irritated sound. “You’re not.”
Okay, fine. I wasn’t okay. But there was no way in hell I’d let Carter see me cry, so I sniffed back the looming tears and swallowed the emotion clogging my throat.
“Fake it ’til you make it, right?” I whispered, releasing my squeeze on Royce’s body. “How are we getting this guy down?”
He gave me a troubled frown, then let me go…sort of. He kept his arm around my shoulders, hugging me to his side as if to send a message to Carter. That he was on team Ashley.
“Janitor is on his way with a ladder,” Nate informed us, folding his arms across his chest and scowling up at the hollering guy. “But how the fuck did this happen in the middle of the day? No one saw anything? It doesn’t make sense.”
Ice-cold familiarity trickled down my spine. “It’s not the first time, though, is it?”
Nate swung his scowl my way. “What do you mean?”
I wet my lips, uncomfortable with his full attention. “I mean, Abigail mentioned something very similar to this happening when she was a student here. Except it was at nighttime so sort of easier to get away with that, than this.”
His eyes narrowed. “Abigail mentioned this… when ?”
Oh fuck, they still didn’t know. I hadn’t told anyone, not even after the forest. “In her diary,” I said quietly. “She kept a record of everything that happened while she was at school here. That’s how I know she was murdered by the society.”
Three sets of shocked eyes locked on me and I squirmed. Maybe I should have mentioned the diary sooner, but in my defense none of them had really endeared themselves as totally trustworthy…except maybe Heath.
“Where’s Heath?” I asked, changing the subject as the janitor arrived with a ladder and started setting it up.
Nate shook his head. “Don’t try and gloss over that little revelation, Layne, what fucking diary? ”
“He’s still at therapy,” Royce answered. “Apparently it started late so it will likely run late too.”
“What diary?” Nate repeated, taking a step closer as if he could intimidate me with his size. He could. But I wasn’t letting on. “Is this the diary you accused me of stealing from your room the first week of school?”
I nodded and he threw his hands in the air.
“I’m not sure I understand, Spark,” Carter said, and I bit back the desire to shut down his nickname once more. “You have a diary that details our society doing…awful things? And you never told us?”
I licked my lips again, nervous. “I don’t have it anymore. It went missing the first morning Nate broke into my room, so I figured…”
“You figured I stole it,” Nate replied. “Why?”
I inhaled deeply. “Because if it wasn’t you, then it means someone else was in my room while I slept. And as much as I dislike you, I prefer to think it was you rather than some unknown other threat.”
That admission seemed to slap him in the face, and he reeled back somewhat, horrified confusion etched all over his handsome face.
“I think we should discuss this in private,” Royce suggested, giving a pointed look at the dozens of random students around us, all within earshot. “Let’s deal with this first—” he pointed to the sobbing guy being cut down by the elderly janitor “—then Ash can tell us about this diary when we don’t have an audience.”
He had a good point. Just as many spectators were watching us as were watching the flagpole rescue.
Carter nudged Nate with his elbow. “Royce is right. One thing at a time.” He shot me a dark, longing look and I looked away. I was a fucking idiot for letting him back into my panties.
The guy on the pole was finally free, being awkwardly carried down the ladder by the janitor so Carter hurried over to assist, taking the pale, naked, sobbing dude in his arms like he would a scared kitten.
Nate jerked a sharp nod and followed as Carter carried the guy away from the crowd, likely heading for the campus clinic. Royce and I trailed behind, and the janitor just muttered under his breath about stupid hazing pranks.
“Ash!” Carly called out as we passed into the admin building where the clinic was located. “What’s going on?” She jogged to catch up, gesturing to where Carter and Nate just disappeared with the flagpole guy.
“Hazing prank, apparently,” Royce replied with skepticism. “Ashley thinks it’s the society, though.”
I tried to ignore the accusation in his tone, hurrying down the hall to the clinic. They already had flagpole guy sitting on one of the cots with a big silver hypothermia blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Carter and Nate both stood over him with their arms folded and the most intimidating glares on their faces, which stopped me in my tracks.
“What happened?” I asked, sensing a shift. They weren’t worried, confused, or concerned…they were furious .
“This sniveling prick,” Nate said, jerking his chin to the shivering guy. “Said Heath was involved in getting him up there.”
“He was!” the guy insisted. “I saw him!”
“Bullshit,” Carter spat.
Carly moved closer, touching my elbow. “That’s not possible,” she said quietly. “I just saw Heath leaving Dr. Fox’s office looking like hell. He said he’d been in like a two-hour session and was wrecked.”
I nodded my agreement. “Carly’s right. Sorry, uh, what’s your name?”
“Morrison,” the guy supplied. “Morrison Butler.”
