Privilege 1 - Privilege (21 page)

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stopped a rabid pit bull in its tracks. Briana Leigh turned fuchsia.

"She's right here," Briana Leigh said loudly, walking over to Ariana and pulling her up by the arms. "Don't keep the nice man waiting, Briana Leigh."

Then she shoved Ariana forward. Ariana looked at the glowering DMV worker and rolled her eyes.

"Pardon my friend. Too much iced coffee," she said.

The man laced his fat, sausagelike fingers together and sighed through his nose. She could see the sweat stains spreading out on his shirt from his armpits and decided to breathe through her mouth. The oscillating fan on the shelf behind the man turned in Ariana's direction, but all she got from it was a piddling, stray breeze. His bulk was blocking the good stuff.

"You lost your license?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

Ariana took a deep breath. The key was not to babble.

"Yes," she said.

The man hit a few keys on his keyboard. Then he glanced at the screen and at Ariana. Then at the screen, then at Ariana. Her fingers automatically closed around her forearm. Sweat prickled along her brow and her underarms started to itch. He was checking Briana Leigh's old picture against the girl standing in front of him. This was it. He was going to call the police. Ariana glanced at the phone on his desk. Imagined she saw his fingers twitch in that direction.

"Says here you've got blue eyes," he said.

Ariana's throat was so dry she wasn't sure she could speak, but she was going to have to. She glanced over her shoulder. Briana Leigh's

211 face was now buried in the Vogue. This was a huge risk, but it had to be done. She released her arm. Her fingers had left behind four long red marks on her skin.

"They're contacts," Ariana said quietly.

She leaned toward the putrid man and popped out the right contact, exposing her true eye color. He grimaced and hit a key on his computer.

"Never understood how people could stick their fingers in their eyes," he said.

Ariana bristled. If Briana Leigh had heard that she was definitely going to start asking questions. She quickly glanced over her shoulder. Briana Leigh was reading some article about Sarah Jessica Parker, her leg bouncing up and down with impatience. If she had overheard, she certainly wasn't showing it.

"All right, Miss Covington. Want a new picture?" the man asked.

Ariana replaced the contact and blinked a few times to make sure it was in place. "Definitely."

The man clucked his tongue. "You girls always do. Step in front of the camera."

He nodded to his left and Ariana slid over to stand in front of the blue backdrop. Now that she was past the inquisition, she couldn't believe how easy it had been. Somehow she controlled the huge, giddy smile that was trying to push its way onto her face and put on her prettiest closed-mouth smile instead. This was, after all, her first official photo as Briana Leigh Covington, one she would have to look at for years to come. She wanted it to be a good one.

Ten minutes later Ariana was holding an official Texas driver's

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license with her picture next to Briana Leigh's name. Briana Leigh pulled a pen out of her purse and signed the back of the license with a flourish. Ariana had always been good at forgeries--the note she had written to Reed from Thomas had kept the girl off her trail for a good couple of months- -so she could have signed it herself, but she figured there was no reason for Briana Leigh to know about that particular talent.

"Nice to meet you, Briana Leigh," Briana Leigh giggled, handing the ID back to Ariana.

"And you, Briana Leigh," Ariana replied, grasping her friend's outstretched hand.

"This really is going to work," Briana Leigh said with a smile.

Ariana took a deep breath and felt totally at peace. "You know, I think it just might."

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LOST

Ariana was looking forward to putting her new hair up and taking a nice, long, self-congratulatory lounge in the pool when Briana Leigh suddenly turned off the road onto a drive braced by two austere-looking gray pillars.

"What are you doing?" Ariana asked, looking up from her Vogue.

Suddenly the car emerged from between two thick hedges and all Ariana could see for miles were headstones. Headstones, mausoleums, freshly turned earth. The graves went on for miles. Instantly Ariana's palms began to sweat, and the air-conditioning seemed to be blowing heat. She could feel her breath grow short.

"I need to make a stop," Briana Leigh told her.

"Here? Why?" Ariana blurted.

