Cruel Love (12 page)

Ariana got up from her desk chair and began to pace.

Victor Meloni had to die. at was the only solution. Even if he was fired, even if he left campus, Ariana would always be looking over her shoulder, always be wondering when and where he was going to pop up next. She simply could not have an enemy like him out there walking the streets, moving in her circles. He had to go. He just had to go.

But how?

Ariana’s stomach grumbled with hunger, her face felt tight and dry from exhaustion and the cold, and her head pounded with pain after her panic attack, but she ignored it all. She needed to figure out the best way to deal with Meloni, and she needed to do it fast.

e idea of a gun was very satisfying. Everyone else had died so cleanly. Knocked over the head or drowned in a lake or lying in a hospital bed. But Meloni … Meloni was special. He was truly evil. He deserved a seriously messy death. Ariana paused in the center of her room, her heart skipping an excited beat. A gun, yes. But how was she to get one? And if she did get one, wouldn’t they be able to trace it back to her?

She gnawed on the side of her thumb, narrowing her eyes as she executed a slow twirl on her throw rug. Maybe … maybe she didn’t need one. Dr. Meloni had to have a gun of his own. He was just that type of guy. He had worked for years inside a facility for the criminally insane. Of course he’d bought a gun to protect himself lest any of his former patients or their family members ever come calling. He was just that narcissistic. Just that self-important. To think that someone would one day seek him out for revenge.

Ariana pressed her hands together. She had to get inside Meloni’s house and do some recon. And she had to do it soon. Before she bumped into him one day on campus, or worse—before her mandatory meeting was scheduled.

A sudden rap on the door stopped her heart. Ariana’s blood ran cold. What if Tahira or Maria had ignored her request and told Dr. Meloni that their friend was sick?

What if he’d come up here to make sure she was all right? Could she hide in the closet? Pretend not to be here? “I know you’re in there!” Jasper’s voice teased through the door.

Everything inside of Ariana relaxed. She lunged for the door and pulled him inside, closing it firmly behind him. “Hey,” he said with a smile. He kissed her quickly, his lips freezing cold and dry. “You must be psychic.”

“What? Why?” Ariana asked.

“I got us dinner,” he said, dropping a takeout bag on her desk. He shook his jacket off his shoulders and tossed it on Kaitlynn’s bare bed. “When I went to the dining hall to get you and saw that you weren’t there, I figured you had some kind of premonition that you shouldn’t fill up on greasy roast beef when I was going to show up bearing gourmet Chinese.”

Ariana inhaled the sweet and spicy scents wafting her way from the open bag. Never could she have imagined that she would feel so grateful to someone for bringing her spring rolls and rice. Clearly, he was the one who was psychic. He seemed to always know exactly what she needed.

“You might be the greatest boyfriend of all time,” she said.

Jasper slipped his arm around her waist and smiled. “I aim to please.”

en he kissed her, and for the first time all day, Ariana forgot all about Victor Meloni. She forgot all about Reed and Palmer and what tomorrow might bring. All that mattered was where she was right at that very moment.

With Jasper.

FORMER
LIFE

e sun was just starting to brighten the gray morning sky when Ariana slipped into the Georgetown biology building’s admittedly dungeonlike basement through a service entrance in the back. e hallway smelled of formaldehyde and rotting garbage, and she covered her nose with her cashmere scarf to keep from choking. Taking a deep breath through her mouth, she stood for a moment and listened. All was silent and dim. e only real light in the underground hallway emanated from the glowing, red exit sign behind her head.

Somewhere in this basement was Reed Brennan, and wherever she was, she was all alone. Adrenaline coursed through Ariana’s veins, and her fingers curled into claws. She couldn’t wait to sink her fingernails into the bitch’s skin.

Walking on her tiptoes, Ariana crept to the first door and peeked through the long, skinny window. e room was dark. She checked the lab across the hall. One light shone at the professor’s desk, but it appeared to have been left on overnight. ere was no sign of life. Outside the third door, Ariana hit pay dirt. ere was a clipboard tacked to the wall, displaying a lab schedule. Under
SIX O’CLOCK, FRIDAY MORNING
, Reed Brennan—and only Reed Brennan—had signed her name.