“Right, sorry. But like Carly just pointed out, Heath has been with Dr. Fox all morning. I don’t think you were hanging up there for more than two hours with no one noticing…?” I posed it as a question because shit, crazier things had happened.
Morrison shook his head, frowning. “I don’t…I don’t think so. It’s confusing, I don’t know how I got there. I went to sleep in my bed and woke up there .”
“So how are you accusing Heath of being involved?” Nate demanded.
Morrison seemed frustrated. “Because I saw him! When I woke up and realized where I was, he was standing there on the lawn staring up at me. Then when I screamed, he took off running.”
It didn’t make any sense. “You saw him?” I repeated. “His face?”
Morrison hesitated, frowning. “No, of course not his face, he wore one of those creepy fucking Society masks and robes.” Silence rang out through the clinic and Morrison seemed to realize what he was saying. “It was Heath. I know it. He has a pretty distinctive build, and, um, I could see his forearms.”
“ Right ,” Nate drawled, his posture relaxing. “You recognized his build—under a black robe—and his…forearms?”
Morrison’s face flamed red and his gaze darted around the room. “You’re making this sound bad, but I know it was him. I’m not…it was Heath Briggs , I’m sure of it.”
“Butler, I don’t think I need to say this,” Carter said in a quietly serious voice, “but you’re making a very serious accusation of a senior society member…and your evidence is forearms . Which you saw at a distance, while in a state of panic. Would you like the opportunity to rescind your statement before this goes further?”
Oh. So Morrison Butler was in the society too. That made sense.
Morrison was clearly panicking now, sweat dripping down his brow as he looked between all the guys as if searching for an ally. “But…”
“Think carefully, Butler,” Nate suggested. “Are you sure enough that you want to go down that path? Considering we know he’s been with Dr. Fox all morning and can easily be verified with the doc directly?”
Morrison swallowed, seeming to shrink down inside his silver blanket. “Maybe I was mistaken.”
A small collective sigh ran through us all.
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” Royce offered. “Any idea how they got you up there, or why no one saw anything? Surely this was a two-man task at minimum.”
Morrison shook his head, miserable. “No. I screamed as soon as I saw where I was and then everyone came running out of the buildings.”
Royce nodded. “Okay well, if you think of anything, please let us know.” He glanced over his shoulder to the front of the clinic. “Nurse Tracy is here. We’ll leave you to get checked over.”
We all filed out, ignoring the puzzled look of the clinic nurse as she headed inside with a clipboard in hand. Nate paused to speak with her, but the rest of us continued on out of the building.
I started toward my dorm, but Nate caught up with us a moment later and grabbed my upper arm in a bruising grip. “We need to talk,” he snapped, redirecting me away from my dorm.
“Ow, Nate! Let me go!” I snapped, jerking in his grip. He wasn’t letting go, though, practically dragging me as he strode purposefully toward the student parking lot.
Carter overtook us and stopped Nate with a hand on his chest. “Let her go, Nate,” he ordered. “Ashley knows we need to talk; you don’t have to hurt her.”
Nate stared at Carter a moment as if in shock, then dropped his grip on my arm. “Fine. Layne? Get in the damn truck.” He jerked a finger at his truck parked some fifty yards away. “We’ll talk at the apartment.”
I was two seconds away from digging my heels in and refusing to go…but then I’d end up with all four of them crammed into my tiny dorm room and even the idea of that was uncomfortable. So I gritted my teeth and continued across the parking lot reluctantly.
I’d much rather have driven myself, but with how tense everyone was I decided it wasn’t worth the fight. I just climbed into the backseat of Nate’s truck and relaxed when Royce slid in beside me and Carly hopped in the other side.
“Carly,” Nate snapped when he climbed into the driver seat and saw her in the back. “This doesn’t involve you.”
She scoffed. “Like hell it doesn’t. I’m in the society too, and Ash is my friend. If anything, it involves me more than you. So either shut up and drive, or Ash and I can deal with this ourselves.”
“Hey,” Royce protested, and Carly rolled her eyes.
“I mean, me, Ash, and Roycey can deal with this ourselves.” She patted Royce on the head. “Sorry, twin.”
He smirked, because I’d called them twins a few days ago when their personalities aligned a little too much and they were now running with it.
Nate just grumbled something under his breath about infuriating women and turned on his ignition. It was only a five-minute drive to their building from campus, so I needed to get my story straight.
But I was so torn…total honesty? Or play my cards close?
It felt like a lose-lose situation, but if Abigail’s diary was to be trusted, then the worst was yet to come. Maybe telling the guys everything, letting them help, would be the difference between me and Abigail. Maybe they would be the reason I survived.
Or it could all go up in flames.
That was the risk I had to take.