She glanced at Briana Leigh's profile, her heart racing. Briana Leigh's gaze was trained straight ahead, her hands at ten and two on the wheel. What was this about? Had she somehow been wrong about

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Briana Leigh? Had Briana Leigh forged that letter from Kaitlynn? Was she bringing Ariana here to kill her? What better place to stash a body than a cemetery. Open graves everywhere, waiting to welcome their eternal guests.

"My parents are buried here," Briana Leigh told her.

Ariana swallowed. Of course. Briana Leigh had no reason to kill Emma Walsh. But her explanation calmed her only slightly. Maybe Ariana wasn't in danger, but still she felt as if the headstones were closing in on the car and blocking out the sun. She gripped her arm and tried to breathe.

"No," Ariana blurted. "I can't."

"Can't what?" Briana Leigh asked, glancing over at her from behind the wheel.

"I can't. I hate cemeteries," Ariana said, pressing one hand against the door and the other around Briana Leigh's headrest. Her feet were braced against the floor of the car so tightly she felt the strain in her knees. As if she could stop the car out of sheer force of will.

"Does anyone like them?" Briana Leigh asked, rolling her eyes. "Don't worry. You can wait in the car."

Ariana closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe.

In, one... two... three...

Out, one... two... three...

There was nothing outside the car but trees. Trees and grass and dead bodies...

In, one... two... three...

Out, one... two... three...

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And flowers. Flowers in front of headstones. Flowers left by families who would never see their loved ones again. Flowers that the dead, rotting bodies below would never smell or see or appreciate because they were dead.

Dead, dead, dead.

They were judging her. All of them judging her from beyond the grave. Their cold, lifeless eyes glassy and vacant and wide. Judging her for what she had done. Thomas, Melissa, and Sergei had met untimely ends... all because of her.

Briana Leigh stopped the car and opened the door. The bong, bong, bong of the car door singed Ariana's already frayed nerves. "Y know, ou Emma, I've never brought anyone else here before."

Ariana blinked, struggling for composure. She looked at Briana Leigh. "Not even Teo?"

Briana Leigh lifted a shoulder. "I don't want to get all morbid on him, you know? I want to keep him separate. But you... I don't know... I feel like you've been there, so you really understand."

Ariana swallowed hard. Briana Leigh was trying to tell her that she had become a good friend. Little did the girl know that she was actually here to use her because she had believed the stories of her former best friend. The one who had ruined her life.

"Believe me. I know what it is to lose everything."

"I'll be back in a second," Briana Leigh said, leaving the keys in the ignition. "I just want to say good-bye to my parents before I leave for Ibiza." She slammed the car door shut behind her, leaving Ariana alone.

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In, one... two... three...

Out, one... two... three...

There's no one out there. No one watching you. Stop thinking about it. Stop. Stop. Stop. There is no past, only future. Think about where you're headed. A new life. A new school. A new start. The past doesn't matter. You have a future. You have a future now....

After a few moments Ariana felt her fingers relax and her toes uncurl. The air-conditioning poured over her, cooling the sweat that now covered her skin. Suddenly she felt foolish and wished she hadn't let Briana Leigh see her weakness. She took one more breath and opened her eyes.

The brightness of the day assaulted her. Ariana looked around, trying to see past all the looming headstones, and found Briana Leigh. The girl was kneeling in front of a large, granite stone with two names etched into it, and she was talking. Ariana watched as she held out her hand, showing her engagement ring to the stone as if her parents could actually see it. Then she pulled her hand back and held it, gazing down at the diamond. And just like that, Briana Leigh started to cry. She was still talking, but tears ran down her face and dripped from her nose. Finally, she reached out her fingers and touched the cold stone, doubling over. She really was saying good-bye.

Ariana watched all of this, and her heart broke. It was clear that Briana Leigh had loved her parents. Really and truly loved them. Ariana suddenly knew this with an absolute certainty that was so simple it actually calmed her. Briana Leigh hadn't lied when she'd said

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she loved and missed her father. The pain, the anguish, the desperation she showed right now were perfectly real.

At that moment Ariana let go any lingering hope that Kaitlynn Nottingham was innocent, that perhaps Briana Leigh had somehow forged that awful letter. Kaitlynn was a liar. A murderer. And Ariana had to truly accept that.

