Chapter 16
Ella
“What is it?” I ask, already panicking. Ever since we hit that guy, I’ve been thinking the police are going to find out and arrest me.
I wasn’t even the one who hit the guy, but I looked up the laws online last night and saw that the passengers in the car could get in trouble for leaving the scene if they willingly did it.
I could tell the police the guys forced me to go with them, but they’d tell the cops I was lying.
There’s no way I can win in this. It’s three against one.
I just have to hope the three of them don’t turn against me.
“We need to meet,” Briggs says, his voice sounding even deeper than normal.
“Why? Did something happen?”
“Maybe. I don’t know yet. I’ll tell you when we meet. Are you alone?”
“Yeah, my dad’s working. I told him I had to come home to study but he’ll be back at four and then we’re going to get my truck.”
“We’re heading over to pick you up. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“A few minutes? I’m not ready. I just got home from helping my dad. I’m eating lunch and I’m covered in grass.”
“Nobody cares. Finish your lunch and wait outside. We’re almost there.”
I look at the phone and see he hung up. Great.
I’m dirty and sweaty and covered in grass.
It would’ve been nice to take a shower, but that’s not going to happen.
I shove the rest of my sandwich in my mouth and run to my room to change clothes.
I hear a car honking out front as I yank on a pair of jeans and a clean t-shirt.
Racing back through the house, I grab my keys and phone and head outside to find Briggs’ shiny, black Porsche sitting in my driveway. I’ve seen plenty of Porsches living here, but none like the one Briggs drives. Charlotte told me it’s worth over two hundred thousand.
I get in the back seat, next to Finn.
“You hurl again, I’ll fucking throw you out of the car,” he says.
“I’m not going to hurl,” I say as Briggs pulls out of the driveway.
He looks at Finn in the mirror. “Did you tell the maid?”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t work weekends. She said she’d clean it tomorrow but by then the thing’ll be ruined. I’ll never get that smell out after it’s sat there all day.” He shoots me an angry look. “You owe me a new car.”
“I’ll give you my truck in exchange for your Range Rover.”
He shakes his head and looks out the window.
“So what are we meeting about?” I ask.
“You’ll find out when we get there,” Briggs says.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll find out when we get there.”
I lean up to the front seat. “Just tell me where we’re going. I can’t be gone long. If my dad comes home early, he’ll freak out if I’m not there, especially if I show up later being dropped off by you guys.”
“Why would he care?” Briggs asks.
“He thinks there’s something going on with us, which is completely ridiculous. I don’t even know where he came up with that.”
“What do you mean?” Parker asks. “What does he think is going on?”
“He thinks I lied about the truck and used it as an excuse to sneak out on a date.”
“With us?” Parker laughs. “Like all of us?”
“No! With you or Briggs. He saw you guys dropping me off last night.”
“Which one of us does he think you’re dating?” Parker asks, smiling at Briggs.
“He didn’t say. The point is, he thought I was lying to him, which means he suspects something’s going on.”
“Were you acting guilty?” Briggs asks.
“I don’t think so. He just knows that I always check in, so when I took forever to text him and then didn’t pick up his call, he assumed I was hiding something from him.”
“He thought you were fucking Briggs?” Finn laughs. “Seriously? Does he know your history with him?”
“No, and he wasn’t talking about sex. He thought we were on a date. Or maybe he thought I was out with Parker. Who cares? It doesn’t matter.”
Parker turns back to me. “Ask him. I want to know.”
“Why do you care?”
“I want to know which of us he thinks would go out with you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, feeling offended.
“Where is this place?” Briggs asks, slowing down as we approach an area lined with warehouses.
“It’s the one over there.” Parker points to a concrete building with no windows.
“That’s where we’re going?” I ask as Briggs pulls up to the building. “Yeah, I’ll be waiting in the car.”
“What are you afraid of?” Finn asks with a mischievous grin.
“That you’ll kill me. Rape me. Who knows? But I’m not going in there.”
Briggs turns off the engine, and the guys get out of the car while I remain inside.
Briggs opens my door. “Let’s go. Hurry up.”
“I’m not going in there. It doesn’t even have windows. You could kill me and nobody would know.”
“That’d be true even if there were windows. But we’re not here to kill you. We’re here to talk and figure out what to do. Now hurry up.”
I am curious to see what this is about. Obviously, something happened, and I want to know what. But I’m afraid to go in there with them. These are my three biggest enemies, and I’m out here alone with them.
