Chapter 72
CHAPTER 72
MADDIE
I mani zoomed out of the student parking lot and to the ritzy side of Redwood. Vera and I sat in the back, chatting quietly about how disgusting Mrs. Dawson was, while Allie sat in the passenger seat, knees bouncing.
While I had been to Nicole’s house a couple of times before to pick her up with the girls, I had forgotten how nice it actually was. The winding streets were surrounded with huge mansions, and the grass was always green, even in the wintertime.
“Didn’t Nicole live in your neighborhood years ago?” I asked Vera.
“Yeah, but she moved in middle school.”
“Her family got quite the upgrade,” I noted.
“It’s from her father’s shady deals with the police,” Imani said from the driver’s seat.
Large, trimmed shrubs lined the sidewalk in front of her house. Imani parked on the side of the road and glanced over at Allie.
Allie nodded to Nicole’s car in the driveway. “She’s here.”
“Maybe she’s sick,” Vera offered.
“She hasn’t texted me back.”
“She could be sleeping in?” Imani said, turning off the car.
“We need to make sure she’s not hurt.”
When Allie went to tug on the car door, I grabbed her elbow. “What’re we going to do if her dad answers the door? I don’t know if it’s a good idea for us to bang on her front door in the middle of the day and demand answers.”
“Well, we can’t just sit here,” Allie said.
After a moment of silence, we all exited the car. While I wasn’t sure this was the best choice, we had done this at Spencer’s house, and it’d worked relatively well. At least, we had … rescued Alec, Blaise, and Oliver.
As we walked to the front door, my phone buzzed in my back pocket. When I pulled it out and tapped on the notifications, my heart stopped. I opened and closed my mouth a handful of times, unsure if I was really seeing this right now.
It … it couldn’t be.
“Maddie,” Vera whispered, “you’re pale. What is it?”
I blinked my eyes a few times. I had to be seeing things.
But no matter how many times I blinked, no matter how many times I read that message over and over and over again, it said the same exact thing and was from the same exact number. A number from a girl I swore had died.
Unknown: Watch your back, Weber.
Vera looked over my shoulder and stiffened. “I thought …”
“That this number belonged to Piper?” I whispered. “Me too.”
“You don’t think she is …”
“Still alive?” I finished, my stomach twisting. “No. She can’t be.”
We had seen her dead body in that open casket. She hadn’t moved, hadn’t taken a breath for hours upon hours when everyone was there. She couldn’t be alive, and if she was, then she wouldn’t have done this. Right?
I mean …
A shiver coursed through my body.
She couldn’t … I hadn’t …
What if this really was her?
With everything going on in Redwood, I honestly wouldn’t put it past a dead person coming back to life. Hell, Poison had recorded themselves slashing off Principal Vaughn’s head and throwing it on the football field for all to see, and they hadn’t even gotten in trouble for it! Mrs. Dawson openly flirted with boys …
Who the hell knew what could happen in little old Redwood?
“Maddie?” Vera asked.
“No,” I whispered, though I didn’t even believe myself. “This can’t be her.”
“Then, who is it?”
“Are you guys coming?” Imani whisper-yelled to us, halfway up the sidewalk.
I shrugged at Vera. “I’m not sure?—”
Suddenly, the silence in the gated neighborhood was shattered by the sound of a gunshot. We all froze as the sound bounced off one mansion to the next to the next in a jarring symphony.
Birds flew from branches. Dogs began barking wildly across the street. Squirrels scampered up trees to find shelter. And we stood there like a bunch of deer waiting to be picked off by a hunter, one by one.
The air suddenly filled with the scent of gunpowder as the sound came a second time.
Or maybe it was a third. I thought my ears had stopped working because Vera’s mouth was wide open, her face scrunched up, as if she was screaming at me. Allie and Imani had fallen to the ground, and I finally caught the sight of a black Jeep driving past Nicole’s house with the back window rolled down just enough.
Another bullet whizzed through the air.
This time, it was aimed right at me.