Right there in that Dallas cemetery, while Briana Leigh said goodbye to the family Kaitlynn had taken from her, Ariana put her friendship with Kaitlynn where it belonged--in the ground.

Kaitlynn was the liar. And Ariana hated liars.

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SLUTS

Ariana leaned back against Hudson's chest as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. This had never been part of the plan--meeting a guy, growing comfortable enough with him to publicly cuddle like this--but as unexpected twists went, it wasn't a bad one. They stood on the balcony level of the Curtain Club in Deep Ellum, looking down at the main floor, where hundreds of music lovers nodded their heads to the driving beat of the band onstage. Ariana committed the band's name to memory. They were a local Dallas group, and knowing a few things about them would help her look like the genuine Briana Leigh. It was all in the details.

"The new hair is very sexy," Hudson said in her ear, brushing some of her thick mane aside.

Ariana smiled sadly, wishing he could see her real hair. "Thanks."

She gazed down at Teo and Briana Leigh, who were slow dancing together toward the back of the crowd, even though the band was

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playing a frantic rock song. Kaitlynn was wearing a buttery tan leather jacket--a piece of clothing that Ariana actually would have worn herself--and with her new short blond hair, she actually looked sophisticated for once. It was Briana Leigh and Teo's last night together before Teo left for Ibiza, and clearly, they were making each moment count. In a few days Briana Leigh would be joining him there. Grandma C. would be escorting her granddaughter, along with Emma Walsh, to the airport, where they would board the Covingtons' private jet to Washington, D.C. Atherton-Pryce's school year didn't begin for another few weeks, so Briana Leigh had asked her grandmother if she could leave early to go stay with Emma's family, who were vacationing in Virginia, until term started. Grandma C. liked Emma Walsh so much that she hadn't even blinked before saying yes.

It was amazing how someone so shrewd could be so gullible. But, as Ariana had learned, it was all about what a person wanted to believe.

"What do you think of Briana Leigh's new look?" Ariana asked Hudson.

Hudson stood on his toes to see over the low wall to the floor below. "Eh. I've never been much for blondes."

A thump of dread shook Ariana's chest, until she realized she was no longer a blonde. She couldn't feel offended.

"Good," she said with a smile. She turned around in his grasp and wrapped one arm around his neck. With her free hand, she combed through the blond hair at his temple. "But I happen to like them."

Hudson grinned. "Good."

Ariana's eyes fluttered closed and their lips met. She had never

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enjoyed grungy clubs or loud, ear-splitting music, but this particular place was rapidly growing on her. Hudson took her hand and led her over to the creaky wooden bench along the wall, choosing a nice, dark corner. As he sat down, he pulled her right onto his lap and Ariana felt a thrill of excitement through her entire body. Before she could overthink anything, she was deep in a kiss that would have made her cluck her tongue and turn away if she had been on the outside looking in. But on the inside, all she could think about was Hudson. The minty taste of his mouth, the rough calluses on his fingers as they ran up her back under her shirt, the strength of his arms as he pulled her into him. So close she could feel the frenetic pounding of his heart.

Before long the band was playing their last, raucous note and shouting their good-byes to the cheering crowd. Before long, the patrons had filled the benches around them with drinks and loud chatter. Ariana felt a hand on her shoulder and turned, bleary-eyed, to find Briana Leigh laughing down at her.

"Time to go, sluts," she said.

Ariana's face burned. Her legs were wrapped around Hudson's waist and all their clothes were askew. The punk types next to her cackled and raised their plastic cups of beer in admiration. She glanced at Hudson and, feeling suddenly shy and embarrassed, slipped off his lap and straightened her skirt.

"Guess we should go then," he said, looking like he'd just woken up from a seriously long but satisfying nap.

All the way back to the ranch, Hudson held Ariana's hand in the backseat of Teo's Hummer. He ran his thumb back and forth over

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hers, sending pleasant tingles up her arm. But that was where they died. Because there was nothing pleasant about the feeling in her heart. She knew he was looking at her, but all she could do was stare out the window and grow more and more depressed.