Suddenly, there was a loud click—the sound of a bolt lock opening—and Ariana heard the upstairs door creak. It had to be Reed. She was five minutes late, but she was here. Heart in her throat, Ariana flung herself inside the lab and pressed back against the cinder-block wall. e only windows in the long, dank room, were set high in the opposite wall, and all were closed against the cold.

All the better to keep anyone from hearing you scream
, Ariana thought, smiling in anticipation. All the overhead lights were off, making it nearly pitch dark.

All the better to surprise you
, Ariana added.

She heard shuffling on the stairs and bit down hard on her lip to keep from laughing with sheer glee. But then, she heard a voice. And it wasn’t Reed’s. “Can’t believe you made me get up at the ass crack of dawn. Have I
ever
been a morning person?”

The triumphant excitement emanating from Ariana’s heart froze in midair and shattered. It was Noelle Lange. “I can’t believe you actually came,” Reed replied.

“Wait. I had a choice?” Noelle said.

Ariana’s heart was in turmoil. She hadn’t laid eyes on Noelle Lange since her sham of a funeral last summer. What was she doing here? Did she go to Georgetown too? But no. is was not possible. If Noelle were a student here Ariana undoubtedly would have seen her by now. And Noelle had always dreamed of going to Yale. ere was no doubt in Ariana’s mind that she had found a way to get there. This made no sense. No sense at all.

“I already e-mailed the professor to tell him I wouldn’t be in class because of the memorial service,” Reed said. “I just have to print out the lab I finished last night and then we can get out of here.”

“Fine. And then you
are
buying me one huge cup of coffee,” Noelle chided.

ey were right outside the door. Ariana looked around in desperation. She dropped down behind the first storage table and yanked on the cabinet door, but it was full of beakers and Bunsen burners. e doorknob began to turn. Ariana whirled around and spotted a four-doored closet. Praying it wasn’t locked, she pulled on the handle. It swung open, dumping several lab coats onto the floor and all over her feet. Ariana scooped them up in her arms, jumped inside, and swung the door closed behind her, jamming her fingers in the process. The pain exploded so suddenly she saw stars.

“Damn it,” she hissed under her breath.

She brought her fingers to her mouth and sucked on them, half to dull the pain and half to keep herself quiet. e lights in the lab flickered to life and Ariana could just see a sliver of the room as Noelle and Reed entered. She caught a glimpse of Noelle’s long, dark hair as she passed the closet and paused. Her black coat. Her diamond earrings. Her heart felt as if it was going to burst with longing.

Noelle. Noelle was right there. If Ariana reached out she could have grabbed her sleeve.

Suddenly, her vision started to prickle over. She leaned back against the hooks full of lab coats behind her, closed her eyes and breathed.

In, one … two … three … Out, one … two … three …

“I can’t believe we have to fly to Texas for this,” Noelle lamented, dropping onto a tall lab stool. “Doesn’t Kiran’s mom know that she lived for New York? If she’s going to be memorialized, it should be there.”

“She wants to do it at home, where Kiran grew up. I get that,” Reed said. Ariana heard a printer whir to life.

“Just so you know, my mom’s going to be there, and I’m sure she’s going to badger you about coming to St. Barth’s this year.”

Ariana’s arms curled tighter around the stack of musty lab coats in her arms. St. Barth’s. So the Easton crowd was still spending Christmas down there. And now, Reed was a part of it. Reed had probably met Upton Giles and Poppy Simon and the Hathaways. She had probably spent Christmas morning at Noelle’s with all the families. She was really one of them now. And Ariana was not.

Hot fury began to bubble in Ariana’s veins. is was so unfair. She was supposed to be killing Reed right now. Strangling every last breath out of her. Experiencing the most perfect moment of her life. But instead she was forced to listen to
this
.

“I’ll just tell her the same thing I told her last time,” Reed said. “Thanks for the invitation, but me and St. Barth’s do not mix.” Noelle laughed lightly. “She can’t argue with that.”

“No one could,” Reed replied. “Besides, Scott is going to Vail with his new girlfriend and Josh invited me to see his parents’ house in Vienna. So I’ll be spending Christmas in Croton, and then jetting to the
Continent
for a week before going back to the Cape for New Year’s.”