Briggs leans into the car and puts his face up to mine, looking at me with those blue eyes. “I promise you, we won’t hurt you.”
As he says it, I notice the bruise on his cheek. It starts below his eye and goes down his cheek to his jaw.
“What happened to your face?” I ask, reaching up to touch it.
“Don’t!” He backs away. “It’s nothing. I just fell getting up in the night. Now are you coming or do I need to get you in there myself?”
“I’m waiting here.”
“Wrong answer.” He undoes my seatbelt, and the next thing I know, he’s picking me up and out of the car.
“Put me down!” I yell as Briggs throws me over his shoulder.
“Get the door,” he says to Parker. I look over and see Parker unlocking the door to the building.
“Briggs, I’m serious. Put me down!”
He ignores me and goes into the building. Parker and Finn follow behind, locking the door behind us.
“I swear to God, if you guys rape me I’ll—”
“Where do we go?” Briggs asks Parker, not even caring that I’m kicking and punching him to get him to let me down.
“Over here.” Parker leads us through the open room to an office with some folding chairs.
“What is this place?” Finn asks.
“It’s for data storage,” Parker says. “Right now he doesn’t need it but he will eventually so he bought the building before the price went up.”
I have no idea what he’s talking about, and don’t care. I just want to hurry this up and get out of here.
Briggs sets me down but clamps his hands down on my shoulders, holding me in place. “Can I trust you not to run off?”
“I’ll shut the door,” Finn says, closing it.
Briggs lets me go, but picks up a chair and moves it in front of the door, blocking it.
I should be scared to death right now, being here with the three of them, but for some reason I’m oddly calm.
And even stranger, I think it’s because of Briggs.
I feel like he’s being protective of me, which makes no sense and is probably not even close to being true, and yet I’m not as nervous as I should be.
I take the chair next to Parker, directly across from Briggs, while Finn sits on the metal desk that’s off to the side.
“Let’s just get this shit over with,” Finn says. “I fucked up and everyone’s pissed. So now what?”
I look at Finn. “What are you talking about? What’d you do?”
“He went to the party last night,” Parker explains. “He got wasted and thinks he told someone what happened.”
“Who?” I ask, still looking at Finn.
“Could be anyone,” Finn says, taking a pen from the desk and tossing it in the air. “I was wasted and high.”
“Then how do you know you told someone?”
“Because Ariel texted me this morning, asking when my car would be fixed. She wouldn’t know that unless I told her what happened.”
“Maybe you just told her it broke down,” I say. “How’d you get to the party last night?”
“Kiera picked me up. I must’ve said something to piss her off because she left and I ended up with Ariel.”
“Have you talked to her since last night?” I ask.
“I told him not to,” Briggs says. “Not until we figure out how to handle this.”
“Just tell her you were drunk and made it all up,” I say.
“That might work if the story wasn’t all over the news,” Parker mutters, leaning back in his chair. “If Ariel sees the story, she’s going to know he didn’t make it up.”
“Wait — when was it on the news?” I ask.
“Last night,” Briggs says. “And this morning. The cops are doing an investigation. The guy’s in critical condition. There’s a good chance he could die.”
“Oh, God.” I slump back in my chair. “We killed someone. We actually killed someone.”
“We didn’t kill him,” Briggs says. “He’s not dead yet.
And that’s not what we’re here to talk about.
” Briggs looks over at Finn. “If Ariel asks you about what you said last night, tell her you made it up. Tell her you heard the story on the news right before you left the house so it must’ve been in your head and that’s why you said it.
Ariel’s not going to question it. You may not have even told her.
I’m guessing she wanted you to take her out and you said something about your car not working and that was it. ”
“So are we done here?” Finn says, continuing to toss the pen in the air.
“You could at least pretend to take this seriously,” Parker says, sounding angry. “It’s your fucking fault we’re in this mess.”
“It’s her fault.” Finn points to me. “If we hadn’t stopped to pick her up, I never would’ve hit the guy. He probably showed up there right as we were driving by. If we’d been there a few minutes earlier, this never would’ve happened.”
The three of them look at me, and the room gets quiet.
“Wait — this isn’t my fault!” I say. “I didn’t ask you to stop.”
“You flagged us down,” Parker says.
“Yeah, but you didn’t have to stop.” I look at the three of them. “Are you seriously blaming me for this?”
“Finn’s right,” Parker says. “If you hadn’t stopped us, we wouldn’t have—”