She put on a snotty voice on the word “Continent,” as if calling Europe that was some kind of joke. Ariana gritted her teeth. Reed would never set foot on the Continent if she had anything to say about it.

“God. Who knew you were going to become such a jet-setter?” Noelle said.

“I know, right?” Reed replied with a grating laugh. “Okay. I’m all set. Let’s get out of here.” “Finally,” Noelle said in a dramatic way.

Ariana pressed back against the wall as first Reed’s coat, then Noelle’s, flashed by the sliver of open space between the two doors.

Ariana’s pulse stopped. Noelle was leaving. It was so unfair. She was supposed to be Ariana’s best friend for life, not Reed’s. For a fleeting moment, she wondered what Noelle would do if she revealed herself to her. Would she be happy to see her? Relieved to find her alive and well? Would she throw her arms around her and hug her and invite
her
to St. Barth’s for the holiday?

It was a lovely fantasy. But as Reed doused the lights and the two of them stepped out, Ariana knew it could never come true. She could never reveal herself to anyone from her old life. Not even Noelle. Suddenly her heart hurt with a severity she had never imagined before. It was so wrong, that Reed got to be with Noelle—got to laugh with her, know her secrets, go on trips with her. Noelle had been Ariana’s best friend first. Ariana’s confidante. She was just one more of the many things Reed had stolen out from under her. Just another reason Reed deserved to die.

The lab door closed and their footsteps faded away. Ariana held her breath, counted to one hundred, then shoved open the closet doors. Her body felt as if it weighed five

hundred pounds, most of the suffocating bulk concentrated in her chest. She let the lab coats slip to the floor as angry, disappointed tears filled her eyes.

She had come here to finally end Reed. Finally end all the misery and suffering. Finally win justice for all of those who had died. But she had been thwarted by her own best friend. Why did these things keep happening to her? Why couldn’t she catch a break? Why couldn’t she, for once, get what she deserved?

THE
OBLIGATORY
ENTOURAGE

“Here’s your latte and cinnamon scone, Ana.” Quinn placed the cup and plate on the marble table in front of Ariana on Saturday morning and stood back with a smile, smoothing her long, strawberry blond hair over one shoulder. Jessica hovered there as well, ready to take orders. Ariana looked at her eager face and decided to throw her a bone. “It’s chilly in here this morning, isn’t it?” she said, glancing around as if looking for an open window or some other source of the cold.

“Do you want me to get you a sweater?” Jessica asked, rising onto her toes. “That would be fabulous,” Ariana replied. “The gray cashmere, I think.”

“I’ll be right back.” And just like that, Jessica was gone, a blur of black curls and blue skirt.

“Anything else I can get you?” Quinn asked. “Otherwise I have a study session for my econ exam this morning.” “No, thank you, Quinn. You’re dismissed.” Ariana gave a quick wave of her hand to punctuate the statement. “Okay. Text me if you need anything. Anything at all,” Quinn said as she gathered her things.

“Oh, I will.”

Ariana smiled to herself as Quinn hurried off. ere was no better way to overcome a serious failure than to spend a morning being waited on by a team of servants anticipating her every need. When she’d woken up this morning, part of her had wanted to just stay in bed and wallow over her crash and burn at Georgetown, but she had forced herself to get up and go out into the world—to remind herself of the things she had to live for. Like the perks of being Stone and Grave president. Over the past two days, Ariana had received dozens of congratulatory phone calls from prestigious alumni, and gifts had started to pour in from all corners of the globe. Sitting next to her plate right now was a stack of invitations that had arrived in her mailbox just that morning, everything from an invite to a charity event at the botanical gardens, given by a prestigious Stone and Grave alum, to a request for her presence at a luncheon at the Capitol, to a ticket to the New Year’s Eve MTV bash in New York City. Ariana smiled just looking at them. Briana Leigh Covington really was a star.

A star who can’t even execute the simplest plan
, a little voice inside her mind chided.

Ariana’s heart sank as the memory of how very close she’d come to being caught yesterday came flashing back in vivid relief. She placed her coffee cup down and gritted her teeth. Why couldn’t Reed have been there alone, like she’d said she was going to be? Why did everyone always have to be so damned unreliable? When Ariana said she was going to do something, she did it. How else were people supposed to make plans?

“It’s just so infuriatingly impertinent,” she muttered under her breath.